Poway Synagogue Shooting Shows Us The Power Of God Over Satan

This past Sabbath, while Jews around the world were celebrating Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating God freeing His Chosen People from the bonds of slavery in Egypt, an antisemitic, white supremacist (and I mean an actual white supremacist, not people who simply disagree with the Left) opened fire in a Poway synagogue, killing one and wounding three others.
 
And while this is a tragedy, as any loss of life is a tragedy, we can see the power of the Lord at work to defeat someone who is working for Satan through the actions of two brave men.
 
According to reports, a U.S. Border Patrol agent named Jonathan Morales and a former combat veteran who served in the Navy and the Army, named Oscar Stewart, kept the shooter (whose name I will omit as to not give him recognition for his heinous crime) from making that a much bloodier day than it already was.
 
The shooter reportedly went into the synagogue, shot at the Rabbi, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, blowing off two of his fingers, shot at an elderly woman who was trying to protect the Rabbi, killing her in the process, shot at an 8-year-old girl and her uncle, both of whom were injured, but have thus far survived.
 
In the midst of this, Stewart, the combat veteran, made the decision to run towards the gunman, knowing that the shooter’s AR-style rifle would not be effective within five feet.
 
He recalled: “I heard gunshots. And everybody got up and started trying to get out of the back door, so I – for whatever reason – I didn’t do that. I ran the other way. I ran towards the gun shots. When I came around the corner into the lobby area, I saw the individual with a gun, and he fired two rounds. I knew I had to be within five feet of this guy so his rifle couldn’t get to me. So I ran immediately towards him, and I yelled as loud as I could. And he was scared. I scared the hell out of him. And I yelled at him and I must have yelled very loud, and he looked at me, and I must have had a really mean look on my face or something, because he immediately dropped his weapon and turned and ran. And then I gave chase.”
 
There were reports that the gun had jammed before the shooter ran to his car, but Stewart noted that it was unlikely. “Full automatic weapons will jam. Semi-automatic weapons do not jam.” Stewart figured that the gunman’s magazine simply ran out of ammo, so he dropped the gun and ran to his car.
 
Stewart then reportedly ran towards the gunman’s car, started pounding on it before he saw the gunman reach for another rifle. However, Border Patrol agent Morales came running and “yelled for Stewart to get down because Morales had a gun.” According to reports, Morales shot at the car multiple times in the hopes of disabling it, but the shooter drove away. The two brave men then called the police to report the guy’s license plate, but the shooter turned himself in soon after, interestingly enough.
 
The entire situation, however, demonstrates the power of God over Satan. The shooter intended to cause great harm and damage to Jews. According to posts he made on 8-chan, a reportedly “far-right” message board site, the guy hates Jews and Israel, blaming them for supposedly “sealing the doom” of the “European race”, spoken much like Adolf Hitler, whom the shooter mentions as being his inspiration, alongside the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter and the Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shooter.
 
The shooter also reportedly blames the Jews for “persecution of Christians” for their role in the deaths of Jesus, as well as prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah… all of whom were Jewish, so I’m not so sure about that.
 
According to the Jerusalem Post, the shooter claimed he was carrying out the attack in order to be a “good Christian”, saying “My God understands why I did what I did.”
 
Suffice it to say, he was not being a good Christian. God certainly understands why he did what he did, seeing as He’s omniscient, but that does not mean He sees it as a good or righteous thing. Far from it. If the shooter were really a “good Christian”, he would understand NOT TO KILL OTHER PEOPLE among many, many other things.
 
Plenty of people use God in terrible, sinful ways. One argument the Left often makes regarding religion is that it was used to justify slavery. But it was also used to justify ending it. Slavery is not a Christian thing. It’s not what God wants. And before you point out the multiple times in the Bible where the word is used and it’s not taken as a bad thing, please understand that there’s a difference between indentured servitude and paying off a debt through labor.
 
It is nothing new to see Satan use the scripture to perform evil deeds. Satan used scripture to tempt Jesus, after all. So it’s not exactly new for someone who claims to be a Christian to use scripture to try to justify committing an evil act. However, it is important to note that such a thing is inherently anti-Christian. Just as any “Christian” trying to justify abortion, any “Christian” trying to justify the killing and persecution of Jews is not a real Christian.
 
The shooter blamed the Jews for what they did to Jesus, but what happened to Jesus was NECESSARY FOR OUR ATONEMENT! We are evil by nature and nothing we can do on our own accord justifies us or makes us righteous. What we need is a perfect being to be our substitute, to be punished in our stead and make us justified in the Eyes of the Lord. Jesus is that perfect substitute. What happened to Him is heart-wrenching and gruesome, but the ultimate blessing for those whom He calls.
 
To blame Jews, particularly today’s Jews for what the Pharisees and Romans did to Jesus is like blaming white people today for what white Democrats did in the past regarding slavery and segregation. Christians have no better ally in the world than the Jews and vice versa.
 
The power of God is clearly seen in the fact that the shooter likely ran out of ammo and was scared off by brave men, one of whom had a gun with him. Satan led the supposed “Christian” to commit this detestable crime against God’s Chosen People, but God kept the shooter from doing more damage than he could have.
 
Satan already knows he is finished, that he will not win. At this point, he just doesn’t want to be lonely by the time he burns in the lake of fire and sulfur, so he entraps people like this shooter. He loves nothing more than to bring people away from God, away from Christ. But his defeat was made concrete from the very beginning.
 
2 Thessalonians 3:3
“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”

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