On yesterday’s radio program, Bryan Fischer was discussing the Right’s latest conspiracy theory about how the United Nations is plotting to take away our guns and destroy our Second Amendment rights though the Arms Trade Treaty.
During the discussion, Fischer ventured into David Barton territory when he claimed that Jesus preached the right to self-defense and therefore his teaching is “virtually the foundation of the Second Amendment”:
We not only care about the First Amendment on Focal Point, we also care about the Second Amendment. And remember, the Second Amendment, this is basically the right to self defense, this is the right to protect yourself, it’s the right to bear arms in your own defense, it’s our surest guarantee against a tyrannical takeover by some occupying power or even by our own government. A government is stopped, they are stalled, they have to be mindful of the fact that the American citizens have arms, so there’s a limit to what they can get away with under the use of force.
So the Second Amendment is very important to us. Jesus, his teaching [is] virtually the foundation of the Second Amendment because, remember, one time he told his disciples “look, the time is going to come when you’re going to need a sword – if you don’t have a sword, sell everything you’ve got and buy one, you’re going to need one for your own protection.” So Jesus [was] legitimizing the use of the right of self-defense, endorsing the right of self-defense, and that’s what is enshrined in the Second Amendment.
The pasage Fischer is citing comes from Luke 22:
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”
“That is enough,” he replied.
