Amen Dr. Piper!!!What do the supreme court ruling on guns and the martyrdom of missionaries have to do with each other?
Noël and I watched Beyond Gates of Splendor, the documentary version of End of the Spear, the story of the martyrdom of Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Nate Saint in Ecuador in 1956. That same day we heard that the Supreme Court decided in favor of the right of Americans to keep firearms at home for self-defense.
Here’s the connection. The missionaries had guns when they were speared to death. One of them shot the gun into the air, it appears, as he was killed, rather than shooting the natives. They had agreed to do this. The reason was simple and staggeringly Christlike:
The natives are not ready for heaven. We are.
I suspect the same could be said for almost anyone who breaks into my house. There are other reasons why I have never owned a firearm and do not have one in my house. But that reason moves me deeply. I hope you don’t use your economic stimulus check to buy a gun. Better to find some missionaries like this and support them.
Taken from Desiring God Blog
Wow... just wow. John Piper's stand here (and that of the late missionaries before him) is breath-taking. It is *not* breath-taking for some soggy, sentimental, worldly reason, but because it is rooted in a Biblical truth-- namely, that we, as Christians, are ready for heaven, unlike those who would try to kill us. How challenging a thought! As you mentioned, Piper's stance is also VERY radical, compared to most of today's "Christian conservatism."
ReplyDeleteAs much as I admire Piper's position though, I do wonder about its implications. I'm not stating my opinions here (I'm not completely sure about where I stand), but just thinking out loud about the issue of armed resistance for Christians. Should we absolutely never defend ourselves against physical attacks from non-Christians, or should we only refrain from using weapons which are likely to kill? If the latter is the case, does that preclude Christians fighting in wars? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, Carlos, because I'm trying to think through these questions Biblically.