A mid-December weekend punctuated with mass shootings reminds us that a world plagued by sin is a world plunged in darkness. Worldly solutions focus on human action and therefore offer no hope for eradicating the evil afflicting the world. Yet this Advent season reminds Christians that true hope is found in the One who is light, who came to earth on a divine rescue mission, whose birth first established the meaning and the significance of Christmas.
On Saturday, two students at Brown University died and nine were injured when an unknown assailant began shooting at a review session for final exams. On Sunday, 16 people died and 40 were hospitalized after two gunmen with Arabic names opened fire on a crowd of 2,000 Jews gathered for the first night of Hannukah at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.
The Australian mass shooting — a rarity in the country — was particularly disturbing given the victims and context. More than two years after October 7, Jews around the world still face threats of violence from those who hate them, for reasons that have nothing to do with the modern nation of Israel, but simply for the fact that they are Jews.
The incident also carries symbolic significance. Hanukkah (or the Feast of Dedication, John 10:22) celebrates the rededication of the temple after the Maccabean revolt, when one day’s supply of oil lasted for the eight required to dedicate a new batch under the requirements of the Levitical priesthood. The temple’s lampstand signified God’s presence shining as a light on the people of Israel (Numbers 8:2, 6:25). To commemorate the festival, Australian Jews gathered to light a candle in the darkness. Then gunmen arrived to snuff them out.
As leaders of this world sought to grapple with the tragic event, their thoughts turned to only worldly solutions. “The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary,” promised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose anti-Israel policies have only emboldened Australian anti-Semites. “Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws,” he insisted. On Monday, the Australian cabinet agreed unanimously to push for tougher gun control legislation.
But more gun control is not the answer. Australia already boasts strict gun control laws, but that did not stop a father-son duo (one of whom is a citizen) from casually shooting more than four dozen people on a crowded beach with a pump-action shotgun and bolt-action rifle. Official protections for Jews have not protected Jews from a breathtaking 1,650 “anti-Jewish incidents” in a 12-month period. Rhode Island also boasts some of America’s strictest gun laws, but that did not stop a campus shooting there either.
The fundamental problem is that governmental leaders are placing too much trust in the powers of human government. Mass shootings and anti-Semitism are moral problems rooted in spiritual decay. At best, human government can deter wrongdoers and alleviate suffering. But they cannot change the fallen human heart. In fact, humanity’s fallenness has marred the character of human government itself.
God created human government as an agent for good within its assigned role. But when people — whether public officials or citizens — wrongly idolize government as a savior, it proves too fragile to support the divine weight thus thrust upon it.
No, salvation is not found in fallen human governments. Given enough time, these only lead to oppression and corruption, creating in human society “distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish” (Isaiah 8:22).
But, long ago, the prophet predicted, “there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish … The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone” (Isaiah 9:1-2). This light would come when “to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6).
Here, at last is a promised one capable of bearing the immense responsibility of government, the immense task of implementing perfect justice.
The Maccabean revolt established a Jewish political state, but it did not usher in God’s promised Kingdom. Within 150 years, their leaders had compromised with Rome, making way for a brutal king who would massacre babies to quash the very rumor of a rival (Matthew 2:16). Within 250 years, the Jewish nation was crushed and scattered as the temple lay in ruins.
Yet, in that period, God worked his own plan to redeem history, sending a king unrecognized by his own people. Matthew attests directly that Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus (Matthew 4:16). John writes that Jesus was the “light of men,” which “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).
Thus the human atrocities that darken this season only serve to expose the emptiness of human solutions. Political schemes that trust in human government cannot correct the real problem — sinful hearts. Even religions that aim for a political solution will fall short. The only sure repository of hope — for forgiveness of sins, for true justice, for the redemption of creation — is in Jesus Christ, the one true light of the world.
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand, contributing both news and commentary from a biblical worldview.
