Our hearts go out to the Virginia Tech community as they mourn the overwhelming loss of life in the senseless murders that took place yesterday. It's hard to imagine the shock, the grief, the questions, and the anxious malaise that have descended upon so many at one time. We pray for the families of the victims. We pray for the VT community at large. And we pray for those who will be ministering to them.
Among those in ministry at VT are Campus Bible Fellowship missionaries, Charles and Susan Pugh. The the campus ministry of the Pughs has been thriving for several years now. Two Christmases ago, Dale and I, along with a few others from our church met one of the VT students the Pughs had led to Christ. She had been involved in a number of sinful and self-destroying behaviors, but somehow the Lord broke through and changed her life. When we met her, she had an authentic and powerful testimony of what the Lord had done for her.
This student, along with the Pughs, came to mind yesterday as I watched the news unfold. They are among those for whom especially we pray at this time.
On Sunday, I referred several times to the devastation that resulted from Adam and Eve's pursuit of the right to define for themselves what is good and not good. The devastation is portrayed not only in Genesis chapter three, the chapter that records the Fall, but also in the chapters that follow. The devastation seems to compound on itself as the story of Genesis moves along.
Genesis 4 tells of Cain's murder of Abel, his own flesh-and-blood brother. Next comes Lamech's over-the-top killing of the man who "wounded" him. Genesis 5 rehearses the refrain of death over and over and over again; until finally, in Genesis 6:11, we read: "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence...."
Unrestrained violence represents the pinnacle of humanity having rejected God's good and having reserved for themselves the right to define is what is good or not good. The murders that took place yesterday at VT must be evaluated in context. They were the heinous action of one person. And yet we also must remember, the events of yesterday were also the worst episode of mass murder in the history of our country. Could it be possible that something is amiss with regard to the overall moral climate of our culture? Could it be possible we are cultivating a culture that rejects God's definitions and provisions of what is good and what is not good?
In any culture, including our own, there will always be people who reserve for themselves the right to define what is good and what is not. In other words, on this side of the Fall, there will always be sin, there will always be violence, there will always be murder, etc. The poignant feature of life in the days of Noah was that the earth was "filled" with violence. The people who were rejecting God and his good formed the overwhelming majority. And they expressed it in ways very similar to what we witnessed yesterday.
As important as it is to pray for the victims and their families of yesterday's murders, along with the wider VT community, it also is important to pray for our culture, for the moral climate of our own country. It isn't trite or old-fashioned to say we need revival. Acknowledging our need of revival is a matter of humility. On this score, here is what the Lord says: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).
2 comments:
I think Columbine dad Brian Rohrbough was very insightful when he said the following on CBS News after the Amish school shooting.
"I'm saddened and shaken by the shooting at an Amish school today, and last week’s school murders.
When my son Dan was murdered on the sidewalk at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, I hoped that would be the last school shooting. Since that day, I’ve tried to answer the question, "Why did this happen?"
This country is in a moral free-fall. For over two generations, the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum, expelling God from the school and from the government, replacing him with evolution, where the strong kill the weak, without moral consequences and life has no inherent value.
We teach there are no absolutes, no right or wrong. And I assure you the murder of innocent children is always wrong, including by abortion. Abortion has diminished the value of children.
Suicide has become an acceptable action and has further emboldened these criminals. And we are seeing an epidemic increase in murder-suicide attacks on our children.
Sadly, our schools are not safe. In fact, we now witness that within our schools. Our children have become a target of terrorists from within the United States."
How heartbreaking is this tragedy! How can those of us who are parents not be in sympathy with those parents who have lost their children?
I am reminded of my own middle school and high school days during the 70’s race riots, and the violence mixed with racial strife that was endemic to that time and place. Having been the recipient of multiple beatings, having been in school lockdowns, having watched my friends bring concealed weapons to school out of fear and a desire to survive yet one more day, I can well imagine the terror the Virginia Tech students must have felt.
Yet, I am struck by the courage of the professor who saved his students by baring the door with his own person. He was killed while his students jumped to safety out the classroom windows. What a marvelous act of self sacrifice. It is humbling to think of such courage.
Whether schools are becoming more dangerous or not, or more violent than when I attended, I do not know. What is certain is that tragedy and violence will continue until the Lord returns and ends such things. Until then, Christians must continue to be the salt of the Earth, practicing the selflessness our Lord exemplified, and seeking to present the gospel of Christ which is the only eternal salvation the human spirit can ever know. Our hope is not in the schools or in laws, but in the gospel of Christ.
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