Why Did God Allow It?


Fellow	ship > Why Did God Allow It?

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On the 20th of April 1999, two young men walked into their middle class American high school and proceeded to terrorize their fellow students with guns and bombs. Before their reign of terror was completed, they had killed more than a dozen; and, then they took their own lives. "It’s a good day to die," was the announcement of one of the youthful gunmen to his victims.

Could this terror have been prevented? Increased government social spending is the answer of many to prevent this chaos. Closer monitoring of abherent behaviour by educational authorities and parents could have prevented this tragedy, others reply. But, "what saith the Scripture?" (Romans 4:3).

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD" (Psalm 33:12). Can we honestly call this tragedy a blessing? Certainly not. "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). If a nation is not exalted by God for its right actions, then that nation must suffer a sinful reproach that only repentance can remove. "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of Hosts" (Jeremiah 2:19).

John the Baptist had the right idea as he prepared the way for the advent of the LORD Jesus Christ. "Repent ye: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). Either admit that God has been offended by the moral wasteland of the public schools, or bear the brunt of God’s anger. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Psalm 9:17).

Unfortunately, professed Christianity is the most guilty of forgetting the Almighty. The result is that God will forget your children. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children" (Hosea 4:6). To be forgotten by God is to perish. "And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish" (Deuteronomy 8:19).

As the LORD Jesus Christ prepares to return to this planet the Second Time-- "I will come again" (John 14:3)-- He calls for us to turn away from sin and in faith to look to Him and live. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14). "And I, if I be lifted up from the Earth, will draw all men unto Me" (John 12:32). Faith alone in the LORD Jesus Christ will please Him. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6).

If we have sought Him in faith, He will receive us. "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). Not only does He cleanse us from the guilt of our sins-- "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1John 1:9)-- but, He provides us with all of His promises to establish and sanctify us. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2Peter 1:4).

Standing on the promises of God, we then have His Covenant of Peace. "Moreover I will make a Covenant of Peace with them; it shall be an Everlasting Covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore" (Ezekiel 37:26). Not only will we have peace with God, but with our enemies, also. "When a man's ways please the LORD, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7). Surely, the tragedy of death and terror experienced at this American high school can be avoided by all those who put their trust in the LORD Jesus Christ for refuge from the "wrath to come" (1Thessalonians 1:10) and from the "wrath of man" (Psalm 76:10).

"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, LORD Jesus" (Revelation 22:20).

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