A nation in prayer: Remembering the Virginia Tech community
- Apr 17, 2007 - 4
Tom Wampler, junior, prays in a room at the Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship house near the campus of Virginia Tech, Monday, April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg, Va. A gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech Monday in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. (AP Photo/Casey Templeton)
The April 16 massacre on the Virginia Tech campus is a brutal reminder that life is fragile and that evil exists in our world.
The young people and others in the university community, as well as the students’ families across the U.S., are struggling to make any kind of sense out of this devastating act of violence.
As a Christian, I understand there is life beyond the grave and that there is hope in the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has taken the sting and victory out of death (1 Corinthians 15:55).
While such an event is troublesome for a believer, for those who are not people of strong religious faith the random and horrific nature of this violence is going to be much more difficult to handle.
It is my fervent prayer that Christians on the Virginia Tech campus will, in God’s strength, reach out to meet the emotional and spiritual needs of their fellow students in this dark hour.
The staff of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission joins all believing Americans in lifting up in prayer to our Almighty God all those whose hearts are broken over the bloodshed and whose lives are shattered because of this terrible tragedy. May they find comfort in our Father’s arms.
4 comments (post your own) feed
1 On Apr 18th, 2007, at 1:24am, steve wrote:
The Virginia Tech massacre was indeed a dreadful thing. My kids go to University but I can only guess at the sense of loss and hurt currently being felt by the parents and friends of the students killed.
A similar event occurred in Australia a few years ago at Port Arthur. The outcome, however, was that the government introduced significant restrictions on owning firearms. Maybe to gain some degree of a positive out of the current event the ERLC/SBC should start to lobby for a repeal of the currently constitutional right to bare arms.
2 On Apr 18th, 2007, at 8:42am, Yvonne Whetzel wrote:
Many will question---"Why would a God who is loving allow this to happen?” It is a difficult question. I am not sure that I can say anything except that evil exists and we as Christians are compelled to fight against it.
3 On Apr 19th, 2007, at 3:49am, steve wrote:
Yvonne, the easiest and most logical answer to your question is to accept the fact that God does not exist.
4 On Apr 19th, 2007, at 10:40am, Matt Hawkins wrote:
Yvonne,
Indeed, a difficult question, though not an unanswerable one. I recommend a good (in-depth) study of the book of Ecclesiastes which spends a great deal of time wrestling with that very question.
We’ve produced a few radio programs in the past that have discussed the issue:
- The Problem of Life with God. (Tommy Nelson)
- The Finding God in Unexpected Places (Philip Yancey)
Ravi Zacharias has an extensive entry titled September 11, 2001: Was God Present or Absent? and John Piper’s teaching on the subject of suffering is evidence the Bible is not silent on this issue.
The existence of suffering (or evil in some cases) does not disprove the existence of God. It does raise valid questions, but it by no means ends the discussion.
(Matt is on staff at the ERLC)