Following Judah's Lion

The Constitution of the United States

In St. Petersburg, Florida another police officer has been killed by a suspect's handgun. There is a misleading statement that is usually made by what a “conservative” citizen repeats. It goes like this:

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Every American President that has been assassinated has died at the hands of a gun. Over half the police officers killed in the line of duty are gunned down and about 30% are due to vehicular accident. There are approximately 30,000 gunshot deaths in the United States every year. I would like to rephrase the above statement about guns.

“Guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people.”

The American attitude about guns is directly connected to the 2nd amendment to the Constitution. Beside the obvious necessity to alter the Constitution when the culture and populace changes, many Americans view the Constitution as some kind of “holy writ”. Even recently a political movement referred to the 2nd amendment as some kind of foundation to their cause.
The startling facet of this issue is not only the insanity of having so many guns available, legally and illegally, but that believers espouse the 2nd amendment as well. There are many spiritual issues on that front. The issue of nonviolence comes to mind, but I want to address another aspect of this issue, an aspect that has many consequences. The issue to which I refer is the undue reverence that many believers attribute to the American Constitution, as if some governmental construct can be inspired and even divinely directed. That is borderline blasphemy.
I realize the gun issue is a secular one and since I am not involved with politics I let the dead bury the dead so to speak. But when God’s people give such honor and even reverence to a secular document it has become an idol. Let us be clear, the Constitution is a man made document meant to govern a certain citizenship. But we as believers have an authority that is not only greater than any constitution, but it must be the ONLY authority for those of us who believe in and follow Jesus Christ.
To think that one day professing believers would get embroiled in secular causes and even strongly demand their right to have weapons of violence (hunting excluded) does a disservice to Christ and is a demonstrable departure from the practices of the early church. It smacks of Constantine and his subtle compromise to the faith upon which many have added deception upon deception through the centuries. It would actually be impossible for us to identify just how far the church has wandered from Christ, even for some of us who see many things in the church that need repentance.
It is very easy in these days of constant communication and news cycles to get caught up in battles and verbal skirmishes and position taking, all of which are not of our Father’s kingdom. We have been called out and we should be, we MUST be, a peculiar people who live apart from the dictates of this world while maintaining a deep humility since none of it was of our own doing. But in order to be a peculiar believer in this present ecclesiastical climate you will have to endure much scorn from many professing believers.
Just share among the brethren how you feel about the Constitution and nationalism as a whole and watch the snow flurries commence. You have touched one of the modern day idols and you will quickly find yourselves not only in the minority, but in many cases professing believers will draw away from you. But share the plot and visual effects of some nudity filled R rated movie and many believers will be drawn to you.

God help us to see the pure light of Christ and Hi gospel once again.