Personal reflections on the what's important from an evangelical perspective. This blog speaks for no organization. It's just the ruminations of one blogger trying to make sense of the New Reformation times we live in.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Extreme Makeover: Terrorist Edition
Before...and after! Anyone who is not pleased that this murderous thug is no more among us today lacks a moral compass. Thank God!
I refuse to rejoice over a man's death, even if I consider his actions incredibly morally reprehensible. Through a Biblical lens, my sinful heart is exposed and I find it to contain the same hatred and violence that we have seen manifested in Al-Zarqawi's life. I deserve death just as much as he did. How, as a follower of Christ, can I rejoice over the death of a Muslim terrorist? Rather, I grieve over his bondage to sin and death. One day, at God's judgment seat, I will worship a Lord who is just. Now, death yet retains its sting for those who do not know Christ. Human life is sacred, not because of some inherent worth, but because of God's loving action in Christ that makes it so. And because God's loving action in Christ is graceful, based upon nothing in ourselves, then we cannot selectively distinguish between whose lives are sacred and whose are not.
To advocate the destruction of our enemies and rejoice over their deaths is evidence of an inadequate hamartiology on our own parts. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There are none innocent and we certainly all deserve death. Yet we serve a God of mercy and forgiveness who calls us to be imagers of His character. Anything else reminds me of a certain debtor and his servant.
Before...and after! Anyone who is not pleased that this murderous thug is no more among us today lacks a moral compass. Thank God!
2 comments:
Asta la vista baby!
Arnold.
I refuse to rejoice over a man's death, even if I consider his actions incredibly morally reprehensible. Through a Biblical lens, my sinful heart is exposed and I find it to contain the same hatred and violence that we have seen manifested in Al-Zarqawi's life. I deserve death just as much as he did. How, as a follower of Christ, can I rejoice over the death of a Muslim terrorist? Rather, I grieve over his bondage to sin and death. One day, at God's judgment seat, I will worship a Lord who is just. Now, death yet retains its sting for those who do not know Christ. Human life is sacred, not because of some inherent worth, but because of God's loving action in Christ that makes it so. And because God's loving action in Christ is graceful, based upon nothing in ourselves, then we cannot selectively distinguish between whose lives are sacred and whose are not.
To advocate the destruction of our enemies and rejoice over their deaths is evidence of an inadequate hamartiology on our own parts. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There are none innocent and we certainly all deserve death. Yet we serve a God of mercy and forgiveness who calls us to be imagers of His character. Anything else reminds me of a certain debtor and his servant.
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