After the third assassination attempt on President Trump in under two years, many agree that something must change, but there’s no agreement on the real cause.

Blame is being widely spread, while those responsible for failed policies are largely avoiding accountability. The typical responses—more gun control and greater security—are again proposed, despite decades of such efforts with worsening results.

The problem runs deeper than these surface things. Something systemic has shifted in our society.

A Gallup poll shows acceptance of political violence declines sharply with age: 30% (18–29), 21% (30–44), 13% (45–59), and 4% (60+). Overall, about 21% of adults under 60 accept political violence, versus just 4% of older adults, showing a stark generational divide.

This trend lines up with recent violent events, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the attack on two National Guard soldiers in Washington, DC, and Luigi Mangione’s killing of Brian Thompson in December 2024, which many younger people supported. It also reflects ongoing violence against police officers and open disrespect of immigration enforcement, pointing to a much bigger problem than a purely security-and-guns issue.

There’s been a major mindset shift in our nation, fueling this trend, and it must be identified and addressed.

Our Founding Fathers knew the root of the issue. John Adams, our second president, said on October 11, 1798:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

In 1849, U.S. Speaker of the House Robert Winthrop is quoted as saying that men “must be controlled either by a power within them, or a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.”

Around 2011, Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen recounted a Chinese Marxist’s observation that democracy depends on voluntary law-keeping, shaped in part by religious belief or moral restraint. Without it, enforcement alone cannot sustain order.

I totally agree that a knowledge of biblical truth will restrain sin and that without it, the sinful nature of man is unbridled.

It’s not guns that kill people any more than forks make people fat. It’s what’s in people’s hearts. And evil would be far less common if biblical truths were more universally upheld.

The battle for truth has been largely lost due to our ungodly leaders’ rejection of biblical truth and authority. They bear significant responsibility for today’s violence, having systematically undermined the moral values that once restrained human behavior. They removed Bible reading and prayer from schools and replaced them with drag queens and pornography, while passing laws that have shaped an entire generation without belief in absolute truth. Increasingly, truth is defined by government rather than higher moral law, contrary to our Declaration of Independence, which grounds rights in the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.

The only solution is a return to God’s Word and the truths it presents.

Satan’s lies have gained a stronghold because God’s truth—the Bible—has been pushed aside. In the absence of biblical truth, lies have proliferated.

Not long ago, even non-Christians believed there was a God and a devil, a heaven to gain and a hell to avoid, and that they would answer to a just and holy God. That belief helped hold evil in check.

Proverbs 16:6 says, “By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” Without that fear, there’s no departing from evil.

Biblical truths have been eroded. We see people committing mass shootings and then committing suicide, thinking they will escape punishment. That’s a lie. They just procured for themselves an eternity in hell.

A case in point is the 1999 Columbine School shooting in Littleton, Colorado, where two teens killed 13 people before killing themselves. Gun bans were quickly pushed, but others noted that in earlier generations, students often carried guns to school without this kind of violence.

While this issue has many dimensions, the deeper problem is moral restraint.

However, there is hope. Bible sales are up, church attendance is rising for the first time in decades, and young men are the largest group returning. These are very positive signs, but there is a long way to go. Our leaders need to uphold the biblical morality that has served our nation well for 250 years.

I believe the Third Great Awakening has already begun. If each of us would stand for truth in our own area of influence, we could affect the whole nation. I pray you will join me in standing for biblical truth as the only lasting solution to the root cause of the evil trying to take over this nation.

Andrew Wommack is an evangelist and faith healer. He founded Andrew Wommack Ministries in 1978 and Charis Bible College in 1994.