Headline: “COVID-19 updates: More than 10,000 new deaths reported in US in 1 week.”
Headline: “3 Dead, 8 injured in Oxford HS shooting. Suspect is 15-year-old student.”
Headline: “240 casualties reported, 64 civilians killed in Ukraine amid Russian invasion.”
These are horrifically tragic events that have occurred over the past few months that elicit in us grief and sorrow, anger and disbelief, and at times an overwhelming sense of helplessness, which leads to the essential question regarding who is responsible – who is to be held accountable for these deaths and the related suffering. Reasonable and necessary accompanying questions include why this, and such events occur, what, if anything, could have been done to prevent it, and what can be done to prevent it in the future.
In some cases, the issue of who is responsible, at least from a human perspective, is clear, as in the case of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. Here we have an egomaniacal, narcissistic, psychopathic, insane crime boss named Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, president of Russia, who is clearly the perpetrator and reason for the horror and deaths in the Ukraine. The whys and what of this are still being debated.
In the case of the 15-year-old suspect in the Oxford High school shootings, he is alleged to have committed the murders, but not yet found guilty or responsible. His parents have been charged with manslaughter for not intervening to prevent this tragedy, and the school and some of its personnel are also alleged to be, to various degrees, responsible for these deaths. The answer to the whys and what regarding this is at this time speculative at best.
In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are conflicted reports related to responsibility for it. These include an unidentified infected animal from a Wuhan China wet market, an “accidental” leak in the engineering process in a Chinese lab in Wuhan, (a project allegedly funded by Dr. Anthony Fauci), and allegations that it was engineered to be weaponized by the Chinese government. Again, the whys and what are speculative, and our attempts to prevent the spread of it have been, in my very humble opinion, both laughable and in themselves tragic.
Crime, war and disease are not the only tragic ways in which people die. Other such horrific tragedies include airplane crashes and auto accidents, as well as riots and terrorist attacks. In each such event we look to assess and assign culpability to certain individuals or groups as being responsible for these deaths and try to come to some understanding of the whys and what.
I would point out what should be obvious; that over the thousands of years of human history we have failed miserably in our preventive efforts as we continue with little consensus regarding the whys and what of these various lethal events.
This is true also for the tragic deaths that are a result of birth defects, suicide, drug overdose, domestic violence and child abuse. Tragically, we seem to care little as a society about the murder of hundreds of thousands of children in their mother’s womb each year.
In addition, we see multitudes dying tragic deaths in what we refer to as natural disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions. The why we have come to believe is the result of natural processes of the Earth. I think and hope that we have come to understand that preventing them is way above our paygrade (although the global warming theorists may disagree).
Such disasters used to be referred to in insurance policies as “acts of God”. This was and is not taken literally but is used as a phrase for limiting liability for natural disasters that were seen as outside human control for which no person is at fault.
It is true that these disasters are outside of human control, but that does not mean that no person is at fault, that no one is ultimately responsible for these deaths. According to the Bible, there is one man who is responsible for death in these and every tragic event I have noted in this post and more, and His name is Adam, and the why is sin and God’s judgement on sin, on mankind’s rejection of God’s purpose for and rule over our lives.
The Bible clearly states in Romans 5:12 that sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men (and women) because all sinned (Romans 3:23). The Bible identifies Adam as that one man in Romans 5:14 and in 1 Corinthians 15:22.
Adam, and Eve, were created in the image and likeness of God, with God’s righteous nature and character, to know, love and be loved by God and one another, and to enjoy and rule over God’s glorious natural creation, under God’s gracious authority (Genesis 1:26-28). Adam is essentially the federal head of the human race, and his response to God’s one command will determine his and his descendant’s destiny in relationship with God. Presented the opportunity to reject God’s authority, and assume for themselves the prerogatives of God, having been warned by God that they would surely die if they did so, they disregard the warning and defy His one command (Genesis 3:1-7).
In Genesis 3:16-19, we are told that in response to Adam’s act of cosmic treason, God’s promised judgement of death for disobedience is realized. God, in an act of righteous judgement, curses the earth he created to bless Adam and his descendants. To curse means to condemn or consign to misery, pain and destruction. And thus, all of the earth and all that is in it will oppose man’s efforts to pursue His happiness and wellbeing apart from God, just as man opposed God. Man’s body created immortal and essentially invulnerable in the image of God, will now suffer the ravages of this curse and ultimately cease to function, with its earthy elements returning to the earth, what we refer to as physical death. Upon physical death we are told that the spirit of man, which is immortal, will return to God for judgement (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7) (Hebrews 9:27).
However, spiritual death, the condition of being cut off from the glorious life with God for which Adam and his descendants were created, will occur immediately, with God driving them out of His glorious presence into a world that will grow increasingly dangerous and corrupt- increasingly evil as sin takes hold of the hearts of descendants of Adam, as we grow in our hostility toward God – and toward one another – developing throughout the ages new and more exquisite ways of sinning against God – and of destroying ourselves and one another. We see in Genesis 4:3-8 the first cold blooded murder as Cain, out of envy, kills his brother Abel.
The reality of sin and death progresses in the next few chapters of Genesis to where when we get to Genesis 6:5, we read: The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
God responds in judgement on the sin and violence that filled the earth (Genesis 6:11) with a worldwide flood that kills all but eight persons, Noah and his family, through whom God would continue the human race. However, men and women’s hearts continue to be desperately wicked, with violence and murder and all of the consequences of Adam’s sin continuing to this day as evidenced by the above headlines (Jeremiah 17:9).
And it will continue until God’s promise of a second Adam is fulfilled; a somewhat cryptic promise first made immediately after Adam’s sin brought sin and death into the world regarding the seed of the women (Genesis 3:15).
This seed, this second Adam, this second federal representative of men and women who will entrust their life to Him, is the one we now know to be the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:12-21). He is the answer to the what question, the means by which we escape the second death, God’s eternal condemnation for sin (Revelation 21:8). More on this in my next post.
I realize this was a long post, and I appreciate you taking the time to read it. However, I hope you will take time to listen to a song that hits at the heart of all I have written IN ADAM ALL DIE. It has a great beat and is easy to dance to, but please hear/read the lyrics.
Grace and Peace