Parent’s Worst Nightmare in Newtown, Connecticut

By now everyone reading this column has learned of Friday’s mass murder at the Connecticut elementary school that has left at least 26 dead, including 20 young children. Though we all know that each of us must face death at the end of life in this sin-cursed world, the senseless murder of children who should still have their whole lives ahead of them evokes a special sense of horror.

We know that our words cannot describe the grief of the victims’ families or lessen their pain. We urge our readers to be in prayer for these families and their community.

We know that our words cannot describe the grief of the victims’ families or lessen their pain. We urge our readers to be in prayer for these families and their community. Nothing can make sense of this tragedy. Even when the shooter’s psychological history has been dissected and motivations unraveled, this tragedy will not make sense. We can, however, look to the Bible to understand the underlying cause of all such horrors.

Human tragedy began about 6,000 years ago soon after a loving Creator made Adam and Eve and gave them a perfect world. They knew the God who made them and loved them, yet they rebelled against His authority. That dark day of rebellion was a watershed for human history—the day when all our tragedies began. Significantly, the first recorded tragedy to touch their lives was the murder of their son Abel by their firstborn son Cain.

Satan, who tempted the first family and everyone since them to sin, is a vicious deceiver who hates God and all of us. Jesus Christ called Satan the father of lies and a murderer. The devil was a “murderer from the beginning,” and “there is no truth in him” (John 8:44). If people ask us in the coming days how God could allow such horrible tragedy, we need to remember that the death that shadows our lives began when our first parents’ rebellion wrecked the good world God created.

Jesus Christ came into this world to destroy the murderous works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Jesus was murdered, dying on the Cross to pay for the sins of the world. As God the Father looked on while His own Son was murdered, we know He grieved. God does understand the grief these families and this community feel, for He endured such grief Himself to make a way to provide salvation for all of us.

Please read our remarks yesterday concerning this tragedy (School Tragedy in Connecticut) as well as our discussion of another tragic shooting this past July in Tragedy in Colorado. And please take advantage of these helpful resources and share them with others:

• Download a PDF copy of our booklet Why Is there Death and Suffering?
• You can also read Ken Ham’s book Why Would a Loving God? online for free.
• Ken Ham’s blog today has some comforting Scripture as well.