What Does God Think About the Virginia Tech Killings?

Well this is obviously going to be a hot one. It also will likely get lost in the shuffle of everyone else who wants to comment on this situation. Nonetheless, it needs to be discussed. When something so tragic happens, it falls into the category of "things that we as humans need to talk about". Yes, I just invented that category, and no I have no idea what it is a category of. So you can classify everyone as either needing to talk about it or not needing to talk about it. Most of the ones that don't need to talk about it, also probably fall into the category of people that think no-one should talk about it and we should just forget it ever happened. If you are one of the latter, why are you reading this post? I submit that most of the people that want to just leave it behind us, are the ones that really need to talk about it but the thought of doing that is just to painful.

Moving on, if it must be discussed, and thoughts and feelings must be expressed, than for my part this is tragic. How painful an event like this is. Painful to those involved. The victims obviously, their loved ones and even casual acquaintances for that matter. The gunman, whether you consider him a victim, a heartless killer or both, has both experienced and caused a great deal of pain. Painful for the outside observers. So many of us that are "affected" by this tragedy have no connection to anyone involved at all. Nonetheless, it is painful for us to see life lost in such a sudden, unexpected manner and in such large quantity. And finally, painful for all of humanity when such a tragic occurence spurs and brings out the worst in certain subsets of society. YouTube and other social media sites are instantly flooded with opinions and vulgar expressions more disturbing than the impetus that set them off.

As if it isn't hard enought to process the thoughts and feelings brought on by this tragedy there comes the accusations against the character and nature of God. Almost immediately there is an internal struggle to understand why God would allow this to happen. To add to the dilemma, opportunistic doubters see this as an ideal time to forward the case for an absent Deity. "If God were real, this could not have possibly happened" they seem to scream from every athiestic outlet. So in the midst of all this chaos, what does God think about the situation. If given the opportunity what would He say to those affected by the recent events and inevitable barage of follow up. What does He think about Seung-Hui Cho, his victims, and the loved ones hurt by his actions? What does He think about the autorities who are being blamed for this tragedy? What does He think about all the opportunistic vultures preying on this tragedy to advance their own opinions and agendas?

First of all, Bible teaches that God loves all of His creation. This extends to everyone involved. Period. In the Bible, Matthew 18:14 quotes Jesus as talking about a little child said "Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." God sees all people as His children. He created each of us including Seung-Hui Cho. He gives us the opportunity to turn our hearts to Him and recognize Him as our creator and reason for existing. There is of course a consequence for not coming to this realization. This is not an appropriate venue to talk about that though. For more details about this subject, please follow the following link. What Does God Think About? The important thing is that God did not WANT this to happen. When He created Cho, He designed Him with talents and desires and a purpose that would have testified to the greatness of God's design. However, God does not force any of us to follow the path that He lays out for us. Once we stray from the plan, there is no guarantee where we will end up. Just like when I give someone directions to my house. If they follow those directions, they will get here. If they decide that some of the turns are too dificult or they could get here quicker if they take a shortcut (good luck in LA) than I can no longer guarantee that they will get here at all.

So somewhere and for some reason, Cho went off track. He left the designated route that God had planned for him. Most of us do this. In fact we all have. Going back to the Bible, Isaiah talking about Jesus long before He was born said,
"All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6
God did not want for this to happen, He wasn't powerless to stop it, He simply loves us so much that He is willing to allow us to make our own decisions and live with the consequences. We are also told in the Bible that God makes himself known to all of us in one way or another and we are all given the decision to make... Embrace God or Reject Him? I don't know Cho, I don't claim to know what his life was like. Anyone with a tv or internet connection can tell that he carried a lot of pain. Regardless of the fact that I know nothing more about him than the majority of the population, I am confident that God made himself known to this young man and gave him the opportunity to exchange his pain for the acceptance and love that only God can offer. Several times, Cho references Jesus as either his motivation or his tormentor (hard to tell for sure) I believe that he says "Jesus enjoys crucifying me" and that he did this to be like Jesus, "dying to inspire generations of weak and defenseless people" It is sad that the purest and most selfless act of all time (Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and rising back to life) could be compared to one of the most blatantly selfish acts of current events (the mass murder of innocent lives) is ironically tragic.

Is Seung-Hui Cho in hell right now? Is he suffering for the pain he caused? These are questions that cannot be answered by me. They are between him and his Creator. Jesus gave His life so that none of us would have to die separated from God. However, if we choose to reject God while we are alive, He has no choice but to give us what we have asked for... eternity separated from Him. While that may sound acceptable to anyone who would prefer not to believe in Him, it is actually a very scary thing to consider. Consider this. If God does exist, and it is His presence moving in and among those loyal to Him that keeps the attrocities like these from occuring more frequently. What would happen if that presence were gone and the only thing left governing you and the people around you was each persons selfish agenda for their life. Do you really think that business ethics has any place in a world where God is not a part of the picture? Do you really think that there would be LESS corruption and LESS hatred and anger without God? Do all of the problems in this world really even have a chance of being as a result of all these God-believers? To suppose that is insane. Doesn't it seem more likely that without people holding themselves and others up to a moral compass based on the instructions of the One that created them, there would be MORE problems? I will leave you with that thought.

In the meantime, know that God is intensely interested in your life and would like nothing more than to show you how much He loves you. He is only waiting for the opportunity to do so. Only you can create that opportunity. He will never force Himself on you.

David Shepherd