Who Exactly is Allowed to Perform Baptisms?
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Who Exactly is Allowed to Perform Baptisms?

What Is Our Duty as Christians to Obey Laws Regarding Firearms?

Episode 226 | Dr. Michael Horton and Adriel Sanchez answer questions on taking oaths, Christian's relationship to firearms, and what it means to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

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Episode 225 Show Notes

What Is Our Duty as Christians to Obey Laws Regarding Firearms?

From the Show

What is our duty or liberty as Christians to concede to laws about fire arms?



On the one hand, the Bible calls us to respect and submit to the secular government (Romans 13). On the other hand, our government is actually, “of the people, for the people, and by the people,” through elected officials and it's all based on the Constitution. I have to say on this question, it's a tough question to answer. It’s the courts, especially the Supreme Court, that determines whether a law is constitutional. That's not my field, constitutional law, but I do know from scripture it's not up to every individual to decide. If we don't like a law we don't just break it. We have ways of appealing decisions and reversing policies legally. So, I would say, on the question of firearms in general, that is a liberty of conscience issue. Christians can differ and disagree on this question. They can also disagree about policy related to this question. Scripture doesn't bind our consciences on whether we should be allowed to have firearms, or not. So, Christians can be on different sides of that but, in my view, breaking the law on this question is wrong. — Michael Horton

Questions in this Episode

1. How should we understand Psalm 88 in relationship to Paul’s call for us to always rejoice? Is psalm 88 even the prayer of a believer?

2. How do you understand James 5 on taking oaths? It seems really random in the context of chapter 5. I really don’t understand how this fits with either his warning to the rich or his call to be patient through trials. What are your thoughts on this?

3. What is our duty or liberty as Christians to concede to laws about fire arms?

4. Does spiritual maturity mean that I should no longer struggle with sin?

5. What does Paul mean by working out our salvation with fear and trembling? Does this imply that not everyone who is currently saved will be in fact saved if they don’t do enough good works?

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