As in the Days of Noah: Three warnings from the church shooting in Texas

Noah’s Ark by Edward Hicks (1780-1849)/Wikipedia/Public Domain

There might be three things that we can take away from the violent church shooting that took place at the West Freeway Church of Christ, in White Settlement, Texas on Sunday, December 29, 2019.

A transient walked into the church during the service and opened fire killing one person and critically injuring another, before being killed by the church’s armed security guard.

It was a disturbing act of violence, but is part of a trend of violent attacks against churches in recent years:

June 2015: A man walks into a Bible study of Emmanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston with a gun killing nine.
September 2017: One person was killed and seven people wounded after a gunman started shooting at a church in Nashville, Tennessee.
November 2017: 26 people were killed, and 20 wounded, when a gunman opened fire at a church service at the First Baptist Church in Sunderland Springs, Texas

So what exactly is going on?

As in the Days of Noah

Jesus warned in his description of the end times, that in the days leading up to Christ’s return, the world will become like the Days of Noah (Matthew 24:37).

So what were the days of Noah like?

¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
Genesis 6:11 ESV

It tells us that the one of the major characteristics of the world in Noah’s day was that it was “filled with violence,” which in turn means increased violence will also define the end times.

The source of violence: increased Demonic activity

In an interview with KJRH TV, the sister of the man responsible for the killing, said that her brother, Keith Kinnumen, was overtaken by demons. She said “demons just ended up getting ahold of him.”

There were some deep wounds in Kinnumen’s life. And his sister added that her brother launched his attack on the same day his younger brother died from an overdose ten years earlier.

Though she may have been talking about the severe emotional and mental problems that her brother struggled with, the Bible warns of increased demonic activity leading up to Christ’s second coming.

In his vision of the end times, the Apostle John saw an angel with a key unlocking a shaft releasing a horde of evil creatures:

9 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. ²He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. ³Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.
Revelation 9:1-3 ESV

It is generally believed these are demonic beings, but where did they come from and why were they imprisoned?

Jude talks about angels being kept in eternal bonds (Jude 6) and the Apostle Peter also talks about imprisoned spirits or angels and curiously connects them to the Days of Noah:

¹⁹in which He (Christ) went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, ²⁰because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
1 Peter 3:19-20

This would suggest that there were evil spirits imprisoned at the time of the flood. Some believe the “sons of God” who married the daughters of men were actually demonic beings that were imprisoned because of this evil activity.

Is the Apostle John suggesting these demons imprisoned in the Days of Noah will be released in the times? If so, there will be a significant increase in attacks against people and the Kingdom of God.

Forgive to fend off demonic attack

Perhaps the saddest story coming out of this brutal attack at West Freeway Church of Christ involved the daughter of the church deacon killed in the attack.

When Anton “Tony” Wallace, 64, was shot as he was serving communion, his daughter Tiffany rushed to her dad and held him as he died in her arms.

In an interview with NBC, Tiffany Wallace said:

“I forgive him, and it’s the hardest thing to say because it’s like, somebody killed your dad, but I forgive him.”
Tiffany Wallace, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

As a believer, Tiffany knew she needed to forgive the man who killed her father.

One of the warnings that the Apostle Paul gives is that we need to forgive, because a failure to forgive opens us up to demonic attack:

¹⁰But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, ¹¹so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
2 Corinthians 2:10-11 NASV

In this verse Paul was referring to an incident that he addressed in his first letter to the Corinthians where a man was living with his father’s wife. The situation had been resolved, and the church had forgiven the man.

The Apostle Paul was saying he also needed to forgive, because if he didn’t, it would leave an opening for Satan to attack.

So how does Satan attack people?

The words schemes is the Greek word “noema” that refers to mental perceptions or thoughts. The best way I have heard this described is mind games. If we are unwilling to forgive, Satan has the legal right to play mind games with us to torment us mentally. Through this Satan is also able to manipulate people.

So the third warning is this: If we are entering the Days of Noah as some believe, we need to quickly deal with our offenses.

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