Letter: Look to God to start changing

To the Editor:

The senseless killing of 20 children and six adults tells me it is time to speak out. I am 82 and spent 45 years as a pastor. I have had many people tell me they don’t believe the Bible is God’s word. God’s word is not validated by how many people believe. It is God’s word because it is a gift from God.

President Obama spoke at Newtown (Conn.) High School two days after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He started his speech by quoting 2 Corinthians 4: “Do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”

Think clearly what just that one passage means.

“We can’t tolerate this anymore,” our president said. “These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law — no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society … . But that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely, we can do better than this.”

We can try everything humanly possible, but it will not end the violence caused by evil. Our only hope is in the truth from God’s word that he sent a savior to die in our place bearing the sin and evil of the world to defeat sin and evil and offer us a place in eternity.

Our president has said, “We must change.” Let’s take God at his word and turn to the one he has sent. Let’s stop resisting the one who can make the change.

Marvin Eppard

Red Wing

Tags: opinion, letters