The Bible and Bullets

When I heard the story about the pastor that was shot and killed this week, I was moved to tears. Senseless killing of innocent victims is always difficult to me for several reasons. They are as follows:
1. The sovereignty of God
2. The belief that there is a reason for everything
3. The need for people to confirm their own belief system and look for miracles
The Rev. Fred Winters was killed by a mentally ill gunman who opened fire at the First Baptist Church outside St Louis Mo. Rev. Winters was later pronounced dead at a hospital. He was a married father of two children and appeared to be a very good man who loved people and dedicated his life to God and his work. There was also another incident this week where a man went on a shooting spree in the south and randomly shot and killed several innocent people. He was determined to kill some individuals but his bullets were also going at random, once killing a mother, her 18mo. Child and wounded another child who was a young baby. The father, who was a police officer, was devastated that his family was almost wiped-out through this random act of violence. And then there were the other killings in Germany.
Were these acts, random? Did God guide the bullets? Or did God have nothing to do with the guidance of the bullets? I cannot believe that God had anything to do with these individuals being killed. I do not accept that God wanted these people killed in such a violent way. I also cannot accept that he would do this with purpose. If God had a purpose, then God would be no better than other monsters in our history who willingly sacrificed others to fulfill an alleged greater purpose. I do not believe that when People say that God has a purpose behind this form of hate and terror, they make God no better than Hitler. Under man’s own law (and I would believe that God’s morals and ethics would be higher than our minimum standards), God would be guilty of crimes against humanity.
I have heard about every argument from others to justify this dilemma (which, in reality, is the old problem of evil) but I have really never heard a logical argument that is truly compelling. The “God’s permissive will and perfect will argument doesn’t hold water. When I talked about this to someone close to me, His argument is that death isn’t that big of a deal. That the death of this pastor, the mother and the child and others only gives them a gold ticket to heaven. Of course, he would also believe that only a few are going to heaven, so most would be drawing the short straw to Hell instead of getting the gold ticket to heaven. And what of those who do not die, but are raped, tortured, and left with physical and emotional scars that will never heal? Not everyone who suffers dies. Did God plan and carry out his will in these cases? I can easily understand when someone dies or is maimed due to their own stupidity. Examples are those who receive the Darwin awards… just Google this if you want to know more. However, I cannot believe that a child deserves to be raped or raviged by a painful cancer.
So is there a purpose behind everything that happens? Absolutely Not! Those who believe this must hide their head in the sand because some incidents like those mentioned above just do not have a purpose. What about other natural disasters? It is hard to justify that God wanted some people dead and some to miss that fate. Now, this does not mean that people cannot find purpose, but if God was to kill children to carry out his purpose, then God is cruel and is not worthy of worship. I was once told that it was God’s will that Adam Walsh was molested, killed and decapitated because he wanted his father to start the TV program, America’s Most Wanted which has done great things. Here is an example where a man found purpose in a tragedy but if he would have done that to his own child to do something noble, we would think he would be a ghastly monster of a man, worthy of prison, punishment, death and eternal hellfire. Yet, we think God would do this and that he should be worshiped for such behavior because his ways are so above us and we cannot simply understand the full purposes of God. Nonsense! If God cannot stand under his own biblical principles, the universal understanding of right and wrong, the morality and ethics that are written on the conscience of us all, then why should we worship him? I believe in God but I have had to reevaluate the concept of God that others have given to me.
I wonder what would have happened if all of the bullets would have been deflected by the bible instead of one going directly into the heart of the pastor? I can tell you exactly what would have happened… every church in America would have their message for next Sunday. The sermon would be about being shielded by the word of God, how it protects, and preserves. People would have talked about it being a miracle about how God saved the pastor. A man firing at a pastor with a large bible in front of him is not a miracle but that is exactly what people would have called it. Yet, one bullet met its mark and the miracle claim was also killed.
I am so sick and tired of people claiming miracles, only to forget about the others who suffered. This belief is so egocentric and hurtful to others who wonders why they were not saved and why God chose them to suffer and why he spared others. Since, we look for meaning, many believe that God is punishing them or is against them, instead of one who loves them.
Some are reading this with all of the answers. I used to have all the answers. In my piety, I told many how I knew the answers and gave them the simple solutions that they just needed to believe, have faith or trust God. However, these issues cannot be rationalized. To make God the author of this type of evil ignores common sense, makes God break hi s own standards and paints for others an image of God that is revolting.
The first questions above are for logic and faith to figure out; the last question is for science. I do not believe there are magical powers in the printed bible. The Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters once took up the challenge of the urban legend about pocket bibles stopping bullets. Numerous stories claim that people have been saved by the miraculous power of a pocket bible stopping a speeding bullet. The story has been told to thousands, which has resulted in hundreds of souls being saved as well. The Mythbusters concluded from their experiment that anything larger than a 22cal bullet would easily go through a 400page pocket Bible (Quran or Tom Sawyer – it doesn’t matter) and potentially kill the individual.
People have a tendency to use only those stories that support their argument. People will hear about the 2007 story of private Schweigart’s and how a pocket bible may have stopped a bullet which entered from his side and went under his body armor. They will claim this to be a miracle but ignore this week’s case where the Bible didn’t shield all bullets and the pastor died from his wounds. If we are to test miracle claims we must look at statistics and probability, natural causes and empirical experimentation. For this reason, I cannot believe in miracles in today’s world. For me, a miracle is when something happens outside of natural law. This does not include something out of the ordinary that naturally occurs through chance. Raising a person, who has been dead for several days, is a miracle. A person, whose heart stopped and is revived within a few minutes, is not a miracle. Praying over a man who lost a limb, then watching a new limb grow were the old one was, is a miracle. A woman with chronic pain, no longer feeling pain, is not a miracle. To test whether there are true miracles in the world today, we must first define our terms and test our hypothesis.