First Person: "I was there in theater 9 at midnight ... some forty or fifty feet away from the man with the gun"

Terrible. What’s next? The heroic tale of a Christian escaping a fire at a strip club? I wouldn’t be thanking God if were her, I would be repenting.

Question for Brad

Repent for attending the movie theater? OR

Repent for attending that particular movie?

Or something else?

I was thinking of the movie itself.

I probably disagree with you - not that it is a film I would opt to view (looks stupid! and I don’t like films with a bunch of CGI).

Thanks for answering

People didn’t die because they went to see a movie, people died because a murderer decided to open fire with a loaded weapon. And I don’t think God sends mad gunmen to movie theatres to judge people for watching Batman movies.

I don’t think Brad was calling this a judgement of God, just that this professing Christian was tarnishing her testimony by admitting she went to the movie.

Chip, how is this woman tarnishing her testimony?

More than a million people read her blog in which she shared the gospel and discussed the sovereignty of God in times of great tragedy. She was able to respond graciously with those who disagreed and criticized. That’s an amazing testimony.

And I don’t think God sends mad gunmen to movie theatres [sic] to judge people for watching Batman movies.

Was the mad gunman then outside of God’s control? Then God is not all-powerful.

Did God simply allow the mad gunman? Then, if God had the power to stop him but did not, God is still morally responsible. If I
“allow” my kids to play in the street and they get run over, do you think I will not be held responsible?

I don’t think Brad was calling this a judgement of God…

I don’t know, I think he might have been.

I believe you are a Pastor ?

OK so you make this hypothetical hospital call to a church member in Aurora

• She was at the theater
• She was injured but will survive.
• Her daughter was killed (I’m thinking of the 6 year old victim)
• The woman has a paralyzing injury that has forever altered her life
• It’s a given that God is sovereign (“[God] works all things according to the counsel of His will”) (Ephesians 1:11)
• And the woman asks you …. “is this the judgment of God?”

What would your answer be?

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/putting-my-daughter-to-bed-two-ho…

[dmicah] Chip, how is this woman tarnishing her testimony?

More than a million people read her blog in which she shared the gospel and discussed the sovereignty of God in times of great tragedy. She was able to respond graciously with those who disagreed and criticized. That’s an amazing testimony.

I haven’t said what I thought, only that I think that’s the direction Brad was heading.

understood. thanks.

[Brad Kelly]

And I don’t think God sends mad gunmen to movie theatres [sic] to judge people for watching Batman movies.

Was the mad gunman then outside of God’s control? Then God is not all-powerful.

Did God simply allow the mad gunman? Then, if God had the power to stop him but did not, God is still morally responsible. If I
“allow” my kids to play in the street and they get run over, do you think I will not be held responsible?

I don’t think Brad was calling this a judgement of God…

I don’t know, I think he might have been.

First we don’t know that he is insane. The media & blogosphere is labeling him a madman b/c it’s hard to admit what raw evil looks like. This man was not an independent agent outside of God’s control any more than Adam was, but that doesn’t mean God runs the world as a cosmic puppet master. Man is given freedom to act. Yes, God allowed the gunman to make this choice. The man acted on his freedom and chose to act according to his nature. God is not morally responsible for man’s sinful actions. Will God work and in and through the suffering, yes? Is this His judgment? Perhaps. But on what? If you can’t answer the point of the judgment or the corrective steps necessary to alleviate future judgment, than it is not for us to label it specifically as His judgment.

“Judgment” is obviously a loaded word. In the situation you presented-dealing with a professing believer- I would go with chastisement. If one believes that this event was ordained by God, and I do, than it must be something. So what is it? A blessing? God was involved. He did not simply “allow” it. So why did he send it? To judge unbelievers and chastise his children.

Staying with your proposal…

Should a professing believer take her 6 year-old to a movie that the world says is unsuitable for those under 13? If you are taking your 6 year-old to midnight showings of Batman what do you think the kid will be doing when she is 13?

Should a professing believer go to film that is pretty much (from reviews I have read) 2 hours of murder and mayhem? Which particular quality of Philippians 4:8 does the film support or reinforce?

To a professing believer I would absolutely say “You should not have been there with your 6 year-old child. And God has mercifully granted you an opportunity to repent and to use this as an opportunity to make changes in your life that will glorify him.”

I’m just a little flabbergasted that here, on this site, people would take issue with the assertion that there is no good- i.e. biblical- reason for a Christian to have been at that movie theater watching that movie: especially with her children.

And I don’t know who has

I’m just a little flabbergasted that here, on this site, people would take issue with the assertion that there is no good- i.e. biblical- reason for a Christian to have been at that movie theater watching that movie: especially with her children.

The case I cited is in this list

Ashley Moser, Veronica’s mother, remains in critical condition at Aurora Medical Center. The 25-year-old was shot in the neck, and doctors are unable to remove the bullet. Moser also suffered a gunshot wound in the abdomen. She passes in and out of consciousness, Dalton said, and does not yet know that her daughter has died. Doctors said that Moser, who was recently accepted to medical school, will hopefully recover with some use of her hands, Dalton said.

I could not tell her that God is judging or chastening her.