When the news of Osama Bin Laden's death reached me, there was at first a reaction of "Holy crap!" After that there was a mixture of joy and uneasiness. On one hand, BIN LADEN was dead. On the other hand, Bin Laden was DEAD.
Then yesterday I was contemplating the whole thing. A lot of people on Facebook reacted in different ways. Some were positively elated. Others were uncertain because someone died. That's sort of how I felt. Should I, as a Christian, be happy that this terrorist is dead and gone? Or should I not be happy about it? Maybe it's weird that I have to think about how to feel about things, but I don't want to feel how I shouldn't about something, you know?
After some thought, I came to this conclusion. I'm not sure if this should be the universal Christian perspective or not, but it is this Christian's view.
I'm not particularly happy that someone had to die. Proverbs 24:17 has been quoted very often about this: "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles" (ESV). There's also that whole thing about eternal damnation and whatnot. That's a tough doctrine to swallow. As Christians, we shouldn't be glad when anyone dies unsaved.
Now, here's the flip-side of that. I am absolutely glad that a terrorist, who was still a threat to the world and would have killed thousands more people if he could have, has been stopped. Notice I didn't say killed, just stopped. It's unfortunate that he had to die for this to be accomplished, but it's fortunate that it was accomplished. Does that make sense? It's like war. It sucks. It shouldn't have to happen. But sometimes it's a necessary evil carried out to protect people.
We live in a fallen world. It's sad that things sometimes have to happen like they do. But we can rest in the fact that God can use anything for good as well. Is it good that Bin Laden died? No, because no one should have to die for anything. However, is what Bin Laden's death accomplished, that a murderer has been stopped, a good thing? Absolutely.
Maybe Christians shouldn't be "celebrating" but an even bigger issue in this discussion is shouldn't we strive not to take the Bible out of context when it's talking about personal vengence in passages such as Proverbs 24:17?
ReplyDeleteI don't have a personal vendetta against Bin Ladin, but I do strongly dislike him and feel that he needed to be brought to justice in this way; if I had seen him I'd shot him too because this punishment fit his crimes.
Consistently unrepentant, powerful people need to be brought to justice and if it's in the best interest of the international community and justice at large to seek a death penalty or assasination operation then God has ordained governments to bear the sword to bring justice (Romans 13).
We don't get to decide what punishment he deserved.
ReplyDeleteRomans 2 says "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
We all deserve death.