by Scott H. Northrup
All of us were no doubt shocked and outraged by the shooting spree in a Littleton, Colorado high school last week. It hit particularly close to home for me. I was born and raised in Colorado, and have a big brother who once was raising a family of six children in Littleton.
Standard questions come to mind in the aftermath of such a tragedy. One is, "What possesses children to perpetrate such violent acts?" A second is this, "What can we do to prevent such a thing from happening again?" For certainly there is an immediate impulse that cries out within us to DO SOMETHING. An obvious response is calls for stricter gun control laws. Now I'm not arguing either for or against gun control. But think about it. We already have strict laws and spend tons of money to combat marijuana, amphetamine, and cocaine use by our young people. And yet that has not stopped the availability of illegal drugs to even elementary school children in America. What makes us think we can be any more successful stopping our children from getting their hands on guns and bombs? As long as there is a demand for such things as drugs or guns or pornography, people will find a way to get access to these, and the internet makes it even harder to stop the flow.
Well then, we say, let's install metal detectors in every school. Don't stop there, since while we're at it we'll need to put metal detectors in every grocery store, shopping mall, Burger King restaurant, and so forth. Then we'll have Fortress America, and yet will be no safer.
When I was attending high school in Colorado 30 years ago, the biggest problems in the school were running in the halls and chewing gum in class. No one would even think of actually skipping school, or bringing so much as a pocket knife into the building. Principals and teachers had the authority from parents then to do something about problems. We had never heard of marijuana or cocaine. We even had a hunter's safety course to teach us how to handle a gun safely.
That was also a simpler time for sure. What has changed? This country has undergone a major cultural and spiritual revolution. Since the early 1960's our nation, at least in a public sense, has rejected Jesus Christ. We have nixed public prayers in school, the posting of the Ten Commandments, putting manger scenes on public property, talk of Jesus in a commencement address. We have no praying "in the name of Jesus" at a public event, but only in the name of some generic and distant god that won't offend anyone. We have become embarrassed of religion, and at the same time have embraced moral relativism. We have declared that God is dead and that there is no absolute moral standard, but only what the public decides today.
Jesus warned that if anyone is ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of them before the heavenly Father. Most assuredly, God is ashamed of America! All that is left now is judgment. And judgment has begun. It began in a war in Southeast Asia that America lost. It continued in the slaughter of over 30 million unborn babies since 1972 Roe vs. Wade. (That is one in every three babies ABORTED. God calls that GENOCIDE.) It continued in a divorce epidemic that has broken apart millions of families and left a generation on Prozac. It continued in an Oklahoma City bombing, church burnings, and school massacres. And it continues today in a Littleton high school, in the gunning down of children who never hurt anybody. If America (and this world) does not turn and repent quickly, we are finished. We have only seen the beginning of sorrows.
But that is not God's plan for us. God loves people. He desires that none should perish. Through Jesus He makes it possible for us to receive an inner rebirth by His Spirit. It is a tangible event that God wants for every person. That regeneration of the human heart is the only answer that will ultimately work. If your heart is not right before God, you had better seek Him now.
@ copyright 1999 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.