Love Waxing Cold Among Many:

Jesus indicated that one (of many) signs of the end times or the end of the age grace would be that love for one another would grow cold. Matthew 24:12, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” This can also be interpreted that lawlessness will abound. This includes violence, murder, terrorism, shootings, abortion, sexual attacks, knife attacks, car/van attacks, chemical attacks and other similar acts of destructive and evil behavior. Yes, these things have occurred in time past. But consider the frequency, intensity and devastation of these types of attacks and mass school shootings. They are like birth pangs in frequency and intensity. This is just one part of the CONVERGENCE or CONVERGING of signs.

Increasing Violence, Lawlessness, Anger, Hate and Homicide: Why can’t even a pandemic lockdown stop Americans from being gunned down in mass shootings?

2 Apr, 2020 19:24 RT

In the US, the immediate impact of Covid-19 seems to be a sharp drop in crime, except for one major category. About twice as many people have died in mass shootings this March as in the same time in previous years.

In March of 2018, there were 10 deaths from mass-shootings. In March of 2019, there were 12 deaths. During this March, under the quarantine conditions of a pandemic, there were 26 mass-shooting fatalities. The number of wounded has also increased this March compared to the last.

The United States has had the most mass shootings of any country, and even in the midst of a pandemic, the rate is not declining.

With Covid-19 impacting social behavior, many forms of crime have ebbed, at least for now. In New York City, the area hardest hit by the outbreak, the number of serious felonies dropped 16.6 percent from March 16 to March 22 compared to the same period in 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal. Burglaries and assaults were each down about 18 percent compared with the previous week. 

Against this trend, the fact that the mass-shooting statistics are actually slightly worse than the same period in previous years emphasizes how intractable the culture of mass-shooting violence is in America. The propensity for violence and the high-frequency of incidents is such that the numbers are unaffected even by unprecedented circumstances, when almost all citizens are off the streets.

What is keeping these mass-shooting numbers up, even in the midst of a massive social emergency like Covid-19? In large part, the proportion of gang violence has held steady in troubled neighborhoods that are flouting quarantine orders, lending credence to the argument of conservatives that it is inner-city gangs that are driving the numbers, and emphasizing their view that firearm regulations are an unnecessary impingement on their rights as responsible gun owners.

There were multiple events in gang-ridden counties of Maryland, and Detroit and Atlanta. A gunman in Tulare, California opened fire on a group of more than 50 (5) people gathered following the burial of a man who died in a car crash, killing one man and wounding five (5) others, including a little girl. Another incident was at a Maryland shopping plaza, outside an event at a dance studio. In another neighborhood, a mass shooter fired into a crowd that had gathered for a birthday party for a man who had died a few days earlier. A man was killed and 17 other people were wounded after gunfire erupted at a party involving multiple motorcycle clubs in Ohio. In all these instances, investigators said the groups should not have been gathering due to the stay-at-home order in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gang violence, however, did not account for all the mass-shootings in March. A man killed six family members before turning the gun on himself Sunday evening in the rural Moncure area of North Carolina.

Data collected by the National Gang Center, the government agency responsible for cataloging gang violence, can help determine whether America has a gang problem or a gun problem. While the number of gangs and gang members has been on the rise for several decades, there has been a decrease in gang-related homicides. With gang membership and gun homicide rates moving in opposite directions, it mitigates against the argument that gang violence is truly driving the homicide rate.

The cultural divide in the US prevents anything meaningful being done to reduce the scale of such horrific events. The rate of mass-shootings hasn’t decreased, even as the country is hunkering down behind closed doors. The stubborn rate of such incidents, in the midst of a pandemic, is highlighting numerous cultural fault lines in the US: the political and cultural divisions, the cycle of violence and harsh socioeconomic conditions of many inner cities, and a latent insinuation about race: gang violence, for many, typically implies African-American gang violence. As a sad consequence, not even a pandemic can stop Americans from being gunned down in mass-shootings.

People ran to gun stores in record numbers in March, seeking self-defense weapons amid the coronavirus scare, driving sales up about 83 percent. Handgun sales jumped 91 percent over March 2019, and rifles surged 73 percent. America already has the most guns per head of population in the world. No other country is even remotely close. In the United States, 42 percent of households have one or more guns. Mass shootings in schools, night clubs, at concerts, churches, and in the streets have become commonplace. Many elementary schools practice ‘active-shooter’ scenarios, and the architecture of new schools is being designed to make hallways shaped to reduce the target environment for would-be shooters. The US gun homicide rate is 25 (5×5) times that of other high-income countries. More than 50% (5) of American adults or someone they care for have experienced gun violence in their lifetime.

Gangs may be indifferent to viruses and public restrictions; but the incidents are happening all over the country, and the worst incidents: in the Pulse Nightclub, and El Paso, and Las Vegas, were lone-wolf gunmen, armed with what various US laws define as assault weapons. Not even a pandemic can mitigate against a chronic problem at the heart of American society.

(Night Watchman Note: What will happen when millions of Christians suddenly ‘disappear’ in the ‘twinkling of an eye”??? Those who may be first-responders, doctors, nurses, support staff, policemen, firefighters, homeless volunteers, those in the red cross or other emergency aid and relief organizations, in the national guard or military, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. You get the picture.)

1 Corinthians 15:52

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Jesus Christ’s Offer of Salvation:

The ABCs of Salvation through Jesus Christ (the Lamb)

A. Admit/Acknowledge/Accept that you are sinner. Ask God’s forgiveness and repent of your sins.

. . . “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23).

. . . “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10).

. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).

B. Believe Jesus is Lord. Believe that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be; that He was both fully God and fully man and that we are saved through His death, burial, and resurrection. Put your trust in Him as your only hope of salvation. Become a son or daughter of God by receiving Christ.

. . . “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:15-17). For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

C. Call upon His name, Confess with your heart and with your lips that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.

. . . “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10).

. . . “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (John 1:8-10).

. . . “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2).

. . . “In this was manifested the love of god toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:9, 14-15).

. . . “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:8-10).

. . . “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).

. . . “Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).

. . . “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” (Romans 1:16).

. . . “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts: 4:12).

. . . “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

. . . “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

. . . “But as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12).

True Church / Bride of Christ Spared from God’s Wrath:

 Romans 5:8-10. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Romans 12:19. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 1:10. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 5:9. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 8:35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Jeremiah 30:7. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.

Revelation 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.