Is the Second Amendment a God-given Right?

Americans' right to keep and bear arms is under assault. New anti-gun bills were introduced last week that would mandate background checks whenever a gun is sold or given to someone, outlaw so-called "assault weapons" and limit magazine capacity to 10 rounds.

As debate over gun control intensifies, I hear many Second Amendment advocates declaring gun ownership to be a God-given right. Is it? I've been a licensed minister since 2009, but have been preaching in churches off and on as a temporary fill-in or guest speaker more than 40 years. Among my sermons is one dealing with this subject. Here are some of the highlights.

Many weapons are mentioned in the Bible. Guns are not among them. Anti-gun debaters use this to declare scriptures mute on the right to bear arms. They are incorrect.

The Bible does speak to matters of self-defense and when deadly force may be used. Rather than focus on the weapon, the underlying principle of the Second Amendment, the ability to fight evil and tyranny with deadly force, must be examined.

Exodus 22 line lists sins and appropriate punishments. Verses 2 and 3 state that if someone breaks into a home at night and is killed by someone in the home, no charges are to be filed against the residents. But if the intruder is killed the next day, implication being he is recognized and pursued outside the home the next day by a resident executing vigilante justice, then the resident is guilty of murder.

Luke 22:36-38 has Jesus talking with his disciples, warning them of things to come. He instructs them to purchase a sword if they don't have one. I've tried all kinds of interpretive gymnastics to turn that statement into metaphor or symbolism but can't. He is actually telling them to acquire weapons. Why? Because they've been under his divine protection to that point and he's about to leave them. Jesus understood evangelism would involve travel, and travel in those days was dangerous.

Armed bandits, lions, leopards, bears and venomous snakes posed a constant threat to anyone traveling alone or in small groups, and spreading the Gospel would take them into strange new lands across vast stretches of wilderness. But the disciples, still anticipating a violent overthrow of Rome by the Messiah, misinterpret Jesus comments.

They produce two swords a couple of them were carrying, likely concealed, and a crime in some jurisdictions back then. But Jesus doesn't tell them to throw them away. He just says that's enough.

Later, when Jesus is arrested, Peter strikes one of those apprehending Jesus with a sword. Jesus scolds Peter, but again doesn't tell him to get rid of the sword, just to put it away. Jesus then healed the man stuck and admonished, "Whoever lives by the sword, will die by the sword." That is a warning that carrying a weapon is a somber responsibility, and it can open a whole new set of perils and problems that may not apply to someone unarmed.

So the Bible does seem sympathetic to the idea of having a weapon, and to the use of deadly force to defend home and family. But it also says much more on this subject, and we'll look at that next week.