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A Bible Believer Responds To John Piper’s Call For Christians To Not Be Armed

Now to me, the son of a WWII and Korea vet, and the brother to a United States Marine, this sounds like perfectly sound and rational thought processes coming from the desk of Mr. Falwell. And certainly, as a parent, taking every precaution we can to keep our kids safe I am all in favor of both as a Christian and as an American citizen. But John Piper sees it otherwise.

Published

10 years ago

December 23, 2015

Geoffrey Grider

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So John Piper says it’s a sin to call the police when we are being threatened? I say that’s absolute hogwash, and so should you

“Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Romans 14:4,5 (KJV)

Yesterday the chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, John Piper, published an article entitled “Should Christians Be Encouraged to Arm Themselves?” In the article he takes issue with Jerry Falwell, Jr. telling his students to go out and get their gun permits. Falwell said this:

“As the president of this university community of nearly 15,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, I take very seriously my responsibility to keep you safe in an increasingly dangerous world. That’s why in 2011 I asked our Board of Trustees to consider a concealed carry policy. It wasn’t because of Islamic terrorism, it was because what happened (just) up the road at Virginia Tech. More than 30 innocent students and faculty were murdered viciously and none of them had the ability to protect themselves. The day that happened, I thought we needed to do something different here at Liberty. We needed to have a way to protect our students, our faculty, so we instituted this free course in 2011. We were part of only a handful of schools in the United States that had taken that position at that time. Now many schools have followed suit. There are dozens and we have had 1,600 people take that course, 950 here now with concealed carry permits, and after I made those remarks on Friday we had 240 sign up for a course tomorrow night. I want to applaud you and thank you for taking steps to make our campus more safe. I recognize that not every one of you will (carry); it’s only for students 21 years and older.” source

Now to me, the son of a WWII and Korea vet, and the brother to a United States Marine, this sounds like perfectly sound and rational thought processes coming from the desk of Mr. Falwell. And certainly, as a parent, taking every precaution we can to keep our kids safe I am all in favor of both as a Christian and as an American citizen. But John Piper sees it otherwise. Here is an excerpt from his anti-gun article:

“As chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, I want to send a different message to our students, and to the readers of Desiring God, than Jerry Falwell, Jr. sent to the students of Liberty University in a campus chapel service on December 4. The apostle Peter teaches us that Christians will often find themselves in societies where we should expect and accept unjust mistreatment without retaliation. The early church, as we see her in Acts, expected and endured persecution without armed resistance, but rather with joyful suffering, prayer, and the word of God. A natural instinct is to boil this issue down to the question, “Can I shoot my wife’s assailant?” source

That, in brief, is the essence of Piper’s position, and you can read the entire article here. So let me just add a few brief points from the Bible believer position that I think will help to shed some additional light on the matter.

John Piper’s misapplication of scripture: All through his article, he constantly says things like “Peter never fought back when mistreated”, and “the apostles endured persecution without retaliation”, and so on. Yes, those thing are true, but they need to be read in context. The reason why the apostles never fought back was because the punishments and afflictions they received were because of preaching the gospel specifically, and the Bible does say that in the course of witnessing for Jesus Christ hardships, perils and afflictions certainly will come. When we preach on the street, I have never hit back at any of the mistreatment we have received because when were are ministering we are specifically engaged in preaching the gospel. But I find no verses in the Bible that advise me to just “sit back and take it” when walking down a crowded city street and someone tries to mug me. So based on Piper’s misapplication of scripture, his advice to his daughter would be to “just take it” when attacked by a predator on a college campus or other gathering of people. See how silly his position suddenly becomes? No, the apostles, as seen below, suffered for a very specific cause, for the gospel’s sake, and as such took it without rebuttal. But I dare say that if some crazed lunatic tried to sexually assault Peter’s wife, the tough-as-nails Galilean fisherman would have thrust him through with his sword, and rightly so.
“And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.” Acts 5:40 (KJV)
John Piper is not rightly dividing the Bible: Paul commands Timothy to “rightly divide” the scripture so that he will not make the mistake of trying to apply Bible verses written to the Jews and place them on the Church. In his article, Piper talks about “enduring to the end” from Matthew 24, a passage specifically written to Jews in the time of Jacob’s trouble. But Christians don’t “endure to the end” because we are 1). sealed until the day of redemption as found in Ephesians 1 & 4, and 2). we will not go through the time of Jacob’s trouble otherwise known as the Great Tribulation. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (KJV)
Many of his points are just ridiculous: One of his main theme points is that the christian should just “trust God” and everything will work itself out. The Bible believing Christian does trust God with the most important thing we have, and that is our souls. We trust Him to take us home to Heaven when we die, we place our eternal destiny in His hands alone. But until that day arrives, we live in a sin-cursed world that currently is ruled by the Devil! God gave us a brain for a reason, He wants us to do some thinking with it. Whenever we travel anywhere in a car, we always ask God to guide our path and get us to and from safely, right? But we also wear our seatbelts! I highly doubt that Piper and his whole family ride around in cars at high speeds unbelted. If Piper’s logic was followed to it’s natural conclusion seat belts would no longer be used because when using them our “faith would be in the seat belts” and not in God’s power to keep us safe. That’s just plain crazy. But yet Piper goes further still when he says that even calling the police when you are in danger “comes from a heart that is out of step with the mind of Christ. If one’s heart is controlled mainly by fear, or anger, or revenge, that sinful disposition may be expressed by using the police as well as taking up arms yourself.” So now it’s a sin to call the police when we are being threatened? Hogwash, and dangerous hogwash at that. “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Timothy 5:8 (KJV)

Conclusion: I honestly don’t know much about the ministry or beliefs of John Piper, I run in Bible believing circles and have not come across much if any of his work. But going on this particular article he has written, he comes across as an anti-gun liberal to me. God calls us to trust Him in all we do and with all we have, yet at the same time it is not a lack of faith to exercise and eat right to stay healthy. And it is not a lack of faith when we take common sense precautions to keep our loved ones safe in a sin-cursed world.

Famous media liberal, Geraldo Rivera, who almost always advocates for pacifism, nearly had a thermonuclear meltdown last month when his own daughter was near the Paris Muslim terror attacks. This is what he said:

“We need to respond by declaring war on them… if we don’t kill them, they’re going to kill us.” He offered specifics, calling for Russia, the U.S. and our Middle East Allies to join forces in a war against ISIS– even if have to drag the latter in “kicking and screaming.” “I want a massive ground campaign to conquer ISIS once and for all,” Rivera said. source

Lol, every liberal is a pacifist until the day their loved ones are threatened, then they want blood. John Piper is no different. If the evil he so carelessly tells us to “not worry about” and just “trust God” with ever came to land at his doorstep you can best believe his tune would change. Quickly.

If you try and make the Bible say Christians can’t have guns, then we can’t have seat belts either. If you were to ask my opinion on whether or not a Christian should buy a gun, I would give you the same answer I would give you with any other question you might ask. I will tell you to pray about it, and let God do the deciding.

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:” Ephesians 1:17 (KJV)

Related Topics:Bible Believer Jerry Falwell Jr.John Piper Second Amendment

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Free Bible Program

New Requests For Spanish Bibles For Harris County Jail, KJVs For Florida State Prison And Ruckman Reference Bibles For Ada County Jail In Idaho

Published

1 day ago

November 21, 2025

Geoffrey Grider

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Florida State Prison, ADA County Jail and Harris County Jail are just 3 of the latest requests for King James Bibles that we’ve received just this week

Yesterday at the Bookstore, we had a wonderful visit from Chaplain Bob from the Rock of Ages Jail Ministry in Texas, that’s him shown with me in the top photo. You may recall that a little while ago, we sent a massive load of Bibles to the Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas that he had requested. As it turns out, Chaplain Bob happened to be in town and wanted to stop by and say ‘thank you’ for all the Bibles we sent , and to make a new and much-needed request for 500 Spanish Bibles.

“For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.” Psalm 69:33 (KJB)

In addition to that, we also received email requests for Bibles from Chaplain Wynn at Florida State Prison in Raiford, and from Treasure Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, Bibles that will be distributed at the ADA County Jail in Boise. They told me that Dr. Ruckman had preached many times at Treasure Valley, and they very much wanted the inmates they minister to to have a copy of the Ruckman Reference Bible. The RRBs cost about three times more than the regular KJVs, but when they told me of their connection to Doc, we couldn’t say no. They are sending in a love offering to help with the cost. All in all, another boatload of Bibles need to be sent out, and we need you to help us to do it!

When we send Bibles to jails and prisons, we’re not just ‘sending a book’, we are sending the preserved words of God, and flooding their cells with a Light above that of a thousand suns. We are Hope dealers to people society has cast off and rejected, precious souls who desperately need this live-changing gift of a Bible. Come help us to keep doing this vital end times work, we need you!

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If God has prospered you, please take a moment to click on the donate button to help us in this monumental task of providing King James Bibles, New Testaments, scripture portions, gospel tracts as well as Spanish Bibles to inmates in jails and prisons from Florida to Alaska, and every state in between. We need your prayers, we need your generous financial support, and we need you to stand with us in the closing days of the Church Age. Thank you so very much, TO THE FIGHT!!!

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When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

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Headline News

NTEB PROPHECY NEWS PODCAST: The Last Trump And The Judgment Of God That’s Coming On America

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2025

Geoffrey Grider

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The last trump is about to sound as we are watching the judgment of God coming upon an America that is ripe and ready for a takedown

On our Tuesday Night Bible Study, our subject was ‘The Last Trump and the Judgment of God On Israel’, which turned out to be a wild, eye-opening rocket ride through Israel in the end times. It was part Bible study and part Podcast. So we thought it would be fun on the Friday Podcast to continue that theme in a ‘part two’ with ‘The Last Trump and the Judgment of God on America’. A Podcast that is part Bible Study. This will certainly not be for the faint-hearted ‘Sunday Christian’ who thinks God is concerned with making America great again. Spoiler Alert: He’s not.

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,” 2 Peter 3:3 (KJB)

On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast, America is not only ripe for judgment, I would submit to you that God has already begun to judge our fair nation, and all the stark, raving mad events we watch taking place on a daily basis are testament to that. From a growing surveillance state, the Epstein Files, the ever-worsening economy, all the way up to our Commander-in-chief calling for the execution of Democrats who disagree with him, these are darkening days for the old red, white and blue. On this episode, we show you just how deep this rabbit hole goes, and it just may be too much for you to handle.

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Donald Trump

BREAKING: President Trump Just Said That Democrats Who Call For Active Duty Military To ‘Refuse Unlawful Orders’ Are To Be Locked Up And Put To Death!

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2025

Geoffrey Grider

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President Donald Trump said that six Democratic lawmakers who put out a video urging military members to ‘refuse illegal orders’ were guilty of ‘SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!’ in a stunning Thursday morning post

If you needed any more proof that America in 2025 is not merely politically divided but spiritually collapsing, look no further than the astonishing moment this week when Donald Trump declared that a group of Democratic lawmakers—many of them former military and intelligence officers—had engaged in “seditious behavior punishable by death.” Their crime? Posting a video reminding U.S. service members that they are sworn to obey lawful orders, not illegal ones. That’s the Constitution, and that’s the memo.

“And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.” Daniel 11:36 (KJB)

Now let’s get something straight. As Christians, we believe Romans 13:1 when it says, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.” But we also stand with Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” The military oath itself requires obedience to the Constitution, not to any one man. So when Democrats released a video telling soldiers not to follow illegal orders, they were actually repeating something baked directly into military law. U.S. law defines seditious conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 2384), rebellion/insurrection (18 U.S.C. § 2383), but applying these to members of Congress and their speech would be unprecedented. Yet Trump responded by calling them traitors who should face death. That is literal insanity, saying that people who follow the Constitution instead of him should be put to death. And just like that, the temperature in America went from simmer to boil. Trump has become an irrational madman, and he is on the verge of doing some real and lasting damage to this country.

‘Punishable by DEATH’: Trump Floats Execution for Democrats Who Urged Soldiers to Disobey Illegal Orders

FROM MEDIAITE: The video, which was shared by Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), featured appearances from herself, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), as well as Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) — all of whom are veterans of the military or intelligence community.

“We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community. The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution. Don’t give up the ship.” wrote Slotkin in her caption.

As a group, the Democrats submitted that “This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.”

“Right now, the threats to our constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders,” they continued, before going on to assert that “We have your back.”

“Don’t give up the ship,” urged several of the participants at the conclusion of the video.

We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.

The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.

Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r

— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025

On Thursday morning, Trump shared an article about the video, as well as his own thoughts on the matter.

“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET. President DJT,” he wrote.

That opening volley was followed up by a number of reposts of comments assailing the Democrats in the video — including one which called for them to be hanged — as well as a second and third post from Trump himself. READ MORE