Lawlessness, End Times, and 10 Dead Immigrants in San Antonio
What motivated James Matthew Bradley Jr., to smuggle 200 undocumented immigrants across the US Border? Given the conditions, which resulted in the loss of life, it appears that he had no regard for humanity or the Rule of Law. His actions have resulted in the death of at least ten people.
Was this just another criminal act or was it something more? I suggest that it was something more than breaking the law; it was an act of lawlessness.
When I speak of lawlessness, I am referring to the growing disregard for the rule of law as evidenced or acknowledged as the basis for society.
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If you get a speeding ticket, you have broken the law. Technically, that might make you a lawless person, but that is not the lawlessness I am speaking of. You may have been unintentionally careless, which is true of most of us at times. Perhaps your genuine concern about some emergency at home caused you to subliminally press your foot on the accelerator a bit too hard in your haste.
If you saw the 55 mph sign, however, and then went barreling down the interstate at 80 mph because you just did not care what the authorities thought, or you thought it should be your right to drive as fast as you want to, then you might have the seeds of a lawless attitude that could become problematic if it carries over to other matters. It is this purposeful and intensifying flouting of the law on a wide-scale basis that should concern us.
God is neither shocked nor taken by surprise by the lawlessness He sees among humankind. Indeed, Jesus told us to expect it. He looked down the corridors of time, far beyond His impending death and resurrection, and He told His disciples what to expect. Among numerous teachings about the end of the age, He told them,
Many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in "all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:10–14
The Apostle Paul would soon confirm what Jesus was teaching. He, too, was aware of a grim time in the world's future when lawlessness would increase to unprecedented heights. He warned of a powerful and horrible "man of lawlessness" one day arising; in the meantime,
the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
2 Thessalonians 2:7–8
Thus the "mystery of lawlessness" was already beginning to spread in the first century and continues to gain momentum, yet it is still being restrained by God. Lawlessness is progressive and will someday reach its full power when God removes His restraint.
Why is it that, in a country founded with a great respect for the rule of law, whose leaders intentionally drew on Judeo-Christian morality to form the basis of national law, so many unjust laws were passed and unlawful actions abounded?
The answer is that lawlessness has little to do with civil or national law. This is because lawlessness is not the action of violating the established laws of a nation; lawlessness runs much deeper and is by nature spiritual.
Inhumane acts like the one that James Matthew Bradley Jr., committed against his fellow man enrages all of us. But who is to blame? Beyond the accused, we all carry the responsibility of the unraveling of society. When we fail to insist on justice and the rule of law, we allow evil and lawlessness to prevail.
