"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold"
(Matthew 24:12)
Unfortunately, this school shooting shouldn't be surprising as we continue to see a general increase in evil in this world as the Tribulation approaches.
Richard Wilford, the father of a 7-year-old in second grade who attended Sandy Hook Elementary School where the tragic shooting of 26 people, 18 of whom were children, said “there’s no words” to describe what happened in Newtown, Conn., Friday morning.
“It’s sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger…,” he said, according to the Associated Press.
The photos coming in from the scene certainly express this one father’s sentiments:
The way to prevent such horrific acts of violence, Scott explained, is to change the culture in the United States. He talked about a culture that often times encourages the “dehumanizing” of individuals, whether it’s violent video games or easily accessible pornography on the web.
“What happens when you are a person that grows up today and at school you’re not taught about character, integrity or values…at school you are picked on and bullied and at school teachers care more about your test scores and your knowledge and your academic achievement than the condition of your heart,” Scott said. “And when we were concerned about the heart we were number one in the world in education as a first world nation.”
“On the deepest level, these are spiritual problems that we are having in our country,” he added.
“Evil visited this community today,” said Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy.
Franklin Graham, head of the Christian Samaritan’s Purse organization as well as leader of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, agreed.
“The Bible tells us the human heart is ‘wicked’ and ‘who can know it?’” he said. “My heart aches for the victims, their families and the entire community.
“One thing we can be absolutely sure of is that God loves each one of the victims and all those who are suffering right now as a result of this vicious act.”
Longtime evangelist and prolific author Greg Laurie joined in. “All I can say is this was pure evil,” he wrote. “The heartlessness and wickedness of this man that did the shooting is really unimaginable.”
Laurie wrote, “At times like this we need perspective. An eternal perspective. We need to remember this life on earth is not all there is. There is an afterlife and there earthly wrongs are righted. There is a final judgment for this man and others like him that commit these heinous crimes and they will have to face God.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee attributed the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in part to restrictions on school prayer and religious materials in the classroom.
"We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News, discussing the murder spree that took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, CT that morning. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"
"[W]e've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability -- that we're not just going to have be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment," Huckabee said. "If we don't believe that, then we don't fear that."
He said those suffering from a crisis from faith should look to God in the community's response to the violence. But he added that "Maybe we ought to let [God] in on the front end and we wouldn't have to call him to show up when it's all said and done at the back end."
In other news around the world:
For some reason the article below struck me as very very chilling and brings reminders of the WWII era and the holocaust:
"Never Again," they say, and yet even in 2012 Jews must be warned not to openly identify themselves as Jews in certain places for fear of a violent response to their ethnicity.
Such was the case in Denmark this week, where Israeli Ambassador Arthur Avnon warned visiting Israelis not to wear their skullcaps (kippot) in public, to hide any Star of David jewelry and to refrain from conversing loudly in Hebrew.
Avnon said this warning applies "irrespective of whether the areas [Israelis] are visiting are seen as being safe."
Israel Radio noted that Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, had experienced no fewer than 39 reported anti-Semitic attacks this year.
Local Jewish leaders confirmed that it has become increasingly dangerous to be seen as a Jew, and hinted that the problem stems from growing Muslim influence in the city.
A little less surprising was a report that Jordan's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities had sent out a letter to all local tour guides instructing them to advice Israeli visitors against wearing Jewish symbols or publicly worshipping in a Jewish way.
Present-day Jordan makes up part of the biblical Land of Israel, so many Israeli visitors consider points of interest in Jordan to be holy sites, and consequently like to pray there.
But the Jordanian government said it has received numerous complaints over these outward displays of "Jewishness" and felt compelled to bring the situation under control, both for the safety of visiting Israelis and to appease the sensibilities of local Jordanians
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