In an article, “All of America Must Be a Hard Target to Prevent Mass Shootings,” James Pinkerton wrote:

Reacting to an earlier school shooting, former Los Angeles police officer J. Warner Wallace identified four driving causes: “an increase in social media use”; “an increased dependency on prescription medicine”; “an increase in single parent households”; and “a decrease in traditional Christian values,” including, we can add, the belief that bad people go to hell where they are tormented forever. It’s too bad that the idea of hell, just as the notion of evil, has been mostly banished by our secular culture.

This article was written in response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers, and wounded seventeen other people, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States.¹

Mr. Ramos didn’t surrender to authorities but fought apparently to the death. If he had been raised with “‘traditional Christian values,’ including…the belief that bad people go to hell where they are tormented forever” would he have feared death more? Would he have feared death enough to dissuade him from shooting 39 people including his grandmother?² Clearly, I don’t know the answer to those questions, but asking them helps me understand why some would prefer to deprive Mr. Ramos (and everyone else) of weapons that can kill so many so fast.

Fear of death didn’t dissuade Adam and Eve from eating the fruit God had forbidden. Granted, death may have been an abstract concept until Cain killed Abel. The law God gave to Israel added many fearful punishments including death (Exodus 21:12-22:20; Leviticus 7:20-27; 19:5-10; 20:1-9; 24:13-23; 26:14-38) for noncompliance. Israel didn’t keep the law in a way that satisfied God.

People may have been more or less satisfied with the law depending on whether they were victimized by lawbreakers or not. I know none of the children or adults killed or wounded in Uvalde at the Robb Elementary School. I’m more or less satisfied that the laws in Uvalde did what they could. At least, I’m not persuaded that any new laws would help significantly to prevent such killings.

Mr. Ramos seemed willing to die for his cause, whatever he perceived that cause to be.³

“Ramos’s social media acquaintances said he openly abused animals such as cats and would livestream the abuse on Yubo.^[111] Other social media acquaintances said that he would also livestream himself on Yubo threatening to kidnap and rape girls who used the app, as well as threatening to commit a school shooting.^[109] “On May 14, Ramos sent a private Instagram message reading, ’10 more days’. A person responded, ‘Are you going to shoot up a school or something?’ He replied, ‘No, stop asking dumb questions. You’ll see.’

Neither the law nor the fear of death deterred him from his course. At least, no one has reported that he curled up in a fetal position and cried when surrounded by armed men. Perhaps, there were no witnesses by that point.

Paul wrote (Romans 8:3, 4 NET):

God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This fulfillment of the righteous requirement of the law…in us, who…walk according to the Spirit got short shrift from me when avoiding hell was my hope of “salvation.” Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to save each of us first and foremost from our sinful selves.

Paul continued (Romans 8:5 NET):

For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.

What is born of the flesh is flesh, Jesus told Nicodemus, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’⁴

Now the works of the flesh are obvious, Paul wrote, sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!⁵

For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh…For the outlook of the flesh is death…because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.⁶

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires,⁷ Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him,⁸ arguably the best of the best at suppressing the sins of the flesh while still in the flesh. I already admitted I didn’t take Jesus seriously here until recently.

I recall when my mother tried to teach me about hell by putting my hand in a gas flame on the stove. She failed. She wasn’t strong enough, whether physically or emotionally, to overcome my resistance.

That sounds obscene without context, but frankly, I don’t remember the context. I probably said or did something that highly offended her. I did that often. She told me many times how often she was surprised by the sinfulness of her precious first born baby boy. This was long after I had said a sinner’s prayer to Jesus to escape hell.

Mom was consistent in her expectation that someone born of God should be different. I see that now. At the time she was up against a religious establishment that defended its religious traditions, and I had said the sinner’s prayer those traditions required. At that time I resented being called sinful. So I lived 65 years before I could or would acknowledge that I in my flesh was from [my] father the devil.

Jesus continued to describe my father and my unwitting relationship to him (John 8:44b-46a NET):

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies [Table]. But because I am telling you the truth, you do not believe me. Who among you can prove me guilty of any sin? [Table]

Jesus was not some egoist bolstering his own self-esteem by denigrating others. He is God, come to earth as a human being to, among other things, teach us what we did not understand, what we refused to understand, about ourselves (John 8:46b, 47 NET).

If I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me [Table]? The one who belongs to God listens and responds to God’s words. You don’t listen and respond because you don’t belong to God.

I hear this as a relative measure. For I know that nothing good lives in me, Paul wrote, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.⁹ Even here, though, Paul recognized God’s law as the good (Romans 7:10b-12 NET):

So¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.

Now one of the experts in the law came and heard them [Pharisees and Herodians…Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection)] debating (Mark 12:28-34a NET).

When he saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’ [Table]. The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The expert in the law said to him, “That is true, Teacher; you are right to say that he is one, and there is no one else besides him. And to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” [Table]. When Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Paul continued (Romans 7:13-17 NET):

Did that which is good, then, become¹¹ death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual—but I am unspiritual (KJV: carnal), sold into slavery to sin [Table]. For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want—instead, I do what I hate. But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me [Table].

I wasn’t so clear. The good was what I wanted, irrespective of God’s law. My faith in this understanding of the good reached its zenith when I became an atheist, but it didn’t vanish overnight. God’s laws were added more or less reluctantly over time to my understanding of the good as what I wanted, but still may not have entirely supplanted it on a day-to-day basis.

While I might have seen some benefit to a law that inhibits you from messing around with my wife, if I wanted yours more than you did and she wanted me more than you, I was kind of fuzzy why you or God should interfere with the good we wanted. So, I “loved” and lusted after a friend’s wife for twenty years.

To Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’ [Table] was a tall order when I thought of love as my feeling. It was all but impossible when I thought of the Gospel as an ultimatum: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or burn in hell for all eternity.” Socialized as a male American after Adolf Hitler’s death, during the reigns of Chairman Mao and Nikita Khrushchev anyone who made such an ultimatum was not one to be loved, but someone to be resisted to the death.

A better understanding of love (1 Corinthians 13) helped me to begin to love God. Even when I thought Paul’s description of love was rules for me to obey in my own strength, it gave me more practical things to do than trying to conjure a feeling of love. When I began to understand Paul’s description as God’s love, given freely to us as an aspect of the fruit of his Holy Spirit, everything began to change for the better. I began, in fact, to be born from above in practice.

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, Jesus taught, nor again¹² does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from brambles. The good person out of the good treasury of his¹³ heart produces good, and the evil person¹⁴ out of his evil treasury¹⁵ produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills¹⁶ his¹⁷ heart.¹⁸

I didn’t know Mr. Ramos. I know the fruit of the Spirit through the word of God and personal experience. Mr. Ramos was not led by God’s own love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control when he shot 39 people. You people are from your father the devil, Jesus warned, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning…¹⁹

United States Congressmen take an oath of office:²⁰

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Members of the U.S. Congress have forsworn themselves to enact legislation to infringe “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.”²¹ And the President of the United States, who made a similar oath,²² signed that legislation.²³ Mr. Ramos’ acts of political terrorism have apparently succeeded where others have failed. Was this his conscious purpose and cause? I have no way of knowing.

Jesus warned us of a powerful liar and murderer who incites people to obey his will (John 8:44b, 44a NET):

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature because he is a liar and the father of lies.

You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires.

Do not be amazed that I said to you, Jesus said, ‘You must all be born from above.’²⁴

As I wrote this essay the Supreme Court of the United States of America barely affirmed the rather obvious fact that no right of abortion is mentioned in the document that constitutes the federal government of the United States. What impact might this tepid affirmation have on those who want a right of abortion, who want to destroy their unborn children, who want me (among others) to consider them righteous if they do so? I don’t know.

Considering the question, however, helps to confirm for me the relative futility of political action vis-a-vis the privilege of sharing the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost (πρῶτος).²⁵ In other words, God in Christ has done all the heavy lifting to save sinners like you and me from our sinful selves. Know Him. [T]his is eternal life,²⁶ Jesus prayed.

“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds, and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be my people.

And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer” [Table].²⁷

Tables comparing Romans 7:13; Luke 6:43 and 6:45 in the NET and KJV follow.

Romans 7:13 (NET)	Romans 7:13 (KJV)
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.	Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Τὸ οὖν ἀγαθὸν ἐμοὶ ἐγένετο θάνατος; μὴ γένοιτο· ἀλλὰ ἡ ἁμαρτία, ἵνα φανῇ ἁμαρτία, διὰ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ μοι κατεργαζομένη θάνατον, ἵνα γένηται καθ᾿ ὑπερβολὴν ἁμαρτωλὸς ἡ ἁμαρτία διὰ τῆς ἐντολῆς	το ουν αγαθον εμοι γεγονεν θανατος μη γενοιτο αλλα η αμαρτια ινα φανη αμαρτια δια του αγαθου μοι κατεργαζομενη θανατον ινα γενηται καθ υπερβολην αμαρτωλος η αμαρτια δια της εντολης	το ουν αγαθον εμοι γεγονεν θανατος μη γενοιτο αλλα η αμαρτια ινα φανη αμαρτια δια του αγαθου μοι κατεργαζομενη θανατον ινα γενηται καθ υπερβολην αμαρτωλος η αμαρτια δια της εντολης

Luke 6:43 (NET)	Luke 6:43 (KJV)
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,	For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν δένδρον καλὸν ποιοῦν καρπὸν σαπρόν, οὐδὲ πάλιν δένδρον σαπρὸν ποιοῦν καρπὸν καλόν	ου γαρ εστιν δενδρον καλον ποιουν καρπον σαπρον ουδε δενδρον σαπρον ποιουν καρπον καλον	ου γαρ εστιν δενδρον καλον ποιουν καρπον σαπρον ουδε δενδρον σαπρον ποιουν καρπον καλον

Luke 6:45 (NET)	Luke 6:45 (KJV)
The good person out of the good treasury of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart.	A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

NET Parallel Greek	Stephanus Textus Receptus	Byzantine Majority Text
ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ θησαυροῦ τῆς καρδίας προφέρει τὸ ἀγαθόν, καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ προφέρει τὸ πονηρόν· ἐκ γὰρ περισσεύματος καρδίας λαλεῖ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ	ο αγαθος ανθρωπος εκ του αγαθου θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου προφερει το αγαθον και ο πονηρος ανθρωπος εκ του πονηρου θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου προφερει το πονηρον εκ γαρ του περισσευματος της καρδιας λαλει το στομα αυτου	ο αγαθος ανθρωπος εκ του αγαθου θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου προφερει το αγαθον και ο πονηρος ανθρωπος εκ του πονηρου θησαυρου της καρδιας αυτου προφερει το πονηρον εκ γαρ του περισσευματος της καρδιας λαλει το στομα αυτου