President
Trump said that it takes a long time to make sense of something like this
shooting. No normal person can
comprehend how someone could look down on thousands of innocent people and
think, “Oh, I know … how about I rain down bullets on all those mothers and fathers,
sons and daughters, husbands and wives?
How about I slaughter all those innocent people? I think that would be swell!”
Who
in the hell would come up with a plan like that!?! Who in the hell would do that!?! And I do mean “who in the hell” because only a depraved, evil,
demonically-inspired person would do something like that.
You
know, I remember saying something once that shocked the people around me. Do you remember the man who slaughtered the
Amish children, who lined them up and shot them? I was so bothered about it that I told my
friends that I was glad he was in hell now.
And I got shocked looks from them, like a “How dare you say that? How dare a Christian say that, when you are
supposed to be all about grace and mercy?”
You
know what? Yes, we are all about grace
and mercy because Jesus is all about grace and mercy. Jesus is all about lavishing forgiveness and
mercy and grace on anyone who reaches out to Him. Who acknowledges their sin before Him and
seeks Him. He runs to anyone who calls
His name, like the father running to the prodigal son.
But
for those who don’t seek Him, for those who refuse to confess their sins and
turn from their wicked ways, for those who choose evil … they do not get His mercy
and grace and forgiveness. Not because
He doesn’t offer it, but because they don’t want it. They reject it. They reject Him. And so for them, since they have rejected Him
and His gifts, He operates in justice.
And I am thankful for that. There
are some situations where I am glad to know that there is a hell.
I
know it doesn’t sound like a good, soft, squishy, loving Christian thing to
say, but I think the only comfort I can find in moments like these - when there
is nothing you can do about the evil all around you - is to know that God is a just
God, that evil men don’t get away with murder.
Of
course, I am not happy that there is a hell and that people end up there. It saddens me greatly to know that people
will be in hell eternally, that people would choose to reject God and His
gifts, that they would prefer evil and/or separation from God. I would rather everyone would admit to their
sins – no matter how huge the sins are - and turn to Him and be healed and find
life. Salvation is for anyone who wants it, anyone who will accept it.
But
I am thankful and comforted to know that evil won’t go unpunished and that justice
will be served. And that’s what I mean
when I say I am “glad” that someone who chose to be purely, unrepentantly evil is
in hell. Because it means that evil
doesn’t win. That God is a righteous and
just and holy God, as well as a merciful, gracious, loving, and forgiving God. That He is watching over all and will judge
fairly in the end and avenge all wrong-doing.
“Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it
is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)
I
can only imagine the emotional turmoil and frustration that atheists must feel
in situations like this – to believe that this man will get away with this
horrible act for all of eternity because they believe there is no God to report
to, to be accountable to, to deal with us justly. It's got to be discouraging to believe that it ultimately doesn’t matter
how we live – good, bad, violent, or peaceful – because we all end up in the
same place in the end: nothingness.
[We
spend all this time trying to figure out what would make a man do this
(ideological views, groups he associates with, mental illness, drugs, etc.)
while forgetting that at the root of it all, evil resides in the human heart
because we rejected God in the Garden of Eden.
We ushered in evil through our rebellion, and its effects are seen in
man and in nature. We caused the
separation between us and God through our rejection of Him and His ways. Yet He made a way to redeem us by paying the
penalty for our sins and offering us forgiveness instead of hell. The penalty we owe was paid on the cross.]
The
atheistic view doesn’t make sense to me, nor is it desirable (even if it
does allow you to live as your own ‘god’ because you think you don’t have to answer
to Anyone Else).
But what does make sense to me and what helps me make sense of this kind of tragedy is the fact that God is watching and that He will act justly in the end. That He allows us to make up our own mind about what kind of person we want to be and how we want to live and what we want to believe (which unfortunately means that there will be people who choose to be evil and to reject Him) ... but that, in the end, we will be accountable to Him for it. That He freely offers His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to anyone who wants it, but He does not force it on anyone. That we are not left without hope, without help. That we can turn to Him anytime, in our need and our ache and our confusion.
But what does make sense to me and what helps me make sense of this kind of tragedy is the fact that God is watching and that He will act justly in the end. That He allows us to make up our own mind about what kind of person we want to be and how we want to live and what we want to believe (which unfortunately means that there will be people who choose to be evil and to reject Him) ... but that, in the end, we will be accountable to Him for it. That He freely offers His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to anyone who wants it, but He does not force it on anyone. That we are not left without hope, without help. That we can turn to Him anytime, in our need and our ache and our confusion.
I
know that this will offend people.
Talking about God and sin and hell and accountability always offends
people. But you know what? I don’t care anymore!
I am so sick of everyone using “I’m offended” to control other people, to shut them up, to bully everyone into submission, to change laws and get their way and ruin someone else's reputation and life.
And you know what else? We all take turns being offended about something at different times. And we can't all have our way all the time. So suck it up and stop your whining and learn to deal with it maturely!
Look at what’s happening to our country when a society won't hear the Truth, when it flips the finger at God and tries to kick Him out of every public place! Are we better off for it? Are we improving? Or is it making us all afraid of each other, afraid to speak or make a decision, afraid to share opinions, afraid of being sued while doing our jobs, afraid for our lives?
If the root of the problem is sin and rebellion against God, you can't tackle the problem effectively if you refuse to acknowledge sin and our rebellion against God and if you attack those who point it out because it "offends" you.
And you know what else? We all take turns being offended about something at different times. And we can't all have our way all the time. So suck it up and stop your whining and learn to deal with it maturely!
Look at what’s happening to our country when a society won't hear the Truth, when it flips the finger at God and tries to kick Him out of every public place! Are we better off for it? Are we improving? Or is it making us all afraid of each other, afraid to speak or make a decision, afraid to share opinions, afraid of being sued while doing our jobs, afraid for our lives?
If the root of the problem is sin and rebellion against God, you can't tackle the problem effectively if you refuse to acknowledge sin and our rebellion against God and if you attack those who point it out because it "offends" you.
The Truth always offends those who don’t want to hear it! If you are offended by it, it’s probably for a good reason - because you are off track, not the Truth.
God doesn't lovingly pat us on the head and say, "There, there! Anything you want to do or believe is cool with Me!"
No! He's about hard-hitting, heart-changing, convicting, life-altering, line-in-the-sand, uncomfortable Truth!
And Jesus isn't concerned with being popular, with pleasing society, or with making us feel good about our waywardness and sin; He's about saving our souls from hell.
We will all be held accountable for what we do with His Truth!
God
is not just a figment of our imagination, something we made up to give us
hope. He is the Creator (the One we have
rejected time and time again in America, acting like we know better and we are
smarter and more scientific than that).
He is the One who gives us meaning, purpose, direction, help, healing,
and hope. A way to make sense of life,
the good and the bad.
If
you get rid of Him, you get rid of the answers you need for life’s mysteries
and “the Big Questions.” You get rid of
purpose and internal peace and eternal security. You get rid of the only real support and help
and hope you have when the tragedies happen. (Do you want your only hope and help to be other humans? 'Cuz that would be scary!)
This
life is not all there is. Someday, we
will all stand before Him. And when we
stand before Him, He will not ask us if we were good people or if we were bad. Being
“good” isn’t the way to heaven. He will
ask us if we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we accepted the mercy,
grace, and forgiveness that He offers us through His sacrificial death,
allowing us to cross the bridge that He built over the chasm that separates us
from God. And if we say “no” then we
will pay for our sins ourselves, remaining separated from Him for all of
eternity. Hell!
You
know, there is just so much going on nowadays, between man’s violence and
nature’s fury. I fear that we might be
seeing the time when God withdraws His presence from America because we have
pushed Him too far, pushed Him away for too long.
You can only tell Him to “get out” for so long before He does!
You can only tell Him to “get out” for so long before He does!
What
then!?! Who would we turn to then!?!
I found
this passage today in my daily Bible reading.
And it sounds so much like America. Read it (Nehemiah 9:28-35)
and see what you think.
“But as soon as they
were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their
enemies so that they ruled over them.
And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your
compassion you delivered them time after time.
You warned them to
return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which
a man will live if he obeys them.
Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and
refused to listen. For many years you
were patient with them. By your Spirit
you admonished them through your prophets.
Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring
peoples [to evil]. But in your great
mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious
and merciful God. …
(paraphrased) In all that has happened to them, you have
been just; you have acted faithfully, while they did wrong. They did not follow your law; they did not
pay attention to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their kingdom,
enjoying your goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they
did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.”
Sounds
a bit like us right now.
Stiff-necked. Rebellious. Wanting to be our own “gods” yet also wanting
answers for the evil in the world and wondering where God is in all the
tragedy. While all along, it’s we who
have turned from Him.
How much longer until He hands us over to our enemies?
How much longer until He hands us over to our enemies?
This
reminds me of a section I wrote awhile ago and I think it’s quite relevant now. And so I am going to repost it here. This is from the “Wisdom and Fearing God”
post over at https://ironsharpensironbiblestudy.blogspot.com. It’s sobering, just like tragedies like this
always are. They remind us that we are
not as “in control” as we like to think, that we are not all good people who
want to be nice to others, that evil runs rampant in this world, and that our
only hope, our only way to make sense of it, is to turn to God. To see it
through His eyes, His Word, His Truth. We
can toss around all sorts of ideas about better gun control and tougher background
checks (And “yes” to all of that. What normal person needs an automatic or semi-automatic gun anyway? That's lunacy!), but evil will still be with us. Jesus alone is the solution to evil, the
answer to hopelessness. May we as a
country figure that out before it’s too late!
Here
is the repost:
In our country, we like to think things and teach things like this . . .
God would never send a famine or economic distress to get our attention.
God would never send disease to open our eyes to our bad choices and to call us to repentance.
God would never use wars or violence to cause us to cry out to Him.
God would never use a tornado, earthquake, or tsunami to draw our hearts back to Him.
God is not like that. He is a soft, squishy, feeble, all-loving, ever-forgiving God who would never dream of punishing or disciplining or causing any kind of pain for us. He’s all about catering to our requests and pouring out His goodness on us and allowing us to live life on our own terms, because we are the center of the universe. We are the lords of our own lives. Aren’t we?
Surely, in this day and age of rampant sexual diseases, violent wars, economic recession, famines, natural disasters, devastating consequences of our choices, etc., none of this has been allowed by God in order to open our eyes to our need for Him. God would never do that!
Or would He?
Of course bad things do happen in a fallen world, because
of mankind’s sin and bad choices. So a
lot of what happens might be more because God allows it than because He causes
it. But . . .
“I gave you empty stomachs in
every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
“I also withheld rain from you when
the harvest was still three months away. . . People staggered from town to town
for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.
“Many times I struck your gardens
and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your figs and olive trees,
yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.
“I sent plagues among you . . .
killed your young men with the sword . . . overthrew some of you as I overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah . . . yet you have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.
“Therefore this is what I will do to
you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O
Israel.” (Amos
4:6-12)
We have forgotten what God is capable of. We have shrunk Him. We don’t fear Him anymore. We have kicked Him off the throne. And we are not returning to Him. And look at the problems it is causing in our
society and world.
“Do not be afraid of those
who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in
hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
“It is a dreadful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews
10:31)
You know what one of the most terrifying books of the
Bible is?
Jeremiah!
Jeremiah!
Okay, there are other terrifying parts of the Bible,
particularly when hell is talked about - being separated from God forever,
eternal fire, weeping and gnashing of teeth and all that. But Jeremiah has got to be one of the most
terrifying books there is. Because it
blows our Western idea of God’s unending love and patience out of the
water.
Of course, we all know that God is love and that His love
is unending. And we know that He is
incredibly patient, pursuing sinners over lifetimes and history so that He can
draw as many people as possible to Him.
But we – especially in America – seem completely unaware of God’s
justness. We are all about His grace and
mercy, yet we forget His wrath and discipline.
And we are taking His grace and mercy and love for granted.
The thing is, we want to live the way we want to live,
yet be able to call out to Him when things get too rough for us. We want Him to step in at the last minute and
save us, after we have had all the ungodly fun we could have. And we think that this is really the way God
works. That because His love is so
great, He will always step in when we call out to Him, regardless of our
choices or our attitudes toward Him.
Now, let me say that, yes, He is always ready to forgive
and to reach down and rescue those who sincerely call out to Him, those who
genuinely turn from their sins and who open their hearts to Him. He promises this, that anyone who calls on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:9-13)
But what about those who really don’t want to turn their
hearts to Him but only want to use Him as a last-minute life-preserver? The ones who don’t want Him but only want the
protection He offers? The ones who want
to continue to live in rebellion toward God yet want to be spared the
consequences of doing so?
This is how it was in Judah during Jeremiah’s time. The people wanted to follow idols and they
rebelled against God, refusing to obey Him or keep His laws. And so God sent Jeremiah to proclaim judgment
on them over and over again, to call them to repentance. And yet they wouldn’t listen. They continued in their stubborn ways, even
surrounding themselves with lying prophets who told them what they wanted to
hear. And they thought they were godly
enough. They couldn’t imagine that there
was anything that they should be punished for, so they brushed off Jeremiah’s
warnings.
Besides, they could always call on God last minute to
come save them, to spare them from some terrible consequences, no matter how
they lived or rebelled, right? After
all, isn’t He a soft, mushy God who is so loving that He will always jump in
and rescue them from anything bad happening?
Isn’t He so patient that He waits around for years for people to call
out to Him in their time of distress, just so He can reach down and make
everything all better? Doesn’t He
overlook any and all offenses because His love is so great and because He is
all about mercy and grace? He never
punishes or lets people get what they deserve because He is all about the
love. Right?
Jeremiah 7:16:
(God says to Jeremiah . . .) “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or
petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.”
Jeremiah 9:13-16: “The Lord said,
‘It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have
not obeyed me or followed my law.
Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts . . .’ Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty,
the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I will make this people eat bitter food and
drink poisoned water. I will scatter
them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I
will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them.’”
Jeremiah 11: 14: (God says to Jeremiah . . .) “Do not pray for
this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen
when they call to me in the time of their distress.”
Jeremiah 21:4-10: “’This is what
the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons
of war that are in your hands . . . I myself will fight against you with an
outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath. I will strike down those who live in this
city – both men and animals – and they will die of a terrible plague. After that, declares the Lord, I will hand
over [those people] who survive the plague, sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon and to the enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will show
them no mercy or pity or compassion.’ . . . ‘I am setting before you the way of
life and the way of death. Whoever stays
in this city will die by sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the
Babylonians who are besieging you will live; he will escape with his life. I have determined to do this city harm and
not good, declares the Lord.’”
This should sober us greatly. It should hit us to the very core. I think the only thing more terrifying than
facing the horrors of this lifetime – war, disease, famine, violence, natural
disasters, etc. – would be to know that you have no one to go to for help, that
the very God of the universe has turned His back on you in His justness,
refusing to listen to your cry for help.
That you have fallen into the hands of the living God. To whom can you go then, when God Himself has
decreed these punishments?
In America, we are so used to getting what we want, when
we want. We live with abundant blessings
and we take them for granted, believing that we deserve them and that they will
always be there. We are self-centered,
spoiled diaper-babies. And we have
forgotten God.
Actually, we haven’t just forgotten Him. We have asked Him to get out of our country
in many, many ways. We live the way we
want, refusing to acknowledge God as Creator and refusing to follow His ways as
laid out in the Bible. We are much too
concerned with enjoying our little lives to worry about what He has to say. And we don’t want anyone else to challenge
our choices and behaviors either. We don’t want
to hear anything defined as “sin” or to hear that “not all roads lead to the
same place” because that sounds offensive and judgmental.
We have our own idols of money and success and pleasure
and self. And that’s all we want. And we have our own ideas of God and how He
is here to serve us and give us good things and keep bad things from happening
to us. (And so we ignore Him during the
good times and we claim credit for the good things, but we blame Him when
things go wrong!)
We overemphasize His soft, mushy love and His unending
patience, yet we fail to live in holy fear of His justness and holiness. And so if the time should ever come that we
face persecution and trials – famine, war, disease, etc. – surely God will
reach down and rescue us, right? Because
we asked Him to? A tender, gentle,
loving God would never allow bad things to happen to us. Right?
But what if the last-minute, fail-safe, rescue plan
doesn’t work? What if the One you
counted on to save you from the consequences of your rebellion refuses to
help? What if the God of the universe is
the very One fighting against you, instead of coming to your rescue like you
thought He would?
What if we push Him too far ... and so He decides to act out of His justness instead of His patient love and mercy?
What if we push Him too far ... and so He decides to act out of His justness instead of His patient love and mercy?
Let’s update Judah’s punishment a little. What if, here in America, God decided to let a deadly disease run wild? Imagine that this disease and a bunch of terrorists have descended on America, wiping out millions with illness and violence. And then throw in some famine, when all of our crops fail and we cannot produce food for ourselves. And then, after all this, the survivors are taken by the terrorists to their land and forced to live as slaves the rest of their lives.
And God Himself turns a deaf ear to our cries. . .
because we have asked Him to get out of our country . . . because we have
turned our backs on Him, pushing Him away with our continued rebellion and
self-worship . . . because He has decided to do us harm and not good, as
discipline and punishment . . . because we have taken His love and patience for
granted for too long, smugly brushing it aside.
Because we have no fear of Him anymore.
What if?
What if?
Can you think of any more terrifying scenario than to
know that God Himself has turned His face from you, that He would refuse to
listen to your cries for mercy, that you have no one to turn to at a time like
that?
Actually, I think there is one thing that is more horrifying than that. And that would be for God to let us continue in our rebellion, disobedience, and hard-heartedness so that we never seek Him or turn toward Him in repentance. Happily, self-gratifyingly, and ignorantly skipping our way straight to hell.
This is why God has given us His Word and the examples we
find in Scripture: to learn from, to find Truth, to guide us, and to call us to
Him. And the wise take this
seriously. Let us never forget that God
is a holy God, with a keen sense of justice as well as an unending, patient,
unconditional love.
And you know the most amazing thing about our God, the
One who could destroy rebellious nations in His wrath?
Jeremiah 5:1: “Go up and down
the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her
squares. If you can find but one person
who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.”
The same God who pours out wrath is the One who will
forgive a whole ungodly city for one righteous person. This love should never be taken for granted,
ignoring it while we live the way we want.
But it should make us fall on our knees in thankfulness and want to know
Him more. It should make us want to live
a more honoring life for Him. It should
make us pursue godly righteousness. It
should develop in us a healthy respect, awe, and fear. Because that is some amazing love! How could we continue to live in rebellion or
apathy toward a love as great and patient as that? There is no excuse! And at some point, there may be no One to
call on to save us from the consequences of our rebellion.
“Help, Lord, for the godly
are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.” (Psalm
12:1)
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while
he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)
“For the eyes of the Lord range
throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to
him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)
“If my people, who are called
by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from
their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and
will heal their land. Now my eyes will
be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.” (2
Chronicles 7:14-15)
(My prayers are with the victims of the shooting and with our country in general. May we all find the only hope and help and healing that will last! Before it's too late!)
