Love Always Protects

Hello everyone!  I hope you are having a blessed Thanksgiving eve!  I don’t usually do two posts in one day, but I need to respond to a post a Christian blogger named Introverted Evangelist did about me today.  It all centers around a conversation I had with a Christian blogger named Jon regarding Christian self defense and guns.  It also centers around a conversation I had with another Christian blogger named Agent X on Jon’s blog.  I will provide the link to Jon’s blog, so you can read the conversations for reference.  Introverted Evangelist did a post today responding to my comments that I posted to the brothers in that conversation.  This post is my response to Introverted Evangelist.

For background reference (the links will open in a separate page for your convenience):

Here is the link to the original conversation I had with Jon and Agent X on Jon’s blog Nonviolent Christians.  Jon believes that a Christian should never defend themselves or their loved ones and Christians should not be police or soldiers.  I disagree with him.  Just scroll through the comments after reading Jon’s About Page.  Jon and Agent X and I had a good conversation and we ended it in peace as brothers in Christ.

Nonviolent Christians About Page

Here is the post Introverted Evangelist did today in response to my comments on Jon’s blog:

Post by Introverted Evangelist

Here is the response I posted to Introverted Evangelist:

Wow.  That is not arguing theology.  That is pointing your finger at a brother and judging him just because you disagree with him.  Sounds more like you are trying to smear my name and call into question my faith in Jesus.  Similar to Agent X, you are painting me as a violent man and calling in to question my love and devotion to Jesus.  That is not yours to judge.

You might not agree with me, but who are you to say that a person who owns a gun can’t call themselves a Christian?  Are you serious?  That is absolutely ridiculous, not to mention over the top judgmental and condemning, and I disagree with you.  I have been following Jesus for 23 years and I am out here every day preaching the Gospel because the Lord called me to do so, but you are telling me that I am not a Christian.  I’ve just about heard it all now!  So are the brave Christian cops protecting our streets every night not Christians?  Are our brave Christian soldiers protecting our country not Christians?  You are way off and it is disturbing.

Do you understand that protecting your family is not violent?  Protecting your family is loving.  I am not violent if somebody attacks my family and I protect them.  The attacker is violent and I am being loving.  I never said I was an “agent of God’s wrath” either.  I was making a point that the police are agents of God’s wrath and they carry guns.  A criminal man will reap what he sows and God will punish him accordingly.  God will not be mocked.  He has police and soldiers for a reason.  We need brave warriors to fight evil and protect the innocent.  Should Israel not have an army for example?  Yes, they should and God goes before them and fights for them.  God goes before me and fights through me for my family.  He is my fortress and my rock, my loving God!

Let me ask you this.  Would it be loving to your family to just let someone attack them?  Is that loving your enemy?  No, it is not and it would be in direct violation to 1 Corinthians 13:7.  I can love my enemy by stopping the threat, and preaching to him while I hold him for police.  It is not loving to let him attack my family and hide behind some misunderstanding of a verse like a coward.  I am not a coward, I know God’s Word, and I will protect my family out of love.  Should we have let Hitler annihilate England instead of helping you?  Maybe you would have rather the American military just let Hitler kill everybody, based off your misunderstanding of love your enemy.  I bet if a man was attacking you and I ran up and stopped him, you would be very thankful for the love I showed you.

Yeah, I do quote 1 Corinthians 13:7 a lot because it is God’s Word and that is what it says!  You can be sarcastic about the verse I quote, but that is what it says.  You point the finger at me as if I am cherry picking verses, but how is it that you disregard 1 Corinthians 13:7?  Does it not say in regards to love that it always protects?  Yes, it does.

Who are you to judge how I protect my family?  You are not an American, so you have been raised to believe that people who have guns are bad.  You have been taught to submit to the state.  You also do not have the rights that we have, so you don’t understand the Second Amendment, what it means to us, and how passionately we will defend it.  The Second Amendment is not just about owning guns.  It is about having the right to defend ourselves in the event our government ever turns tyrannical on us.  People forget that.  We put that in our Constitution because of the tyranny of the English king that we defeated.  We made sure we had rights and could fight back.

Somebody from the UK is not going to understand Americans and I completely disagree with you about my rights as an American.  The Second Amendment is not a curse.  It is a blessing.  What is a curse is the Islamic invasion, secularism, and socialism in the UK.  That’s the curse.  You should stand up for yourselves before it is too late.  There are powerful forces who are pushing for a one world government in Europe and I’m not having any of it.  I am not throwing away my guns and I never will.  I am not a slave of some socialist right stripping nanny state.  I am a free American and I will stand up bravely in defense of my neighbors, my country, and my family because I love them and Jesus tells us to love our neighbor and love each other.  As I told Agent X, I love Jesus with all my heart and I submit to Him.

By the way, if you want to know true statistics, guns are used millions of times per year in America to stop violent threats without a single shot being fired.  Usually the presence of the gun stops the threat pretty quick.  Protecting your family is not violent, it is loving.  God calls a man to be strong and courageous and I am ready to put myself in harms way for my family because I love them.

You can judge me if you want to, but that is between you and God.  Jesus knows my heart and you don’t.  You might want to think twice before condemning a brother.

Grace and peace to you

-Ryan’s response to Introverted Evangelist 11-27-19

The Bible says love always protects.  That is a fact.  That photo at the top of the post is a piece of framed art in our kitchen showing 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.  Those verses are known as the famous love verses in the Bible.  Jesus tells us to love the Lord our God first and secondly, love our neighbor.  Regarding love, the first part of 1 Corinthians 13:7 says “it always protects.”  We are to love each other and if we love each other and we love our neighbor, then we should protect each other and protect our neighbor!

Don’t come at me pointing your finger because you are scared of guns.  You are no more a Christian than me because you don’t have guns.  That is a sinful and arrogant assertion.  I am not a lesser Christian because I own guns.  I love my family and my neighbors and I am ready to protect them even to my death if necessary.  Don’t hide behind “love your enemy” and tell me that is saying “don’t protect your family.”  That is so cowardly it disgusts me!  Love always protects!

God tells us to love our neighbor.  If I see someone attacking my neighbor, I will help protect them because I love them.  It’s just that simple.  It would not be loving and it would actually be a sin to know the good I should do and not do it.  I have the ability, training, and courage to stop the attack on my neighbors and that is exactly what I would do.  I would stop the threat because I love them.  Any impact on the attacker is God’s discipline for his criminal behavior.  God’s discipline on the attacker is loving.  I can preach to him after I stop the attack.  Someone who won’t protect those he loves is a coward.  I can love my loved ones and my enemy at the same time.

“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

James 4:17

This is an international blog and I am an American and I am also a Christian.  I love my country and I love Jesus Christ and those two are not separate.  You may not like my rights and my way of life and you may disagree with me, but if you call yourself my brother or sister in Christ, don’t go all Pharisee on me.  I say grace and peace to you Introverted Evangelist.  If you can’t see how much I love Jesus and how much of a real Christian I truly am after all this time following my blog, you are not paying attention.

I have the gift of evangelism that God gave me when He saved me in October of 1996 when I was 18 years old.  I received that gift by the power of the Holy Spirit, which has lived inside of me for the last 23 years.  He has called me to this mission to preach the Gospel to the world and He will fulfill His purpose for me, whether you think I’m a Christian or not.  I will preach the truth and I stand on God’s Word.  I can defend my faith in Christ at anytime, whether I’m suffering Celiac or not.

I have posted my response to the issue of Christian self defense.  It is not my intention to argue nor convince you of my view regarding guns.  That is not what this blog is about.  You can protect your family or not, that is up to you.  I am going to protect my family out of love whether you agree with me or not.  What anybody thinks about how I love and protect my family isn’t going to change a thing.

The Bible says that love always protects and I assume many of us will agree to disagree on what that means.  It’s pretty straightforward for me.  I am not a violent man and I don’t appreciate having my name smeared on WordPress.  I am a strong Christian and I love Jesus with all of my heart.  I protect my family out of love as the Bible says to do.  If someone was attacking you, I would protect you too.  I would protect each and every one of you.  That is love.  Love always protects.

Grace and peace to you all!  Have a blessed Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Update to post 11-28-19 9:46 a.m. MT

Introverted Evangelist posted a very kind reply to me on his post.  I recommend reading it.  We may disagree with each other on this issue, but we are at peace with each other in Christ.  Thank You Jesus for such honest and sweet fellowship!  Thank you Introverted Evangelist, God bless you!