DEATH OF INNOCENT CHILDREN
JANUARY 2013
by Lisa Maki
The entire nation of America, including other nations, grieved over the death of innocent people, mostly children, during the December 14, 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. This massacre was reported to be the second deadliest school shooting in the history of the United States, the second deadliest mass murder at an American elementary school, the largest massacre of school-age children in U.S. history, and one of the deadliest mass shootings around the world.
It was some time before 9:30 a.m. EST on December 14, 2012, when Adam Peter Lanza fatally shot his mother, Nancy, aged 52, with a .22 Marlin rifle at their Newtown home. Adam then drove his Mom’s car to the school and at about 9:35 a.m., shot his way through a locked glass door at the front of the school. The school principal and school psychologist who were having a meeting with other faculty members heard the gunshots and rushed to the source of the sounds. Adam shot both women dead. He then went to a first-grade classroom where the substitute teacher and all but one children were shot dead.
Another first-grade teacher hid her students in the closet and cupboards and told Adam that the children were in the auditorium. Some of the children got out of hiding, tried to run for safety, and were shot dead. The teacher tried to shield her students and was also shot dead. Another teacher’s aide who shielded a six year old boy got killed, together with the boy. A paraprofessional who worked with a special-needs student also died protecting her students. Some hid under desks, closets, classrooms, bathroom, and storage rooms, and thereby saved their lives.
Adam Lanza stopped shooting between 9:46 a.m. and 9:53 a.m., after firing 50 to 100 rounds, killing 26 people: 20 children and six adults. The student victims were eight boys and twelve girls, between six and seven years of age. Adam shot himself in the head as first responders arrived.
How can anyone explain such an incident as this? How can anyone answer the question “why”? How do you even begin to understand why things happen the way they do? And why these innocent children? Why not the evil people ... the perverts or murderers?
These unexplainable events are beyond our comprehension. We will never be able to answer it for ourselves. And this is where we need “someone” who is bigger than us ... someone who holds the world at the palm of His hands ... someone whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways.
Of course there are people who question God’s existence as a result of events like this. Some blame Him for everything bad that happens to us. Others ask: “Why will a loving God allow the death of innocent children”? There are those who justify their agnostic attitude because of situations like this one. I can’t blame them. I would have felt the same way had I not discovered Jesus. And I don’t have a clue as to how it feels to lose a child over an unjust death.
What I am going to share with you here is my own explanation on why these things happen ... on why innocent children die ... on why there are people like Adam who have no heart at all. But although these are my own explanations, they are based on how I’ve known God over the years and how I’ve understood His ways based on the Bible, His Word.
God is a loving God but He is also a just God. He can only operate based on the principles that He Himself set. He will never bend or twist any of His rules. When He gave Adam the dominion over the earth, he gave dominion over to man, not to angels, not to Himself. When Adam failed to do what God called Him to do, he reaped the consequences for it. Though He forgave him, God could not erase the consequences that He Himself set. The greatest consequence was their spiritual death. They were separated from God. This consequence was passed on not only to Adam and Eve but to their children and their children’s children, and to the entire humanity, including you and me. This is why without receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are separated from God, meaning we are spiritually dead. This is why Jesus said in John 3:3 that unless a man is born-again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
When Adam failed to do what God called him to do, God had another plan, but it had to work in accordance with His principles. He couldn’t have sent a heavenly being because He gave dominion to the man. He had to send a man. But since sin entered the world as a result of Adam’s disobedience, all men were contaminated with sin. God needed a man who was pure, the way He designed Adam before his fall. That’s when God decided to send His only begotten Son, but as a human being, and not as God. He had to make His birth human by choosing a human vessel. However, the seed had to be pure and could not come from a man who is contaminated. This is why Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus came here as God, He would have been an illegal alien. It would have violated God’s own principles.
All throughout God’s history, He operated this way ... in accordance to the principles that He has established. If we sin, we will reap the consequences; if we obey, we will be blessed. The consequences are reaped not only by those who sinned directly but even those who had no part in the sin. It is a ripple effect that affects others.
Let me give you a clearer example here. A father who cheated on his wife and left his family will suffer the consequences for what he did. Unfortunately even his children will suffer. The hurts and wounds will be deeply inflicted and can even extend to his children’s children and up to the 4th and 5th generation. It’s not that God punishes the innocent; it’s just that the principle of sowing and reaping affects other people as well.
The sins I’ve committed in the past have affected not only my children but even other people around me. Though God has forgiven me of all these sins, there are consequences that I have never been spared of. It is even worse for those who have not repented for their sins.
Adam Lanza is a product of divorce. His parents divorced back in 2009. This for sure has affected the kid, and whatever the effects were affected so many innocent people. Do we blame Adam’s Mom or Dad for this? No, because Adam made his own choice. However, this just shows how our own actions and decisions can affect future events.
Instead of asking why Adam did what he did, and why God allowed innocent children to die, we should look within us and reflect on our own lives. We should begin to realize, more than ever, that every decision we make creates a bigger picture, bigger than where our minds can even take us.
If we will follow every Word of God, keep it in our hearts, and build our lives on it, then we will avoid making decisions that will lead to grave consequences.
This is where the problem lies. This is the root of all these innocent killings. People have turned away from God. People have refused to follow and obey Him. Some people look at the Bible as just another book. Others look at Christianity as just another religion. When calamities and tragedies happen, they’d rather blame it on other people than examine themselves in the light of their relationship with God. They find solutions and create preventive measures instead of getting down on their knees, repenting, and surrendering to God.
Innocent people don’t deserve to be killed mercilessly. Yet our disobedience to God is the reason why these things are happening, not because God punishes the innocent but because of the consequences of our disobedience. As I’ve said ... the consequences of the wrong decisions we make create a ripple effect that affects not only those who are close to us but even people we don’t know, people who are as innocent as these children killed.
Enough is enough! It’s time to repent and take God and His Word more seriously.
It was some time before 9:30 a.m. EST on December 14, 2012, when Adam Peter Lanza fatally shot his mother, Nancy, aged 52, with a .22 Marlin rifle at their Newtown home. Adam then drove his Mom’s car to the school and at about 9:35 a.m., shot his way through a locked glass door at the front of the school. The school principal and school psychologist who were having a meeting with other faculty members heard the gunshots and rushed to the source of the sounds. Adam shot both women dead. He then went to a first-grade classroom where the substitute teacher and all but one children were shot dead.
Another first-grade teacher hid her students in the closet and cupboards and told Adam that the children were in the auditorium. Some of the children got out of hiding, tried to run for safety, and were shot dead. The teacher tried to shield her students and was also shot dead. Another teacher’s aide who shielded a six year old boy got killed, together with the boy. A paraprofessional who worked with a special-needs student also died protecting her students. Some hid under desks, closets, classrooms, bathroom, and storage rooms, and thereby saved their lives.
Adam Lanza stopped shooting between 9:46 a.m. and 9:53 a.m., after firing 50 to 100 rounds, killing 26 people: 20 children and six adults. The student victims were eight boys and twelve girls, between six and seven years of age. Adam shot himself in the head as first responders arrived.
How can anyone explain such an incident as this? How can anyone answer the question “why”? How do you even begin to understand why things happen the way they do? And why these innocent children? Why not the evil people ... the perverts or murderers?
These unexplainable events are beyond our comprehension. We will never be able to answer it for ourselves. And this is where we need “someone” who is bigger than us ... someone who holds the world at the palm of His hands ... someone whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways.
Of course there are people who question God’s existence as a result of events like this. Some blame Him for everything bad that happens to us. Others ask: “Why will a loving God allow the death of innocent children”? There are those who justify their agnostic attitude because of situations like this one. I can’t blame them. I would have felt the same way had I not discovered Jesus. And I don’t have a clue as to how it feels to lose a child over an unjust death.
What I am going to share with you here is my own explanation on why these things happen ... on why innocent children die ... on why there are people like Adam who have no heart at all. But although these are my own explanations, they are based on how I’ve known God over the years and how I’ve understood His ways based on the Bible, His Word.
God is a loving God but He is also a just God. He can only operate based on the principles that He Himself set. He will never bend or twist any of His rules. When He gave Adam the dominion over the earth, he gave dominion over to man, not to angels, not to Himself. When Adam failed to do what God called Him to do, he reaped the consequences for it. Though He forgave him, God could not erase the consequences that He Himself set. The greatest consequence was their spiritual death. They were separated from God. This consequence was passed on not only to Adam and Eve but to their children and their children’s children, and to the entire humanity, including you and me. This is why without receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are separated from God, meaning we are spiritually dead. This is why Jesus said in John 3:3 that unless a man is born-again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
When Adam failed to do what God called him to do, God had another plan, but it had to work in accordance with His principles. He couldn’t have sent a heavenly being because He gave dominion to the man. He had to send a man. But since sin entered the world as a result of Adam’s disobedience, all men were contaminated with sin. God needed a man who was pure, the way He designed Adam before his fall. That’s when God decided to send His only begotten Son, but as a human being, and not as God. He had to make His birth human by choosing a human vessel. However, the seed had to be pure and could not come from a man who is contaminated. This is why Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus came here as God, He would have been an illegal alien. It would have violated God’s own principles.
All throughout God’s history, He operated this way ... in accordance to the principles that He has established. If we sin, we will reap the consequences; if we obey, we will be blessed. The consequences are reaped not only by those who sinned directly but even those who had no part in the sin. It is a ripple effect that affects others.
Let me give you a clearer example here. A father who cheated on his wife and left his family will suffer the consequences for what he did. Unfortunately even his children will suffer. The hurts and wounds will be deeply inflicted and can even extend to his children’s children and up to the 4th and 5th generation. It’s not that God punishes the innocent; it’s just that the principle of sowing and reaping affects other people as well.
The sins I’ve committed in the past have affected not only my children but even other people around me. Though God has forgiven me of all these sins, there are consequences that I have never been spared of. It is even worse for those who have not repented for their sins.
Adam Lanza is a product of divorce. His parents divorced back in 2009. This for sure has affected the kid, and whatever the effects were affected so many innocent people. Do we blame Adam’s Mom or Dad for this? No, because Adam made his own choice. However, this just shows how our own actions and decisions can affect future events.
Instead of asking why Adam did what he did, and why God allowed innocent children to die, we should look within us and reflect on our own lives. We should begin to realize, more than ever, that every decision we make creates a bigger picture, bigger than where our minds can even take us.
If we will follow every Word of God, keep it in our hearts, and build our lives on it, then we will avoid making decisions that will lead to grave consequences.
This is where the problem lies. This is the root of all these innocent killings. People have turned away from God. People have refused to follow and obey Him. Some people look at the Bible as just another book. Others look at Christianity as just another religion. When calamities and tragedies happen, they’d rather blame it on other people than examine themselves in the light of their relationship with God. They find solutions and create preventive measures instead of getting down on their knees, repenting, and surrendering to God.
Innocent people don’t deserve to be killed mercilessly. Yet our disobedience to God is the reason why these things are happening, not because God punishes the innocent but because of the consequences of our disobedience. As I’ve said ... the consequences of the wrong decisions we make create a ripple effect that affects not only those who are close to us but even people we don’t know, people who are as innocent as these children killed.
Enough is enough! It’s time to repent and take God and His Word more seriously.
Lisa Maki is the founder, publisher, and editor of God'z Gurlz. More about Lisa at ...
http://www.godzgurlz.com/regular-contributors.html
http://www.godzgurlz.com/regular-contributors.html
