Well, I'm sure by now that this isn't the first thing that you will have read about the death of Osama Bin Laden. I don't think there has been a news channel in the world that hasn't said something about it either... except perhaps maybe DIY and possible the food network... I've seen news paper headings from "He's Dead" to "Rot in Hell" with Osama's face plastered all over it...
and rightly so... right?
I mean He killed thousands and thousands of people! He designed and trained an organization that is bent on the merciless destruction of innocent people!! He clearly is true evil!!
But really... should we as Christians join in the celebrations that have taken place over the death of a man? Is it right to feel happiness over a life lost? Should we feel guilty for feeling this good about the "justice" that has been done and what is in many ways vengeance that America has taken for 9/11?
Just running a simple search in Bible Gateway... I find 3 Psalms (44, 60, 108) in which the words "victory" and "enemies" appear together. David himself rejoiced over the victories over his enemies... We can read in many different portions of the Bible in which Evil people were killed because of their works, oppression, and even killing of others... and in most of those times, God was praised for it...
So is it ok for us to be happy about Bin Laden's death or for us to celebrate over the killing of a mass murderer?
Well... I don't think that it is at all an accident that in each of these Psalms that the lines of the verses that follow "victory of my enemies" contain phrases:
" With God we will gain the victory" and
"In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever."
This is an important perspective check for us... We need to remember that it is ultimately God who brings victory in any situation...
We also read the words of Jesus who says that we should "love our enemies" which, as difficult as it is, would include Bin Laden.
But I don't think that these things really get at the heart of the matter. Whether or not it is right, we still feel good about Bin Laden's death. I know that I was pretty much all smiles when I watched the President announce that we had successfully brought him down... and I've been watching news coverage about it from CNN to Comedy Centrals' Daily Show and Cobert Report about it... feeling like we had done some good...
...and I think that is exactly it... we feel that this is a point in which good has prevailed over evil... and we want to feel good about that!! As well we should too!! In recent months we have endured Earthquakes, Floods, Fires, Radiation, Tornadoes, Political Fights, Murders, etc etc etc... and this is something good that we can latch on to!! GOOD has finally prevailed in something!! So everyone celebrates...
Yet again the reality is that Bin Laden, a sinner as far as we know him, has died without coming to the saving knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ... and it takes a truly cold person (especially a Christian) to think that Hell is ok for anyone. I think this needs to check our attitude towards this situation, and may need to serve as a wake-up once again for Christians... that people are dying without the life-changing, soul-saving love of Christ, and that too is wrong!
So what should we do about this? CELEBRATE!! The forces of good have won this day!! That, as Tolken writes in his Lord of the Rings book, "There are other forces at work in this world... besides the will of evil." This event is evidence of that in a very big way! I would encourage happiness about good advancing... and celebrate it along with the stories of people helping each other, unity, and stories like that from the tornado ravaged south, earthquake torn Japan, or flooded Australia. These too have evidences of good triumphing over the results of evil and brokenness in the world.
We ought not celebrate a death... but when good prevails we shall rejoice!!
Psalm 44:8
"In God we make our boast all day long,
and we will praise your name forever."
Grace and Peace...
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