These figures are a couple years old because I wasn't able to find any newer ones from the UK.

The Government's latest crime figures were condemned as "truly terrible" by the Tories today as it emerged that gun crime in England and Wales soared by 35% last year.

Criminals used handguns in 46% more offences, Home Office statistics revealed.

Firearms were used in 9,974 recorded crimes in the 12 months to last April, up from 7,362.

It was the fourth consecutive year to see a rise and there were more than 2,200 more gun crimes last year than the previous peak in 1993.

Figures showed the number of crimes involving handguns had more than doubled since the post-Dunblane massacre ban on the weapons, from 2,636 in 1997-1998 to 5,871.

Unadjusted figures showed overall recorded crime in the 12 months to last September rose 9.3%, but the Home Office stressed that new procedures had skewed the figures.

Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin said: "These figures are truly terrible.

"Despite the street crime initiative, robbery is massively up. So are gun-related crimes, domestic burglary, retail burglary, and drug offenses.
 

While crime in the U.S. has been steadily going down with the exception of a couple of major U.S. cities that have the strictest gun regulations. While gun ownership has been steadily increasing in the last 6 years.

Invicta,

I think you might be a little niave about the safety of living in a gun free culture...criminals will always have access to firearms because they don't care what the law says, only law abiding people are restricted/constrained by gun laws.

Wretched,

Fascinating that you want me to admit I'm just acting in the flesh when in fact I am following the words of Jesus Christ. I'll go ahead and trust Jesus and what he said on the subject. You can call it whatever you want in your life.

So what is your definition of armed? Christ said a "strong man armed", what do you think he meant by that? I'm pretty sure he meant exactly what he said.

4 minutes ago, heartstrings said:

He told them specifically to "sell your garment" and buy a sword. That is a strange command.  I mean, some individuals would actually have enough spare cash to buy a "sword" without needing to sell their "garment" wouldn't you think?. Is it just possible that the "command" had a much deeper, spiritual meaning sort of like "eat my flesh" did? Maybe the "sword" means "the Word of God? No?

³⁶ Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip...

He said use your money if you have it.

³⁸ And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords.

Can't be metaphorical since they had two real swords.

10 hours ago, wretched said:

Please demonstrate any other passage in the NT where defending yourself even personally and unrelated to living for the Lord is mentioned. Much less any passage where defending yourself from suffering persecution in the name of the Lord is mentioned.

So all you have to do now is explain away why Jesus told them to sell their stuff to buy a sword...if the whole point was to rebuke Peter he wouldn't have needed to tell them to go buy a sword, he clearly knew that at least a few of his disciples were already carrying swords.

If you take the bible as the literal word of God and you believe that Luke was quoting Jesus directly as it is written then why would you try to make it mean anything other than what it actually says? It is a direct command of Jesus you know those letters in red in some bibles "³ Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

Again I say it is buffet theology to try and justify away a direct command of Jesus, either you believe he said it and he meant it or you don't.

BTW, He was still with his disciples when he rebuked Peter and healed the ear, his time with them had not yet come to an end. ³⁷ For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.

One commandment is no less important than any other no matter how hard you try to reason it away.

On 11/8/2015, 4:25:21, Invicta said:

If I went out with a sword I would soon be in gaol..

On 11/9/2015, 10:54:04, Invicta said:

Any blade in our country, however short can be considered to be an offensive weapon and if discovered and it was thought that it was to be used as such.  It doesn't even have to be a gun or blade, any instrument such as a hammer could render you liable if it was thought to be offensive.  The Yorksire Ripper was caught when he was discovered with a hammer in his car which he had used in his murders.  .  

On 11/9/2015, 12:14:38, John81 said:

Over here each State and many cities have their own laws and regulations regarding edged blades. Thankfully, in Christ I have no need for a gun, knife or sword as a weapon so I don't have to keep up with the hundreds of different laws across the country regarding these things.

Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

This is an actual commandment of Jesus, shouldn't it carry the same wieight as any other commandment that God has given?

Or is buffet theology, I'll follow this comand but not that one...God said put my faith in him so I'll do that because it doesn't require me to challenge any one or any authority but when he said buy a sword, well... that might get me in trouble so I won't follow that command. Buffet theology - picking and chosing which comandment to follow.

Luke 22:38  And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.

So what this verse proves it that the disciples were already armed and Jesus approved of the swords they had in their possesion. Read in context of the verses around it, this is after the last supper, so by that we can reasonable deduce that 12 disciples were present and they had two swords with them, so for every 12 that gather in Jesus name at least 2 of them should be armed. When you gather with fellow believers does your group provide an armed ratio of 2 to 12?

³⁵ And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.

³⁶ Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

³⁷ For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.

³⁸ And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.

³⁹ And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.

When he sent them without any thing, everything was provided for them(this probably included their protection) but Jesus then goes on to say sell your stuff if need be and arm yourself because his time with them was coming to an end. Jesus doesn't promise that everything will be provided for us, as a matter of fact it is laid out in other parts of scripture that we will suffer in his name but he gave a command to buy a sword, that implies a God given right to self defense.

On 10/27/2015, 11:44:54, Standing Firm In Christ said:

Funny thing, I recall Jesus saying that the sick have need of a physician.  Can't find the verse where He said the oppressed need a gun though.

Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

That is a direct command of Jesus to purchase a weapon...if you want to be literal then christians should have a sword...I think most people though would agree that the roman short sword was the personal defence weapon of it's day and today a personal defence weapon in the U.S. equivelant to the roman short sword is a gun.

You do own a sword, since that is a direct command of Jesus Christ?

.

I'm just going to give you an example from my personal life and hopefully it will help you decide what to do about this fella in your life.

When I was 25 I went to seminary, with a wife and 2 boys trailing along. I worked 50 hours a week in industrial construction and went to seminary by taking evening classes and online classes, I was also the teen group leader/teen sunday school teacher at our church, it was hard and required extremely long hours between working and class and drive time and youth group, I hardly ever slept and had very limited time for my family BUT my wife never had to work and she was able to stay home and homeschool our children. She also helped immensely with the youth group. Nobody but God helped us financially, I paid for all my schooling, all the normal bills and needs of a family of four with just the one job and at the end of it I had no debt to speak of, and we never missed our tithe or church comittments/obligations.

I guess the question I would ask is, why isn't he able to put himself through school and preach? From my viewpoint based on my experience getting through seminary, it would be a breeze to be a single man working and putting myself through school, without the responsibily of being a father and husband. Either some information is lacking in your description or something is lacking in him.

Colin

About 5 years ago I was asked by a friend of mine to relief carve/engrave a master coin for him(I'm a fairly decent engraver). On one side it had his ministry symbol and website and on the other side I engraved a verse(can't remember exactly which one now but it was about being lost and found). He used the steel coin I carved for him to make master cast molds out of some kind of latex stuff that comes in a kit. Then he would die 2 part epoxy and cast epoxy coins to put in geocaches. I have no idea how many he has hidden all over the country but he is really into geocaching...his family spends most of their spare time and their travel vacations geocaching all over the country.

Colin

I think my original questions might have been misunderstood, I was being rhetorical.

The reality is most people are upset about the wrong thing just like most people ask the wrong questions.

The question isn't, should sodomites be allowed to get a gov't sanctioned marriage license, the question you should be asking is, why is the gov't allowed to have any say at all in the institution of marriage.

You shouldn't be wasting your time speaking out against sodomite marriage, you should spend your efforts removing gov't from marriage period.

I have a question...

Black Eighth Edition Law Dictionary:

"The permission by competent authority to do an act which without such permission, would be illegal"

Merriam Webster Law Dictionary(via Findlaw):

[Anglo-French, literally, permission, from Old French, from Latin licentia , from licent- licens , present participle of licēre to be permitted, be for sale]
1 a : a right or permission granted by a competent authority (as of a government or a business) to engage in some business or occupation, do some act, or engage in some transaction which would be unlawful without such right or permission

When did God's institution of marriage become illegal?

And Why would you want to put the Gov't between you and God in your marriage?

If there was no Gov't marriage license, then the issue of sodomites getting married would be a non-issue.

Colin

Glad I could help.

In the upper right hand corner is your display name with a little arrow pointing down, this is a drop down box. If you click on your display name the drop box will open and you will see things like "profile", "messages", etc... click on the one that says "account settings" and it will open a page that has a header with tabs like "overview", "email address", ...and "signature".

Click on that tab and change as you desire, when you are done be sure to scroll down and clck on the "save" button.

Hope that helps,

Colin

Thank you all for welcoming me back..

Colin

For a while I participated here on a fairly regular basis, but two members in particular on this forum always seemed to be in contention with me so I chose to quit participating. Every so often I would stop in and read up on things but I haven't commented on anything in a long time. As time went on I became more busy with our ministry, and my business and family so I stopped by less and less frequently.

Recently I was sent an email by a long time member here asking me if I was okay and if I would be interested in participating again, so I did a little checking and the people I had a problem with don't seem to have made any new posts in quite a while so I figured I would give it a try again.

I'm also at a crossroads in the ministry and I've been in diligent prayer for several weeks now since I witnessed a Holy Spirit moment and had a lot of others praying for me to know the will of God so that I can decide if what I am feeling about starting a new ministry is of God or if it is just something I have rattling around in my head.

I also changed my display name to my real name, since my business is posted on the internet and I use my real name to do business it doesn't make much sense to use anything other than my real name on the forums I participate on, so all the ones that have allowed me to change my name I'm either using my real name or my business name to post.

In any case thanks for keeping the light on while I was gone and hopefully I'll have time to participate more in the future.

Colin(formerly CowboyPreacher)

Trijicon is just one of many companies in the gun industry that put Christian related information on their products or product packaging. Timney Triggers send a small business card size sticker in with all of their products that is basically a very small tract "let go and let God" is the title IIRC. There are a couple other companies that do similar.

Colin

I guess I need to ask, what you are defining as your home church? If you mean my sending church, then no I am not active there, I was sent from a Church in Wyoming and I live in Kansas it's a little hard to get there every Sunday. If you mean am I active in my local church, then yes our family attends regular services and we participate in the local field(door knocking, church activities, etc...).

C

How about an Evangelists perspective on this, I only preach about once a year in church and that's just because it's my sending church. Almost all of my preaching is done at Rodeo's, Tent meetings, Brandings, etc... As an evangelist I go out into the world looking for the lost, not go to a church looking to liven the dead Christians warming pews. Reviving the dead Christians is really not the work of an Evangelist, the Pastor should be leading his church. I've never seen the Revivalist listed in the bible, so I'm not sure what the qualification or duties of a revivalist is....

C

Thank you all for the continued prayers, my son starts physical therapy today for the spinal injuries. He is on the long slow road to recovery and is doing very well this morning. Please continue to pray for his recovery and healing.

Thank you

Colin

Thank You all so much for the continued prayers and support.
My son doesn't remember about 6 hours of his day and asked me if I could get some pictures of what happened, so he could look at them, so I thought you all might be interested in seeing what he survived.







Best guess from the Sheriffs department is he was ejected on the first roll. My son was found lying in front of the truck in the bottom of a ditch. I talked to his boss today and he said they had to use a chain and a tractor to pull the drivers side door open so they could get stuff out of the cab.

I'm praising the lord today that he lived through this and thankful for the minor amount of injuries he has, compared to what could have happened to him.

Colin

Praise the Lord, we brought him home from the hospital this morning. His injuries are healing well, and a lot of the swelling has gone down. The head injury, is just going to be some memory loss and scars. We are still working on keeping his lungs opened up and will be continuing breathing treatments for a while. He will be starting Physical therapy later this week to work on the spinal injuries. And we have an appointment later this week to have the stitches removed form various parts of his body.

Thank you all for the prayers and support. He will need your continued prayers for a good recovery, and we would appreciate them as well, it has been a very trying weekend for my family.

Thank you all.

Colin

Thank You all for your prayers, please keep them going. He is still in ICU, the CT Scan looked very good yesterday, there is no internal trauma to his head, just a large pool of blood under the scalp. His T-9 vertibrea is wedged out of position, but at this time it is not putting any pressure on his spinal column, he has a couple discs in his lumbar region that are bulged, but are not creating any issues with his spinal column. He can move all his fingers and toes, so that is very good. The bruised lung and broken ribs are causing the most prOBlems right now, he's not getting enough oxygen and it's causing his heart to race and it's driving his temperature up.

He has some pretty bad memory loss, the last thing he remembers is having lunch at home, and the next is being in the hospital in pain. He was awake the whole time though so he has a pretty severe concussion.

Most of the rest of his injuries are cuts and bruises, he has some pretty serious stitches to his left hand, and a couple spots on his back that had to be stitched up. He's got a really bad case of road rash down his right leg. And a large gash in his scalp and a couple smaller ones.

I'm only home long enough to do a few chores this morning and grab some fresh clothes, I don't know when I will be back again.

Colin

I've can't really fill in all the details right now, I need to get back to the hospital. My oldest son, Wolfen, Lost control of his bosses truck driving back to work this afternoon, he rolled it a couple times and planted it sideways in a big old cotton wood tree. His boss was about a mile behind him in the Semi-truck, so was pretty much on the scene, and we got there at the same time the sheriff was pulling up. It looks like he was ejected from the truck, his boss found him laying in the ditch. He has a pretty bad head injury, and some spinal injuries, and a bruised lung and broken rib. He's in ICU and they are monitoring him.

I don't know when I will be back on line, but please keep him in your prayers. Right now he is stable and doing well, he is awake and aware of his surroundings and recognizes everybody, and is talking so that is a good sign.

I'll try to update this when I can.

Thanks

Colin

I've been following along with this thread and I have a question.

How does Honor equal Money? I'd like someone to show me the scripture that connects honoring a person with how much money you give them.

C