Douglas High School Shooting, Evil, and God

I was asked just this week my thoughts on the heinous act of evil perpetrated at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Where was God in the midst of such evil? That question has been asked time and again over the ages. Recent events return our attention to the problem of evil. The problem of evil itself is relatively simple to state, but has been profoundly difficult to answer. David Hume, following Epicurus, suggested that if God was not able to destroy evil, then he was impotent; that if God was not willing to destroy evil, then he was malevolent; and that if he was both able and willing, then why was there evil? Succinctly, Hume displayed the three main tenets that form the problem of evil: (1) God’s omnipotence, (2) God’s goodness and (3) the reality of evil. The problem of evil is an important question for the Christian worldview, but every worldview must provide an answer.

I freely admit that answering the problem of evil is difficult. We are forced to live with the tension between what the Bible teaches—God’s omnipotence and goodness—and the evil we see and experience. The Bible simply does not answer the question, “Why evil?” But it does provide an explanation for evil. In Genesis 3, we discover that God provided Adam and Eve moral choice. They were not robots or automatons. Rather, they were free beings who had a choice. They chose poorly. They sinned. And as a result, evil and suffering entered the world. Sin, evil, and suffering evidently play a role in the sovereign plan of God. Sin and evil reflect the reality of man’s moral choices. Sin, evil and suffering also reveal the vast depth, wonder and glory of God’s gracious love. Not only does God love man in spite of our sin, but God sent his Son to suffer because of our sin. God shows his love and grace through the passion and suffering of Christ that we may experience God’s forgiveness and goodness.

These tensions are real. Regardless of our biblical beliefs and Christian worldview, we must still cope with acts of murder, abuse and heinous evil. We ask, “What would possess Nikolas Cruz to murder so many people?” We could ask this same question of all the school shooters or acts of mass violence in recent memory. We could ask the same question concerning acts of abuse, war crimes, the Nazi killing machine or any number of other historical events of villainy. Even answers that reflect satanic evil and the sinful human heart seem somehow insufficient.

Maybe we could ask a different question, “What would possess assistant coach and security guard at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Aaron Feis, to shield students with his body to protect them? Why do we consider his sacrifice heroic?” It is clear that we as humans identify with acts of heroic sacrifice. Feis’ ultimate sacrifice was not some act of altruism, but it was genuinely good. If we are going to ask the question “Why evil?” we must also ask the question, “Why good?” Feis’ sacrifice, along with the sacrifice of other teachers at the school, touches us deeply. Could it be that their sacrifice is somehow representative of a greater sacrifice?

While the Christian worldview may not possess a complete answer for the problem of evil, it does provide something to give humanity hope. Prior to man’s fall into sin, God created mankind in his image. During the 6 days of creation, God called all that he saw, “Good.” His purpose in creation is good. Paul connected these themes in Romans 8 when he wrote,

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the create was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” – Romans 8:18-21

In other words, the evil we see and experience today is not ultimate. The Bible declares to us there is hope. Jesus came because of our sin to redeem us from our evil. And ultimately evil will be defeated and the goodness of God through Christ will reign forever. Even if all our questions are not answered today, we do not have to remain hopeless. Look to Christ who defeated evil on the cross. There is coming a day when evil will forever be vanquished and the glory and goodness of God will rule.

The Global Gospel and Racism

The history of racism and prejudice in our country is a stain upon the freedoms espoused in the Declaration of Independence “all men are created equal” and the Bill of Rights. In truth one of the great ironies is that a nation founded upon freedom would continue to enslave a people based on skin color. Leaving slavery as an institution was a failure of our nation’s founders. Their inability or the inability of the context to move them to act would result in a great Civil War where hundreds of thousands of Americans would die over the controversial issues of state’s rights and slavery. President Abraham Lincoln rightly understood that slavery was the central instigating factor of the Civil War even if it was not the stated cause. With his emancipation proclamation, Americans can be proud that the first vestiges of slavery were slashed out of our country. But it would be a century more before equality was granted. Rampant prejudice and racism permeated our nation. Not until the Civil Right’s movement of the 1960s did justice and equality come to the South and to the nation. Even today, more than 50 years after the Civil Right’s movement, we still deal with prejudice and incipient racism. It is not something that God tolerates and certainly not present in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a global gospel. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said that the gospel would go to the ends of the world. In Acts 10, the church experienced the first Gentile convert–Cornelius. God is not a respecter of persons. Heritage and color of skin are not factors in God’s great act of love upon the cross. Jesus came to die for the entire human race—all colors, peoples, languages, and nationalities. In Acts 10, we see the incipient racism of the Jewish people blown up by the glorious grace of a sovereign God through the universal message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I trust that we will not only witness the love of God in Acts 10, but the expected response to the gospel that we as its bearers must share to ALL who bear the image of God.

Peter’s vision in Acts 10 related to unclean foods. The Jewish people had received dietary laws from God as a means of spiritual distinction. But here in Acts, Peter saw unclean foods and was told to eat. Following Peter’s vision, Cornelius’ messengers reached Peter and brought Peter to preach to Cornelius, his family, and his friends. These first Gentiles would believe the gospel and receive the Holy Spirit. But what did the food have to do with the Gentiles receiving the gospel? Actually, the vision of food was very important.

John MacArthur observed:

Strict Jews would have nothing to do with Gentiles. They would not be guests in Gentile homes (cf. v. 28) or invite Gentiles to their homes. Dirt from a Gentile country was considered defiled, and a Jew would shake it off his sandals before entering Israel (from which practice the expression ‘shake the dust off’ [Matt. 10:14; Mark 6:11; Luke 9:5; Acts 13:51] came). Jews would not eat food prepared by Gentile hands. Cooking utensils purchased from a Gentile had to be purified before being used. In short, Gentiles were considered unclean and their presence defiling (MacArthur, Acts, 291).

J.B. Polhill argued:

The Jewish food laws presented a real problem for Jewish Christians in the outreach to the Gentiles. One simply could not dine in a Gentile’s home without inevitably transgressing those laws either by the consumption of unclean flesh or of flesh that had not been prepared in a kosher, i.e., ritually proper, fashion (cf. Acts 15:20). Jesus dealt with the problem of clean and unclean, insisting that external things like foods did not defile a person but the internals of heart and speech and thought render one truly unclean (Mark 7:14–23). In Mark 7:19b Mark added the parenthetical comment that Jesus’ saying ultimately declared all foods clean. This was precisely the point of Peter’s vision: God declared the unclean to be clean. In Mark 7 Jesus’ teaching on clean/unclean was immediately followed by his ministry to a Gentile woman (7:24–30), just as Peter’s vision regarding clean and unclean foods was followed by his witness to a Gentile. It is simply not possible to fully accept someone with whom you are unwilling to share in the intimacy of table fellowship (emphasis mine) (Polhill, Acts, 255-6).

In essence, Jewish believers could not be distinct in their dietary laws and share the gospel or experience fellowship with Gentiles at the same time. So God sent Peter a vision declaring foods clean as he sent Peter to the Gentiles. Acts 10 boldly asserts that the gospel is intended for all who bear the image of God–for the world. Acts 10 also demands that we repudiate racism and prejudice. So let us, God’s image bearers and gospel ambassadors go to the nations with the gospel that is universal.