Objections Answered | 11

11. Christ Told His Apostles to Get Swords

Objection.

Our Lord, just before his crucifixion, commanded his disciples to take swords, and, if any were destitute, to sell their garments and procure them, as they would no longer have his personal presence to protect them.

And, as they were to encounter great trials and difficulties, they must, besides relying on providence, take all prudent means for their defence and preservation.

Answer.

That our Lord did not direct them to take swords for self-defence is evident because he told them that two were enough,

and because the disciples never made any use of them after their Master directed Peter to his away and pronounced a penalty on all who should have recourse to swords afterwards.

But the design seems to have been to show by example in the most trying situation where self-defence was justifiable,

if in any case, that the use of the sword was utterly prohibited under the gospel economy, and to show the criminality and danger of ever using deadly weapons against mankind afterwards.

If Christ’s kingdom had been of this world, then, he tells us, his servants would have fought; but his kingdom being not of this world, the weapons of their warfare were not carnal but spiritual.

He therefore rebuked them for their mistaken zeal, healed the wound they made, and forbade the use of the sword.