EPHESIANS 5:
10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
"Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
15 Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.
There havent been many times in life when I have been more heartbroken or angry than when I heard about the Sandy Hook shootings. Jesus was vocal in His life on how he viewed children.
“If you harm one of these little ones, better for you that a millstone be draped around your neck and you be dropped into the depths of the sea” (Luke 17:2)
Pretty straight forward there. Jesus got angry when His disciples told the children to step back from Him, and Jesus rebuked them saying there is no one better in the Kingdom than them.
And in the midst of all the hurt and pain from what happened, people have been reacting to what happened, and theorized why it happened. And quite frankly a lot of wrong, even ignorant things have been said.
A lot have blamed the problem on video games. Even more blame it on our violent TV shows, and how we are entertained with death. Dr. Dobson, among other leading American Christians were ignorant enough to say it was God “judging” America for turning our back on Him. And I know a lot of people might disagree with me, but all those “reasons” are all wrong…all of them. Especially, Dobson.
In truth, we who live in the west have labored under a grand delusion that somehow America is a Christian nation. We have called ourselves moral, retaining the values the founding fathers have founded this country on. We weep when prayer was stripped from schools or when a target employee wishes us a “happy holiday.” So of course when tragedy strikes at our door we inevitably look for the least “moral” and set blame on those. This theology is beyond skewed and is not only wrong but dangerous. What is a Christian nation? Is it a group of people who abide by a set of moral values? Is it tipping your hat to God? Is it a recognition of the church at the center of society? Anyone who believes America is a Christian nation might agree with all of these. There is a problem with this thinking though. There is no such thing as a Christian nation. One cannot simply strip down the teachings of Jesus and apply the morality they see fit to an entire people, and call that Christianity. Those who did this in the past were called… ummm… what’s the word I’m looking for… Pharisees. When we view America as a set apart nation, a place that is special to God, we place a worldly kingdom higher at the center of our faith, and God is just as present in America as he was 300 years ago. There is one kingdom we are to concern ourselves with, the kingdom of God that is here now in us.
What American’s often times forget is this tragedy that we experience more often than we should, is actually a lot less than the rest of the world. This kind of thing happens every day in the rest of the world. In places that don’t have TV or video games. And I’m not trying to take anything away from the beautiful children who lost their lives. It was sad and tragic, and I wish it never happened.
And in response to Dr. Dobson and others, besides sarcastically saying read your Bible before answering out of pure emotion, is John 3:17: “ Jesus came not to condemn the world, but save the world through Him” As far as I know, there is only one judgment the Bible talks about, and I don’t think Christ would use innocent children to show His judgment.
All of that to say, there are only two people responsible for Sandy Hook and other similar tragedies around the world. The prince of darkness and Christians, in their response and active prayer life against Satan’s schemes of this world.
Blaming it on video games and TV is what Satan wants you to do. Distract you from the real cause of what is going on: Satan’s deception and control over a broken world. While we take away video games and cable from our kids(which isn’t a bad thing, but not the root cause), the devil continues his work in people’s lives.
“Awake O sleeper…make the most of every opportunity to…expose darkness.”
Satan is lord over this world. Every day we should not be blaming, but be praying that the devil’s strongholds on this world are made weak and Christ’s plan of saving the world from Satan are made known more.
*co-written by Dan Lee
