The NewLife Blog » Virginia Tech

Did God send the Virginia Tech gunman?

Eric Stillman — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:19:16 +0000

I hesitate to write this, because I hate to give publicity to those who don’t deserve it, but since I find this line of thinking creeping into the heads of Christians in other subtle ways, I think it needs to be addressed, so here goes…

As I’ve listened to those connected to the Virginia Tech tragedy, I’ve heard some anger and outrage directed at a certain “church” out of the Midwest that had planned to come and picket the funerals of the fallen men and women. This “church” (and yes, I’ll continue to use quotes to describe them and will not mention them by name) represents the very worst of “Christianity” (again, I need to use quotes) in their insistence on doing all in their power to spread the message that God hates America for its immorality, that the senseless deaths of soldiers and civilians should be celebrated because the gunmen and terrorists are agents of God’s judgment, and that homosexuals especially need to know how much God hates them. Apparently this “church” agreed this week to forego picketing the Tech funerals in exchange for a three-hour time slot on a national radio show, so at least some grieving families will be spared further pain.

Examples of picketers at recent military funerals and Gay pride parades

I’ve been leading a small group discussion before church this month on “The Art of Spiritual Friendship” with the goal of educating our congregation on how to respectfully dialogue about spiritual issues with people in our lives. This past Sunday we talked about rebuilding trust with those who have been hurt by the church or Christians, or who are put off by negative perceptions they have of Christians. The truth is that there are so many reasons to reject Jesus, and most have to do not with Jesus himself but with the inability of his followers to treat people the way he did. This “church” certainly at the top of the list when it comes to destroying the reputation of Christianity; we can only pray that like Saul on the road to Damascus, they will experience Jesus appearing to them and saying, “Why are you persecuting me?”

Thankfully, I believe the average American recognizes that this “church” is completely out of step with the way Jesus would handle a grieving campus, a lesbian, or a family of a dead soldier. As outraged as people are that a church would actually think picketing a funeral is what God would want, I don’t think it causes them to be outraged at God, because they know this “church” isn’t what Jesus had in mind. My concern, as I mentioned in the introduction, is that this “church’s” theological understanding of the relationship between God and Christians and God and sinful humanity has influenced some Christians in subtle ways.

For example… I recently received an e-mail from someone who experienced the following in his church:

“Yesterday, our church was praying over the VT tragedy, and one participant began to pray about how we brought this on ourselves and also to pray that the country would repent from kicking God out of the schools, and defiling marriage. This caught me off guard, and I was further shocked to hear ‘amens’ exclaimed all around me. My mind immediately fell out of prayer. My heart dropped and I began to feel ill. Later the pastor reaffirmed these statements saying when we take God out of our lives we bind his hands preventing him from protecting us.”

What are the similarities between this line of thinking and that of the Midwest “church,” and what are the theological fallacies? First of all, there is the belief that if you believe in God, then you will be spared from harm. Of course, Jesus’ life shows that even the most perfect of people can experience horrific injustice in this world, and Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, where he recounts all the beatings, imprisonments, hardships, and danger he has experienced as he follows Jesus, should put that line of thinking to rest permanently. I believe that God protects his people spiritually (e.g. John 10:27-28 - I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand), but the roll call of Christian martyrs would testify that belief in God doesn’t protect you from unjust torture, suffering, or death. The fallen at Virginia Tech included Christians and non-Christians, Americans and foreign-born people – there was certainly no discrimination. Therefore, for a pastor to say that “when we take God out of our lives we bind his hands preventing him from protecting us” may be accurate on a spiritual level, but not on a physical level. Instead of making such thoughtless statements, let us instead praise God for his spiritual protection, that “neither death nor life (nor homicidal gunmen), neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

The second fallacy I see is the belief that tragedies that strike America are God’s punishment on our country for forsaking him. America is not a Christian nation, nor has it ever been (yes there were many Christians among its founders, but many deists as well), and God does not treat America or any other nation as he treated the people of Israel in the Old Testament. God’s people, the church, is a people made up of men and women from every nation, race, and ethnicity. I do not see Biblical basis for God treating America as an entity (if I’m wrong, please let me know). In the Old Testament, when the Israelites turned away from God, he did remove his protection and allowed agents of judgment such as the Babylonians to defeat the people of God. Therefore, it is probably accurate to say that when God’s people today (the church) turn away from him, he removes his blessing and presence from that church (or denomination). This may be what is meant by the letter to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5 – “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (the lampstand likely represents the church’s presence and witness, displaying the light of Christ). I do not believe the Virginia Tech gunman was God’s agent of judgment, nor do I believe that God sent the plane that hit the World Trade Center or the flood that hit New Orleans as agents of His judgment. They are simply the product of living in a fallen world.

The God I know as revealed in the person of Jesus weeps over the injustice of the world and the tragedies that befall humanity, including the Virginia Tech tragedy. But more than that, he asks us to see them as wake up calls to our need for Him. In Luke 13:4-5, he tells his disciples that the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them did not die because somehow they deserved it more than those who didn’t die. But he also tells them to take that as a warning sign to turn from their sin to faith in Him, or they will one day perish. God did not send the gunman, nor does he protect Christians physically from suffering. However, we can take comfort and thank God for the fact that while a gunman might be able to end a physical life, nothing will ever separate those who know Jesus from His eternal love.

Virginia Tech: A first person account

Eric Stillman — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:54:34 +0000

I am sure that many of you are shocked and saddened by the tragic events that unfolded at Virginia Tech yesterday as you listen to the stories and imagine what it must be like to be a student or parent of a student there today. Two couples who have been part of our church over the past couple of years, Jesse & Kim Christophel and Eric & Brandie Couch, are recent graduates of Virginia Tech. I’d like to share with you Eric’s brother Michael’s thoughts on the situation (Michael is currently a student at Tech), and intersperse some words from the Bible throughout to help us lift our eyes to our loving sovereign God. Sometimes it’s just better to let God speak for Himself.

You all have certainly heard by now what there is to know from the media broadcasts on the “Virginia Tech Massacre.” I wanted to write this to you, to not only let you know that I’m safe, but to share with you the experience this day has brought me. I had a class in Randolph hall which is about 100 feet from Norris hall where the shootings occurred.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:17-18

I woke up reluctantly this morning to turn in a project for my Mechanical Engineering Design class that had kept me up until 4 the night before. My plan was to go to the class, come home, and go back to sleep. When my class let out 15 minutes earlier than usual, it was only because my professor had completed the material for that day, and nothing more. As we exited the classroom, a building administrator came running down the hall saying, “No, no, stay in the room. We’ve heard gunshots but we don’t know what’s going on.” So we all sat back down, and the classroom was full of excitement and joking. Tech had experienced 2 bomb threats in the past 2 weeks that ended up closing campus, so we didn’t think anything more of this situation. We joked about someone wanting to get out of a test or something; the atmosphere in the room was light and exciting.

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

About a half hour later, the door to our classroom opened, and 5 people were escorted in. Two were older gentlemen who looked to be professors, one was an older woman wearing a long coat and carrying a briefcase who looked as though she was a visitor to the school for business, and the other two were female students who were clearly distraught. The two young girls were bawling, very pale in complexion and were intensely shaking. Immediately, the classroom fell deafly silent, as everyone looked on in confusion—suddenly realizing that this might be something bigger than we thought. The 5 people sat in one corner of our classroom by themselves. After several tense moments, a friend and I approached the two girls who were crying, and we each began comforting them. I rubbed the girl’s back, had someone get her some water, and just began talking to her. After a few minutes she was able to start talking things out and eventually she was able to tell us what had happened. I will retell the girl’s story as it was engraved in my mind:

Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.
Lamentations 3:32-33

She was in a classroom in Norris, seated near the door, when she heard gunshots fired in the hall. She and the student next to her got up and peeked their heads out the door to see what the noise was. They saw the gunman, and he turned and saw them. He raised the gun and pointed it at them as he walked toward them. They quickly slammed the door shut and barricaded themselves in with desks. They stood at the door and held it shut along with a number of other students. The gunman attempted to enter, and when he couldn’t, he fired two rounds into the door—none of which penetrated completely through the door. (Later the business woman who was escorted into our room would show us a fragment of the bullet she had pulled from the door). The girl said she could hear him running through the halls firing rounds, reloading, and firing more. A while later, SWAT team members came into their classroom and began evacuating people out and bringing them to Randolph hall where I was held in lock down. As she was being escorted through the halls, she saw several dead bodies on the ground and blood throughout the halls.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26

The girl told me that when she saw the shooter, she saw his face. She saw that he was sad, and she told me that she actually felt sorry for him. This didn’t hit me right away, because at that time, everything was very chaotic. But after returning home later in the day and realizing the magnitude of this incident, I began to think about the girl’s story and how personal this really was. I realized that this girl literally starred down the barrel of a 9mm handgun, but she looked beyond it and saw the man holding it. She had mercy on this man as he was threatening her life with his very presence. For the rest of the day, the death toll climbed, and I kept thinking about the victims, their families, and how this would affect the world’s view of the school that I call my home. But still more, I thought about the gunman. This is a person who cracked. We have no idea what the motive was or even who this man is.

[The Savior] was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:3-4

I want to say this; when the media releases the name of this man, say a prayer for him by name. Say a prayer for his family by name. Do not curse him, though you may curse this event. As Christians—as people—we are called to be merciful. I want to be as merciful as the girl I sat with in Randolph today. I know I will be filled with this inevitable feeling of anger, and maybe hatred toward this man when they announce his name, but I will put that aside, and I will ask God to bless the family that survives him. God loves this man as much as He loves the people he killed. So let us not pray for the 32 victims and the single gunman, instead let us pray for the 33 human souls that met God today.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Matthew 5:43-45

Thank you for all of your prayers. I know a lot of you tried contacting me and were unable to get a hold of me because of the jammed cellular circuits, so I’m sorry if I have been unable to respond to all of you. I have been bombarded with voicemails, text messages, instant messages, emails, and facebook posts. I’m blessed to have so many people who are concerned about me, and I cherish that even more on a day like today.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca, ‘is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Matthew 5:21-22

Pray for Virginia Tech as a whole community. It is a beautiful place that has never seen anything like this before this year, and I can’t wait until we are all able to enjoy being out on the gorgeous campus without looking over our shoulders or starring down the suspicious person we see walking towards us. Pray that people, when they are done mourning, are able to look past this tragedy and try to find the good that God has waiting for our campus.

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:2-4

Love you all,
Michael Couch

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen
Revelation 22:20-21