Modern Martyrs

When Pastor Al Meredith entered the pulpit of Wedgwood Baptist Church September 19, he addressed the question nearly everyone was asking: “Where is God in all this?” And the “all this” was almost too horrible to remember.

Just four days before, the church’s sanctuary had been a place of horror and carnage as Larry Gene Ashbrook opened fire on a youth evangelism rally, killing seven participants and wounding others. He then calmly sat down in a pew and shot himself to death. In an instant, a place of worship had been reduced to a crime scene.

Once again, young people lay dead and wounded from an act of inexplicable violence. But this time the scene wasn’t a high school, but a church building. What the youth first thought was a dramatic skit turned out to be a matter of life and death. Larry Ashbrook entered the sanctuary, shouted anti-Christian curses at the young people, and then shot with cold-blooded accuracy.

The youth had met that morning around school flagpoles as a part of the national “See You at the Pole” prayer and evangelism movement. Little did they know that their witness would soon reach around the world.

How could God have let this happen? How do we explain this evil? A tragedy like this sets loose a torrent of theological questions. The response to these questions is a true test of any theology—and any Christian.

read the rest of this post here.

posted by jrd.