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Early in August 2009, a Pennsylvania man made national headlines by killing three people and wounding several others in a gymnasium near Pittsburgh. After firing over fifty rounds, he shot and killed himself.
A report on the internet revealed that the man believed he was a Christian. Here are portions of his writings taken from his online diary.
“Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell,” Sodini apparently wrote, before adding later, “I was reading the Bible and The Integrity of God beginning yesterday, because soon I will see them.”
Who told him this? He likely heard it on Christian TV or in church. What could have been missing from the gospel that he heard?
Later when he read the Bible, he read it selectively and with the filter he had received from listening to the gospel of “grace” as preached almost everywhere today. As a result, the man believed that he was saved by grace and NOT by works—perhaps after repeating a “sinners’ prayer.” Therefore he did not need to repent from his sins and live a holy life. He could even commit murder and still see God and Jesus in heaven after killing himself. It is even possible that he thought murder and subsequent suicide was his fast track to heaven because of God’s grace. How different is this from the teaching in a certain religion that if we kill infidels in a suicide bombing, we will be rewarded in heaven with 72 virgins?
Should some of the blame for this heinous act be laid at the feet of ministers who preach God’s grace gone wild?
To view the online report which includes the diary excerpt, please click on: http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=8255530&page=1
Report on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIVZ6qM3DAc