Right Questions Wrongly Answered

(Editorial Note:  This article was written prior to Sunday’s shooting in Wisconsin.  Originally published in the Fort Bend Herald, July 29, 2012.  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’s continued denial concerning the origination of such evil.  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.  Within hours of the incident commentators were politicizing the situation with appeals for better mental health care, gun control or public education.  One analyst confidently prophesied that, “our country has failed James Holmes” (the shooter) in some unexplained manner.

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

The scriptures are far less diplomatic of human propensity; asserting that all men possess a congenital sin disorder for which they are held responsible.  No one has to teach a two year old how to hit a friend in defiance.  Every toddler instinctively knows to lie about the half-eaten cookie.  Sin is innate from birth; albeit in ways that seem innocuous when displayed from the least defiled among us.  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’s tantrum.  Romans 1 teaches that men who reject and suppress God’s truths are given over by God to a continued descent into unquenchable depravity.  Verse 28 notes, “since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” Verse 30 affirms a further deterioration in that they become “haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil…faithless, heartless, ruthless.”

To those who affirm the trustworthiness of scripture, actions such as those taken by James Holmes are not enigmatic.  While surely he is troubled and debased beyond the normative societal rule, his issue remains the same as is common to all.  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’s supreme rule of law.  Our most obvious examples of the destruction of sin are played out in the lives of those likened to Holmes.

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.  The law of both God and man quite staunchly condemned the behavior of last Friday’s murderous rage before it ever happened.  At issue is not the lack of a clear legal standard, but a rebellious soul that considered himself exclusive to it.

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

Pray, therefore, for the propagation of the gospel in our increasingly wicked world.  Therein lies hope for depravity.