James Holmes, a 24-year-old University of Colorado student studying to earn his PhD in neuroscience, entered the Century Theater in the Aurora Mall through a side door on Friday during a midnight showing of the latest Batman film, The Dark Night Rises.  Donning protective gear, with his hair painted red, Holmes began shooting patrons in the theater, killing 14 and injuring 58 others, with 11 in critical condition, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history. 

 

When Holmes entered the theater, he opened a canister of smoke and moviegoers initially thought the man enveloped in smoke was staged for the Batman movie; but when he began shooting patrons, panic and chaos ensued.  Holmes was arrested in the parking lot after the shootings without incident.

 

Holmes won a scholarship to attend the University of California in Riverside, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience in 2010.  Timothy White, the university’s chancellor, told reporters, “He had the capability to do anything he wanted academically,” reported BBC News. 

 

According to Holmes’s profile, he is said to be a shy, very intelligent young man, who was a computer video game buff.  Other students interviewed after the massacre said Holmes was quiet and didn’t associate with anyone.  However, he was involved with a group of video game players.  His grades recently began to fall and he planned to withdrawal from classes at the university.   

 

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters on Friday that Holmes portrayed himself as Batman’s archrival, “The Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman.” 

 

This type of tragedy is outrageous, but not unique.  The teens who shot and killed fellow students at Columbine High School in 1999 were also video game buffs, immersing themselves in violent computer games.  Both boys, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, loved to play violent computer games for hours on end.  Their indulgences finally took their minds.  This is just one of the many stories with tragic results from compulsive use of violent computer games.   

 

Obsession with these violent games has spiritual and sometimes deadly consequences.  People who immerse themselves frequently in such violence open up spiritual doors for satanic oppression and even demon possession. 

 

As we have also seen recently in the flesh-eating cases, people who use drugs open up spiritual doors to evil and sometimes demon possession. 

 

It was reported that Rudy Eugene, who ate the face literally off of a homeless man in Florida, not only had been using Marijuana, but he had a Qu’ran in his car.  He was seen ripping the pages from a Bible just prior to attacking the homeless man.  Certain people just cross a spiritual line drawn by God Himself, which no one else can dictate, except God.  I don’t believe it was coincidental that Eugene had a Qu’ran in his car, as he was seen ripping the pages out of a Bible before the attack.  A spiritual “line” seems to have been crossed that day, which ended up deadly.  We can know this simply by the end results, mayhem and death.  The Bible says, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about seeking whom he may devour” 1 Peter 5:8.

 

After reading the news reports of this tragedy late yesterday evening, I determined I would write a report about it today.  As soon as I awoke this morning, this scripture came to mind (the Lord speaks to me in this manner at times), “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?  The kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords away from us.’  He who sits in the heavens will laugh; the Lord will have them in derision.” Psalms 2:1-4.  The young man who went on this rampage yesterday was apparently well educated.  It is also said that his parents live in an affluent neighborhood in San Diego, California.  Everyone who spoke of James Holmes said he appeared to be “shy.”  It seems he had everything going for him, yet without the Lord, we have nothing.  The Word of God continues few versus down, “…I have set my King (Jesus) upon My holy hill of Zion.  I will declare the decree: the Lord has said unto me, ‘You are My Son, this day I have begotten You’” Psalms 2:6-7.  He goes on to say, “Be wise now therefore, oh you kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.  Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling” Psalms 2:10-11. 

 

A person may appear to be on top of the world, have the best education, great family and nothing to want for, but as you can see, this tragedy bears out that the Word of God is true.  If you haven’t received Jesus as your Savior, the Son of the living God, who died to pay the price for your sins and mine, you have nothing. 

 

The Bible also says, “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind” 2 Timothy 1:7  God gives His people a “sound mind.”  The type of bizarre behavior you see all too frequently in the news today doesn’t come from those whose lives are surrendered to God.  Are you saved and protected from satan’s destructive path?  If not, please visit the How Can I Be Saved page of this website.  God bless you.