The film, “The Dark Knight Rises,” should prove the fact that the “Dark Man – Satan” has arisen to new heights of human death and destruction in America.

People whose desire was to watch darkness, death, and destruction from the postmodern world of virtual reality were shocked into screaming, ducking, crawling to escape from a barrage of bullets from the gun of a crazed madman. Regrettably, too many failed to escape wounding and death. They bled or died in the darkness of a theater pledged to entertain with horror. It was nothing especially new.

On April 20, 1999, at Columbine, Colorado, 13 were murdered and 26 were wounded.

On April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech, 33 were murdered and the gunman committed suicide.

On November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, Texas, 13 were murdered by a Muslim Jihadist. Two years later, he is still in jail, awaiting trial by our crippled justice system.

On January 8, 2001, at a public political gathering in Tucson, Arizona, 6 individuals were murdered and 13 were wounded. The murderer still awaits trial.

Popular FOX news anchor, Bill O’Reilly, declared, “Bad things happen to good people all the time. Nobody knows why, it’s just the way life is.”

Yesterday’s murderer, James Holmes, was “simply out of his mind.” A popular psychiatrist, interviewed by O’Reilly, put the blame for the blood and mayhem by saying, “We have a fractured mental health system.”

Speaking of the impact of movies on our lives, Film elite, Martin Scorsese, commented, “Movies define us. They inspire us. They’re what we dream of.”

One has to ask, are there any other reasons for what we are seeing in our culture today? Why do such horrible, terrifying things happen in our society? Personally, I believe there are some good answers.

Satan and his myriads of evil demons are alive on this earth; and more active than ever in human history. The Apostle Paul declared,

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, although they have denied its power, and avoid such men as these…And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5, 12-13)

Every unregenerate man, woman and child on this earth is totally depraved, void the indwelling life of God and living in rebellion against God.

The Prophet Isaiah declared, “Where will you be stricken again, as you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint, from the sole of the foot even to the head there is noting sound in it, only bruises, welts, and raw wounds.” (Isaiah 1: 5-6).

He was speaking of the ancient kingdom of Judah; but also describing the inner sinfulness and depravity of all men.

The Prophet Jeremiah declared, The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9).

Dr. Bob Jones, founder of Bob Jones University, used to say, “There is no sin that’s ever been committed that you cannot commit under the proper provocation.” There are both inner and outer provocations that drive individuals to commit heinous sins and crimes against fellow human beings. What are some of those provocations?

First, we must recognize that our nation has turned its back of God. Our nation has marginalized the idea of God and has rejected His Word as the primary source of wisdom concerning what is truly good and what is truly evil. When it’s illegal to post the Ten Commandments on public places of discourse, who’s to decide whether it’s evil to commit murder?

Abandoning the God-imposed death sentence for murder (Genesis 9:6), our courts have lost their “guts” for retribution, our jails are bulging with death-deserving killers, and our society is punished by having to support convicted murderers in more luxurious accommodations than are given our military veterans.

Second, our culture’s entertainment institutions have increasingly spewed out films and TV shows that major on crime, sex, violence, perversion, and occult evil. As Martin Scorsese said, “Movies define us. They inspire us. They’re what we dream of.” And with the Internet, those who propagate perversion and violence find it easy to abandon any sense of purity or common sense.

Third, the major religious denominations have long since abandoned teaching the Word of God and turned to social action. They are dying on the vine, having lost the vital lifeblood of the authoritative Word of God.

Fourth, the Evangelical Church – and in particular, “emergent” pastors and teachers have abandoned preaching on sin, hell, and God’s just punishment for our sin. Instead they stress love and unity based on doctrinal pluralism apart from God’s hatred for sin and just cause for holy vengeance.

Emergent congregations are bursting with curious people who are satisfied with moralistic sermonettes, therapeutic programs to increase desire for a more prosperous life. The emergent services and form of worship are generally void of any doctrinal teaching and theological content but filled with entertainment rivaling a rock concert or a community conference designed to promote a sense of well being, self esteem, and personal fulfillment by “being a better you.”

So you ask, “What can we do about all of this tragedy descending upon our society?”

• Ask God to invade our humanistic, godless culture and our theological vacuous churches with a Spirit-sent, spiritual revival – starting with our pastors.
• Demand that our pastors, preachers, and teachers proclaim the Whole Counsel of God, stop designing their sermons to meet the tastes of the pews, and molding God into an image of some “benevolent old man upstairs.”
• Demand that our Evangelical leaders stop trying to build “mega” churches that resemble a religious zoo, rather than an assembly of regenerate, repentant believers, desiring to grow up, come to know the “deep things of God,” and discover the power of the Living Christ by the Person of the Holy Spirit within us.

We must realize that our nation is morally and spiritually devolving because the Church of the Living God emulates the Laodicean Church of Revelation 3:14-22, which proclaims,

“I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.”

This, in most instances, describes the American Evangelical Church, which in reality fails to realize that it is “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked!”

We have abandoned the Cross, the Empty Grave, and the exalted Christ for a mess of pottage from Starbucks and Crispy Crème, while enjoying the tunes of the latest religious pop star. We have failed to realize that by our compromise with worldliness, we have abandoned our vocation as Ambassadors of Heaven.

May we see where we have come from, repent of our ungodliness, and turn to the God of Heaven, whose purpose is not to fill our television screens with the horrors of Century 16 and the aftermath of a nation that is experiencing the judgment of God.

Those who know God by faith in Jesus Christ have within their spirit’s a blessed Holy Spirit to witness to their spirit that they are a child of God. No matter what befalls us, we can be assured that God is sovereign in the universe. His purposes are being fulfilled and Christ is building His Church. The world cannot keep God’s kingdom from growing and Christ continues to be through His body the light that will eventually guide the People of God to the Celestial City.