If we want to stop the violence in America, then our country has to turn back to God.
Last Thursday, in Oregon, a twenty-six year old gunman shot and killed 9 innocent people and wounded 9 more. They were students at a small community college who were simply trying to better themselves. Oh, yeah they were also Christians who openly professed their faith.
The media did its best to keep that crucial part of the story out of the headlines for as long as they could, but at some point, there were too many survivors telling the same story, for them to discount it.
The shooter first had his hostages lie face down on the floor. Then he had them stand up one by one and asked them if they were a Christian, if the answer was, “yes,” he shot them in the head.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time we have heard this narrative. The shooters at Columbine High School back in 1999, asked students to renounce Jesus. When they refused, they too, were shot and killed. There was even a story where one of those shooters pleaded with a girl to renounce Christ, like he didn’t want to shoot her, but had no choice. She refused and he killed her.
Interestingly enough, her father has appeared before Congress to discuss the importance of school prayer. He had the real issue right, way back then.
The families of the Oregon shooting hadn’t even been notified before our President had a press conference to call on new gun control laws and the press and political pundits jumped on board, both sides throwing barbs at the other. The Constitution was of course invoked, and the insults have flown.
And the real culprit, he’s enjoying every minute. Of course, chaos and destruction are on the top of his to-do list. The headline is not about guns or the right to own them or whether they should be controlled. The real headline is not even about the death of these saints who are sitting with Jesus.
The headline is that God has an enemy and therefore, God’s people have an enemy. Our enemy is Satan and he’s clever. He specializes in murder and mayhem. John 8:44 calls him, “a murderer from the beginning.”
1 Peter 5:8, says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
Revelation 12:9, calls him, “the deceiver of the whole world.”
Does any of this sound familiar when we think of the killing of Christians? The bottom line is whether the murderer is in the form of ISIS, or two high school kids, or a teen who opens fire in a church, or a twenty-six year old loner, when a person kills another person for being a Christian, they are followers of Satan.
It’s not about mental illness or guns. Satan did a fine job throwing Christians to the lions back in 64 AD. I suppose we would consider Nero mentally ill today. Christians have been killed since Jesus went back to heaven.
Satan doesn’t need guns. All he needs is a populous who doesn’t call Jesus savior and doesn’t read the Bible. If people don’t read the Bible, then he can continue to do all of his evil undercover and we can all debate gun control.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
How can we resist the devil if we don’t acknowledge his existence?
To stop the violence, we have to turn back to God. We have to teach our children about Jesus. We have to share truth with our neighbors and with people who seem lost and on the edge.
The Bible says God is light and Jesus taught that the most important thing is love. When we were a nation of faithful Christians, we knew that. We were able to stop evil in the world, like Adolf Hitler, who I suppose now would be considered mentally ill.
The simple answer is Jesus. Any other debate is just a smoke screen.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂