By David Ettinger
Another Bloodbath
On Friday, March 15, 2019, a gunmen opened fire in two New Zealand mosques and killed 49 people. Many more were injured.

What makes this bloodbath stand out from the growing number of others is its location. New Zealand is generally regarded as warm, peaceful, and inviting. But alas, this beautiful nation’s tranquility was shattered by mass execution, as this plague infecting our planet has spread its tentacles to a new venue.
No Pattern
The New Zealand massacre is being attributed to white nationalists. Other massacres are the work of Islamic extremists. Here is the U.S., massacres emanate from so many sources, it is almost impossible to discern a pattern:
- In October 2018, 11 people were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
- In November 2017, 26 worshipers were slaughtered in a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church.
- Just a month earlier, a lone gunman in Las Vegas snuffed out 58 lives at a music concert.
- In June 2016, just seven miles from my home here in Orlando, Florida, another lone gunman gunned down 49 people in the Pulse nightclub.
- And, of course, more and more teenage assassins are rising up from within our high schools as troubled youths are spewing their wicked frustrations out on fellow students.
Again, there is no real pattern to all of these mass shootings as their sources are rooted in different causes, political philosophies, and mental degeneration. But one thing is certain: The massacres will continue, and in greater numbers.

Where it’s All Heading
All of this is the result of a growing humanistic world which more than ever before is rejecting the God who created it. As evil and immorality spread to every level of society, we will see more and more the fulfillment of Romans 1:28: “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.”
As the human race drifts further away from God and He allows them to behave according to the dictates of their depraved minds, the massacres will saturate society. Add to this that “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), and the potential for mass murder is profound.
When such incidents of evil grow so prevalent that nations can no longer control them, they will seek a lone, distinctive, god-like, powerful, charismatic world-leader who can protect this world from its innate wickedness. This man will promise to mend all of the world’s woes, root out all evildoers, and at last bring the global peace sought since the creation of the human race.

This man is referred to in the Bible as “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), and he will “oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (v. 4). Furthermore, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.” (vv. 9-10).
And why will this happen? Vss. 10-12 tell us: “They [those who reject God] perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
Still Time
More massacres are coming. Book it! However, for we who have embraced our Lord and Savior, there is still time to tell the lost about this wonderful and great Savior, and to “save some of them” (Romans 11:14).
May the Lord give us merciful hearts to share the message of salvation in this ever darkening and perishing world.
READ MY BLOG: “THE ORLANDO MASSACRE: GOD’S JUDGMENT?”
Lisa Beth
March 15, 2019
Good post David, I agree, these killings will become more prevalent. People will rise up and cry “gun control” when no one can control the murder in man’s heart.
We’ve cultivated this depravity by saturating ourselves with violent videos, walking dead, and now abortion upon delivery. Only “…the fear of God can keep us from evil” – our great moral deficit. 😟
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dettinger47
March 15, 2019
As always, so well said, Lisa Beth!
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seekingdivineperspective
March 15, 2019
So true, Lisa Beth! As I wrote long ago after the Oklahoma bombing, without changing the human heart, it doesn’t matter if we outlaw guns, knives, fertilizer, baseball bats, ropes – there’s no end to the creativity of those who are bent on destroying others.
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dettinger47
March 15, 2019
A sad amen to that!
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fromianscorner
March 15, 2019
Lisa Beth – beautifully put. 🤔🤔🤔
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dettinger47
March 15, 2019
I concur.
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fromianscorner
March 15, 2019
Brother David, what we are experiencing is what the Holy Scriptures calls “an increase in wickedness”. Many can feel it in the atmosphere. Pre-tribbers believe it heralds the imminent rapture. God is winding up the clock, perilous times ahead. We’re living in the Last Days. God bless – from across the pond. 😎😎😎
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dettinger47
March 15, 2019
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Ian. We are indeed living in the Last Days! Blessings to you as well.
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Dee@Sealed in Christ
March 15, 2019
Thank you, David. We live in terrible times, but exciting because we know that we are on the brink of witnessing what many in times past have longed to see – the end of the age and the return of the Lord. God bless.
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dettinger47
March 15, 2019
You are 100 percent correct, Dee. I couldn’t agree more!
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annj49
March 15, 2019
I believe that horrible massacres have happened, not just today, but throughout history. I think the difference today is that we live in a kind of instantaneous society where we may view things on screens practically as they happen in rather gory technicolor. We can see everything that happens everywhere…..sort of “godlike”in a very strange fashion.
I also believe that there are unseen hands (whether physically or spiritually driven) and sometimes political agendas in the background that drive some of these events and even the reporting of them. There is a direction that has been encouraged, mapped out and perhaps even paid for that we cannot immediately see, by evilly inclined people in positions of power.
The blog post raises for me the rather difficult question of free will in man as it relates to the sovereignty of God over it all. The ageless question of why bad things happen to good people is one of those questions as people deal with the aftermath of grief in any given event. Innocent people suffer the consequences.
I agree that there is an ever increasing direction in which a world without God, without hope, is headed, that is inevitable, and I applaud your effort to cause people to think more about that. Real questions. Realities to ponder, to chew on.
I’m reminded again of Acts 17:26 & 27, though here I will quote and share a little more:
“And He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes),
So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.
For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said,
For we are also His offspring.
Since then we are God’s offspring, we ought not to suppose that Deity (the Godhead) is like gold or silver or stone, [of the nature of] a representation by human art and imagination, or anything constructed or invented. Such [former] ages of ignorance God, it is true, ignored and allowed to pass unnoticed; but now He charges all people everywhere to repent (to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins),
Because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world righteously (justly) by a Man Whom He has destined and appointed for that task, and He has made this credible and given conviction and assurance and evidence to everyone by raising Him from the dead. [Ps. 9:8; 96:13; 98:9.]”
Acts 17:26-31 AMPC
https://www.bible.com/bible/8/act.17.26-31.ampc
Thank you for allowing me to share a few thoughts here as I try to absorb the current morning news…….
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dettinger47
March 15, 2019
Very well said, Ann, and thank you for sharing your thoughts here. Such events as we have had in New Zealand really do cause us to sit back and ponder such things. The passage you used from Acts is one of my favorite in all the Bible, is beautifully written, and moves me every time I read it. It is the perfect picture of God holding out His inviting arms and bidding humanity to come to Him.
Very worthwhile thoughts, Ann!
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vicklea
March 15, 2019
Very true, sadly. Men’s hearts are evil and they have no respect for the sanctity of life that God has created.
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dettinger47
March 15, 2019
So, true, Vickie.
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