John Piper posted an article today on Desiring God's web blog entitled Guns and Martyrdom, and this piece spoke volumes to me in light of some recent events. Last weekend I completed my concealed handgun training course, and Monday I turned in my application and course completion certificate to the VA Beach City Police Precinct. I am now registered and licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the state of VA. I know scary, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. (I can hear the onslaught of heckles coming now.) Needless to say, I was quite thrilled and excited to complete this course seeing that I have been looking forward to it for quite some time. However, I must confess, I have not given the entire situation much thought.
What am I going to do if I'm in a situation where I might "have" (for a lack of a better term) to take someone's life? Sure, I can sit back and smugly remark now that, "Pffhh, I'll just blow his freakin' head off!" But what will I really do if it's my life or his? As Piper noted (my paraphrase), "I'm ready for heaven, he's not." I am now sitting back thinking about the Gospel. Is this the Gospel? Is my life so dear to me that I can't afford to lose it? I mean, my initial reaction was, "Wait a second, that's extreme stuff Piper! I mean we're talking about my second amendment rights here!" But in reality, do I really have any rights?
As Americans, "rights" seem to be prevalent in our society. No where in the current known world or in the history of the world has an individual's "rights" been so prominent as in the United States of America.
Let's set aside rights, martyrdom, and a man's initial reaction to protect what's "his" (i.e. his life, family, possessions, etc) for a moment. What about the Gospel? What about taking someone's life so that they will never have the opportunity to hear/receive the Gospel again? Is my life really more valuable than theirs? Is that really my call to make? I think not. But is this whole thing Biblical? Is it Gospel-centered? I mean, the only reason that I took this course and obtained this permit was so that I could protect those that I love most: myself and my wife. To be honest with you, I'm not sure if I'm ready to die. Honestly, I think I still love myself way too much. But then again is the end of my life for me to decide?
I must admit that I am struggling with this present issue even as I sit here and type. For those that know me, I'm pretty sure that you would all agree that I am fairly strong sovereign-tist. So how does my theology (i.e sovereignty/providence of God) control they way that I live? In the larger scheme of the eschaton is it wise, biblical, or Gospel-centered that a Christian take another's life to save his? And I'm not talking about martyrdom here...(i.e. my life is not being threatened b/c of what I believe.)
Any thoughts? Insights?
