12 people dead, and scores more wounded, and as always with these tragic events, the media concentrates on the data; the who, how many, when and where questions. Yet the hardest question of all will likely go unanswered. Why did he do it? Why...the hardest question to answer... Even President Obama struggled to answer this question, at a live news conference; he was as perplexed as everyone else.
This same difficult but inescapable question is asked every time a Columbine happens or an Anders Behring Breivik attempts to justify his mass murders. How could such a thing happen? How could one human being do such a thing to a group of total strangers?
If there was an easy answer to this question, it would not be satisfying... yes, there will be waves of ongoing analysis, and some clues to the behavior of this latest mass-murderer will give us all a little insight into a tortured mind, but who can really explain the moral and spiritual bankruptcy that leads to such vile acts...
The Bible tells us.... “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 NIV
The Amplified Bible expands on that verse: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?
As believers we usually tend to think of events and terrible situations like this mass-shooting in Denver in biblical and even theological terms, and it's only when we think of these events in such terms that we gain insight into them, and begin to answer the why question.
We all know that humans are capable of horrible deeds, crimes beyond our understanding, unspeakable evil, and we should not be shocked when yet another evil is unleashed upon us.... yet thankfully we are shocked! This tells us two things.
1. The unpalatable truth about human sin, and
2. We know that we ourselves are also capable of sins that we DO NOT commit. Why not?
God restrains human evil!
If the fullness of human sin was unleashed,
humanity would very quickly annihilate itself. God restrains evil by various
means. We are created in his image, and part of this image is what we usually
call conscience. Our conscience is a powerful restraint on human evil... thank
God! Sadly that conscience was warped and defiled by the fall and is far from trustworthy.
We have developed the capacity to disregard the quiet little voice we call the conscience;
we willingly torture it, and even misdirect the conscience by moral
justification.
Nevertheless, the restraint of the conscience is fundamental to social and personal behavior, and for
that we need be truly thankful. Even in our fallen state we can still recognize evil, and flee from it.
God established institutions that restrain human
evil. Paul reminds us in Romans 13, that God gave us human government in order to restrain evil and to punish the
evildoer. He also gave us the institutions of marriage, family and societal order to restrain evil. We are governed by laws and statutes and social and moral expectations. All these function to restrain evil.
At the very foundation of these restraints is the fear of God and eternal punishment, which, even in our increasingly secular society, still remains a more powerful force
than is usually acknowledged.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 NKJV
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