If you are a human being that lives in America and wants justice for the thousands dead because of Osama Bin Laden, then it is probable that you, at the very least, feel some sort of joy that Osama has been killed. Is this joy righteous joy or sinful joy? Is it wrong to find joy in the death of someone who has the blood of thousands on his hands? The Bible makes it very clear in both the Old and New Testaments that we are to love and pray for our enemies. God himself said that the death of his enemies is not what he takes pleasure in, but he takes pleasure in their repentance (Ezekiel 33:11). Yet God knows that some people will never repent. There are also a plethora of verses indicating that the death of an enemy is something to rejoice over.
The difference between an enemy of God and anyone's personal enemy is huge. Many of the passages that appear to be relevant are speaking of personal enemies and have been taken out of context. These enemies being as simple as people we don't get along with or people who cause us to stumble. Isn't there a difference in that kind of enemy and an enemy of the God who has killed thousands of innocent people?
One could argue that God is not willing enemies to death and that their sin has brought it about, but there are dozens of places in the Old Testament and even New Testament where God strikes people or dead or wipes out entire cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah. God is love. But God's being love makes him a God of wrath as well. He is a God of eternal justice. While, to some, death may seem even too good for Osama Bin Laden, he will receive his due punishment from God.
My conclusion is that God provides justice. Do I think it is wrong for Americans and the rest of the world feel more at ease and safe in their own homes because this man is dead? No. Do I think it is wrong for the world to wish someone were dead? Yes. Has God's justice stepped in and ridded the world of a psychopathic mass murderer? Maybe. God is just. And whether or not that includes the earthly dead (like it does in the Old Testament), I do not think that it is wrong to rejoice in the death of an enemy of God. Was Bin Laden an enemy of God?
With that said, we must also mourn the death of a non-believer, for another soul has been won by the devil. It is not wrong to feel relieved. It is also not wrong to rejoice in God's justice and love.
I have no problem with rejoicing in God's justice, but I have a hard time rejoicing in the fact that someone died and is most likely going to hell. I don't think loving our neighbors should include being happy that someone will spend an eternity without God. I certainly wouldn't be happy if I were to spend an eternity in hell, and we are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves. Don't get me wrong, I see where you are coming from, but I just have a hard time being happy that a human being is going to hell.
ReplyDelete-Bob
It is not a matter of being happy that someone is in hell. Its a matter of rejoicing in the fact that God is just.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly it. Don't let's celebrate death: it is not good to be glad that he is dead. It is good to be glad that God is just.
ReplyDeleteI think there needs to be both great joy and sadness in the death of a non-believer. The truth is, no unbeliever is different in the eyes of God than Bin Laden. So when a good friend of mine died in high-school without knowing Christ, do you think I rejoiced at the knowledge that he is in Hell? Not quite. I mourned it. We should rejoice in God perfect justice. But we should also mourn the pervasiveness of sin that requires God to exact his just ways, knowing that it's only by God's divine election that it's us that are saved rather than them.
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