Hi Bob, I appreciate your comments, and have a Question for you?
For the Record, I am not a Theologian. The Good book that I personally refer to is the Book of Mormon, Jesus is my Lord and savior.
Your comment: "And democracies that have permitted gun ownership for citizens is a relatively new thing"
What do you consider a “New Thing?
My understanding is that God has no issues with any type of weapon to feed yourself and your family. Also I do not know of any passage that states that are not permitted to protect yourself against enemies that are trying to irradicate you.
The real problem as I see it, which is similar to your view is that Canada is turning it's back on God and Christianity and a Nation that turns it's back on God and Christianity, is a "Ruined Nation".
Anyway, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.
KB,
It's funny you mention that. I believe that God's love for his various groups of children around the globe throughout history has resulted in multiple books of scripture. When righteousness prevailed and God called a prophet, He revealed truth to the world, which was recorded.
It just so happens that God addressed the notion of defending one's family and oneself from eradication and slavery in much of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Some excerpts on this topic that I personally find very inspiring, and perhaps some of you guys will feel the same way, involve a Christian group of people who were trying to live their lives in peace and freedom, and another group called the Lamanites that wanted to enslave or eradicate the Nephites. Referring to a Lamanite leader, "...this he did that he might usurp great power over them, and also that he might gain power over the Nephites by bringing them into bondage..."
"And now the design of the Nephites was to support their lands, and their houses, and their wives, and their children, that they might preserve them from the hands of their enemies; and also that they might preserve their rights and their privileges, yea, and also their liberty, that they might worship God according to their desires.
For they knew that if they should fall into the hands of the Lamanites, that whosoever should worship God in spirit and in truth, the true and the living God, the Lamanites would destroy"
It came to a battle between the two groups, and the Lamanites were gaining advantage.
"Nevertheless, the Nephites were inspired by a better cause, for they were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church.
And they were doing that which they felt was the duty which they owed to their God; for the Lord had said unto them, and also unto their fathers, that: inasmuch as ye are not guilty of the first offense, neither the second, ye shall not suffer yourselves to be slain by the hands of your enemies.
And again, the Lord has said that: Ye shall defend your families even unto bloodshed. Therefore for this cause were the Nephites contending with the Lamanites, to defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights, and their religion....
And it came to pass that they turned upon the Lamanites, and they cried with one voice unto the Lord their God, for their liberty and their freedom from bondage.
And they began to stand against the Lamanites with power; and in that selfsame hour that they cried unto the Lord for their freedom, the Lamanites began to flee before them..."
A couple of chapters later, referring to the same Lamanite leader, "Thus we see how quick the children of men do forget the Lord their God, yea, how quick to do iniquity, and to be led away by the evil one.
Yea, and we also see the great wickedness one very wicked man can cause to take place among the children of men....he was a man of cunning device and a man of many flattering words, that he led away the hearts of many people to do wickedly; yea, and to seek to destroy the church of God, and to destroy the foundation of liberty which God had granted unto them, or which blessing God had sent upon the face of the land for the righteous’ sake."
And a Nephite leader named Moroni inspired the Nephites with this, "he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole....(and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land—
For thus were all the true believers of Christ, who belonged to the church of God, called by those who did not belong to the church."
