Apples and oranges comparison. Guns and cars are different things with different purposes. Jesus did not carry a sword and preached against violence (Love your enemy, turn the other cheek, etc).
But if your claim is that we shouldn't do something if Jesus didn't do it (which isn't Biblical, by the way), then, in order for your argument to be consistent, it's perfectly reasonable to point out other things Jesus didn't do.
Jesus never taught against self defense, war, capital punishment, hunting, recreation, etc.
IMO opinion the use of swords in Luke 22:26 is about fulfilling prophecy (Is 53:12).
Your opinion isn't supported by the text and Isaiah 53:12 isn't relevant to Jesus' command to His disciples to buy swords to protect themselves with.
It's a right and the constitution says so. ".....the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed......." We gave ourselves the right and can remove it as well.
The Declaration of Independence says we did not give ourselves that right, but that it is a natural right, endowed to us by God, an is unalienable.
If it can be taken away, then it is not a right, but a privilege.
On Thomas Jefferson .... he created his own bible. He threw out all the miraculous stuff.
First, no, Jefferson never "created his own Bible". He did compile two works that are commonly called "The Jefferson Bible", but he never claimed they were Bibles nor saw them as such.
And he didn't "throw out all the miraculous stuff". That's the talking points you've received, but that isn't what happened.
There are actually two versions of the "Jefferson Bible".
I can tell you haven't actually looked into this yourself, so you probably don't realize that the actual title of the "Jefferson Bible" is "
The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted From the Account of His Life and Doctrines as Given by Matthew, Mark, Luke & John; Being an Abridgement of the New Testament for the Use of the Indians Unembarrassed with Matters of Fact or Faith Beyond the Level of Their Comprehensions."
It's quite a mouthful, so it's usually just referred to in shorthand as "The Jefferson Bible" and was written to teach the Indians the philosophical ideas of Christ, just as the title states, not to get into theology or biography. Remember, in Jefferson's world, everyone was familiar with Christ and His miracles and the Gospel, so it wasn't necessary to establish those things. The Indians were pagans who were mostly naturalistic in their religious views, and Jefferson felt that to get too deep into theology with them would only confuse them. It was not because he did not believe.
However, it does still contain mention of numerous miracles of Christ, including
Jesus sending His disciples to “heal the sick,” “cleanse the lepers,” “raise the dead,” “cast out devils” (Matthew 10:8), Healing a man on the Sabbath (Luke 14:1-6), raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Matthew 9:18-25), healing the bleeding woman (Matthew 9:20-22), and healing two blind men (Matthew 9:27-31).
The second "Jefferson Bible" is similar. Jefferson never claimed or intended it to be a Bible, but merely a collection of Jesus' moral teachings, compiled for his nephew and was not published until long after his death. Again, the miracles that were omitted were not omitted becuse Jefferson did not believe them, but because this was not a proper translation of the Bible, but merely a compilation of Jesus' moral teachings.
Now, you alluded to something Jefferson said about the Bible. Since I've provided quotes and citations, would you mind telling us what statements you're alluding to?
The founding fathers intent was to keep religion a private matter.
Seems kind of odd that they would believe religion is a private matter, and then fund the printing of Bible for evangelism and proclaim Christianity in so many of their writings.
They didn't want to move towards any type of a theocracy.
That much is true. But remember, they did not receive your talking points and did not conflate being influenced by Christian philosophy with a "theocracy". They were against a theocracy, hence, the oft misinterpreted line in the Treaty of Tripoli that we are not a Christian nation.
However, they stated many times that religion, specifically, Christianity, is vital to our liberty and our prosperity.
www.socialismrealised.eu
