The argument American Christian’s cite to fiercely defend their second amendment privileges to keep and bear arms (apart from hunting) is for “protection”. The basic premise is that guns offer “good” people protection from “criminals”. In its most idyllic form the premise simplifies down to the idea that if one just “owns” a gun, they will be prepared for bad things that could happen, and will be able to prevent them. The original thinking behind incorporating this right into our Constitution was to effectively “protect” the citizenry from the power of the state. It is this concept of “protection” that give us a sense of comfort. Our ability to react to bad events in a strong and decisive manner, allows us to feel more secure in a generally insecure world. And perhaps if our enemy were only human, there could be a small degree of merit in this thinking. But alas, there are greater powers who threaten our security. It is in fact through their guile that we take comfort at all in owning a weapon whose sole purpose is to kill.
Our premise of defending the right to own guns is flawed on many levels. First, it relies upon the notion of control in situations where surprise is most often the first response. For example, assume you are happily sitting in your living room with your family watching TV. All of the sudden, armed criminals break down your door, and begin to threaten your family. Most of us do not watch television with a gun in our lap, aimed at the door, just anticipating it being kicked in … so that we could fire first and kill our potential assailants. Instead our guns are properly stored (and secured), and likely completely unavailable in this situation. Thus just owning a gun responsibly in our home, does nothing to “protect” us from a surprise we could not anticipate. Yet it is exactly this scenario that most inspires gun purchases.
The reality is, that it takes time for the human mind to process an event, particularly one where lives are put at risk. Keep in mind the criminal is aware of his intentions ahead of time, the scenario is not a surprise to him, he has anticipated what will occur, and is already prepared for it mentally. It further takes training and discipline to respond appropriately, so that collateral damage is minimized or avoided altogether, and the appropriate response is delivered. Shooting a family member in an attempt to hit a criminal is hardly the outcome we are looking for. Our military, and our policing agencies, are given this training … our citizenry is not.
Most policemen carry guns off hours; my father carried his even to church each week. While a surprise could still have taken his life, or mine, he had the training to react quickly and appropriately as that was his primary job function. But even then, at its core, his “gun” offered neither me nor him, any real “protection”. At best, it offered a counter-measure to someone else’s violent inclinations. He could have, and would have, killed another person in order to prevent them from killing. But make no mistake, a gun does not provide a shield from other people’s bullets. Your bullets do not fire like little patriot missiles, finding and intercepting other peoples bullets before they can do damage. Instead it is a race of accuracy for who will kill who first. If the policeman kills the criminal first, we are relieved. If the criminal kills the policeman first, we are doomed. In either case, this contest must end in death when bullets start to fly.
Responses however, and deterrence, are not actually the same thing as protection. And there are many life threatening situations where having a gun does nothing to make them better. For instance, car accident fatalities are generally something that a gun could do nothing to prevent. Health issues, pollution issues, improper dietary habits, and slow killers like obesity, and chemical abuse are not at all impacted by whether one owns a gun or not. Guns have the power to kill quickly, but not much else. Then there is the more real danger Christians face every day though they are likely less aware of it. The real danger exists beyond the world which we can see and experience, and lies in the power of a former angel and his compatriots that are bent on causing us nothing but pain, suffering, hopelessness, and death. Guns have no impact at all on demons, or their leader. And it is these forces who work to lull us into a false sense of security that relies upon self (and our weapons) to keep us “safe”.
This is actually not a new phenomenon. Satan has long sought to kill Christ. He started his efforts in the first war in heaven. Then again when Christ came to earth, attempting to get Herod to kill Christ at birth. And Satan never gave up on his quest. So how did Christ live past being a baby? How did He make it to the relative age of 30 before He began His ministry? Why didn’t Satan take Him out as a teenager, or cause an accident to happen in Jesus’ early twenties? There had to be a reason why Jesus was able to live in a world where Satan was singularly obsessed with killing Him. How did Jesus, and then His disciples remain truly “protected” without ever owning a single gun? It is perhaps worth examining one of the incidents where Satan acted to kill Christ (again), long before His appointed time. It begins as Peter recounts to John Mark in his gospel in chapter four and verse 35 saying … “And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. [verse 36] And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.”
The incident begins after a day of teaching the people and disciples in the form of parables or storytelling. The sun was going down, most of the people were returning home, and Jesus had decided there was a man in desperate need of His attention. So He planned to go to free Him. They would take a boat across the Sea of Galilee here in the quiet of the evening. In fact, the popularity of Jesus was so high, that other listeners elected to go with Him, just to see what would happen next, or hear what He might say next. So the disciples, several of whom were experienced fishermen, prepared the boat and began the cool, refreshing journey across the Sea. I can imagine the other little boats doing their best to keep up with the Master, and all of them begin this journey in good spirits and happy to enjoy the beauty of nature in the evening on the quiet waters.
But this condition would not last long. John Mark continues in verse 37 saying … “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.” Out of nowhere (unless you count the fact that Satan stood behind it), a storm arose on the quiet Sea. The fishermen immediately began doing everything they knew how to do, to greet this threat with the appropriate response. These men were trained, they had seen storms before. This was not their first rodeo, nor were they novices at these kinds of events. But this storm was something different. The hate that stood behind it, bore the mark of the supernatural. It was a situation beyond their ability to control. The best of their skills, training, and experience was no match for the hate with which Satan hates the children of God. The boat began to fill with water. It was coming in, faster than they could get it out. It would not be long, before the boat sank to the bottom of the Sea, killing everyone on board, as swimming to shore in this gale force storm was not an option either. Despite the best efforts of humanity to protect itself, Satan was far more prepared, and strong, than we.
Spiritually, this is the condition we face every day. Our enemy bears us the same hatred he had for our Lord. He is better prepared, has far more experience, and what he plans is no surprise to him, only to us. Our best efforts to protect ourselves, are going to wind up being useless. Our best training is no match for his hatred and resources. We will find ourselves in a boat filling up with water, with no viable alternative options. We will have moved from the beauty of a sunset on the water, to a hurricane force of hate in our face, occupying the whole of our attention, and bent on our immediate destruction coming out of nowhere. Just like our disciple forefathers.
Often in these times of peril, we begin to question God. We did not invent this phenomenon either. The answer to the question however, allows us to discover what real “protection” is made up of. Peter recounts where Jesus was during all this ruckus in verse 38 saying … “And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?” Herein is the key to real protection. It is not within us. It is found ONLY in the security of knowing how much our God loves us. Jesus was asleep. The boat had to be rocking violently. The waves had to be getting Him wet. The disciples had to be yelling at each other just to be heard over the noise of the winds and waves. Yet Jesus was comfortably asleep on a pillow in the rear of the boat. It was not because this situation was not life threatening, in fact the storm was designed to specifically kill Him. It was not because He did not care about His disciples or the little fleet of boats that were undoubtedly in the same peril. He was able to sleep during Satan’s most violent attempt yet at killing Him, because He KNEW His Father loved Him, and was watching.
Christ so trusted in the will of His Father, if God had elected to let Him perish in this storm, He was willing to die, nestled in the Father’s love. But He also likely knew, that this was not His appointed time, nor was it the appointed manner, in which He would sacrifice His life for how greatly He loves us. So no matter what, this storm had no chance of killing Him. The love of His Father God was no less for the disciples or for the little fleet who was following in tow. But, the difference between the disciples and Christ in how they responded was something God the Father permitted in order to teach where real protection comes from. We are not protected by our best efforts, but only by His love. If we meet our end, and claim to be His servants, then we are simply following His path. But if it is not our time, we will only survive not because of what we do, but because of what He does for us.
The hate of Satan is a constant, both for Christ and for us. But the love of God is greater than the hate of Satan. Satan may be able to squash our human life, but God will raise us back up, into the immortality of perfection He has so longed to give us. In that situation, who really wins? This is not the life we should treasure, it is in fact the next one that is the only one that matters. Jesus knew this. He was able to sleep in response to the hate of Satan, because no matter what, He was safe in the arms of His Father God. And frankly so are we. If criminals burst in to your home while your family is watching television and cut short the earthly life we all value so much … it is nothing next the eternal life you greet in the blink of an eye as time is immediately accelerated to His return and you and your family go home to meet Him in the sky. Nobody wants to die on this earth, but for those who have surrendered their lives to Christ, what comes next whether in this world or the next one, is all that really counts. Have you stopped to consider the massive number of nights you already spent with your family in front of the TV, where no such intrusion has taken place? Have you stopped to consider that despite the hate of Satan, you remain largely untouched by this level of rage, because God has already been preserving your lives to give you time to learn what it means to be loved by Him, and to love others like He loves you?
The response of Christ to this threat is the part of this story we most remember. But I submit, it is His ability to sleep in the face of Satan’s hate that reveals more about where our real protection comes from. Peter then records Jesus effectively telling the storm to “shhh” as he continues the story in verse 39 saying … “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. [verse 40] And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” Jesus looks at the raging wind and sea and simply says to quiet down, and nature hears and obeys the voice of its Creator. The clouds part in an instant. The night sky emerges from behind what was only moments ago a series of lightning’s and thundering’s that seemed to shake the earth. The stars and moon are cool and quiet. The noise is gone. It is so peaceful the sound of the water gently lapping against the boat is so faint, it hardly draws the mind. Somehow, the boats are emptied of water, no longer sinking, but as if this storm never even occurred. The miracle is not one of partiality. It is a miracle of completeness. The Gospel of John records that immediately they were found at their destination on the other side of the lake. What was done here in terms of miracle, was really only Christ restoring things to how they were supposed to be.
But then there was the probing question of Christ … “why” are we SO fearful? If we cannot control a thing, why should we fear a thing? Our lives are held in the loving hand of God, they are not our own to control and dictate, and assume will last forever. His question tugs at the basis of our premise of gun-based protection … it is not our weaponry or training that will preserve our lives … it is the love of God that will see our lives run the course He intends them to run. We are not intended to be burdened with the fears of those who have no hope in the eternal life our Lord has in store for us. Death is nothing more than a momentary interruption in what will be an infinite number of days and evenings we spend in perfect love with our families, friends, and our God. We are not supposed to be afraid of something others fear. Instead we are to LIVE these lives, loving others to the highest extent possible for as long or as briefly as we have them. Secure in the knowledge that our way of loving and living is actually going to be eternal, because the love of God has enabled it to be so.
We should have faith in the greater vision of our God. We should ABANDON fear, and embrace the freedom of knowing our lives are a gift of God that began here, but are slated to never end, in the perfection He is preparing and offering us now and into the future. That question undermines an entire gun culture when Jesus looks into your soul and asks … “Why” are you SO fearful? Our ability to kill is not the ability we should cherish. Our ability to really live is the gift He offers, a life without the burden of “normal” fears. A life that is made free to love fully, without hesitation or regret. This is the gift Christ offers. This is what “faith” can do for us. A certainty that our lives are in the loving protective hands of our Father God. It is He who alone can make the hate of Satan simply quiet down. It is He alone who can remove us from situation beyond our control, or greet us if our eternity all of the sudden begins before we thought it would.
The disciples however, were too overwhelmed with the extent of the miracle, to understand the question Jesus had asked. Peter has John Mark transcribe their response in verse 41 as he writes … “And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Nature, and Satan remain completely subservient to the power of our God. The love of Christ is no match for the hate of Satan, for Satan loses every single time to it. But the certainty of Christ that allowed Him to sleep in this storm, and the magnitude of what happens when Jesus says “shhh” is something we should take comfort in ourselves. Our world is filled with the hate and danger these followers of Christ faced that night on the sea. It comes to us out of nowhere. We cannot anticipate it. We can only respond to it. Our weapons, our training, and our experience are no match for it when it comes. But in spite of this, we need have no fear of it.
It is our “fear” that drives us to actions we so often regret. It is our “fear” the compromises our ability to live and to love, and makes our lives ones of mediocrity. We allow our fear to put a muzzle on our spontaneity and our generosity and become creatures of no distinction, living lives of timidity. Yet we need not fear at all. For even death, is not our enemy, only our fear remains in that role. Beyond the death that will surely come to us all in this life, whether by old age, disease, or the maleficence of another; waits a life of perfection, where pain no longer exists, and love reigns supreme. What lies beyond our death is far better and greater than we can now imagine. So, confident in this knowledge, why live lives limited by fear, which has no basis or meaning for us? This is not a call to live recklessly, it is a call to live completely. This is not a call to abandon reason, but a call to embrace the magnitude of what loving another can do in the life you have right here and now.
This is a call to abandon the notion that inflicting death on another is the role you should play. Leave that role to our police, our military, and the souls who choose to serve and sacrifice their own lives on our behalf. Better to be left to those who serve us in this way, than to believe everyone should have to bear the burden of taking lives to preserve and protect this existence. Our real protection comes from our God’s love, not from our weaponry. Our ability to walk another day in this earth alone come from Jesus, not from Smith and Wesson. We can, through our surrender to Him, and His gracious mercy to us, live a life in the absence of fear. We can live a life where each day is a precious opportunity to love someone else and make their life just a little bit better. We can love this way unburdened by fear, and certain in the knowledge of the love our Father God. We can live with absolute certainty that our lives with Jesus have only just begun. Where we place our feet tomorrow, whether on the concrete of this world, or the golden streets of the next one, can be in the love our Father God. This is the beauty of the certainty of Christ that allowed Him to sleep in the midst of Satan’s most violent attack. It is the beauty our faith can offer us, if we let it …
