In case you haven’t been keeping track, here is the latest American kill count for the past week:
Austin – A man killed three people at an apartment complex. Authorities described it as a “domestic situation.” The Austin police chief said the former detective knew and targeted his victims.
Kenosha – Three people were killed and two injured after a shooting at a tavern.
Chicago – A 7-year-old girl was killed and her father wounded in a shooting while sitting inside a vehicle at a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Columbus – A woman was killed and five were wounded after a shooting at a vigil for a homicide victim.
Detroit – Four people were shot at another shooting vigil.
Washington, D. C. – Three men and a teenage girl were shot for no apparent reason.
There have always been crazed killers and insane shooters. But in recent weeks America has experienced an orgy of mass murder. Is this confluence of killings serendipitous or systematic? I’ve learned as an exorcist that evil is never random. I am amazed by the meticulous planning of the devil who fulfils curses by linking multiple evil events over large swaths of times spanning centuries and even millennia. When we see clusters of killings, such as the recent murders in America, we can conclude that demonic intelligence is behind what appears to be tragic happenstance.
I am not suggesting that, for example, the eight victims in the shooting at an Indiana Fed Ex shipment center were themselves evil. I am saying that the killer was demonically motivated.
If I confronted any of these recent killers for just 15 minutes, I could define the reason for their actions. My claim is based on more than four decades of dealing with people infected with murderous curses. We won’t stop mass killings by firearm control or confiscating every sharp or blunt instrument, whether it’s a gun, a knife, or a baseball bat. Demon possessed people driven to kill will find a way. In the background of every murderer there is an ancestor who killed; parents who were abusive or neglectful; instances of sexual abuse and domestic violence. No heinous act is merely an individual expression of rage. It is always linked to the past. It generally involves an embedded curse of anger and violence.
Murder is instigated by the devil. Jesus said in John 8:44 that Satan is a murderer and has been from the beginning. In the past impulses to kill were somewhat restrained by societal moral codes based on Judeo Christian teachings. That moral consensus is gone, and the devil is freer to induce killing compulsions. The answers to stemming violent crime includes better mental health awareness; increased control of drug trafficking, lowering the tone of political and racial rhetoric; providing people with violent tendencies better opportunities for counseling. But these remedies alone will not solve the problem of callous killers. That is a spiritual matter which only the gospel of Christ can address and only prayers of deliverance can control.
