What is God's Perspective on Christians Celebrating Osama Bin-Laden's Death?
Posted: Monday, May 02, 2011
by Teresa Ortiz
Freelance writer/Speaker
I was having a conversation with a new Christian this afternoon and she shared some thoughts on this issue. She said it broke her heart when she saw the cheers and flags in front on the White House. She, just like myself and I'm sure scores of other people, Christian or not, are left torn to a degree about how we should feel. (My thoughts are jumbled, and so these words may not flow, please forgive me.)
This is a controversial issue to say the least, so let me say up front, I am speaking to Christians regarding what the word of God has to say.
Throughout the entire Bible, Old and New Testament, we see justice for evil being served. We see the people celebrating destruction -and we see that God is never pleased in the celebration for the death. It's not that we cannot celebrate the freedom and justice that comes from the death of evil, but it is clear we are not to celebrate the death of the one who committed the acts of evil. Kind of like hate the sin, love the sinner.
As I searched the Scriptures in a "What would Jesus do" kind of fashion, I came to the following passage.
"For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him: Proverbs 24:16-18
God is a God of love and justice. Justice must be served. As Jesus said, offenses will be committed but woe to the one who commits the offense. The key is not to get arrogant or have such a hate in our own hearts the we can celebrate the death of another, no matter how evil. Especially for the Christian.
We believe there is a heaven and a hell. And surely the wicked will perish, but even God said he takes no pleasure in discipline, and that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
To those of you who lost loved ones, please hear me - I am not trying to take away that pain, or make light of it. I do hope this justice brings some sort of peace and closer.
My heart is heavy - challenged to say the least. But I cannot help but cry over all that is going on. Without true forgiveness, I wonder how long this sense of peace will last..... or how long it will take the enemy to retaliate.
For now, I am unable to say God bless America - rather I am saying God forgive America. Oops, I forgot, I was talking to Christians. I didn't mean to insinuate all Americans are Christians...I'm rambling again.
Just some food for thought. What do you think?
Throughout the entire Bible, Old and New Testament, we see justice for evil being served. We see the people celebrating destruction -and we see that God is never pleased in the celebration for the death. It's not that we cannot celebrate the freedom and justice that comes from the death of evil, but it is clear we are not to celebrate the death of the one who committed the acts of evil. Kind of like hate the sin, love the sinner.
As I searched the Scriptures in a "What would Jesus do" kind of fashion, I came to the following passage.
"For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him: Proverbs 24:16-18
God is a God of love and justice. Justice must be served. As Jesus said, offenses will be committed but woe to the one who commits the offense. The key is not to get arrogant or have such a hate in our own hearts the we can celebrate the death of another, no matter how evil. Especially for the Christian.
“In a 'what would Jesus do' kind of fashion, I searched the Scriptures”
To those of you who lost loved ones, please hear me - I am not trying to take away that pain, or make light of it. I do hope this justice brings some sort of peace and closer.
My heart is heavy - challenged to say the least. But I cannot help but cry over all that is going on. Without true forgiveness, I wonder how long this sense of peace will last..... or how long it will take the enemy to retaliate.
For now, I am unable to say God bless America - rather I am saying God forgive America. Oops, I forgot, I was talking to Christians. I didn't mean to insinuate all Americans are Christians...I'm rambling again.
Just some food for thought. What do you think?
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More commentsI agree, Teresa, and I share the same feelings you do. It's a tough, and touchy subject - one I'm trying to be in the will of God about. Lord, have mercy on all of us!!Thank you for sharing your thoughts Chris. I don't want people to think 9-11 doesn't matter to me. I was angry at that time and prayed and continue to pray regarding its effect. But it just doesn't seem right to parade ourselves with this kind of pride - it looks just like enemy territory strutting their stuff when the harm American people. Aren't we supposed to be the better people? Blessings to you!
Thank you for writing this Teresa. Very well stated.Hi Bruce. I appreciate your support. Blessings! T
Teresa, Thank-you for putting this in writing! These were my thoughts as well. I continue to pray for you, your ministry and family
Heather
Hi Heather. Thank you for sharing! You and your family are in my prayers as well. Thanks for all of your support. I appreciate it! Love you and miss you! Teresa
Yes Teresa, I don't believe we should be celebrating over the death of Bin Laden. Like Jesus said "Love your enemy"Hi David. Thanks for adding this great truth. There is a big difference between being glad justice is served and rejoicing with such hate in our hearts about the death of our enemy. Blessings to you!
The saddest part is he will spend eternity separated from God (and I am not minimizing what he chose to do and those lives he snuffed out and that he needs to pay the penalty for his choices and sin) Does that make sense?Marijo, makes perfect sense. This is the heart of God as we see throughout Scripture - Exekiel - where God says, Do I have pleasure when the wicked perish? His was admonishing the Israelites for celebrating the death of those who did evil in a manner that God showed them their own sin and said, repent and live. Thanks Marijo! Hugs!
I'm glad to hear others had the same kind of reaction as I did. I read a quote from Harry Waizer who survived the attacks on the World Trade Centers that best describes my feelings.
"If this means there is one less death in the future, then I'm glad for that. But I just can't find it in me to be glad one more person is dead, even if it is Osama bin Laden."Hi Jean. I wonder how many do feel this way and are afraid to admit it. Thank you for sharing a quote from a survivor - I was hoping one with close ties to the horrific event what happen across this article and share their feelings.
You brought it to us. I agree - few but powerful words! Thank you for the support! Blessings, T
Dear Teresa,
Our starting points are poles apart, me being an agnostic and you being a Christian, but we come to the same conclusion. Killing should not be celebrated, because celebrating it legitimizes it. We can celebrate what it represents, which is probably the sparing of the hundreds or thousands of other lives for which Bin Laden might ultimately have also been responsible. But not the death itself.
I must admit, if I had had the opportunity, I would have assassinated Adolph Hitler in the belief that so doing would have meant saving hundreds of thousands, if not millions of other human beings. But my heart would have been leaden at the thought of having to commit such an act.
As poet John Donne so poignantly put it:
No man is an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.
Your friend,
Phil
Hi friend! Thank you for the comment. Even though I was directed toward Christians, it really is a human issue. And like I said to Gregory, I am grateful for the non Christians that feel the same way. Glad we could agree on this very important issue. I appreciate the poem. It's beautiful. Blessings to you!
Well written Teresa. I too wonder how long it will be before we witness retaliation.Hi Brianna. Thank you. It will be interesting....all these things take me to Daniel and Revelation. We need to be praying! Have a beautiful day! Teresa
Hello Teresa, I am days behind with e-mails, etc...Thank you for your article, it is well said. The whole situation has left me with a lot of unanswered questions. After serving with the Navy for 24 years and having some specialised training, I thought it out of the norm for the SEAL team to within minutes of entering the compound to capture an unarmed man, and then later kill him. It is out of the norm to dispose of the body in such a quick fashion. If you are going to kill someone in revenge, why go through the trouble of religious body preparation and burial? I think the US President sent a terrible message that someone can be arrested, killed, and disposed of without a trial, and then call it justice and celebrate it. What he authorized was nothing more than an act of murder. Saddam Hussein was captured, tried, found guilty, then executed. It really worries me the direction the US is heading. Next thing you know the US will be treating their own citizens in like fashion. I don't understand the urgency in killing OBL...well, I might...it is time to run for re-election, and this is a powerful event to help elevate ones standing with the public....plus it takes attention away from the release of the fake birth certificate. There are men far worse than OBL ready to take the helm. I agree that we should never celebrate the death of another human being, but I think we need to be very concerned about the leadership of America and pray long and hard for them.Hi David.
Thank you for the comment. You bring up some great points! My husband said the same thing. We are heading down a rocky road for sure. I wonder how much of this is a part of the big picture of what is to come. May we have eyes to see and ears to hear! Blessings to you! TeresaDear Teresa,
There was no reason why you should have responded to the allegation of Obama's "fake birth certificate" in David's letter. You being a keen observer of the passing seen, I am curious to know what you think about the issue. Is Obama's presidency legitimate or a massive hoax?
Your friend,
PhilHI Phil. That is a loaded question. LOL how do I even answer this? Of course his presidency is legitimate he was put there by the majority vote. I am skeptical of him for many reasons. The first being his big push about how he was a Christian and believed on in the foundation of our country and our constitution - but then when he became President he changed this drastically and he gives much more concern about how the Muslim nations/communities view America, then standing firm on the absolute foundation that America was founded on. But then he is not the first president to do this - the bottom line is that our nation has fallen so far from God and what the founding fathers based our constitution on. The history of our nation is being changed and the biblical bases for our foundational government and laws is being ignored. Amazing that every monument has a Scripture engraved in it - this is not talked about. The separation of church and state statement made long ago is misquoted and taken out of context now and so many Americans don't even realize it, or they don't believe it when it is brought to light. This is what I believe David was referring to more so than a fake birth certificate. America I believe is heading for judgment and the majority of Americans still want God to bless America just so long as they don't have to actually follow him. This probably doesn't really answer your question pointedly but it is all care to say on the issue. I pray for our president and our leadership. It is a tough job and I don't fault him or single him out for our country's woes - though I strongly disagree with him on many things, I believe that he is doing what he believes to be best and I think he is taking his position seriously and not lightly. We as a society have done it to ourselves because of greed, dishonesty, and pride. And then expect our government to clean up after us. Blessings dear friend!
Thank you for a well scripted article and let's be reminded that we did not like it when they bragged about 911 and celebrated our demise.
God blessWe even talk about how Hussein,bin laden and other foriegn leaders are tyrants to their people and dictators and needed to be brought down but what about our own country and what is our politicians doing for our country.
We have a group of GROWN men(women) who are SUPPOSE to be OUR own countrymen and women that are so arrogant and EGOTISTIC that they would rather see our country fall and go to hell in a hand basket than to put their heads together like they were ELECTED to do and save our "GREAT nation".Their response to our nation's needs and future brings me more terror than Bin laden and his crew ever have and will.
Let's be real look our own murder rate within our country,More people (americans) have been killed in some of OUR major cities (one major city alone) by fellow americans in two or three years than Bin laden and his crews have ever killed (americans) so what do we have to rejoice about? AMERICA needs to REPENT to GOD for its' SINS and turn to a RISEN SAVIOR for the real answers and besides the HOLY BIBLE says these things must come to past READ Matthew 24:6I too see this as part of what is all to come to pass - just as Jesus said it will.Indeed, 1,455,590 murdered in Iraq since U.S. invaded in 2003. What and who are we rejoicing, anyway? Morality cloaked in the name of religion is myth.Thank you for sharing these words. So true! Blessings to you!
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