sleeping angel

sleeping angel, a photo by jwlohr on Flickr.

Untitled, a photo by jwlohr on Flickr.

Installment one on "Gun Control"

Part 1:   Toward an Ethic that Honors Life:

I just finished some fairly in-depth research into what information is out there on the internet regarding a Christian position on gun control.  Frankly, I can’t find anything that I think is 100% faithful to scripture.  Allow me to make a few disclaimers before I continue with another keystroke:

1)     I am a gun owner and plan to continue to own guns.

2)     I am unapologetically conservative and reformed in matters of theology and doctrine.

3)     I CERTAINLY do not equate “Conservative” with “Republican” and do not think for a moment that ANY party has a sole claim to truth.

4)     I believe that Jesus Christ transcends political affiliation.  The claims of both major parties (and most of the other parties) in the United States that they somehow represent the Christian world view are completely flawed!

Those disclaimers being stated, let me continue with my thinking on this matter.

Certainly the loss of human life at any time is tragic.  It concerns me that there are Christians in all of our churches who seem to place a higher priority on matters of politics than they do on matters of allegiance to Christ.  It disturbs me when believers in Jesus Christ take a stance on matters of constitutional law and make it appear that there is only one acceptable “Christian” response to the issue.  Allow me to clarify what I am speaking of here for a moment.

I believe that this is actually a matter of our society’s understanding of, and appreciation of human life.  With a fair amount of consistency, the Christians I know of who support “Gun Rights” are also pro-life with regard to abortion.  When the definition of pro-life is extended to the issue of capital punishment the waters get a little murkier and when potential gun control legislation is brought into the discussion, the waters look like the Illinois river following a torrential downpour.

From my perspective, it seems that there are several issues at play here.  Paramount among these issues is how we view human life.  Certainly, I cannot find any Christian who would publicly state that life is not a gift of God.  So our starting point is there.  Life is a gift of God.  At least we have some common ground.  Now the question comes: When does human life begin and end?  I happen to believe that life begins the moment of conception and ceases the moment our final heartbeat occurs regardless of the cause of death.

Whenever we bring political discussions in church, we tend to confuse whose law is supreme.  I believe that Scripture as represented in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments is the divinely inspired word of God and is sufficient for all matters of faith and practice.  Scripture was God-breathed and written by the hands of men who were led directly by the Holy Spirit in this exercise.  I further believe that the Constitution of the United States, while a wonderful document, was not God-breathed.  The Constitution is Good, even great, even amazing, even worthy of putting our life in the line for to some degree, but it was still crated by fallen men and has been amended and ratified by similarly fallen men and women across the past two centuries.

I remember well the words that my grandfather used when first teaching me to shoot at the age of seven or eight.  As if it were only yesterday, I can hear grandpa say: “Son, you can’t point this thing at anything that you don’t want to be dead when you pull it down”.  And so goes my thinking on the issue.  I am a hunter and when I raise my gun to shoot, I fully intend for the animal I am aiming at to be dead when the end of my barrel drops.  I don’t have a problem with this at all.  The problem for me arises when it comes to human life. 

As I stated earlier, I believe that human life ceases when we draw our final breath.  With bare-bones simplicity the problem arises when we allow ANYONE other than God to determine when another human being should draw their final breath.  I am strongly opposed to abortion and I am just as strongly opposed to capital punishment since I believe both of these practices take God completely out of the equation.  If we kill the unborn, who have no voice, we prevent them from realizing their fullest potential as image bearers of the God who created them.  And, here is where many of my fellow conservatives would differ with me: If we kill those whom we feel have committed crimes to heinous for redemption, we remove God from the equation and put ourselves in HIS place.  We as a society, in that moment, have determined that “this one is beyond the reach of redemption”.  Something, I am certainly glad that God did not do in my case!

A Plan for 2013

I haven’t blogged in ages as I have come to rely mostly on facebook as my place to document reflections and musings.  However, I am going to try to do more blogging during 2013 simply as an exercise in journaling.

I am increasingly excited about the evangelistic efforts we are going to undertake at Bethel during 2013.  The church, in the larger sense, has fallen basically flat in terms of evangelism and it is time to change that.  If we are not at least as excited about sharing our faith in Jesus Christ as we are about telling folks about the latest sales at the store or the last great movie we saw or concert we attended, then we are falling FAR short of the call that Christ has placed on our lives.  While sales and concerts and movies may enrich our lives for a time, Jesus Christ enriches our lives eternally and that is of paramount importance as we seek to carry out our mission as disciples of Jesus who himself came to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

I have been reading the latest material and blog posts from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, especially with regard to the “My Hope with Billy Graham” project.  I am increasingly convinced that this simple yet effective formula is the very answer to the questions I have been asking for my entire ministry relative to doing effective evangelism.  It is so incredibly simple, yet has proven to be extremely effective throughout the world.  As the project comes to the United States during 2013, I am excited to have been trained already to lead this effort in my own church and to share it with other churches as well. 

I am dreaming today about what it might look like if the 100 or so active members of the Bethel Baptist Church truly began to live their lives and make their decisions based upon asking themselves the question: “What can I do to maximize my impact for the kingdom of God in THIS very moment?”  I think the resulting impact on our local community and on the larger area would be noteworthy if we could begin to truly live that way.  In fact, I cannot hold the people of my church to that standard unless I am willing to commit to that standard myself, so beginning TODAY, I make that commitment to Christ, to my family, to my church and to my world! 

Exciting things are on the horizon for our church.  I believe that the addition to our building will take place smoothly beginning in May of 2013 and lives will be impacted as we use that facility to minister to those outside of the church as well as those inside the church.  I believe that more people will commit to reaching out to their unsaved friends, neighbors and family members and the kingdom will expand.  I believe that our corner of the world will be a better place at the end of the next 12 months than it is today as a result of what God will do in our church in the coming days.

Laus Deo! (May God be Praised)!