No New Thing

I wrote this on April 16, 2007

The events that happened at Virginia Tech today are a true tragedy! Who could have ever imagined as they prepared to attend classes that something so horrific would happen on their quiet campus? Who could have foreseen the things that would take place?


In listening to the news and commentaries on what took place – on the gunman who took the lives of over thirty people – people are already trying to figure out why this happened. Questions exist such as what made someone do such a thing and what can we do to keep this from happening again? People are asking why and commenting on the worst mass killing to ever take place in our history. What is wrong with our society today that would create such a tragedy?

I would pose a different question: Is our society today really that much different than the generations that have come before? Is evil something new to the world? Are people behaving differently than they have since the beginning of time? Or are we simply looking to find a new reason for the evil and tragedies that have occurred through the centuries?

People have chosen to forget the reason that evil is in the world. In trying to take God and His truth out of society, they have chosen to forget that this world is an evil place and will continue to be so until Jesus’ return. Bad people will continue to do bad things. Unlike the humanistic view that man is basically good and circumstances (such as TV shows, music, or bad homes) make people do bad things, the truth is that man is born evil.

Only a generation past, evil people bombed a church in Birmingham, killing four young girls. Bad people slaughtered a family in California under the influence of a cult leader. Students were killed on and off college campuses across the country in protests and civil rights demonstrations. Assassinations of those who dared to speak up were rampant.

Less than a century ago, Americans lived in dread fear for their life because of the color of their skin. A teenage boy was pulled out of his home during the night and brutally murdered for daring to talk to a white woman. Lynching took place throughout the South; and yes, even the north, because people refused to stay “in their place”. Evil ruled the night in white robes and hoods.

Going back even further in time, Indian women and children were massacred by the white man for refusing to leave their land. An entire people were kept as slaves for the profit of the landowners. Mothers could not know if their children would be safe, or if they would even grow to become an adult, in a country that hated them.

And even further back in time, one brother killed another because of jealousy.

In the coming days, people will try to decide what made this tragedy happen and what we can do to prevent this from happening again. Yes, there may be temporary solutions in the increase of security or in changing the laws. However, the fact remains that man is evil and will continue to do evil. Not because of something bad that he saw or heard; not because of a bad childhood; but because man is born into sin.

The only hope lies not in the creation of tougher gun laws or locking our children safely behind barricaded doors and windows. Our hope lies in changing the hearts of man in the only way that works. Our hope lies in prayer and in changing man from the inside out. Our hope lies in the salvation of our God. Our hope lies in breaking the curse of generations and in turning as a people to the only real peace, the Prince of Peace.

What was true from the beginning of time is still true today. Evil exists. God’s Salvation exists. Which will you choose?

Ecclesiastes 1:4-11(NIV)
4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. 11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.