The Batman Massacre in Aurora, Colorado has put our nation’s flag’s at half mast, and our national soul into a somber, reflective season of mourning. The savagery of the indiscriminate killing of innocent strangers, the setting of the crime, certainly chosen for the effect of sensation, and the apparently ‘clean’ criminal record of the shooter all make this the most senseless of acts. In the coming days and weeks, politicians, behavioral psychologists and other ‘talking heads’ of our media dominated world will seek to examine and explain what led up to this tragedy, why it happened, and what can be done to prevent similar attacks in the future. Any processing of the thousand and one questions we have about such expressions of ‘man’s inhumanity to man’, to be effective, must be done through the lens of God’s Word. The Bible alone holds the answers to why bad things happen, and Scripture clearly reveals that evil is present in this world because man, and society, and creation itself, has been corrupted because of sin. It was not always that way; our wise and loving Creator made a perfect world, and entrusted it to our care. But man succumbed to the lust of the eye, the lust of flesh, and the pride of life, and ever since, “the whole world lieth in wickedness”, (1 Jn. 5.19). Our bad choices led God to give us over to a reprobate mind, (Rom. 1.28), and our conscience to be seared as with a hot iron, (2 Tim. 4.2). In our natural state, our “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”, (Jer. 17.9), and being deceived, we seek only to do the will of our spiritual father, the Evil One, who is “a murderer from the beginning”, (Jn. 8.44). It may not be sufficient for some, and certainly does nothing to console grieving families, but the simple reason behind the shooting spree in that movie theater, is that man, all mankind, is a sinner. We are sinners by nature, by choice, and by experience.

The one and only remedy for our sin problem, both individually and collectively as a society, is found in the redemption of our soul which has been provided for by the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The shedding of His blood is alone sufficient for the atonement of our sins, and His subsequent resurrection makes effective this new covenant with God. What happened in that movie theater last Thursday night is a shocking and sad affirmation of the simple truth that “the wages of sin is death”, but hope and consolation can be found in the fact that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”, (Rom. 6.23). How can, and should, anyone respond to evil and tragedy? It is just a starting point, but be sure that you receive this gift, by grace through faith in the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us.