Why Did God Allow The Newtown Shooting?

In wake of the tragic and senseless shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT there have been more questions than answers  We want to know how this could happen?  What kind of person shoots little children?  What was the shooter, Adam Lanza’s,  motive?  His background?  His mental state?  Why did his mother, Nancy, keep a cache of weapons in the house? And what set Lanza on the tragic path to kill his mother, 20 children, 6 adults and finally himself?

Struggling to find answers we have heard from theologians, psychologists and talking heads on TV.  Blame is assigned.  Gun control laws are reconsidered.  And the moral state of our culture is debated and analyzed.

But most of all and predictably the question has been raised, “Why would God allow this?”

We know the ugly truth that evil exists.  Evil is real. Vicious. And cruel.  It breaks hearts.  Rips apart families.  And even callously takes the lives of little children.  But why does it have to be that way?  Why does God allow it?

Best selling author, Rick Warren in his book, What On Earth Am I Here For?, addressed this issue in part when he observed that evil is the ugly twin of goodness. It is part, Warren wrote, of God’s “greatest blessing and our worst curse; our capacity to make choices.

God could have made us mere marionettes.  Puppets on a string, if you please.  That could be controlled at God’s whim. Instead he gave us free will.  Volition.  The power to choose.  He gave us the opportunity to make a conscious decision to love Him and our fellow-man.  Without that ability, there can be no real, genuine love.

Unfortunately, if we can choose to love, we can also hate.  If we choose to build, we can also destroy.  If we choose to good, we can also do evil. If we choose to heal, we can also kill.  This massacre is impossible to understand except that we live in world where some people choose to do evil.  And some people are possessed by it.

The Bible does not leave us in the dark.  Jesus said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt 15:19) He called the devil “the evil one” (John 17:15). And the Bible teaches that the devil can enter our hearts to commit evil acts (John 13:2).  Of course, we don’t have to submit to his enticements. We can choose good. God. And love.  So that we might live.

Columnist Cal Thomas once offered this observation regarding evil. “We tolerate, even promote, many things we once regarded as evil, wrong, or immoral. And then we seek “explanations” for an act that seems beyond comprehension. Remove societal restraints on some evils and one can expect the demons to be freed to conduct other evil acts.”

I’ve read a number of facebook post from my friends over the past few days.  But this one from Doy Moyer is one of the best.  It expresses my view as he calls for caution and issues a challenge.

Over the past 24 hours I have read posts blaming video games, news media, guns, poor security standards, the removal of prayer from schools, and other various causes for what happened in Connecticut. None of those things caused this horrific scene. The cause was a depraved mind who gave into the flesh and temptation instead of choosing God.

Let’s be careful using such tragedies as a platform to go after whatever physical blame we might seek to attach to this and put the blame where it lies. SIN.

And let’s go out and respond with an assault on that sin. Not by lobbying Congress to create laws… or industries to stop producing video games… Let’s attack sin the way it should be attacked: with the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith. Instead of blaming something for this tragedy, use it to the glory of God. Teach your neighbor that this is the very reason everyone needs to serve God in their life.

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman