Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
Another Mass Shooting Due to America’s Insanity about Guns

Another Mass Shooting Due to America’s Insanity about Guns

Last updated on: February 19, 2018 at 10:33 pm by Kermit Zarley

Another Mass Shooting Due to America’s Insanity about Guns 2018-02-19T22:33:56-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Five days ago, Nikolas Cruz, a mentally-disturbed 19-year old walked onto the campus of his former high school–Majory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, South Florida–and shot and killed 17 students with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. After being apprehended by authorities, he soon was crying miserably about what he had done.

It seems like almost every month in the United States of American–which has been the leader of the free world and greatest nation on earth for centuries–it has one of these mass shootings by a deranged person using some type of gun or guns. It is not a radical extremist calling himself a Muslim, as in other parts of the world. These shooting are by our own homegrown. Oftentimes, it happens at high schools.

The U.S. has such lax laws about hand guns and even rifles. It is due largely to the Second Amendment of our Constitution. It is partly because our nation was founded in the new world and that our forefathers revolted from Great Britain’s unjust rule, so that our citizens were most concerned about being able to protect themselves.

But I think there is going to come a time when Americans have to admit that our forefathers could not have foreseen the technological advancement of weapons that can do so much damage. I believe that, in light of what American has been going through about these mass shootings, if men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin lived today, they would either call for a revision of our Second Amendment or some other interpretation of it.

Almost all other civilized nations in the world do not have such a problem with mass shootings like we do. In fact, our homicide rate with guns is one of the highest in the world. Many people throughout the world think the U.S. is a very violent society and that it is gun-crazy.

President Trump responded to this shooting incident by tweeting only about mental illness and nothing about the need for stricter gun laws. That’s partly because the National Rifle Association is one of the strongest lobby organizations in America; it is opposed to stricter gun legislation; and it is a big supporter of the Republican Party. The NRA is even against outlawing semi-automatic weapons. I think this prolonged NRA stance against more restrictive gun legislation makes it an evil organization.

I’ve watched and listened on TV to some of these students at that Parkland high school. They are articulate and inspired with emotion. I think President Donald Trump sounds like a bloomin’ idiot about this tragedy compared to those students. In just days, these kids are trying to start a movement of stricter gun control in America. It’s way overdue. They are blaming members of Congress. They are going to stage a demonstration at the capitol in Washington D.C. They are calling for demonstrations all over the country.

Women are supporting them. The Women’s March organization is calling for students to organize and demonstrate against alleged Congressional inaction on gun violence. They are calling for school students all over the country to walk out of their schools on March 14, one month after the Parkland, South Florida, high school shooting. They are calling for a similar thing to happen weeks later, on April 20.

I think such a movement eventually will grow and get things done. But it’s going to involve more than stronger gun control. I believe that Bible prophecy indicates that someday there will be no more guns in the world. Wars will be fought only with primitive weapons, such as swords, spears, bows and arrows, and clubs. Moreover, I think these biblical texts require that our world is going to disarm itself of all modern weaponry. And I’m talking about before the end of world, thus before Jesus returns. Read my post, “Someday, No More Guns.” Yes, it will take a while.

Many Christians, especially many Evangelicals and all Dispensationalists, who specialize in biblical prophecy, do not believe that these biblical texts I cite in this post are supposed to be understood literally due to their eschatological misunderstandings. Consequently, many such people are opposed to stricter gun legislation. Read the following post about this: “‘The Doctrine of Imminence’ Prevents Abolishing Guns.”

Here are some of these Bible verses in the NRSV which pertain to those latter days:

“Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war, stir up the warriors, let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior'” (Joel 3.9-10).

“Thus says the Lord God: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal … I will lead you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company, all of them with shield and buckler, wielding swords. Persia, Ethiopia, and Put are with them, all of them with buckler and helmet; Gomer and all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remotest parts of the north with all its troops–many peoples are with you” (Ezekiel 38.3-6).

“Thus says the Lord God: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal! … I will strike your bow from your lefthand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand. You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples that are with you: I will give you to birds of prey of every kind and to the wild animals to be devoured…. Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them–bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, handspikes and spears–and they will make fires of them for seven years” (Ezekiel 39.1, 3-4, 9).

I believe this person who goes by the title “Gog” will be the Antichrist. This prophecy by Ezekiel describes the Antichrist leading the nations militaries to attack Israel in what has been wrongly called Armageddon. Then Jesus will return, deliver Israel from near annihilation, and establish his worldwide kingdom of peace on earth. Then,

“they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2.4; Micah 4.3).

Read about all of this in detail in my book Warrior from Heaven.

Previous Post

February 18, 2018

Three Times a Charm for Bubba at the Place Where Hollywood Plays

Next Post

February 20, 2018 Trump's Military Parade Would Make America in His Egotistical Image

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Where did Elijah confront the prophets of Baal?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Mount Horeb Mount Zion Mount Sinai Mount Carmel

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »