Wallace Smith on the Colorado Massacre and This Present Age

Barack Obama on Telephone with Mayor of Aurora, Colorado

Wallace Smith put this commentary together today for LCG:

By now, you have probably seen the cellphone camera images of people leaving Theater 9 at the Century 16 Cinema in Aurora, Colorado—near Denver—with blood on their clothes and blank expressions on their faces. An excited crowd had been enjoying the first few minutes of The Dark Knight Rises, the concluding installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman film trilogy, when a heavily-armed individual entered the theater. Wearing a gas mask and a bulletproof vest, he threw a gas canister and began shooting into the crowd. By the rampage’s end, twelve people were dead and another 50 were injured.

The alleged shooter is a 24-year-old neuroscience student who dropped out of his Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver last month. As I write this, any motives for his horrific action remain unknown. However, by all accounts he had to have planned far in advance to be so well prepared for his onslaught. After inspecting the young man’s apartment, Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates told journalists, “We have a whole bunch of bomb techs from a whole bunch of agencies. We have pictures inside the location. We are trying to determine how to disarm flammable or explosive material that’s in there. We could be here for hours. We could be here for days trying to get in there and get whatever evidence there is. The pictures are pretty disturbing. It looks pretty sophisticated in terms of how it’s booby-trapped.”

But even if the killer’s motives were known, they could not relieve us of the terrible sense that, if our world is the sort of place where such terrible plans can be conceived at all, let alone acted upon, how can any of us be safe? What kind of society produces such people?

The suspect’s upbringing, background and political beliefs will surely be examined. Any statements he has published or placed online will be scrutinized. Analysts will do their best to determine the cause of the massacre. Ultimately, however, its cause is much deeper than they will find, and it ties together with a common thread all such atrocities—across demographics, ideologies, and political lines.

Jesus Christ said, of this present age, that “lawlessness will abound, and the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). The Apostle Paul said that “in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves… unloving… without self-control, brutal” (2 Timothy 3:2-3).

We live in a world steeped in “lawlessness” and self-worship. Our television, movies, music, and video games glorify killing and destruction, sexual immorality and perversion, crassness and cruelty and disrespect for any form of authority—a virtual societal orgy of self-satisfaction in the basest of manners.

Meanwhile, many of our leaders happily remove the Ten Commandments from the halls of government, and even strive to remove any vestige of godly, moral instruction from our institutions of learning.

Whatever attitudes and motives may come to be revealed about the Aurora shooter, we would do well to consider what environment we have created that would nurture such a cold-hearted, selfish and murderous mentality.

And each of us should pray that God will forgive us for any part we may have had in contributing, in whatever small way, to such a society. We should commit ourselves to repentance, giving up any wrong attitudes and motives we find in ourselves. We should pray that God hasten the return of Jesus Christ to this earth—the only real solution to these terrible tragedies. The returning Christ will set up a global Kingdom in which such atrocities are unheard of—a safe world where “the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets” (Zechariah 8:5) and “no one shall make them afraid” (Micah 4:4).

May God comfort those suffering in Colorado, and may His Kingdom come quickly.

I quoted the following yesterday when I initially posted about this:

23 ‘Make a chain,
For the land is filled with crimes of blood,
And the city is full of violence.
24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the Gentiles,
And they will possess their houses;
I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease,
And their holy places shall be defiled.
25 Destruction comes;
They will seek peace, but there shall be none. (Ezekiel 7:23-25)

America will be consumed by violence, though the final amount will come from external, primarily Gentile, sources, as the above teaches. Abortion, frequent support of war, violent sports, etc. all identify the USA now.

Life is supposed to be about love and giving, not killing and taking.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

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Christian Soldiers How are Christians to be like soldiers? How are they to be different?
What Do You Mean — Repentance? Do you know what repentance is? Have you truly repented? Repented of what? Herbert W. Armstrong wrote this as a booklet on this important subject.
Are You Saved? Do You Love Jesus? What is a True Christian? What is the Gospel? Evangelist Richard Ames answers those important questions.
True vs. False Conversion Are you really converted or willing to be? What is true conversion? What is false conversion? What are the dangers of false conversion? Evangelist Roderick Meredith provides information on those important questions.
Abortion, the Bible, and a Woman’s Right to Choose Do you know what the Bible teaches on this? Has the Roman Catholic Church allowed abortions? What about the real Church of God?
Military Service and the Churches of God: Do Real Christians Participate in Carnal Warfare? Here are current and historical perspectives on a matter which show the beliefs of the true church on military participation. Is war proper for Christians?
Is American Football Evil? Is the most popular spectator sport in the USA something that Christians should watch? What do the Bible and early writings show?
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Prophecies of Barack Obama? Eight reasons why Barack Obama is apocalyptic and eight reasons why Barack Obama is not the Antichrist. This article includes many biblical and non-biblical prophecies, from around the world, that seem to discuss Barack Obama. Did Nostradamus predict Barack Obama dealing with the Antichrist? Might Barack Obama set the stage for the kings of the North and South as at least one Shiite prophecy suggests? This is the longest and most complete article on this page on Barack Obama prophecies. Read it and decide for yourself if President Obama seems to be fulfilling various prophecies.
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