The Right to Bear Arms in the Scriptures

The Right to Bear Arms
in the Scriptures

By

James Scott Trimm

I believe our Founding Fathers DID see the Right to Bear Arms in the Bible. (Notice the Second Amendment says "arms" not just "guns"). Of course the firearm had not yet been invented in Bible times. However the right to Bear Arms especially in order to protect the right to worship the Creator according to our own conscience, is to be found in the Scriptures. Yeshua said "Sell your coat and buy a sword." (Luke 22:36)

The motto “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God” and the events of the American Revolution do in fact have a strong parallel to the Rebellion of the Maccabees and the Channukah Story. (The Channukah Story is recorded in the 1st, 2nd and 4th Books of the Maccabees.)

Channukah is a celebration of the victory of ancient Jewish rebels over the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanies. When Alexander conquered much of the known world, it was his dream to bring the Greek culture to the world. Upon his death his Empire was divided among his generals. In time the Syrian “Seleucid Empire” came to be ruled by Antiochus Epiphanies who also gained control of Jerusalem. This coincided with a campaign of tyranny in Judea. Unjust taxes were levied by the tyrant Antiochus. Circumcision and Torah observance became outlawed. Jews were forced, on pain of death, to sacrifice unkosher animals on the alter, to rededicate the Temple to the Greek god Zeus and to eat meat that had been offered up to idols. In reaction to this oppression a group of Jewish warriors known as the Maccabees fled into the wilderness and fought gorilla warfare against the Greco-Syrians. They ultimately prevailed and gained their independence. They won the right to practice their religion and rededicated the Temple to YHWH on the 25th of Kislev, establishing the eight day festival of Channukah to celebrate the rededication of the alter.

The parallels with the American Revolution are obvious and these parallels were not lost on our founding fathers. Benjamin Rush, in his editorials denouncing the Tea Act, wrote:

"What did not Moses forsake and suffer for his countrymen! What shining examples of patriotism do we behold in Joshua, Samuel, [the] Maccabees and all the illustrious princes, captains and prophets among the Jews."

Just as the Maccabees refused to accept Antiochus Epiphanies as a god, in the American Revolution John Adams and John Hancock declared:

We Recognize No Sovereign but God,
and no King but Jesus!
(April 18, 1775)

In December, 1778, General George Washington had supper at the home of Michael Hart, a Jewish merchant in Easton, Pennsylvania. It was during the Hanukkah celebration, and Hart began to explain the customs of the holiday to his guest. Washington replied that he was already familiar with Hanukkah. He told Hart and his family of meeting a Jewish soldier at Valley Forge the previous year. Hart's daughter Louisa wrote the story down in her diary.

The lights of the Hanukkah menorah had inspired General George Washington to forge on when everything looked bleak when his cold and hungry Continental Army camped at Valley Forge. Washington was walking among his troops when he saw one soldier sitting apart from the others, huddled over what looked like two tiny flames.

Washington approached the soldier and asked him what he was doing. The soldier explained that he was a Jew, a Polish immigrant who said he had fled his homeland because he could not practice his Jewish faith under the Prussian government there. He had lit the candles to celebrate Hanukkah, the festival commemorating the miraculous victory of his people so many centuries ago over the tyranny of a much better equipped and more powerful enemy who had sought to deny them their freedom. The soldier then expressed his confidence that just as, with the help of God, the Jews of ancient times were ultimately victorious, so too would they be victorious in their just cause for freedom. Washington thanked the soldier and walked back to where the rest of the troops camped, warmed by the inspiration of those little flames and the knowledge that miracles are possible.

I think our founding fathers did in fact see the Right to Bear Arms in the Scriptures.