The Nashville Shooting And Christian Warfare.
You can listen to this article on the PRODCAST. Like, Subscribe, and share to help us get the Gospel out to more people!
TO THE CHURCH
Dear Christian,
As I write to you this day, my heart is filled with tremendous grief and sadness over the events that have transpired in Nashville, Tennessee. On Monday morning, a mentally ill biological woman, who identified as a transgender male, shot her way inside The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school in East Tennessee, firing indiscriminate rounds at both helpless children and adults before being gunned down by local police officers. In fourteen horrifying minutes, 6 innocent people were brutally killed, including three little ones aged nine and 3 adults in their sixties. One of the children who tragically perished was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, who serves as lead pastor over Covenant Presbyterian Church, the church that founded the school.
During such awful instances of darkness, we must remember we are children of the light. We are living examples of Christ to all who are perishing. How we respond to tragedies like this will say much about how we think, believe, and cherish the Gospel. Thus, as we pray for the victims, let us also pray for the victimizers. As we pray for affected families, let us diligently pray for the shooter's family. And as we are bombarded with all sorts of opinions on this subject, let us be slow to speak, quick to listen, and ready to pattern our response in accordance with Scripture.
With that, I would like to consider how a Christian is supposed to respond to awful tragedies such as this.
THIS MEMES WAR
Whether you like it or not, you will be inundated in the coming days with a cacophony of "hot-takes" from trolls on Twitter, rants by activists and personalities on social media, biased coverage by the news, and shots fired from both sides of the Left / Right culture war. You will also see this situation entirely weaponized by gun control activists, the news trying to play up the perpetrator's victim status, and the trans community crying out for justice and days of vengeance, as we have seen in Virginia. Yesterday and today, instead of seeing an empathetic president consoling a wounded nation or addressing the victims, we saw a depraved dottering dolt making inappropriate jokes about what flavor of ice cream he stacks in his fridge before blaming republicans for this incident of gun violence. (Sadly, this was not the only occasion our dunderhead-in-chief quipped sardonically when doing so was both vile and inappropriate). Perhaps you also saw the despicable and insensitive meme posted by Arizona press secretary, Jocelyn Berry, depicting a woman holding two handguns in a threatening pose, captioned: "Us when we see transphobes." Or maybe you saw any number of shameless responses on the vast interwebs, such as I have found here.
THIS MEANS WAR
From such a smattering of debased opinions, I believe it is obvious that we are in a war. But let me be unequivocally clear here, we are not in the Left / Right "culture war" that has captivated this nation for decades. We are not on the left; we are not on the right; we are on the side of Christ. When the pundits, politicians, and the ideological left blame Christians and gun laws for this attack, we must not respond with the equal and opposite fury displayed among activists on the right. As Christians, we must respond as Christians and not as activists! We are citizens of heaven, not paupers, in this pitiful and polarized political war game.
We have been called to war, but not that one. Instead, the battle that we have been called into is a war - first and foremost - against the flesh (Romans 8:13). We are to be killing that which is wicked and depraved in us, mortifying it by the Spirit so that we may live. As Christians, we do not begin a plank-eyed campaign against a horde of sawdusty sinners without first pointing the lens of Biblical truth upon our own hearts and our own soul. We must make war through repentance, not hollow pharisaism.
But, this does not mean we have nothing to say. In fact, the Bible does call us to a kind of warfare with the world. According to Scripture, for the love of God and the redemption of the planet, we are called to expose the damnable misdeeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:5-13) and to call out pagan philosophies such as transgenderism with the light of the Gospel of Christ (Colossians 2:8; Jude 3). We are to be salt, which preserves the decaying world. We are to be light in the midst of a crooked people, which means exposing and chasing away the darkness (Matthew 5:13-16; Philippians 2:14-15) And if we do that work faithfully, meeting mistruth with love (Ephesians 4:15), we fully understand that the world will still hate us because it first hated Christ (John 15:18). No matter how the world views us, we labor on until every nation has been discipled according to the vision and Biblical standards of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20).
It is also a battle fought against the demonic principalities and satanic powers who wage war against the plain truth of God (Ephesians 6:12). We must remember that the transgender community is not our enemy. Likewise, the LGBTQLMNOP activists are not our foe. We do not wage our warfare against them but for them! We wage a spiritual war against spiritual opponents with unique non-violent weapons that will advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ and take back dominion for our King in a world that is hopelessly lost and dead (Ephesians 6:13-17).
The Christians' warfare brings life and light to the world, not death and hot-takes, which brings us to an apropos passage for such a time as this. In light of the events that occurred in Nashville, and whenever the next grisly evil is unleashed upon the world, may the words of Romans 12:14-21 become our guide on how to respond to the world, the flesh, and the devil, with uniquely and poignantly Christian warfare. This is our battle guide:
"14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. 20 "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." - Romans 12:14-21
WEAPON 1: BLESS THE ONES WHO HATE
In a world fomenting riotous hatred, Christians consistently love and bless. We pray for those who revile us, and we are kind to those who malign us. In our prayers, we drag the wicked and depraved to the throne of grace, begging God to save them, forgive them, and sanctify them in His love. This does not mean sugarcoated placations, but it does mean that we speak truth applied with a godly dose of affection.
We also pray for the families who lost loved ones. We ask God to comfort them in their grief, to be near while they are broken, and to give them the exact right words to say when they speak. Words that will glorify Christ, words that offer hope, and words saturated with the same forgiveness that God has provided us in Christ in our salvation.
With that, our first act of warfare is not to grab the picket signs or pitchforks and join the rally. We are not a people who advocate for our rights or hurl stones at our ideological opponents because we know if it were not for the grace of God, there too would go I. Instead, we strive to live like Jesus. We pray for those who are lost in gender confusion and for those who are consumed with religious republicanism. We do not curse the left, and we do not chest bump the right. Instead, we plead with God to save everyone who does not have Jesus, whether they be conservatives or liberals. And we apply a heaping dose of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, tenderness, gentleness, and self-control to every situation and everyone we meet. That is warfare.
WEAPON 2: WEEP WITH THOSE WHO WEEP
In our quest to fight evil with Gospel blessings, let us not forget the second weapon of our warfare. Instead of guns, swords, or nuclear warheads, we need to remember both the power and the potency of the salty tears shed by Gospel saints. Scripture implores us to remember this because we are so prone to forget it. Why?
Because scar tissue is the most rigid. The war-torn heart tends to turn from tenderness to toughness for self-protection. Over time, when you have faced enough adversity, pain, and wickedness, the natural proclivity of the heart is to stiffen, harden, and reject the tenderness that becomes exhausting. While everything within your weary, wounded soul will work toward cardiac ankylosis, you must labor for compassion, affection, and empathy.
Every day we will be confronted with situations to weep over. We encounter no human being, especially among the people of God, who does not have scars and wounds worth weeping over. Instead of protecting ourselves, growing tough and self-sufficient, emotionally aloof or distant, may the Lord allow situations like these to unbind our tear ducts, to remind us to be soft, tender, and weak, and to mourn with those who mourn.
Remember, when we are weak, Christ shows Himself strong. When our cheeks are soaked with tears, we are reminded that He is near the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18) and will soon wipe away every tear from our eyes (Revelation 21:4). The world will fall in battle because the saints wept tears. Do not neglect your warfare!
WEAPON 3: LEAVE THE VENGEANCE TO GOD
In a world where Christian schools are being attacked with assault rifles, believers are being arrested by the DOJ for praying outside Planned Parenthood, and churches are set on fire for opposing Roe V Wade, we will need to understand how to fight back as believers. When we fight back, we do not take up arms, rally our crowds to violence, or repay evil with evil. Instead, we wage war through forgiveness and leave the vengeance up to God.
Unlike groups such as the Trans Radical Activist Network, who are organizing a "Day of Vengeance" in Washington D.C., we release our right to vengeance in this life and trust that God is a far better judge than we are. We understand that these situations are unquestionably evil. We know that justice must be executed. But we also realize that anything we could do in our flesh would pale in comparison to what an infinite and holy God armed with an eternal hell can do to those who spurn His grace or pulverize His saints. By forfeiting our right to the wrath, the hatred, all the feelings of unforgiveness, retribution and vengeance, violence, and justice, we trust that God will execute the wicked more powerfully, flawlessly, and more righteously than we could ever dream.
As we bless those who hate us and moan with those who wail, let us also remember to allow God to execute vengeance. While we will undoubtedly experience tremendous pain, feelings of hatred, or anger, and while all manner of emotions will be inflamed from attacks like these, we do not fight back with the weapons of the world. Instead, we take up the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of truth, the helmet of salvation, and the Gospel shoes that guide our feet back into the world for more and more.
We are not gluttons for punishment. Instead, we combat evil with Gospel good, which is the last weapon we will speak about.
WEAPON 4: OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD
Paul says:
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
We are most definitely in a war. And that war will not be won on Twitter, Reddit, or Discord. That war will not be won through leftist activism or by conservative podcasting. This war will not be won by becoming a card-carrying member of the NRA, by voting for the most conservative candidate, or by harboring hatred in your heart for the sinners who execute such egregious and sinful atrocities.
What we saw in Nashville, Tennessee, is pure unadulterated evil. Because of this, we will recoil when we are told to bless and pray for monsters just like that. Let us, however, remember what Paul has told us. That we must not only pray good and godly imprecatory prayers. But we must also pray that God would forgive, save, and bless the ones who hurt us, hunt us, hate us, or homicide our own. That is warfare.
With one hundred and seventy-five children dead from Columbine to Nashville, it would also be easy for a hardness of heart to set in, for numbness or apathy to take over, and for us to put away tender hearts that are prone to wail. Instead, let us remember the words of the Apostle and weep for all the children who attend The Covenant School with one less classmate, the pastor who lost his beloved daughter, husbands and wives who lost their spouses, mothers and fathers who lost their darling children, and for the church who lost their covenant members. Let us weep righteous alligator tears, for this is our holy warfare!
Remember, while the world is ever eager to leap into the cacophony of another culture war battle, we must remember that God will take vengeance. Our job is not to repay evil with evil. We are not permitted to execute violence with violence; instead, we are called to overcome the evil in this world with good.
All the villainy and tyranny being perpetrated by the nations will be conquered through Christ-like, godly, joyful living. As Christians, we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the most wanton and senseless violence in order to bring about the most tremendous peace. As soldiers of the Living Christ, let us shine as lights in this dark and decaying world. Let us declare the Gospel to the lost. Let us raise godly children and increase our numbers. Let us pray for the Spirit to bring revival. Let us not participate in the sinful battle tactics of this raging world. Instead, let us:
Bless those who hate and hurt us.
Weep with those who weep.
Trust the vengeance of God.
Overcome evil by doing good.
This is Christian warfare. Fight on!
