When the World Cries, "WHY?" How Does the Church Answer

In the wake of events like the mass shooting in Florida last week, everyone always asks, "Why?" This is especially so when there have been children killed and wounded.  What can the church say in the face of such horrors. Is it enough to send up "thoughts and prayers." How do we comfort families who, like Job, cry to God asking "Why?"

First of all, we cannot explain why God allowed such a thing to happen. We don't know why. After all, God sees the end from the beginning. We cannot. So there are always larger issues at play that we cannot even fathom. We have families to protect. God has an entire universe to make safe and secure. Of course we do not understand. How can we?

We can, however, make a pretty good guess as to why young people have taken to shooting up their schools. That used to be pretty rare. Nowadays, not so much. Since the shooting at Parkland High, there have been at least two other planned attacks foiled in just the short time since it happened. They were foiled because people started to pay attention to the signs. One grandmother simply opened up the journal her grandson left sitting out on his desk. He'd been trying to get someone's attention all along, but everyone was too wrapped up in their own problems to notice his distress.

I can offer a two part answer to the question of "Why?"  Not as to why God allowed this terrible tragedy, but as to why it's happening more frequently.

1. Our young people too often have no spiritual anchor and, let's face it the teen and young adult years of a person's life are emotionally trying. We all remember how hard it was from our own youth. It's why teens and young adults have such an appallingly high suicide rate. Suicide is almost always a cry for attention by a child who is overwhelmed by it all. Suicide says "I am in pain and you aren't fixing it for me!" Kids commit suicide in part to stop their own pain, but also in part to inflict pain on those they see as responsible. They hope by this act to make sure people know they are to blame and feel bad about it.
2. In our 24 hour media environment, every time a kid shoots up a school he becomes famous for a few weeks. The news media, in effect, broadcasts the shooter's suicide note to millions upon millions of people. It's why such things often happen in clusters. One unbalanced soul sees that another equally unbalanced soul has got a huge amount of attention simply by shooting the people he blames for his trouble.  So, it suggests a way to go out in a big way and make lots of people feel bad for not fixing his problems for him.

The cure is for parents and schools to pay better attention to their children; to give the kids an anchor to hold them steady through the storms of adolescence. The church is uniquely qualified to offer such an anchor.  In our churches we secure the safety of our children by giving them real things to do in the church. We should listen to them sing, let them pass the offering plate, do special music, talk to the elders about what could be done to improve the youth program. We can take them camping, go to the lake for Sabbath School and potluck. Above all, we MUST spend time with them. We must give them a real stake in the life of the church and thus give them an opportunity to meet God and hang out with Godly people.

Rudderless kids often sink into despair. They feel ignored and mistreated and lash out. The difference between now and when kids used to drive to high school with a gun in the gun rack of their pickups without starting a random massacre, is that back in the olden days, such a thing would NOT have got you worldwide attention and your name splashed all over the television, radio and Internet.

Remember Satan's second lie. "Thou shalt be like gods." His first was "Thou shalt not surely die." The media provides both immortality and a godlike ability to wreak vengeance upon your enemies, both at the time of the killings and then over and over and over again for weeks afterward.

Until we stop giving fame to mass shooters, most of whom are trying to commit suicide anyway, this isn't going to stop and the devil knows it. He will use political wrangling over how to stop such shootings to further divide us. One of his favorite tactics is to make us think that somehow there is something we ourselves can do to stop horrors like this. Are we not gods after all? Write a law. Take away all guns. Force people to be good somehow and to stop murdering each other. In all the long history of the world, no law, no disarming of the people, no incentive ever offered has stopped the slaughter. Too often it is the ones writing the laws and taking away the arms that end up committing mass murder. More than 252 million people died in the twentieth century alone, at the hands of governments whose purpose was to make everyone good. No one but God can make everyone good and even He must allow evil men to die in the billions in order to do it.

While we cannot guarantee there will be no further shootings, we can make sure fewer of our children feel so lost and desperate that they feel like killing themselves and others. The truth is, only God can end this and sadly, because of the nature of sin and God's having given us the free will to choose whether or not to sin, we must wait until Jesus comes to fix it.

In the meantime, let us hold our children and young people close. Let us bind them with cords of love. Let us show them, by example, how to make their lives better by focusing their energies and attention on others. 

That's the answer the Church has when the world asks, "Why?"  Love your children better. Stop rewarding despair with publicity. Thoughts and prayers should come before something like this happens, not afterward.


© 2018 by Tom King

There Is No Switzerland in the War Between Good and Evil

'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.' Exod 20: 7. 

Seventh-day Adventists are intensely aware that there is a war going on in this world. It is sometimes a visible war but often it is an invisible one. It is a war for souls; a war for the hearts and minds of the human race. We call it "The Great Controversy" and it is a war that has been going on since the dawn of time.

The forces of evil are stronger than the forces of good in terms of Earthly power. The good guys are hampered in how we fight that war. We cannot lie, cheat, steal, murder or force our enemy to submit to us. Our commander demands that His conquests surrender voluntarily of their own free will. He requires us to then stand and fight with the rest of His sons and daughters. And that's a serious thing, for while we do not slaughter or coerce those who would harm us, our enemy has no such ethical problem murdering and oppressing the good guys.

Being a Christian is not for the weak. Eleven out of twelve of Jesus' own apostles were murdered by government and religious authorities. The only one to die a natural death was boiled in oil and banished to hard labor on the Roman equivalent of Alcatraz Island. The Apostle Paul came to a violent end as did many other soldiers of Christ throughout history.

I've been watching documentaries about the leaders of the Protestant Reformation. What incredibly brave men. Their stories make clear that there is no neutrality in the war between good and evil. These men were persecuted and died for believing what the Bible said. Their stories demonstrate also that there is no clear demarcation between the enemy and the followers of Christ. The most evil of men may wear the vestments of the church and speak boldly what they claim to be the will of God.

Which brings me to the text I led with. I learned something fascinating about the third commandment the other day from a Jewish media personality named Dennis Prager.  Apparently, the word "take" in the third commandment is a word in Hebrew that more accurately translates as "carry".  I used to think the third commandment was all about cursing. Apparently if I use God's name lightly, he will not forget it or forgive.

Does that sound right to you?

I know! It didn't sound right to me till I examined the verb rendered "take" in most English translations. Carry makes much more sense. One of the things that I find most appalling in the Christian world is the practice of doing bad things and claiming God wanted you to do that. The Roman church did that throughout its history, murdering anyone who challenged its authority or said things it didn't like.

So honest servants of Christ faced not only the wrath of pagans, Mohammedans, and wrathful political powers, but also devils dressed up as servants of God. If you use the word "carry" meaning to carry the name of Christ or to claim to do things in the name of Christ or in God's name and according to His will, then I can well understand why God would deal so harshly with individuals who use His name to justify their own wickedness.

Notice that the choice for good or evil is the only choice we are given. If you choose evil, you can do what you want, when you want, how you want and to whomever you want. If you choose good, you can only do what is right and good and you must leave the rest to God. You must enlist the Army of God (we call them churches) and join the fight.

A lot of young people these days have looked around at churches full of struggling sinners and decided that being one of these soldiers of Christ is not pleasant enough nor comfortable enough and limits them too much. The walk out the back door of their churches and proclaim, "I am spiritual, not religious." They tell us they don't want to be evil or anything, but that church doesn't help them very much so they'll just leave the demands of Christian fellowship behind and go out and be "spiritual" on their own.

The residents of spiritual Switzerland declare themselves neutral in hopes that they can slip through life undisturbed by the Great Controversy, without need to sacrifice, to endure persecution or to put up with hypocrites.  No need to risk having to make the sacrifices we see some Christians make. No need to feel guilty for not "witnessing" or not giving enough to the poor and downtrodden (or the minister's salary). In spiritual Switzerland, residents hope that both God and Satan will leave them alone to fend for themselves. Oh, if a storm comes along or a tornado roars down on their trailer park, they'll condescend to bother God for a little help, but other than that, they hope that if they don't get into a direct conflict with the devil, that he too will leave them alone.

God is pretty clear, however, about Spiritual Switzerland. "Whoever is not with me is against me," said Jesus (Matthew 12:30).  There is no neutrality. The devil may well leave you alone in whatever comfortable place you hole up, but when the end comes, like the servant who hid the talents his master gave him in the ground, he will obtain no reward. It's interesting that the servant's excuse was "'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So in my fear, I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what belongs to you."  The servant didn't want to do anything uncomfortable like invest the gold and work to bring a profit with it. He just put his master's money in a Swiss Bank safe deposit box.

But God says that there is no Switzerland in the Great War Between God and Evil. Joshua put it this way, "Choose you this day whom you will serve.....but as for me and my house, we will server The Lord." Spiritual Switzerland is apparently in the no-man's land between the two opposing forces. If you've ever seen a no-man's land, you will realize that eventually, nothing is left alive there. Spiritually or otherwise.

© 2018 by Tom King

Wolves Among the Flock

 
Men are either wolves or sheepdogs. We are not by nature sheep. We may follow a shepherd but we are wired up to confront danger and stand between our flock, our family and our community and that which would bring them harm. We all choose which we will be. Our church needs sheepdogs for there is evil among us. I was sickened today to read that a volunteer Adventist girl's basketball coach was arrested for filming the girls changing clothes in his office. He's been tossed out of Puget Sound Adventist Academy on his ear and arrested. The good thing is that he was no longer employed by the school and only served as a volunteer. The good thing is that the sheepdogs of the church rose up and put an end to his activities. The bad thing is that once again men in the church find themselves damned by gender and it's not fair. In fact, it's detrimental to our families and our children and young people.

Already, the church has had to resort to background checks and paperwork galore for everyone in the church who volunteers to do anything at all. It's little wonder that many church members hang back from taking on jobs with the church. It's a little scary to risk it, especially if you are a guy. I gave up worrying about it years ago. At first, I figured if God is in charge, I need not fear being falsely accused of some misdeed, especially if I did nothing wrong. Later I discovered that you might well be falsely accused, especially if you do right or speak out about wrongs being done by those who consider themselves superior to the rest of us.

Doing the right thing doesn't mean you won't lose your job or have to move somewhere far away to continue your career. The secret to doing your duty as a male church member is to always do the right thing and trust God to take care of you whatever happens. I've seen two wonderful pastors hurt though they were both doing what was right and doing it with vigor and energy. One was a conference president and a man I respected and admired. The other one served as the pastor of a college church and was a brilliant author and theologian. The conference president shared a plane ride with a woman on her way to New England for cancer treatments. She was frightened and he happened to be going the same way and her family didn't want her to travel alone. His enemies accused him of having an affair and made such a stink they forced him out. Years later, the same bunch set up our local pastor and accused him of sexual impropriety. Ironically, they were opposed to his emphasis on the idea of righteousness by faith. Somehow they decided that subterfuge, lying and character assassination were okay so long as they were attacking someone who wasn't doing what you were certain God wanted Him to do (which was usually what they wanted him to do) .

Ron Halvorsen Sr. was pastor of my church in Keene, Texas. Our head deacon approached him a couple of weeks after he preached his first sermon and told him a committee (The Laymen Actively Concerned) had been organized to get rid of him. Pastor Ron's response was a priceless and a courageously male one.

"Whew," he said wiping his brow. "I was worried there. Usually they have that committee organized by Sabbath afternoon after my first sermon!"  The next week he stood up in front of 1000 church members and said, "I understand that in this church we have some laymen who are actively concerned."

The congregation roared with laughter and the "committee" and the wolves who were its members were effectively defanged and had no further power. Actually, the church rallied behind Pastor Ron and we experienced a burst of church unity like no one had seen in decades. It was breath-taking and more than a little discouraging to our church's figurative graybeards in that it left them without the power of whispering behind back.

The greatest want of the church is, in point of fact, the want of men; men who will not be bought or sold; men who are as true as the needle to the pole. Sister White warned Adventist men that courage would be needed in these last days. We are the defenders of the church and our families and loved ones. We are sheepdogs. We must be vigilant, for the devil our adversary walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

It's time we men have to stand shoulder to shoulder to defend the flock. We need not fear those who claim power for their own. We need not fear the world. We serve Christ, not the head elder, not the Division president or the General Conference administration. One day soon the world will turn and wonder after the Beast. If we cannot stand now, when the stakes are small, what hope will there be that we will stand when the world turns against us.

God give us courage now to stand for the right.

© 2017 by Tom King