On Friday, December 14, during a peaceful morning at a small children’s school in Newton, Connecticut, an evil man with wicked intentions slaughtered 20 helpless children and six adults.
The evil was not the almost-familiar massacre of years past but more. A young man full of hate extinguished the life of defenseless children.
But as witnesses are wont to do, many will not fully understand what they witnessed. The atrocity will be interpreted by some as testimony of a failing school system. By others the diabolical act evidences a broken psychology. Still others see the barbarity as further proof of bad environments making bad people.
But how many will describe the murderer as he truly was? Evil. Wicked. Depraved.
Some may describe his acts as such but what about his person? Acts are but a reflection of the person. People do what they are.
And since humans are by nature depraved sinners who willfully reject God’s law, they will act like sinners. Yet since most Americans do not think of humans in such a light, they will not rightly understand what they witnessed. The silent annihilation of the unborn is proof of this.
Many think of sinning as overt acts of immorality—like adultery or murder. However, sin is simply any violation of God’s law in thought, word or deed. That means everyone is a sinner. As Romans 3:11 testifies: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God…there is none who does good, no, not one.”
On Friday, December 14, Connecticut witnessed evil.
May God’s Spirit protect us from ourselves.
