1 Week, 2 Worldviews, 3+ Attacks
On Wednesday Dec. 5, I learned that the couple which my wife and I had bought our house from in Colorado had a son who was killed in a deadly rampage in Anchorage, Alaska where he was attending college. This Godly young man, Jason, actively worked with youth and young adults and was, by all accounts, sold out to God. A crazed man seemingly went berserk and killed two people and injured a few more. Jason was attempting to prevent the gunman from stealing his car outside his own home when he was shot dead in the street.
The very same day we all became aware of another senseless incident which defies explanation. A 19 year old kid walked into Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska and began shooting, killing 8 people, injuring 5 others before finally taking his own life.
Yesterday afternoon, while many were enjoying a football game on television, local news, here in Colorado, broke in to report the heart-breaking report that there had been a shooting in the early morning hours in nearby Arvada which took the life of two people at a rescue mission and that another shooting had just occurred in Colorado Springs in the parking lot of New Life Church. As I write this, it has still not been determined if the two acts were committed by the same person. Quite honestly, if they are not connected it only makes things worse!
Pastor and author Rick Warren, appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America, Monday Dec. 10th, reiterated that the real problem is a spiritual one. People do not commit these acts of violence without a severe spiritual abnormality in their life.
When we consider these shooters who have claimed the lives of 14 people and severely injured several more, we notice the lack of hope in their lives. The shootings were a sort of “acting out” stemming from the spiritual depravity or void in their hearts. They themselves were miserable and wretched inside and they sought to inflict as much hurt on others as possible. Often when these type things occur, it is determined through suicide notes, recorded messages, etc. that the shooters actually blame the victim(s), in advance, for their own violent outbreaks. It is a form of evil and twisted transference of guilt.
The worldview demonstrated by these shooters reflects one of extreme selfishness. They are, most truly, the center of their own universe. Regard for others is almost non-existent. It boils down to what they see as, “I am hurting, therefore, I am going to hurt as many as I can as much as I can.” The pattern is eerily similar in case after case. The person kills as many as he can then puts himself out of his own misery by killing himself. We have seen it time and time again in the rash of school shootings over the last decade (Columbine, Virginia Tech, and the list goes on). Even men like Timothy McVey (The Oklahoma City Bomber) and the 911 hijackers felt completely justified in their actions and only expressed sorrow and regret that they could not inflict even more pain, hurt, and taking of life. This worldview is the worldview of Satan. Jesus said of Satan in the New Testament, “The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Satan will tell anybody anything to get them to do his work. Whatever you want to hear, Satan will speak it to you in a convincing and irresistible tone.
Contrast this mixed-up worldview with that of friends, family members, and fellow church-goers interviewed not long after these shootings which expressed a need for forgiveness, even pity and compassion for the shooters themselves! How can that be explained in human terms? Quite simply it cannot. It is a God thing! Human beings, left on their own, lack the power to truly forgive. Those who have expressed a willingness to forgive and act “Christ-like,” represent so very well the call to rise above this world and view things in light of the big picture of eternity.
The Christian Worldview does not see life here on earth as an end in itself, but merely a precursor to the life which is to come. 1 Cor. 13 teaches us that when that which is perfect has come, that which is only temporal or non-complete will vanish away. Let us be diligent to make known the Christian worldview to others. Please use moments like this to convey to others the hopelessness and emptiness of life lived apart from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He is our only hope!
In Christ,
Pastor Allen Raynor