Never Give Up Your Guns: Genocide of Two Christian Indian Tribes

In the lively historical account of Simon Kenton called The Frontiersman by Allan W. Eckert, an account of two Indian tribes that were totally Christianized gives an instructive example of why we should never give up our guns or other means of self-defense.

What happened was some missionaries evangelized the tribes and they reportedly all became Christians. Unfortunately the foolish and ignorant missionaries told them they should lay down their arms in response to their Christian faith.

Very predictably, the neighboring Indian tribes heard of what happened and they came and attacked the two tribes, completely destroying both of them.

What could have been an extraordinary opportunity for the Christian tribes to teach and win their fellow Indians to Jesus Christ, became a tragedy because of the false teaching concerning not adhering to self-defense.

Not only did these Christian Indians lose their lives, but the work of God in the lives of the surrounding tribes was hindered because of the loss of their existence and testimony.

Apparently these clueless missionaries didn’t understand evil that exists in the world, or that there were numerous times in the Bible where the church in the old testament times took up arms to defend themselves against their enemies.

And if you want to argue that it was associated only with the nation of Israel, you would be wrong. In Nehemiah some of the Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, and they strapped on their swords while engaging in the work of God. It would have been irresponsible and disobedient not to defend themselves while engaging in the work of God. This had nothing to do with the nation of Israel, as it no longer existed; it had to do with rebuilding the foundations of God’s purpose as represented by the wall.

In the times we now live in, there is nothing noble or good about laying down our arms in order to allow the heathen, who rage against Jesus Christ and His people, to utterly destroy us.

There has been historical precedent in post-resurrection Christian history as well, evidenced by the fact there would have little influence by Martin Luther on history or the Reformation if it was for Frederick III, aka Frederick the Wise, who gave protection to Luther; something his spiritual predecessors like Jan Hus didn’t receive. Think of the impact on history if Frederick had refused to protect Luther by strength of arms.

It could be pointed out that Jesus rebuked the use of swords in His day for self-defense, but that would be wrong. Jesus was addressing the use of arms to make war against the Romans; there were groups like the Zealots who were attempting to remove the yoke of Rome off of them by any means necessary.

The point there is that Jesus had no interest in taking over the world, as defined by the age (not the planet). That’s when Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world, or in other words, have its origin in this world. He wasn’t trying to take over the world – that would have been easy for Him with the angels and His human followers. Rather, what He was saying was He wasn’t interested in taking over the world, He was replacing it with a new creation that was born from above by the Holy Spirit.

The bottom line is Jesus was teaching His disciples and us that using force to reach the top of the world system wasn’t part of His purpose. His purpose was to birth a new creation of people that were indwelt by God Himself. The end of that is to be conformed to the very image of Jesus Christ, and by implication, bear His character, walk in obedience to the laws and commands of God with the help of the Holy Spirit, and finally, to have dominion over all the earth.

Jesus didn’t want us to get distracted with taking over the power levers of the world, but rather to replace them with His way of life.

That doesn’t mean we don’t engage the culture at all levels, including political governance. It means that we are to learn the ways and laws of God, walk in obedience to them, and embed them in the laws of all nations by teaching them to them as Jesus commands us to do in the Great Commission.

Conclusion

Anyone calling Christians to abandon their firearms or other means of self-defense in response to government laws or orders, are our enemies. They want to eliminate firearms in order to take control of us without having to cost them anything.

We aren’t to be like the Indian tribes of Simon Kenton’s day that laid down their arms at the teaching of irresponsible missionaries, resulting in their genocide.

Instead, we are to be like the believers in the days of Nehemiah that were prepared to defend themselves if attempts were made to attack them in order to stop the work of rebuilding the walls – God’s purpose for that generation.

Like Jesus said, our purpose isn’t to fight to take control of the dying age. His purpose to pray for and to work toward the will of God and kingdom of God being done on earth as it is in heaven. We can’t do that if we simply lay down our means of protection and allow our enemies to do whatever they want to us, our children, our grandchildren, and Christian family.

This isn’t a time like Israel was at when the prophet Jeremiah came on the scene, where he instructed them to not fight against the Babylonians because the judgment of God had been declared against them and it was too late to reverse it.

Some people are asserting we are now being judged by God, but I say that’s not true at this time. There are far too many godly Christians that are living in obedience to Jesus Christ and calling out for Him to deliver His people from their enemies.

This isn’t a time to passively take our medicine because God is judging us, it’s a time to reflect upon where we are at spiritually, repent of our sins, change our behavior with the help of the Holy Spirit, and start to take dominion over all areas of life under the guidance of the Holy Scriptures.

The ranting and raving of our enemies isn’t a sign that we’re about to be overcome, it’s a sign that their end is near … and they know it. Our job is to be patient and faithful in the assignments given us by God – at the family level, and all other areas of life, and continue to plant seeds and water them, waiting for God to give the increase.

At this stage in history, laying down our means of self-defense it to surrender to the whims of the world and whatever they want to do to us and our progeny.

There is a time for everything in life and history. This is not the time of judgment on the followers of Jesus Christ, it’s a call for Christians to take up responsibility within their various callings and be faithful in executing their assignments. God will take care of the rest if we are faithful and obedient to Him.