Today Pastor Fred Winters of First Baptist Church of Maryville was shot to death by a single gunman during their worship service. Once the gunman started shooting he was “arrested” by the congregation who surrounded him and detained him until the police arrived. As soon as horrific and evil events like this happen it tends to bring out all the Atheists and Agnostics that scream and yell about how God lets bad things happen, in some sort of “I told you so” way.
One blogger I consider to be much more intelligent on the issues than some normal Atheistic or Agnostic rant who doesn’t really understand the issues of the Christian faith is Unreasonable Faith. He wrote this post about the shooting, Illinois Pastor Shot to Death at Church, which brought up some very good questions. Questions I couldn’t possibly address in one blog post, but I love reading Daniel’s blog, it keeps me on my toes and sharpens me more than many Christians I know, even if his ultimate conclusions are wrong.
Why Does God Allow This to Happen?
They pose the typical questions like who would want a God that allows things like this to happen and they try to point out that God doesn’t exist or wasn’t involved because He let this happen (and one can quote scripture totally out of context to prove any point). Asking these questions is not wrong, or even bad. As I told a pastor Fred Winters today he reminded me that John Wesley once said, when you go to work, be prepared to preach, pray, and die [for the Truth].
God does listen, He does care, and He does answer all prayer, but the answer could be yes, no, or not right now. Trying to say we know and understand the mind of God is dangerous, and saying that because evil exists in the world means God doesn’t is just not a good argument. The Christian antagonist would have you believe that where evil exists, God does not, and therefore God was not with the people in Maryville. Quite the opposite.
I can not offer intelligent reasons (because I do not have the mind of God) why things like this happen any more than I can really understand why there are those who are so antagonistic to the Christian faith that they themselves bring people away from faith in Christ. It is one thing to not believe. I have many friends and family members who do not believe. They do not take the position of Paul before his conversion on the road to Damascus to purposely bring people away from their own faith in God, but according to scripture, Saul (Paul) did just that.
In the end, you either hold the scriptures to be the inspired Word of God with Jesus as the risen Messiah, or you don’t. If you do, it doesn’t mean that we as Christians are supposed to sit around in a circle and hold hands and “pray” while we watch someone mow people down in a thunder of bullets and do nothing at all. It doesn’t mean that we have to understand the ways of God either.
Luke 17:20 says:
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
So does that mean that if I can’t move the Rocky Mountains I have no faith. Not at all, but some will try to tell you that is certainly the case. Arguments like these have gone on for thousands of years and I can’t even start to say I am smart enough to understand the why’s about it all. I can see that I am very much like the flip side of Daniel when I say “Now I’m figuring out what it means to be a Believer and a person of faith.”.
Daniel credits himself as being a skeptic much like Pyrrho who is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher, and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism in the 1st century BC. As there will always be skeptics, there will always be people of faith in Christ. One thing we can both agree on is that it was a terrible tragedy for Winters to be gunned down in his place of worship in front of his family. My heart goes out to their family and their church. God is with you, He loves you, and yes, His will (though we may not understand), will be done.
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This is an update to a previous post about the tragic murder of Matthew Butler and Stephen Swan in Garland Texas back in June of this year. If you are unfamiliar with the story please see my previous post Matthew Butler Killed at Zion Gate in Garland Texas about Matthew’s life and his wonderful testimony. Back in June I came across this story while watching the news and was touched by what happened because, according to the news story and Matthew’s wife Jamie, Matthew was a strong Christian Believer, a musician, and a business owner of Zion Gates Records. Those thing struck a nerve with me as I am all but a musician, but a big lover of music in general.
The post on my blog grew legs and soon many of Matthew’s friends and family, including Jamie and his mom Theresa had commented on the post. This morning I received an email from Matthew’s mom, Theresa that I wanted to share with you about his memorial fund for his children. Normally (I would guess) once a story hits national news you can a huge nation wide outpouring of support for the family, especially when the widow has small children as the Butler’s do, but the news story was so short lived that it never really had a chance to build any steam on a large national scale, so the Butler family held a charity golf tournament, are having a large rummage sale, and have setup a memorial fund at the bank in Texas.
All I wanted to do by this blog post is bring a little attention to their situation and possibly reach someone who might be able and willing to help their family in some way. Below is the email from Theresa about the Matthew Butler Memorial Fund, I know his wife and kids appreciate any and all help they have and will receive.
The Matthew Butler Memorial Fund
The community support for Jamie and the kids has been amazing. Matthew is gone from this earth but safe in his heavenly father’s loving arms. Now, we must help raise up these babies, take care of Jamie and help her to continue the dream that Matthew had when he opened the doors to Zion Gate Records almost three years ago. Many of you have said, “We will not let this dream that Matthew had turn into a nightmare. We will not give the enemy that satisfaction!”
The golf tournament raised over $20k for the children. Friends, family and even total strangers have also donated their money and time to help Jamie get the studio up and running. A very sweet young lady from Matthew’s high school, Tammie, got together with some of her friends to have a garage sale to benefit Jamie and the kids. Over the past few weeks, as people heard about it and wanted to donate their items, it’s grown into this huge RUMMAGE SALE which will be held at the Albertson’s parking lot on Lavon Highway in Garland (near 190). If you would like to help, please bring your items to the sale on Saturday morning, September 20th before 7:00am.
Here is the link with map: http://www.yellowbot.com/albertsons-food-pharmacy-garland-tx-2.html
There is also a memorial fund at Washington Mutual Bank – Matthew Butler Memorial Fund. Donations may be made at any location. Thanks to everyone for their prayers, love and support. In His Grip, Theresa Butler
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Matthew Butler, 28, owner of Zion Gate Recording studio along with Stephen Swan, 26, the studio sound engineer, were found shot to death outside Matthew’s studio in Garland Texas (outside of Dallas).
He was a Christian musician and owned his own recording studio and was apparently gunned down as they left after working late on Wednesday (see Dallas Morning News Article). The reason I am sharing this is that his wife, Jamie Butler, 22, only a day after the death of her husband, gave an almost uninterrupted testimony of and for her husband, live on Fox News on the Greta Van Susteren show (blog), On the Record (see entire transcript here | see video here).
I was really incredible to see and hear a live, nationally strong news corporation like Fox allow Jamie to speak, uninterrupted for the time she did. She was strong and determined, a strength that could only be given to her by God Himself. I say this after seeing someone who lost a loved one first hand. Seeing how they reacted at the time of the tragedy was horrible. For those in a different place in their life, who did or do not know the love of God that Jamie knows (see The Cry of a Lost Soul is Hard to Watch), it is a much different ending.
Butler: And so for these men out there that have done this, I would want them to know that my husband — we’re glad and ecstatic that they found them, but we want these men to know Christ and to know that no matter what, God died on the cross for them and that he will forgive them. And my husband, I know, is waiting at the gates of heaven, wanting to meet these men and saying, I forgive you, as well.
Greta let Jamie speak for almost 5 minutes (it seemed like) without saying a word. She went through his life, and his testimony for Christ, and their willingness to forgive the people who had done this. All this from someone who had just lost her husband at the age of 22.
Image caption from above: Members of Newsong: Eddie Carswell (percussion, vocals), Billy Goodwin (vocals, guitar), Michael O’Brien (vocals, piano, keyboards), Matt Butler (keyboards, organ, accordion, cello), Scotty Wilbanks (keyboards, saxophone)
I don’t think it was how I would have gone about it, but how do any of us know at a time like that. She was unwavering, forgiving, distraught, and ready to talk about how her husband’s life was lived to the fullest. I did not know him or his family but I love music, and the Lord, so when I saw the story it just made a connection with me. There have been several tragic testimonies given in the recent months. Tim Russert, and the two tragic accidents with Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter and then the Burgess family (see my posts Steven Curtis Chapman, Prayers and Attacks on the Burgess Family? accordingly).
My prayers go out to Jamie Butler. She is busy now, and she probably has a lot of people around her, but it is the months ahead when she will need the most personal care by friends and family.
