{"id":1264,"date":"2012-08-06T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.returningking.com\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2012-08-06T08:00:01","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T14:00:01","slug":"right-questions-wrongly-answered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/?p=1264","title":{"rendered":"Right Questions Wrongly Answered"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Editorial Note<\/strong>:\u00a0 This article was written prior to Sunday’s shooting in Wisconsin.\u00a0 Originally published in the Fort Bend Herald, July 29, 2012.\u00a0 Minor edits have been inserted for this venue and date)<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"While the escalation of mass homicide in recent years is truly disturbing, perhaps equally ominous is our nation\u2019s continued denial concerning the origination of such evil.\u00a0 Reminiscent of Fort Hood, Columbine and Virginia Tech, the recent shootings in Aurora have once again stirred the country to evaluation regarding the cause of such seemingly disconnected and horrific acts.\u00a0 Within hours of the incident commentators were politicizing the situation with appeals for better mental health care, gun control or public education.\u00a0 One analyst confidently prophesied that, \u201cour country has failed James Holmes\u201d (the shooter)\u00a0in some unexplained manner.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While a number of theoretical culprits may have been contributing factors to Holmes\u2019 rampage, what is troubling about such responses is that they are built upon two false assumptions.\u00a0 Foremost is the notion that such raw degeneracy is impossible in rational man except for some external influence.\u00a0 Related and secondary is the presumption that proper human initiative can cure such deviation.\u00a0 Mankind is deemed too equitable for such a heinous deed, thus something else<\/em> must be ultimately liable.\u00a0 Thus, Adam blames Eve while she points at a snake.\u00a0 Responsibility is imagined outside of the offender\u2019s control.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The scriptures are far less diplomatic of human propensity; asserting that all men possess a congenital sin disorder for which they are held responsible.\u00a0 No one has to teach a two year old how to hit a friend in defiance.\u00a0 Every toddler instinctively knows to lie about the half-eaten cookie.\u00a0 Sin is innate from birth; albeit in ways that seem innocuous when displayed from the least defiled among us.\u00a0 While even minor sin condemns us as guilty before a righteous judge, sin has a tendency to grow and mature into something far less cute than an unruly toddler\u2019s tantrum.\u00a0 Romans 1 teaches that men who reject and suppress God\u2019s truths are given over by God to a continued descent into unquenchable depravity.\u00a0 Verse 28 notes, \u201csince they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.\u201d Verse 30 affirms a further deterioration in that they become \u201chaters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil\u2026faithless, heartless, ruthless.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To those who affirm the trustworthiness of scripture, actions such as those taken by James Holmes are not enigmatic.\u00a0 While surely he is troubled and debased beyond the normative societal rule, his issue remains the same as is common to all.\u00a0 He is guilty of living out the fruition of an uncontrolled sin nature; the epitome of which is self-servitude to the exclusion of God\u2019s supreme rule of law.\u00a0 Our most obvious examples of the destruction of sin are played out in the lives of those likened to Holmes. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

More appropriate than a clamor to lawmakers in light of this sort of wickedness is a resolute commitment to the restoration of sinners through the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The law of both God and man quite staunchly condemned the behavior of last Friday\u2019s murderous rage before it ever happened.\u00a0 At issue is not the lack of a clear legal standard, but a rebellious soul that considered himself exclusive to it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Christ was crucified for such sin.\u00a0 He paid sin\u2019s eternal penalty for those who trust Him alone as their reparation before God.\u00a0 Those who reject His provision will continue their slide toward obstinacy to unknown depths of depravity.\u00a0 Those who trust in Christ\u2019s provision receive capacity to overcome sin in their lives, along with its eternal consequences. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pray, therefore, for the propagation of the gospel in our increasingly wicked world.\u00a0 Therein lies hope for depravity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Editorial Note:\u00a0 This article was written prior to Sunday’s shooting in Wisconsin.\u00a0 Originally published in the Fort Bend Herald, July 29, 2012.\u00a0 Minor edits have been inserted for this venue and date) While the escalation of mass homicide in recent years is truly disturbing, perhaps equally ominous is our nation\u2019s continued denial concerning the origination […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,10,14,18],"tags":[90,166],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/returningking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}