***STATEMENT***
Dr. Richard Land Writes Christian Post Commentary on Texas Church Shooting
Texas Native, Evangelical Leader and Southern Evangelical Seminary President: ‘As a Christian and as a Fellow Baptist Pastor, My Heart Aches’
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Texas native, Evangelical leader and Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.ses.edu) President Dr. Richard Land penned a commentary this week for The Christian Post, where he serves as executive editor, on the tragic shooting at a small Texas church on Sunday that left 26 dead and over 20 wounded.
“I am literally broken-hearted over the terrible, gut-wrenching events that transpired last Sunday at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas,” Land wrote. “Firing indiscriminately, shooting some of his victims at point blank range, the shooter murdered at least 26 people (27 if you count, as I do, the third-trimester baby whose mother was among those killed) and wounded well over 20 more congregants, some critically. One 5-year-old is in critical condition with bullets in his stomach, groin and arm.”
Only a handful of the church members were not killed or wounded. This small church in this tiny Texas farming community of approximately 400 people just outside of San Antonio was a stable town where the same families have worked and lived for generations. Three generations of one family were among the victims, aged 18 months to 73 years old.
“As a Christian and as a fellow Baptist pastor, my heart aches for the church’s pastor, Brother Frank Pomeroy, and his wife,” Land continued. “They were away for the weekend and now come back to a flock decimated by this savage act of violent evil, including the murder of their 14-year-old daughter. All of the church’s deacons (the lay leadership) were also killed, so Brother Pomeroy and his wife face a flock not only devastated and heartbroken, but bereft of leadership, other than himself and his grieving, broken-hearted wife.”
Land added that his sister-in-law knows the Pomeroys personally—“they are ‘Frank and Sherri’ to her”—and Land said his impression is “these folks are real, salt-of-the-earth, good-hearted people, who would do anything for you.”
“As a fellow Christian, I take comfort, as I know the pastor, his wife, and surviving church members do, in the fact that our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are now in Heaven with Jesus, their Savior and Lord,” Land continued. “As Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross, ‘Today thou shalt be with me in paradise’ (Luke 23:43). The Apostle Paul has assured us as disciples and followers of Jesus that ‘to be absent from the body’ is ‘to be present with the Lord’ (2 Cor. 5:6).
“The right side of my brain and my heart grieve for my fellow Christians and their suffering and grief. Even knowing that their loved ones are in Heaven, they grieve for the loss of children, parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and brothers and sisters in Christ whom they will miss so terribly in the days, months and years ahead.
“However, the left side of my brain remembers that the Bible tells us that the heart of fallen man (and that is all of us) ‘is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?’ (Jer. 17:9). We live in a fallen and sinful world wracked by spiritual warfare, and people have, and will, do terrible things to their fellow human beings.
“Pray for all those who are emotionally distraught and grieving over this horrible event in Texas last Sunday,” Land concluded, “including the shooter’s parents and family, who must be devastated that their son and loved one could commit such despicable acts.”
Read Land’s entire Christian Post commentary here.
For more information on SES, visit its web site at www.ses.edu or its Facebook page, follow the SES Twitter feed, @sesapologetics, or call (800) 77-TRUTH.
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