The Prophetic Last Days

The scene outside a North Aurora Col. theater where a gunman killed at least 12 people and wounded 50

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days." (2Timothy 3:1)

Biblical prophecy is clear concerning the end times that directly precede the return of Jesus Christ: The last days on earth will be exceedingly wicked. Last night, we saw yet another fulfillment of that prophecy when a lone gunman walked into a crowded theater in the Denver suburb of North Aurora and opened fire on moviegoers during the showing of "The Dark Knight Rises." So far, at least 12 people have been confirmed dead and 50 others wounded by the shooter who was identified as a 24-year-old man named James Holmes. According to police, Holmes willingly gave himself up after the shooting and was arrested without incident.

No doubt, there will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy as they almost always do. Some will try to tie Holmes in with the Tea Party or some right wing militia group. Others will try to play the class warfare game by blaming conservative media personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity for provoking Holmes to go out and vent his hatred against the Obama Administration by committing mass murder. And still others will use Holmes' shooting spree to call for even tougher gun laws and new restrictions on the Second Amendment.

While the North Aurora shooting incident has gotten most of the media attention, two more people were gunned down last night on Chicago's violent streets. The two were identified as 16-year-old boys who were the latest victims of Chicago's ongoing gang wars where violent street gangs are vying for control of the lucrative narcotics trade. What's so significant about these two latest murders? Chicago has banned handguns for many years and yet has one of the highest handgun homicide rates of any city in the United States. It needs to be repeated yet again: Gun laws don't work, haven't worked and will never work. And you can't legislate morality, despite the protests of many Evangelicals who too often seek political solutions to moral and spiritual problems.

Those moral and spiritual problems motivate evil people such as James Holmes to go out and commit mass murder rather than conservative radio-TV hosts; lax gun laws, "mental illness" or hatred of socialist-liberal politicians. I can guarantee you that James Holmes not only has no fear of God, he probably doesn't believe in God either. As such, he has no respect for human life, which he just demonstrated, and he has no concern for the eternal punishment that his deeds deserve. Had Holmes believed in God and respected his authority, he wouldn't have committed mass murder in a suburban Denver theater.

James Holmes is a symptom of a far greater problem in our modern times: A world that no longer acknowledges, honors or respects God and no longer believes that it is accountable to his commandments and transcendent moral laws. You can blame that on secularism, liberalism, Darwinism, hackneyed religion or just plain apathy, but a world that no longer believes in God no longer lives by his decrees. And the evidence for that is both obvious and tragic. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul explained what happens to people who reject God and what their world inevitably becomes. (Romans 1:21-32) Yesterday, we saw yet another example of that.