![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/gun-with-flowers-300x206.jpg\")
A few weeks ago, in the wake of the West Freeway shooting, I put up a blog post (Self-Defense and Public Order<\/a>) that argued that Christians have the right to defend themselves from murderous criminals. To my complete lack of surprise, this proved controversial. Everybody kept their comments civil, so I wasn\u2019t bothered by that (though I did, as per my usual practice, refuse invitations to engage in prolonged exchanges).<\/p>\nI was more concerned, though, by the brethren who expressed their viewpoint so strongly that they revealed incomprehension of why anybody else might believe differently. I think this is a problematic way to handle a difficult subject.<\/p>\n
There certainly are things in Scripture that are easy to understand. I can start with a dozen different passages and end up proving the necessity of baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and anybody who disagrees inevitably finds themselves in the position of explaining away the Bible rather than explaining the Bible.<\/p>\n
However, the legitimacy of self-defense isn\u2019t like that. At first, the application of Jesus\u2019 words in Matthew 5:39 appears straightforward, but I found that the more I studied, the less straightforward the issue became. The very thrust of Jesus\u2019 ministry appeared to limit the scope of His words.<\/p>\n
Certainly, historical views of the interaction between Christianity and violence are all over the map. Some of the Ante-Nicene Fathers argued that it was wrong even for Christians to hold government office or serve in the military, while Augustine formulated a politico-religious doctrine for justifying war.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hardly surprising, then, when brethren today find themselves disagreeing. Often, this disagreement is based as much on moral intuition as on Scriptural reasoning. Some brethren find the thought of a Christian preparing to kill someone else (even to defend the lives of others) repugnant, while others find the thought of passively watching the slaughter of innocents to be equally repugnant.<\/p>\n
Frankly, both perspectives make a great deal of sense to me. My own convictions (which are still evolving) have ranged from my current position to out-and-out pacifism. Additionally, I think the whole debate reveals the power of sin in others to rob us of good choices. In a world that contains church shooters, we are compelled to take one troubling position or the other, but it would be much better to live in a world without church shooters.<\/p>\n
These are complicated matters, and for as long as the world continues, I don\u2019t expect God\u2019s people to be able to come to a consensus. There are many other issues like this. Therefore, we must learn to judge for ourselves while respecting the legitimacy of the views of those who judge differently. It is not unthinkable for a Christian to be opposed to all violence, nor is it unthinkable for a Christian to resolve to defend innocents from mortal danger. The better we learn to understand and honor the views of our brethren, the more useful and peaceful our lives will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford A few weeks ago, in the wake of the West Freeway shooting, I put up a blog post (Self-Defense and Public Order) that argued that Christians have the right to defend themselves from murderous criminals. To my complete lack of surprise, this proved controversial. Everybody kept their comments civil, so I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[977,978],"class_list":["post-18482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-pacifism","tag-self-defense"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39671,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-someone-who-kills-in-self-defense-still-a-murderer\/","url_meta":{"origin":18482,"position":0},"title":"Is someone who kills in self-defense still a murderer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a Christian commits a murder in self-defense is he still a murderer? In the Old Testament, they had a place called the cities of refuge, if I'm not mistaken. How about in this present time? What does the New Testament tell us? I need your insight on this.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18151,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-defend-himself-and-others-with-deadly-force-if-necessary\/","url_meta":{"origin":18482,"position":1},"title":"Can a Christian defend himself and others with deadly force, if necessary?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a Christian get a concealed weapons permit and carry a hand gun regularly with the intention of using it to defend himself, his family of the public at large from an attacker? I guess the more general question is: can a Christian defend himself, his family or is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33131,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-some-christians-hold-fast-to-the-idea-of-owning-guns\/","url_meta":{"origin":18482,"position":2},"title":"Why do some Christians hold fast to the idea of owning guns?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could someone explain to me why there are some Christians who hold fast to the idea behind the second amendment and owning guns? I've looked in the Greek text and there are no commands about self-defense or owning weapons. I understand in the Hebrew, that there are specific instances\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42878,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-killing-an-abortionist-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":18482,"position":3},"title":"Is killing an abortionist right?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What do you think of Paul Jennings Hill and the Army of God movement? Paul Hill shot a baby-killing abortionist in 1994 and was executed in 2003. I believe that because Paul Hill prevented babies from being murdered that day he acted rightly. Many Christians I know, \"pro-life\" leaders\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83679,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/in-defense-of-a-jealous-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":18482,"position":4},"title":"In Defense of a Jealous God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Richard Blackford Several times, the Bible states that God is a jealous God. One of those is in the Ten Commandments: \"Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image\u2026\u2026Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88459,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-saying-that-jesus-suggests-buyings-swords-for-self-defense-an-assumption\/","url_meta":{"origin":18482,"position":5},"title":"Isn’t saying that Jesus suggests buyings swords for self-defense an assumption?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Years ago, I discovered your helpful website, but I stopped using it. Recently, I re-discovered your website. I appreciate the tremendous amount of work you have put into the material found there. I have only gone through a small portion of it and found some great resources there. However,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}