Monday, May 2, 2011

Who will mourn Bin Laden??

To Bin Laden we were his enemies. To him hating us and killing us was an offering to Allah. “Christianity” is not innocent of this crime.

In my flesh I am glad he is dead. I have wanted him dead from the moment I found out he was behind the attacks of 9-11! Everyday, I waited in anticipation of the news that some hero had found him in a cave and filled him with lead! I do feel that justice came to him, but there is also something inside of me that twinges when I say this. Who am I to call anything just, when I am subject to the same judge as Bin Laden? In fact, the only reason that our judgments may be different is because of something that has nothing to do with me.
This Passage keeps coming to mind:

“ There's nobody living right, not even one,
nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
They've all taken the wrong turn;
they've all wandered down blind alleys.
No one's living right;
I can't find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves,
their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don't know the first thing about living with others.
They never give God the time of day.
This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin.”
(Romans 3:10-20)

It is easy to say that Bin Laden deserves to die and burn in hell but so does everyone else. In God’s eyes sin is sin. Bin Laden’s murderous attitude and deeds do not somehow weight heavier on the God scale than my own sins. “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” (1 John 3:15)

Hell sounds like a horrible place. So much so that God gave his only Son as a perfect sacrifice for us so that we would not have to endure it. (John 3:16) Then he sent his spirit into all those who believe to empower them to carry this message of salvation all over the world so that others will also have a chance to accept this gift of salvation. (1 Cor. 5:20) Anyone who dies without this gift is a tragedy to God, even a man like Bin Laden. So, shouldn't that be a tragedy to me as well?

1 comment:

  1. Markus --- once again, a very good point and you are right, sin is sin. I have felt all along that watching people cheer and jubilate over his death was somehow wrong. I'm not saying I liked the man or that he didn't deserve some type of justice. I just wonder if this was what God had in mind for "One Nation Under God".

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