Congratulations! You did it! You lived through the expiration of the Mayan calendar! For many of the superstitious sort, those who tend to be mystified by the metaphysical, the weeks leading up to the deadline became all the more watchful. But for most, it was clear that they didn’t buy into the hype or they wouldn’t have packed the malls buying gifts for Christmas, since the termination of the timeline would have taken place a few days before. We know most scholars who do serious study on this ancient culture did not promote the doomsday mania fad. Yet this didn’t stop the plethora of cable television programs, websites, articles and movies from making millions off of the hoopla.
Ironically, for individual families in Connecticut, and elsewhere, the world did end in 2012; their universe came to a sudden halt, and Christmas didn’t happen. For some whose usual December day suddenly catapulted into confusion and dark despair, the Earth stopped spinning and it became inconceivable how others could go on living. It seems everyone is grieving this tragedy, but some families are permanently struck and will never be the same again.
The nation seems to be voicing together, “How could this happen?” For some the phrase is rhetorical, others are genuinely disoriented. Whenever undisputable horrific evil is presented so plainly in our country, many are honestly caught off guard because its very existence doesn’t fit into their paradigm. Taking God out of public life is supposed to make society more sanitary, because they categorically broad-brush religion as the source of struggle. A culture that expels the Ten Commandments, and dictates of right and wrong, for a more inclusive moral relativism under the pretense of social justice and civil rights, is authentically confounded when something happens that is undeniably wicked, and hellish. They have been looking for the answer to what caused this. But ironically, the one place that has provided more information about the motivation to sin and the heart to do harm, as well as the remedies to correct such vice, is the Bible, yet the media isn’t really looking very hard for the answers in the Scriptures. But make no mistake, for many in Newtown, they are finding their hope and healing in no other place than Jesus Christ. This is where the public square discourse often disconnects from real life and people who want to help sometimes don’t know where to start.
In my Halloween article, I made the case that evil is real and that we create a culture that unwittingly fosters it. In almost 15 years of ministry here in the Ojai Valley, and hundreds of published articles in this newspaper, I have never received such backlash and personal attack to defend the current modus operandi. There are certain things that some people really hold dear in our way of life. Right now in the tumult, while people are looking to ground themselves, the gun law debate is one place where some people can feel like they can effect change, but I suggest it’s merely about trying to find a way to comfort oneself in an effort to escape the helpless feeling of bewilderment. It won’t fix the heart of the problem at all. Unless one addresses the existence of evil on the spiritual plane with the method given to us by God himself, you’re just doing surgery blindfolded. And whenever we try to cure cancer with aspirin, it doesn’t deal with the real issue and people are not ultimately helped.
CNN is reporting that they are looking into the killer’s DNA to find a possible link in a genetic predisposition toward violence. I believe that as our technology advances, they will find one. But if they keep looking, I am convinced scientists will discover something shocking; that we all have inherited genes that predispose us to sin. The Bible essentially says as much. We have inherited a sin nature and are lost before we are born — without an intervention into humanity by God, there is no hope for anyone. We need a Savior!
Jesus deals with the reality of evil head-on — he looks straight into the eye of the devil himself and claims authority over lives — everyone who chooses to make King Jesus Lord over their lives is adopted into his family and declared a child of God, and there is hope beyond the grave. Here is another question that I suggest someone should be asking: What would happen if Americans quit commandeering Christ, and stopped blockading authentic transformation by the power of Jesus from accessing our children? What if individuals halted their philosophical piety and social engineering agendas to just let every child honestly know Jesus? What if Jesus’ life-transforming message and Holy Spirit potency reached everyone living in the United States, of any age, and all were authentically born-again as described in Scripture and lived out today by some? Again, what if Jesus was actually King over every life? Would this tragedy have happened? Would something like this or the other horrible atrocities that hurt so many ever happen again in our country? Couldn’t somebody ask why we are trying so hard to make sure that Jesus isn’t inculcated deeply into our culture and that we never pray in Jesus’ name at city council meetings, presidential inaugurations or football games? Is it the call to love all people that is so offensive, or simply that you can’t do it without first submitting to a Savior, dealing with the existence of evil in one’s own heart, and being born-again by the loving spirit of the almighty God?
As expected, the expiration of the Mayan calendar did not bring global devastation, but the Bible is clear that we should anticipate an end and a day when we meet our maker. What would happen if we all received the same free gift from God and shared equally in the fate with the faithful followers of Christ? Wouldn’t that be more beautiful than any other proposal ever presented? What is so repulsive about learning to love one another from the creator of love, as the answer to everything we really need?