Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

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. A record number of people are wisely leaving big cities. This past week we also had mass shootings in Atlanta, Ga., and Boulder, Colo. A mass shooting is an incident involving multiple victims of gun violence. When four or more are killed the FBI defines it as mass murder. Mass shootings hit a record high in 2020.
The Bible says to be slow to speak and don’t jump to conclusions. Issues and people can be complex and it is best to wait for more details before placing the blame. According to investigative journalist Laura Loomer, Ahmad Al Aliwa Al-Issa the Muslim terrorist who did the deadly attack in a Boulder, Colo. supermarket, was inspired by ISIS and targeted the supermarket, King Soopers, because it is kosher friendly. The supermarket keeps lots of kosher foods and is known as a place where Jews will be present to purchase such foods especially days before Passover.
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! It is a heart issue and the answer is Jesus.
According to Dennis Prager in the decade of the 1950’s there was one mass shooting in America. During the 1960’s there were six mass shootings. During the 1970’s there were 13 mass shootings. During the 1980’s there were 32 mass shootings. During the 1990’s there were 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.
Prager lists four reasons for the record increase in mass shooting. 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 are 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 has 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