Jesus said those who lived by the sword would die by the sword.Silver wrote: ↑November 17th, 2017, 5:38 amRH, by holding your current position you're having to overlook that guns are a tool. They are merely a tool. I can kill someone with a big tool called a lorry. In fact, it's been done recently in your country. A hammer is another tool, deadly when placed in the hands of someone intent on doing harm. Are we to eliminate all tools because they can be used for evil?Robin Hood wrote: ↑November 17th, 2017, 12:53 amAnd how successful were the saints in establishing Zion?Silver wrote: ↑November 16th, 2017, 5:20 pmYou know what you lack? You lack a word that appears three times in your signature. I'll give you a hint. It starts with a great, big ol' "W" and it ends with a "isdom."
Brother Browning, Mormon, sure had a nice gun manufacturing facility in Nauvoo, with the prophet's approval.
Big, big fail!
The prospect of becoming a Zion people by the time they were in Nauvoo had evaporated. The Saints, and the prophet it seems, had given up on that effort. So of course they would arm themselves; they were still very much of this Babylonian world.
They also had a distillery; perhaps we can justify drinking whisky too.
Obviously, the saints' unsuccessful attempt to establish Zion was due to what was in their hearts, not the type of tool they used to defend themselves. They also used guns to feed themselves. Would you rather they starve to death? That they reduce their diet down to only what they could kill with their bare hands? Or should hands also be illegal?
A sword is just a tool. But Jesus still reprimanded Peter for using it in defence... even of him.
When the Lord promises that he will protect us on condition of our complete faith in him, we are faced with a choice. We can believe him and put our whole trust in him completely, or we can believe him but have a Plan B just in case.
The next step is to justify Plan B, have Peter reprimand Jesus, and even try to pass it off as God's will.
Which approach do you think is closer to Zion?