Pence writes:
The slaughter of innocents is not a new event in Christian history. It is a recurring reality set in contrast to the rule of the Father, the protection of just men and the embrace of mothers. The death of innocents like the desecration of beauty is always a triumph of Babylon over Jerusalem. It motivates our petition that “Thy kingdom come… on earth as it is in Heaven.” For now the earth is a place contested, and no serious Christian confuses the purchased veneer of the alienated rich for the tranquility of God’s rule on earth.
We know that long ago before there were humans, long ago before there was a material universe, a deep and tranquil peace was burst asunder by a powerful self-absorbed Liar and Murderer. Since that primal act of evil – the origin of sin before original sin – God has bided His time in delivering the final judgment of separation. It is man’s fate (Adam’s original mission) that our species was created to play some central role in the final disposition of justice for that Angelic Demon and his followers. We were born on a battlefield. Sometimes we have stripped large parts of that battlefield and the souls of men from the grip of Satan. Too often, he has set us back, even retaking lands and cultures we once held for Christ.
We remember at our beginning when a woman tried to confront him on her own. We asked: where was her husband? Adam was missing from his protective station between the Serpent and his wife. At Bethlehem, at another slaughter, Joseph the silent workingman was at his post. The patriarch obeyed his order, showed his mettle and for one baby boy… Herod and the devil did not get their way.
In Connecticut at the sound of armed men, the one who had been entered by evil turned his weapon on himself. We remember the greatest betrayal of innocent blood on that Good Friday morn. We remember that “Satan entered into Judas” before he did his evil deed. Judas, too, turned coward after confronting a just man. He, too, showed the contempt that suicide adds to murder.
Every second that those brave school mothers bought for their children in their planning preparations during a quiet time and their personal courage in a violent moment, saved a life. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God and praise those valiant women.
Everywhere the rule of the Father is broken, the Evil One slithers up to prowl about for the ruin of souls. We have ceded him too many broken homes and twisted minds and naked public squares where he displays his tyranny.
God was there in the beautiful and brave women who protected their children. He was there in the armed men who quickly stopped the slaughter. We know too well what foul things emerge where His rule has been abandoned. Let us extend His rule.
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