Daily Devotional for Tuesday January 15, 2013
Gun Control and the Bible
(Mark 12:31)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, I heard that prophet Ezekiel is used in the Koran and mentioned by Muslims. How can that be and why?
ANSWER: Many cults and false religions plagiarize parts of the Bible. Much of the Qu'ran is simply plagiarism of the Old Testament, as is much of the Book of Mormon.
"The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:31
Gun control and the Bible. You don't get very far into the Book of Genesis until you see the first act of violence as Cain kills his brother Abel. Since that first act of evil, human history has been fraught with man's violence against other men. Every type of weapon man has dreamed up in his imagination has been used to kill. The first firearms were invented in China in the 12th century. With the current heated debate in this nation over guns, I wanted to look at this issue in a way you won't hear in the news, from a Biblical perspective.
First, the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution gives us the right to bear arms, so unless that Amendment is repealed confiscating guns is not even an option. New laws aren't the answer either since the largest percentage of gun crimes are committed by people who don't obey the laws to begin with. The reality is, there are exhaustive laws already on the books regarding guns, they just aren't being enforced.
The mass shootings over the past decade that have received all of the headlines, have all been perpetrated by people with mental illness. The only logical actions that should be considered are doing a better job of identifying people who are suffering from some form of mental illness, getting them the treatment they need, and put into place a way to track those who are most likely to become violent.
Sadly, in the end this is a large country with 330 million people. To enjoy the incredible freedoms we have, it creates an atmosphere for someone who is mentally disturbed to be able to randomly attack innocent people. There simply is not any sort of plan that is going to prevent that from happening from time to time.
THAT MY FRIEND...is why the spiritual state of this nation is so critical. That isn't going to stop random acts of violence, but it will create an entirely different atmosphere than what we are living with today. We would "do unto others as we would have them do unto us." We would "love our neighbors as ourselves." We would reject the violence that is glorified in the movies, TV, and video games. Instead of treating life like it has no value, we would embrace life as the special gift from God that it is!
I love you and care about you so much. Only true revival can change the spiritual state of our nation, thus changing the environment that exists today which fosters random acts of violence. While the more spectacular acts make the news, every day in large cities and small towns, innocent people are attacked, hurt, and killed. We have become experts in how to commit violent acts against each other.
This is also responsible for a society today that actually embraces and cheers for the 4,000 innocent babies that are slaughtered every 24 hours. It is such a part of our culture, most people never even give it a thought. In this nation where a culture of death flourishes, the next segment of our society to be put to death will be the elderly. Grandma is going to die soon anyway, put her out of her misery now and save the expense of keeping her alive any longer!
We don't have a gun problem in this nation, we have a spiritual problem. If every gun was confiscated and destroyed, we would find whatever was handy to commit acts of violence. The only real answer to the violence in our culture is to turn our hearts to God and start living our lives by HIS laws. Our society will never obey the laws of man unless we first obey the laws of God!
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller