Have you got your gun yet?

Americans have always loved their guns, but lately they are loading up more than ever.

U.S. civilians lead the world in private gun ownership: They own an estimated 270 million guns—nearly nine privately owned firearms for every 10 people.

Precise gun sales figures don’t exist, but firearm manufacturers know the score. Because of exploding demand, they simply can’t keep the shelves stocked. Gun maker Sturm, Ruger and Co. received more orders in the first quarter of this year than the number of guns it made in all of 2011. Smith & Wesson said its backlog at the end of January was $198.5 million, 169 percent of what it was the year before.

The firearms industry grew 66 percent in economic impact (job creation and tax payments) between 2008 and 2011. And the number of calls to the fbi for background checks linked to buying a firearm is soaring. In March, there were 1.2 million of these checks—up 20 percent from March last year. It was the 22nd month in a row that this number rose.

Clearly, people are concerned. Many are anxious over economic instability and the potential for societal breakdown. As local, state and federal budgets are cut back, public services, including law enforcement, are being trimmed. A growing number of people just don’t think the government will protect them. Also, more and more believe the world is coming to an end and are bracing themselves to survive doomsday conditions.

Added to these fears is growing nervousness that politicians are about to enact stricter gun control. A showdown is unfolding: On one side are officials, including the Obama administration, who say that keeping guns out of people’s hands makes everyone safer. On the other are many who believe the opposite: that making guns harder to procure legally only leaves law-abiding people vulnerable to criminals who procure them illegally. As society grows more dangerous, they argue, the only source of protection they can really have confidence in is themselves.

Are you one of these people? What is your source of protection?

It’s an extremely important question, because the prophecies of the Bible show that, truly, in the time just ahead, those who lack protection are going to find themselves in a world of trouble.

The end-time prophecy of Ezekiel 5, for example, reveals that America is soon going to fall victim to a siege of violence within its major cities. Economic collapse will cause serious breakdowns in the smooth functioning of society. The spread of lawlessness and panic will give rise to rioting, burning and brutality amid population centers. The worst evils of human nature will be on display.

Adding millions of guns to this equation is going to make these conditions far deadlier. Prophecies make it obvious that these weapons will be put to use. They will contribute substantially to the loss of human life on an unimaginable scale. You can read more about this prophesied scenario in our booklet Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet.

What would you do in these nightmarish conditions? How would you survive? Given current trends, it’s not difficult to see things descending to that point—nor hard to understand why people would seek to protect themselves with firearms and other weapons.

But when you understand those biblical prophecies, a terrible reality emerges: Those guns are only going to help so much.

There is, in fact, another, far more effective form of protection available.

When Jesus Christ walked this Earth, He spoke to the subject of self-defense. Did He teach those who would obey Him to take up weapons and defend themselves from dangers?

No, He did not. “Resist not evil,” Jesus said. “[W]hosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39). The approach of arming oneself, intending on using guns to defend oneself against other human beings, contravenes Christ’s clear instruction.

Not that restraining force wouldn’t be appropriate to exercise under certain circumstances. But someone who is striving to live by God’s law of love, even if provoked, should never fight back or use a weapon with intent to inflict injury on another person. “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,” wrote the Apostle Paul, “but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19).

However, it is far from true that Christ left His disciples defenseless. He well knew of—and specifically prophesied of—the crime and violence that would overwhelm our world today. “For then shall be great tribulation,” He said of the time just before His Second Coming, “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).

Knowing that this society would be fraught with dangers—a place where those who follow Him would be under threat of crime and violence—He instructed His disciples to pray daily, “Deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).

Many people who call themselves Christians ridicule the idea of divine protection. They practice a religion “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5).

But God is real. His power is real—His power to save from danger those who fear and obey Him is real! “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Peter 2:9).

God does promise in Scripture that in the coming tribulation, there will be some physically protected in a place of safety. (Read more in this article.)

There is no limit on God’s ability to intervene on our behalf—except the quality of one’s faith and obedience. “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 John 3:22). Are you doing what is pleasing in his sight?

The question is about to become one of life and death: Do you have God’s protection?