If negative news were to be subtracted from the various reporting outlets, whether mainstream or otherwise, precious little would remain to be reported. But within the past few days, students of Bible prophecy and our Lord’s predictions of the last days couldn’t help but notice four horrific vignettes of humanly-inflicted tragedy, within the space of three short days, in the midst of a season one likes to identify with hope and peace.

On Saturday, December 13, 2025, shortly after 4 pm, a lone gunman on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, shot 11 people, killing two of them [1]. Two days later, the same gunman apparently assassinated—for there can be no kinder word—a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts [2]. The suspect in both crimes, one Claudio Valente, was found dead in a storage facility on Thursday evening, December 18, apparently from a self-inflicted wound [3].

On Sunday, December 14, during the celebration of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, the deadliest terror attack in the history of Australia (and the second deadliest mass shooting in Australian history) took place as two gunman—a father and son, no less—slaughtered fifteen people, including a child [4].

That same day—December 14, 2025—famed actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home [5]. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder [6].

Vignettes of Violence

What to say??

First and foremost, our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the victims of these tragedies. We pray that God will draw near to those stricken with grief, to those recovering from the shootings in Providence, Brookline, and Sydney, and to all who in one way or another have been affected by these vile deeds.

Again, those of us familiar with the words and predictions of the Bible recall our Lord’s statement that in the last days, “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12), that “as in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26). And the Bible tells us that in the days of Noah, just before the world’s destruction by the great Flood, “the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11).

Commenting on this verse, Ellen White observes regarding those days:

The land was filled with violence. War, crime, murder, was the order of the day. Just so it will be before Christ’s second coming [##7|Ellen G. White, SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 1090.##].

The Waiting Contrast

Such events as those noted above have become so commonplace as to become almost routine. But what should ever press to the minds of God’s end-time people is the absent contrast for which humanity—and the universe—still waits.

Ellen White describes this waiting contrast in such statements as the following:

Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own [##8|——Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 69.##].

John foresaw the conflict between the remnant church and the power of evil, and said, “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

The forces of darkness will unite with human agents who have given themselves into the control of Satan, and the same scenes that were exhibited at the trial, rejection, and crucifixion of Christ will be revived. Through yielding to satanic influences, men will be transformed into fiends; and those who were created in the image of God, who were formed to honor and glorify their Creator, will become the habitation of dragons, and Satan will see in an apostate race his masterpiece of evil—men who reflect his own image [##9|——SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 974.##].

The warfare against God’s law, which was begun in heaven, will be continued until the end of time. Every man will be tested. Obedience or disobedience is the question to be decided by the whole world. All will be called to choose between the law of God and the laws of men. Here the dividing line will be drawn. There will be but two classes. Every character will be fully developed, and all will show whether they have chosen the side of loyalty or that of rebellion.

Then the end will come. God will vindicate His law and deliver His people [##10|——The Desire of Ages, p. 763.##].

The world desperately awaits the positive side of this contrast. The apostle Paul writes that “the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19). May they not wait much longer!

It’s hard to imagine wickedness becoming more wicked, though it’s wise never to say that. But that isn’t what God is waiting for. It’s the perfecting and preparedness of His saints that is holding up the end of history, multiplying the atrocities which continue to deepen human sorrow. May our focus fasten ever more decidedly on the goal of complete Christlikeness in the midst of this dark and evil world, is my prayer.

REFERENCES

1. “2025 Brown University shooting” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Brown_University_shooting#Victims

2. Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Jack Date, Luke Barr, Katherine Faulders, Pierre Thomas, and Jack Moore, “Brown University and MIT shooting suspect found dead; identified as former grad student,” ABC News, Dec. 19, 2025 https://abcnews.go.com/US/brown-mass-shooting-mit-professor-murder-linked-sources/story?id=128530691

3. Ibid.

4. “2025 Bondi Beach shooting” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Bondi_Beach_shooting

5. “Rob Reiner” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Reiner

6. Ibid.

7. Ellen G. White, SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 1090.

8. ----Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 69.

9. ----SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 974.

10. ----The Desire of Ages, p. 763.