Last week I wrote about the tragedy that transpired in Newtown, Connecticut. I wrote about Mike Huckabee’s initial remarks concerning the shooting. I thought he had gone too far when he said this type of carnage is to be expected when “we have systematically removed God from our schools.” I referenced the Bath School Massacre of 1927 which killed more children and adults, and happened long before Bible reading and the Lord’s Prayer were supposedly removed by the Abington School District v. Schempp case ruling in 1963. Huckabee issued a more balanced statement later that accurately expressed a biblical perspective of the situation.
Now James Dobson of Focus on the Family has weighed in on the subject. In a broadcast this past Monday he said, “I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and God Almighty and I think He has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that’s what’s going on.” I believe Dobson should have thought on it some more.
Jesus warns us about rushing to make hasty condemnations. Pilate had executed some Galileans and Jesus asked, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:2-3).” The evil that man does to his fellow man is seen throughout human history and is certainly not absent today.
The evil unleashed on Newtown, Connecticut, by Adam Lanza was a manifestation of the unrestrained sin nature. The same nature is in each of us, but most of us control our darker side. Cain possessed this nature. When he had contemplated killing his brother Abel out of anger and envy, God counseled him “sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it (Genesis 4:7).” Like Cain, Adam Lanza failed to hold the inner evil in check.
If I were to believe like Dobson, that this massacre was an act of God’s judgment, then I am forced to believe that God in His displeasure with our nation used a madman to focus His wrath on the twenty-seven victims, some of whom may have been Christians and twenty were children. Even when God’s judgment was visited on Sodom and Gomorrah He did not consume the righteous with the guilty.
Dobson cited the sins of abortion and the acceptance of homosexuality as inviting the judgment of God. He is right to call these sins and surely there will be a reckoning to come. But if we continue to abort the next generation and sanction sexual practices that cannot produce the next generation God will not have to lift His holy hand, we will destroy ourselves.
Clearly there has been an erosion of the Christian worldview and the Christian consensus this nation was founded upon, and upon which it subsequently became great. That common weltanschauung appears to no longer exist. The killings in Newtown are a sign of the times. Jesus commenting on the end times said, “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6).” These signs will accompany the apostasy of the end times. The principle seems to be as men turn from God, they turn on one another.
This seems to be what happened in Newtown. Adam Lanza was not turning to God when he turned on the students and staff of one of the most vulnerable of public institutions, an elementary school. This is the kind of godless climate our culture has fostered.
In our blind pursuit of pleasure we have removed the moral roadblocks in our society. We do not want to be reminded of what is right as we do what is wrong. Like the words from a song by Don Francisco we are “rushing helter-skelter to destruction with our fingers in our ears.” The judgment of God will not be seen in the actions of a crazed killer, we will witness His judgment as He allows our nation to collapse under the weight of its own decadence.
The sixth commandment of the Decalogue declares “You shall not murder.” But we believe it is un-Constitutional for the Ten Commandments to be displayed on the walls of school corridors, and now we have murderers stalking those same hallways. Have we traded truth for terror?
Leave a Reply