Two Tragedies

On the campus of Virginia Tech University a lone gunman murdered at least 32 people and wounded many others. His motives are unclear and his identity has now been made public as a student with South Korean heritage. No one can fully enter a mind that is encompassed with rage, hate, and unimaginable emptiness. This scene will be much more frequent as the demonic activity increases worldwide as Satan’s last gasp materializes on the front page. Do not espouse the “random act” definition, these are orchestrated straight from the counsel of the demonic dwelling places which seems too unsophisticated for this intellectual post modern world. But there was an obvious lapse in judgment that may have caused many students their lives.

The gunman killed two people in a dorm room at approximately 7:30 A.M. and immediately the police were summoned. They cordoned off the crime scene and waited until approximately 9:30 A.M. before e-mailing some students of the danger. At that point there still was no general and urgent lockdown order that would have protected many students within safe, locked walls. Others would not have even come to class if the networks would have broadcast a general alarm to stay away. The oversight was due to a misguided assumption that the first two killings were domestic in nature and that the gunman probably fled the community in an attempt to escape. That was a deadly mistake. In two hours the gunman would reappear in unsuspecting and unwarned classrooms with murder on his mind and ultimately his own suicide.

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There is another more massive, more diabolical and deadly sin taking place within the evangelical church community. Preachers by the thousands are remaining ominously quiet about a coming event that will not only take the earthly lives of billions, but it will eternally kill their souls. God is coming. God is coming in wrath. Unbelievable and unimaginable wrath. The wrath of the Creator cannot be overestimated and Paul tells us that it will be in “flaming fire taking vengeance on those who know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Go ahead, ask an unbeliever if that were actually true, would he expect those who know it to warn them. Ask him as he assumes that to be true, what should the preacher tell people. The judgment of a Holy God, a consuming fire, is headed for this world and none will stand in His path. The objects of His eternal wrath are busy playing games and making money while the prophets that should be crying aloud and sparing not have become as wind. The mouthpiece of God, the body of Christ, is consumed with doctrinal battles, name calling, pontificating, Christian cruises, micro-managing everything, and they remain shamefully silent about the monstrous event that we say we believe is coming, maybe soon.

Why does the world ignore us and count our belief system as nothing but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal? Why don’t they believe what we believe? Because we do not believe it either. If we really believed it we would live differently and our demeanor would be much more passionate than the “blend in with the neighbor’s” life we now enjoy.

And once in a while, I’m just asking for once in a while, we would arrive at church recognizing that something was wrong with the preacher. He would seem solemn and tired. His eyes would be red and he would come in during the service, avoiding the usually salutations. And as he stepped behind the pulpit he would begin to cry, having just come from a terrible and awesome scene which was granted him in an all night prayer closet. The usual bristling would cease and every eye became riveted upon this man as the room would become uncomfortably quiet. The preacher begins.

He tells everyone that what he is about to share most have heard before, but God has just visited him with that same truth only this time with a fire that burned through his very soul. He says he knows that visitors may feel uneasy, but he prays that all would feel broken and uneasy before God’s Words, not his. As he expounds upon the coming fury of the living God his words seem to echo throughout the room and into people’s hearts. At first many are unusually attentive due to his change in demeanor, but soon it is the Holy Spirit that grips everyone’s attention. The preacher goes from anxious and loud warning to soft pleading through sobs. People begin to cry as they are confronted with the reality of God’s approaching vengeance and convicted by how their mundane lives have misrepresented God’s truth.

The preacher only gets through half of what he had planned to say, but it doesn’t matter, the building is now full of Christ followers on their face weeping between the altar and the porch in serious tears of repentance. Unexplainably, the children are moved to tears both by the emotion in the room and the mystery of the Holy Spirit’s ministry directly to them. Their games have ceased also. Time passes but no one notices and in that very room heart changing miracles happen in time and in place. Many will never be the same and the message of God’s impending judgment has been transformed from a doctrinal questionnaire into living clarions of the Word of Almighty God. Their family members, their friends, their community, and even the ends of the earth will now hear in a startling witness from this little group. They now count their lives as nothing and Christ as everything. Their hands will now be washed of the blood of unconcerned sinners. They will need constant reminders, and once in a while, once in a while, please God once in a while, God will set their preacher on fire and everyone will be singed by the holy flames…to the glory of God.

Does that resemble and mirror what takes place in the average church that claims to believe God’s judgment is impending over the inhabitants of this world?

I know, you don’t have to answer. Like I said, some see one tragedy today,

God sees two…