To the Editor:
In Matthew 24 Jesus said just before He returns it will be, “as the days of Noah.” Genesis 6 tells us about the days of Noah, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Every day we have people murdered in our big cities. Eight murdered in Chicago, Ill., this weekend. This past weekend we also had mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.
Brannon Howse said, “I read manifesto of El Paso shooter. Shooter is pushing “basic universal income”(socialism), radical environmentalism, (green agenda), population control and sustainable development (U.N. Agenda 2030). He’s promoting eugenics with a call to stop race mixing (Hitler and Nazi Ideology). The El Paso killer doesn’t have the worldview of an American conservative as the liberal (left) media would like you to believe. Despite the lies of the fake news, the El Paso shooter was not a Republican or supporter of President Trump. According to Daniel Greenfield the Dayton, Ohio mass shooter supported Democrat Elizabeth Warren, socialism, gun control and praised Satan. So should we blame Elizabeth Warren for the Dayton, Ohio shootings? Of course not. No more than we should blame Bernie Sanders when one of his supporters shot into a group of republican congressmen playing baseball a couple of years ago. We can blame Satan and the shooters who were deceived by Satan. As the Bible says in Ephesians 6 we fight not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Evil wins if they divide Americans. Evil loses big if Christians put on the whole armor of God and spread the gospel, the good news of Jesus!
According to Dennis Prager in the decade of the 1950’s there was one mass shooting in America. During the 1960’s there was six mass shootings. During the 1970’s there was 13 mass shootings. During the 1980’s there was 32 mass shootings. During the 1990’s there was 42 mass shootings. A total of 94 mass shootings were recorded in the 50-year period from 1950 to 2000. There have been 251 mass shootings in 2019 alone according to the Gun Violence Archive. Instead of focusing on fixing the blame on a government leader or the need for more gun control as the media wants to, we should study the causes and reasons to fix the problem.
Dennis Prager lists four reasons for the record increase in mass shootings. Reason one is the decline of religion. Religion provides a needed community. Church goers don’t do mass shootings. Reason two is decline in marriage. Marriage matures men. Married men don’t do mass shootings. Reason three is decline of positive male role models. Less fathers raising their children than ever before. Reason four is liberal (left) encourages grievance and victim mentality causing evil. I would add some more reasons. Reason five is legal and taxpayer funded abortion has devalued life. Reason six is violent video games and movies have caused a lack of empathy for others and a death culture that celebrates violence. Reason seven is America has rejected Jesus as Lord and Savior and have chosen self-worship and God gave self-worshipers over to a reprobate mind as Romans 1 says. Without Jesus people are filled with selfishness and hopelessness. Of course reason seven is the main reason. Psalm 2 says, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Because of pride and rejection of Jesus as their king is why the heathen rage.
Pastor Geoffrey Grider said, “Just as Prohibition didn’t stop anyone from drinking alcohol, just as the War on Drugs didn’t stop anyone from buying, selling or taking drugs, any and all efforts to ban guns will also likewise fail. All these terrible things in America are not happening because we need new laws, different laws or stronger laws. They are happening because we, as a nation, have rejected the Lawgiver (Jesus) who created us, and His judgment is the result!”

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton