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There are at least two sources of revelation from God to man. First, Special Revelation is God revealing Himself through the Bible. Second, General Revelation is God revealing Himself in/through His creation(Rom1:20).
Let’s begin with the creation, i.e.General Revelation, to elucidate the law of nature: self-defense. When God created all things (Col1:16), He created from Himself. In short, this means because God has a nature, when He created, He created all things with a ‘nature’! Because God behaves according to His nature, we can determine how God behaves by studying His nature. Furthermore, we can also learn about God through studying the behavior of His creation. In other words, all beings or things, animate or inanimate, behave according to their God-determined natures—beginning with God Himself (2Timothy 2:13). For example, a dog’s nature creates the following four behaviors: 1.barks 2.loyalty 3.loves unconditionally 4.protect Even out of the sight of a dog, when a bark is heard, one does not think of an alligator, or a crab, or an insect. As a matter of fact, a dog’s bark is so natural and unique that one can determine not only the presence of a dog, but the size of the dog. When small dogs bark, we call it a ‘yap’. When large dogs bark, they possess a deep, guttural, powerful sound that is often recognizable from great distances. In many cases, a dog barks because it encounters a person or animal it is uncertain of! Therefore, a dog barks to warn or protect…which is the dog’s nature! Regarding protection, there are at least two laws of nature created inside all of God’s creation: 1.Self-preservation 2.Self-defense One-time my friend had a pet parakeet bird and it escaped its cage and flew up to the corner of the room. I reached up and grabbed it with my bare hand before it could fly away…and it bit me! After I screamed in pain and let go, it flew out of the room so I could never touch it again. This is an example of self-preservation; then self-defense; then self-preservation again. When it escaped it was preserving itself; when it bit me it was defending itself; when it flew out of the room it was preserving itself…again!!! But where did the dog and the parakeet learn such behavior? Who taught them? On the contrary, both laws of self-preservation and self-defense are written into the genes of all living things. Therefore, the dog and the parakeet did not have to be trained--God created them from His own nature of protection(Ps34:7; Ps91)! Because humans are created by the same God, the laws of self-preservation and self-defense are also found written into our natures. For example, nearly every child encounters a ‘bully’ at some point in their school experience. Their first reaction is to flee. However, every person intuitively understands a ‘bully’ feeds on his victim’s fear. Therefore, it is common knowledge that the only way to stop a bully is for him/her to encounter some sort of penalty in response to his/her ‘bullying’. Three methods of restraining bullying are: 1.Appealing to either the parents of the bully, or school authorities to intervene and impose a penalty on the bully; or 2.Have a friend or another person intercede1 in behalf of the victim; or 3.The victim rises up and imposes some sort of pain on the bully2! All three responses, with special emphasis on point 3--is self-defense! Remember, from boxing, to wrestling, to Karate, to Taekwondo, up to and including war, self-defense has been, and is still taught all over the world in every nation and people group…which is why it is written on the human heart! Christians have even created “Just War” principles to govern what is moral and immoral in war!! But why? Because both self-preservation and self-defense are laws written on the genes of every human to combat the sin nature of man! Therefore, because of their Christian worldview, the Framers understood that human nature is evil: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” -Jer 17:9(KJV) And “…but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin” (NAS) “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells…” (NKJV) -Rom7:14 Therefore, the Bill of Rights establishes within the authority of civil law, the rights of its citizens to the protections of: self-preservation, and second: self-defense!! I repeat, these are innate and God-created in mankind!!3 Therefore, the Second Amendment--which is an individual right--is the natural end of the two laws of nature written on every human heart. Therefore, the possession of a fire-arm is ‘THE’ greatest natural deterrent to the evil of the human sin nature! Even a young, 250-pound muscled former line-backer will ‘press-the-pause-button’ on a 100 pound, very feminine woman in high heels…at even the thought of her gun! Why? Two reasons: 1.Her self-defense! 2.His self-preservation! Thank-God for our Founding Fathers!!! Amen..and so be it!!!! 1.Confronting the bully with either words or physically 2.Normally, a bully is not discouraged by the mere words of his/her victim. This confrontation is normally physical. 3.Although the police, which are government representatives, play an indispensable and irreplaceable role in discouraging man’s sin nature, if someone breaks into your house, there is no injunction by God to wait for the police to arrive!!! Why? Every human has a God-given right to self-preservation! Can any man honestly say, if a man breaks into his 7-year old’s daughter’s room at night, and she screams “Daddy help!”, that that man will respond, “Ok…everyone calm down, while I call the police!”?!?!?!?! No father (or mother) on earth, nor in history, would react that way! Quotebit You will either stand for Jesus, or you will stand for all He died to repudiate. -George Barna
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Derrick JacksonPastor, Author Archives
September 2024
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