The Well Palmdale, CA

May 1st was truly an historic day.  It was the day that a group of Navy Seals invaded the hideout compound of Osama bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda which has been the single most evil terrorist group in recent memory. He was shot and killed along with other members of his organization.  Bin Laden has been responsible for thousands and thousands of innocent deaths of men, women, and children.  He was behind the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa in the 90's, the 9/11 attacks, and many more cowardly attacks upon innocent lives.  He was a coward, a hater of the truth, a murderer, a thief, and an extraordinary dangerous man. 

Since Sunday, I've been asked by some if this is a good thing.  Not so much that Osama bin Laden is out of power, or that Al Qaeda now has been struck a, hopefully, fatal blow.  The questions seem to be more, "Is it okay to rejoice over this?"  In short, "yes"...but this sort of question demands much more than a short answer. 

In Scripture, we see very clearly that God is the creator of all life (Genesis 1:26-28).  The command that was given to Adam and Eve (and therefore, to all mankind) was to increase in number...be fruitful and multiply.  We see here that God's heart desires humanity to be about making life, not taking it away (as it is very clear also in God's Law-Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17, etc).  Now, we can start taking some more passages out of context in order to prove our point, but if we look at Scripture as a whole, God loves life and hates death (which is why He sent His Son to rescue us from death and give us life).  This basic understanding of the world will prove helpful in interpreting all that went down on Sunday. 

Now, there are a couple different approaches we could take, Biblically, in order to understand how we should feel about the death of Osama bin Laden and what happened on Sunday.  I will do my best to approach as many as possible, as succinctly as possible, though, I would like to pose this blog post as simply a portion of the discussion on this topic and not an all encompassing approach to a topic that possesses many nuances that come with all life/death issues.  The approach we will take will focus directly upon the single issue of the death of Osama bin Laden and the Christian response.

There are two general feelings about bin Laden's death (let me emphasize...these are generalities for the sake of simplicity, and these are general American feelings about bin Laden's death...this does not get into the heart of what is going on internationally).  These two feelings are: 1) A feeling of confusion over wanting to rejoice over his death because he did so many evil things, but he was also a living breathing human being, and God would have preferred him to repent, be baptized, and be saved and then be brought to a trial.  Also, mixed into this is the question, "Why couldn't we just forgive bin Laden and love him instead of killing him?" and the other reaction/feeling being 2) Joy over the death of an evil man.  I'm going to assume that very few Americans thought he was a great guy who should have been set free to enact terror throughout the world.

Approach #1 certainly has merit.  As Scripture shows us, Jesus died so that all men, women, and children might be saved (John 3:16, Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:15, etc.).  Our God truly loves all life, even the lives of murderers like bin Laden.  God encourages us to visit those who are in prison (Matthew 25:36), His followers were often enemies of the state (see much of the book of Acts), Saul was a murderer/persecutor of Christians and He was forgiven and restored, and the Gospel is rooted in forgiveness (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27ff, Luke 6:35) not judgment.  If you are someone torn over how to feel, I would encourage you that this demonstrates a great deal of spiritual maturity...you are certainly someone longing after the heart of God.  That being said, we must be careful to end this discussion here, with our God simply being a forgiving God.  Though this is pure Gospel and is truth, if we oversimplify it and misappropriate it, it threatens to remove God's holiness, sovereignty, and justice, and, therefore, leaves us without a merciful God...just a doormat, and a God who's mercy is actually worthless.

Approach #2 also has merit, but can be quite evil.  We should never rejoice over the death of any man, woman, or child.  This can certainly lead us down a road of spiteful judgmental-ness that does not reflect the life of someone who believes in the Resurrection and salvation for all nations.  Revenge is a dangerous human emotion that should be avoided at all costs especially by someone who follows Christ (Romans 12:19). We must be careful not to put ourselves in the seat of the judge...that is, of course, Jesus' job.  This is a common problem in the church, though a similarly damaging problem also exists on the other side of the spectrum where we avoid judgment (which is a good thing), but we tend to avoid being judgmental by avoiding holding people accountable to God's Law (Ephesians 4:15).  This is not healthy, and can be spiritually and eternally damaging.

All in all, approach #2 should be approached with great spiritual caution as not to dance in the streets over someone's death.  We mourn the death of any man...but...we rejoice that the world is a safer place...we rejoice over the (hopeful) defeat of an evil organization that has completely rejected God's Law and love of life...we rejoice that we can sleep more soundly tonight and that other evil terrorists cannot because they now see that they will have to pay for their evil ways. 

I rejoice that I live in a country where we have the ability and the collective will to remove such a threat to our world.  I truly feel that our Lord has been using both Presidents Bush and Obama and the military in which they command(ed) since 9/11 to bring about God's holy justice into the world (I am not nationalizing my faith...merely grateful that, in this case, our nation has followed God's call to justice).  Though I hate war, I know that it is, at times, necessary to bring about justice in a fallen world (and I certainly praise God for the courage and work of our military).  After all...Jesus' job, along with being Savior, is judge (we don't qualify for either of those jobs).  Bin Laden's death is evidence that one man's death will bring about the life of others as the overall threat of terrorist violence will prayerfully diminish in the wake of his death.  The Psalms give us some evidence of this as the prayers of David were often for God to not only save him from his enemies which surrounded him, but to destroy them.  These are righteous prayers put into God's Word for us to model our own prayer life after.  In the present and when Christ returns, God does and will destroy enemies of His Word, His Gospel, His Truth, and is disobedient to His Law. This is the same God who loves....and is love.  He cannot be an all holy God nor a loving God without being perfectly just, though.  This death was an extension of God's left hand kingdom (which means this was not a "holy war", but an act of the state in which God used to do His work), and an act of his wrath, justice, and hatred of sin.  God's wrath is real, and it is holy, and we should praise Him for that.  God hates evil, but He judges all people equally, perfectly, and with love for us and desire that we all might be saved.  Because he hates evil, and is just, He must punish evil...which is what happened in that compound in Pakistan.  Our evil ways have earthly consequences (i.e. you speed-you get a ticket, you steal-you go to jail, etc.).  At the same time...our evil has eternal consequences.  Ultimately, Osama bin Laden will be judged on the last day alongside of all of us.  I forgive Osama bin Laden for what he has done...I am not God, and it is not my role to judge and determine his eternity.  I leave that in the hands of Jesus, and I do not know bin Laden's eternal destiny, though, outwardly, it appeared that he rejected the Gospel and the forgiveness that Jesus offers, and had a love for evil.  Though, I'm not omniscient, I doubt that I will spending eternity with him...which makes me sad...not because God won't forgive him, but because anybody would reject Jesus and His Word.

So, was I dancing in the streets on Sunday evening?  No...I was breathing a sigh of relief that the world is safer, that God has blessed me with a President and military who seek justice in the world and want to make it a safer, more peaceful place.  Sunday was a bittersweet moment.  I am sad that his death was needed, but I am also glad (and even dance) that he can no longer inflict evil upon innocent people.  Sometimes, in order to make this fallen world safer and more peaceful, there are some tough and unfortunate decisions that need to be made.  This is why we are called to pray for our leaders be they our Mayor or President, whether we voted for them or not.  They need to know God's Will and His justice even if they don't know Him.  Otherwise, they can become evil in themselves and not bring about God's justice in the corner of God's world that He has allowed them to oversee.

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