The Murderer and The Hero

Last weekend something terrible and something incredible happened. The terrible thing that happened was that a young Reformed, professing Christian man, walked into a Synagogue and opened fire on innocent worshippers as they held a Passover celebration. The young man, John Earnest was a regular attendee of his church and according to those who knew him he was a quiet and good student, and he knew his faith very well. He also happened to be a secret white supremacist who has been harbouring hatred for his fellow man.  

The weapon he took into the Chabad of Poway was an AR-15 rifle. The AR-15 is one of the most popular assault rifle platforms because it is versatile, and effective. It is easy to use and easy to train someone to use effectively, which is why many militaries have been using a version of this rifle for decades. Indeed many mass shootings in recent US history have been carried out with the same rifle, and the death tolls in some of those shootings were incredibly large…but not this time. Why?

Well because of the incredible actions of a Jewish military veteran. The Daily Caller reports:

“The man who fired a semi-automatic weapon inside the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego on Saturday froze, dropped his gun and sprinted to his car when he saw Oscar Stewart come barrelling toward him, yelling so loud the priest at a neighbouring church could hear” (Stoltzfoos 2019). 

Stewart's first response to seeing this coward of a man enter a place of worship and open fire on innocent people was to shout to his wife and others around him, “Get down.” And then he ran towards the shooter shouting at him as he ran. What happened next to John Earnest has happened to many cowards as they are confronted by real heroes on the battlefield: he freaked out and ran. Only this wasn’t a battlefield, this was a place where everyone should be safe.

Stewart's shouting was so loud “…others who were there later told him it sounded like four or five people were shouting. He thinks maybe an angel was standing behind him and speaking through his voice” (Stoltzfoos 2019).  The shouting did scare the hell out of the violent kid. When the shooter turned to run, that is run away from an unarmed man who had the courage of a true soldier, that courageous soldier immediately set off after him, chasing him to his car and banging on the window, trying to break in to catch the guy who shot several innocent people and could have killed many. As he was doing this an off duty officer came to his aid.

As a combat veteran Oscar Stewart knew the lethal effectiveness of an AR-15 style rifle first hand. And yet he ran straight at it, risking his life to save the lives others. It’s an amazing thing, and I hope this hero is given all the rewards he deserves. He should never have to work another day in life, the least they could do is exempt him from ever paying taxes again. He is a first class hero, he is a first class man, someone every man should want to emulate and every young boy should be raised to want to be like.

What’s fascinating is that the Jewish Apostle John tells us something about both of these men in his little Epistle known today as 1 John. 1 John 3:11-12 tells us this:

“11 For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”

To murder someone is to be like Cain and to belong to the evil one, the devil. John Earnest may have known his theology well, he may have known that in the Reformed concept of salvation that God chooses who are his and gives them faith, he may have believed that he was one of those chosen, but he has shown through his actions that he is not of God but is of the evil one.

Now John also tells us this: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16). As Jesus said, true love is to lay one’s life down for their loved ones (John 15:13). Oscar Stewart displayed more of the image of God in his actions, than the professing believer John Earnest. He displayed the highest form of love, to be willing to sacrifice one’s life for their family and friends.

I am a Christian, and I believe the only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ, this is a very different concept of salvation to the Orthodox Judaism Oscar Stewart subscribes to. But out of these two men the one who more closely resembles the kind of sacrifice Jesus made for us all on the cross was the Jewish man who was willing to die on behalf of others, if only he could save some. Thankfully Stewart didn’t die, and thankfully his heroic actions saved many lives on that day. He displayed powerfully an aspect of the image of God that Jesus would have every believer display: the willingness to lay down our lives for others. 

Two men stood out in that Synagogue one a murderer, the other the hero. I know who I would rather be like, the one who was willing to lay down his life to save the lives of others. As for the murderer, well like Cain he has declared his allegiance. May God deal with him as God sees fit, and may justice be swift. 

References

Rachel Stoltzfoos, COMBAT VET WHO STOPPED THE SYNAGOGUE SHOOTER: ‘I SCARED THE HELL OUT OF HIM’ https://dailycaller.com/2019/04/28/combat-vet-stopped-san-diego-synagogue-shooter/?fbclid=IwAR3JVEol0s5Ge_-TuJyjfecOKc5RFp69xz-ROsQdUVFACBgK2zje8sTM2WU.