Lack of trust

Tweeted by PYTHiasGHOST on March 4, 2019:

TrustDemocrats

While true, there is more to it. Government in general cannot be trusted. And of course not all our fellow citizens can be trusted.

It is true that twice as many prison inmates identify as Democrats as all other political affiliations combined but it’s not close to 100%. And my impression is that ratio holds for convictions of politicians as well as common criminals. So while the meme above is substantially true it doesn’t tell the whole story.

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5 thoughts on “Lack of trust

  1. One answer may be “because we live in the real world, full of uncertainty, not university lecture hall were all difficulties may be argued away or ignored. We do trust in the Lord; we also know we must confront worldly evil, with worldly tools. Good intentions and impassioned speech won’t cut it.” I point to Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, wherein He beseeches Christians to carry out the Ministry of the Lord “by the word of truth, the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.” (II Corr. 6;7) I read ‘armour’ as weapons of offense and defense, as the sword was used in the right hand and the shield borne by the left. ( I am still working through in my mind whether Christ would endorse ownership of guns; He would certainly understand why people are inclined to do so. But that is for another time. Thank you.

    • There is a lot of killing in the Bible, but it is a mistake to take a few select quotes and use them for a selling point, without getting the whole picture.

      It’s pretty clear to me that the “cloak of righteousness” is just that; the protection of the righteous man, by the grace of God. We see that repeatedly in Daniel, and in the story of David verses Goliath, and all throughout the Bible.

      David, the scrawny son of a shepherd or some such, said something like; “If God is with us, who can oppose us”, speaking to a trained army which was afraid to fight, as then he confidently strode up, alone, to oppose the enemy’s greatest, most experienced fighter, and put him down with a single stone, shot from his ridiculous little sling. God likes to make clear and memorable statements.

      Of course “protection” isn’t always in the temporal, physical sense. Millions of Christians were killed during the Dark Ages by the papal powers, and it hasn’t stopped even today. Thus one may wear the cloak of righteousness as one strides confidently up to the stake, singing, to be burned alive.

      Jesus said “He who has not a sword, let him sell his garment and buy one..”, yes he did, but let’s not forget to finish that very sentence; “…for it is written, He shall be reckoned among the transgressors.” Here he is referring to prophecy, regarding Himself, in the Old Testament, which is fulfilled at that time. Indeed, much of the Old Testament consists of typologies of Jesus, over and over and over, and of prophecies of His coming, and He referred to the scriptures often (there being of course no New Testament until later).

      Jesus also said, “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

      Jesus also says, “He who seeks to save his life shall lose it.” and also, “He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword” in a rebuke against one of his disciples.

      So it isn’t so cut-and-dried pro second amendment in the sense of advocating for deadly force in self defense, but it certainly isn’t anti second amendment.. Jesus did tell his disciples to go armed (to fulfill a prophecy which required that He and his disciples would be “reckoned among the transgressors”, but don’t forget that He, and most of them, were later killed and didn’t put up a fight, nor attempt to raise armies to use deadly force in their defense (as many of the Jews had hoped the Messiah would do).

      So at first look it appears to be a mixed bag, but I think that upon further reading and reconsideration of the Word as a whole package, the message is more like;

      Go ahead and pack, by all means, but don’t think for a second that it’s the way to save you, for only the willingness to receive the undeserved gift of the faith of Jesus can do that. The Protestants called it “Justification By Faith” (JBF) and they were slaughtered by the thousands for saying it. We’re all condemned souls (the wages of sin is death), and therefore no earthly power (not Man, not Man’s inventions, and not our “good works”) can save us.

      I carry a gun, so, am I a transgressor, you reckon? But we’re all transgressors of the law of God.

      Whatever happens to us, physically, on this Earth, in this experiment and demonstration to the universe of;

      Total Free Will
      Perfect Law
      Perfect Justice
      Perfect Mercy

      doesn’t matter so much (how do you reconcile all of those at once, see? Forget all you ministers out there for a minute; how about all you physicists, cosmologists, philosophers, mathematicians, mechanics, loggers, programmers and hair dressers figure that one out! Let’s see how long it takes you get to the indispensible need for a Messiah, of the Law Maker Himself, and the Father of all, who takes the punishment as an act of mercy for his children, fulfilling the law and keeping all of those things total and perfect).

      The forces of evil will have their way, and yet we can still be saved (but not by fighting against them in the physical, temporal sense – you can save your life and still lose it), and evil will be, in the end, completely and utterly exposed, judged, destroyed, gone, and even forgotten.

      They are all dead men, and dead women, walking, so to speak, and the higher-ups even know it, and know it well. “Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen!” Now their game is to get while the getting is good, before they’re all wiped out permanently.

      So there’s pretty much the message of the Bible regarding the keeping and bearing of arms, as I understand it, at this juncture. Go ahead and do it, it may even come in very handy, but your real “armament” isn’t something you can purchase at a store or bang out in a machine shop.

  2. “Put your trust in God, my boys, but keep your powder dry”.

  3. Christ made reference to being armed three times in the book of Luke. Twice He made inference to being armed to guard your household , property and person. Then he warned against improper use of a sword that initiating a violent action could well result in a violent and deadly reaction. The Roman sword was the most common sidearm in use in Judea in the first century both by soldiers and civilians so , being as He is the Alpha and the Omega , he was fully aware that it would be another 1900 years before the 45 cap 1911 semi auto would be available for civilian defense. He did advise the disciples to ” Sell their cloak and by a sword ” so He considered self defense more important than comfort.

    • Maybe I’m not quite so fluent in my Biblical studies. But I have a straightforward and Godly point of view on this whole affair.

      I was given my life by the grace of God.

      It is a sinful abdication of hope to relinquish my God-given life before its natural end without resistance. I don’t care if the thing threatening my life is cancer, for example; I’m not giving up without a fight to the last of my resources.

      There exists no person or group of people on the face of this planet with the just authority to take my God-given life.

      I am obligated to defend my God-given life from the designs of evil men. It is my honor to defend others from the same threat, for I would feel ashamed to fail to attempt to do so.

      Now, our esteemed host is not given to believe in the Divine the way I am. But I have seen no evidence that he would desire to act dissimilarly. Any discussion of the tools I would use to accomplish such ends is entirely trivial compared to the ends themselves.

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