Two Adult Pressures that Lead to School Shootings

There are two schools of thought about this issue and both have value. One school of thought is that we need more mental health treatment.  We do, but that is not why we are having school shootings.  The other school of thought is that we need more, or less, controls on gun ownership, and we do. We need more control over unstable persons having access to firearms while we also need more responsible people who know how to use fire arms in the right place at the right time, but that is not why we are having school shootings. Fire arms presence or absence is not leading to school shooting!  

We are having school shooting because we have placed pressures on teenagers that were designed for adults.  I will limit my comments to two of these pressures. One pressure is the pressure to work, the other pressure is sexual decision making. Negotiating both of these areas in our modern society is very difficult. We want work without sweat, and sex without complexity!  Work is supposed to be hard, and sexual relationships are very hard to manage.   We teach our teenagers that life is to be perpetually fun and easy and then we place adult pressures on them in every area of their lives. The contradiction between these demands causes enough pressure for some kids to kill! 

Full time work is designed to be an adult activity not a teenage activity. We have removed play from virtually every aspect of our teenager’s lives.  The demands to succeed academically, musically, athletically, and now even sexually are felt by every American kid. When teenagers are at their best they are teaching adults the joy of life.  Teenagers are not enjoying life! Most need a secretary to manage their activities. They are not having fun!  But we tell them that it is suppose to be! That contradiction creates enough pressure for some to kill.  

Sex is designed to be an adult activity! When we give teenagers simple answers to complex questions the consequences are dire! Managing the physical pleasures and emotional complexities of sex is difficult for mature adults. Yet, everything in our society pressures teenagers to enter this complex world. When the predictable consequence occurs, death is often the option. We put life and death decisions in the path of 14 year old girls and then we are surprised when some 14 year old boys make life and death decisions about their fellow students.  If we teach them that life has no value in one context some kids simply change the context.  We have not taught our teenagers to value life!

We have not taught our teenagers that the difficulty and complexity of life is what creates its value.  We have not taught them to wait and to delay gratification on one end of the spectrum, while we have demand that they get A’s in class, perfect their jump shot, and look hot while they are doing it on the other.  Most American kids are managing to negotiate this labyrinth successfully.  However, for some kids, all that work and all the sexual negotiation is simply too much. When life is cheap, and life is hard, shooting your way into a blaze of glory becomes a viable and deadly option. 

When Angels became Devils

⁴ And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. ⁵ And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. Revelations 12:4

Fools love company! The devil is the biggest fool in history and his foolishness lead one third of the angels to rebel against God.  We now call these angels, demons, for demons are truly what they have become.   These devils lead by the prince of devils believed a lie.  They believed they could dethrone God, their maker.   They are like clocks trying to rule clock makers.   Isaiah 14 provides us a glimpse into the internal conversation the devil had before he rebelled.

‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’  Isaiah 14:13-14

Apparently that internal conversation became and external conversation, consensus was gained, and the angels became devils.  You may ask yourself, how they could do such a thing in the midst of the glory of heaven.  Always sound in alarm in your spirit whenever you separate yourself from others sin as if you would never do such a thing!  Humankind has been partnering with the devil since the garden.  After a 1,000 year Earthly reign of Jesus the King; living on Earth; ruling from Jerusalem; with the devil completely bound during that period of time men rebel when the devil is released for just a short time.

“When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. ⁹ They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.” Revelations 20: 7-9

Jesus will be in that city at that time. He is the child that was ‘brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron,’ that child, now King, will simply burn up those ‘numbering like the sand on the sea’ but isn’t it sad!

One of the most difficult questions to resolve for the believer is why did God allow the devil to come to earth, where man would be in the first place?  Why not kick them out of heaven and cast them directly into the lake of fire?  The best explanation is as a test of our faith.  Jesus was tempted by him and defeated him with the word. Joseph defeated him with integrity of heart when no one around him knew the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Job defeated him with praise in the midst of suffering. Daniel honored him in a land where the knowledge of God was foreign; Noah built what had never been built out of obedience to the voice of God. Jesus cites John the Baptist as the greatest prophet of men simply for being a voice crying in the wilderness.  

Few of us are could be listed in this illustrious company, but this I know;

 ‘No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.’ 1 Corinthians 10:13

If Jesus rules with a ‘rod of iron’ it is because he must.  We do not even honor his attempts to provide us ways of escape! We have greatly reduced the iron in which we rule each other in our modern culture and the result is greater rebellion.  This is not because sin or the devil is any stronger than they have ever been but because we are lead away by our own desire to sin.

¹³ When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1: 13-15

‘And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.’ John 3:19

There will be a day when will truly understand how impotent the devil is. On that day will say,

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, ¹⁷ who made the world as a wilderness And destroyed its cities. Isaiah 14:16b

Our primary scripture also reads, ‘and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.’

As we struggle in this life of ours and view the works of the devil all around us, let us remember the words of some Angels that did not fall, they said;

 "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." Acts 1: 11

The Devil was caste down from heaven in judgment on a bolt of lightning, Jesus come in victory riding of the on a white horse prepared to bring justice to every man women and child.   Let us persevere to he comes!

  

With God the Future is History!

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: ² And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. ³ And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. ⁴ And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. ⁵ And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. ⁶ And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. ⁷ And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, ⁸ And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. Revelations 12: 1-7

The Book of Revelations is full of symbolism and profound timeless truths about the nature of God.  Timeless is an apt word to use in this case because the seven verses read above move us from the birth of the nation of Israel backwards to a time prior to Adam, to a period of time in when there was a war in heaven and the devil and a third of the angels were caste to the earth.  Then we are fast forwarded to the future in a time of great tribulation when the devil and his human partners try to destroy Israel.  That is a lot of movement back and forth so let me take these verses one at a time and try to bring out the truths contained therein. Then we can make application to our faith as we progress though whatever number of blogs it takes to get through this chapter.

Revelation 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

The woman is Israel; the twelve stars are the twelve tribes of Israel.  In order to learn this we need to travel back to the time of Genesis and look at the dreams of a young man named Joseph.

Then Joseph had another dream. He told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said. “I had another dream. This time the sun and moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me.”  ¹⁰ He told his father as well as his brothers. Then his father objected. He said, “What about this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers really do that? Will we really come and bow down to the ground in front of you?”¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him. But his father kept the matter in mind.

We know that the sun and the moon in the context of Joseph's dream are his parents. The moon is Rachel, Joseph’s mother, the sun is Jacob, his father, and the 11 stars are his brothers.  This dream is fulfilled when Joseph is placed in charge of Egypt and his family bows before him in a time of famine.  If we can read a passage in the Bible that relates to history and the future shouldn’t we pay attention to such a book? If God controls history and tells the future, then truly He is God. In Isaiah 42:22 the Lord challenges his people and says,

“Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Have them tell us what happened in the beginning. Then we will think about these things, and we will know how they will turn out. Or tell us what will happen in the future.”

The Lord has revealed the beginning of the story of creation and shown us the summation of history.  Because this is true our faith in him should be steadfast and strong! We need to be steadfast and strong and trust his word because the devil has been trying to destroy mankind and in particular Israel, and the Messiah, since the beginning of time.  The Lord says to the serpent (the dragon)

I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel. Genesis 3:15

The decedent whose heel the devil bit was none other than Jesus the Nazarene. The one promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The one the Mosses told Israel to look for and the one the prophets wrote about throughout the Old Testament.

   

The dragon is the devil: In order to understand the seven heads and ten horns you have to reference another prophet familiar with dreams, that being Daniel.  The seven heads represent seven great kingdoms that have ruled the earth. They are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and a Future Revived Roman Empire. The 10 horns are placed on this Empire, based upon Daniel 7:23-25.  The 10 horns are 10 kings which arise in the future (Dan. 7:24).  This is the kingdom from which the Antichrist will arise.[1]

God made a promise to Abraham,

I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.³ I will bless those who bless you, and I will place a curse on those who harm you. And all the people on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2-3

History has been the unfolding of story of those who have blessed or cursed God’s beloved. You might ask why Abraham was so beloved?

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

We are asked to do the same.  Not based on blind faith, but based on a faith that has been repeatedly demonstrated by God throughout all of human history!  Spiritual things are spiritually discerned! I pray you have eyes to see his work in history, eyes to see His work in your life, and hope in future filled with promises!  With God the Future is History!

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[1] http://www.raptureready.com/featured/crockett/beast.html