I am well aware that I will probably not make any friends with this post. In fact, I will probably greatly offend some people. But these are my own personal thoughts and I feel like some of my Christian friends have been stirring up guilt and confusion in the minds of other believers- which hurts my heart. I don't think they mean to, but I think it's something I would like to address. I could be completely wrong in my analysis of the situation. These are only my thoughts and opinions and I don't state them to be interpretted as absolute truth. Still, it's something to think about. And it's how I feel personally convicted on the issue.
When I saw that Osama had died, I was elated. Finally the man who gloatingly murdered thousands of innocents had been brought to justice. He was no longer able to inflict pain on innocent people or spew his hatred to those who would act on his words.
As I watched this unfold on television and online I was then confronted with many Christian friends making a big deal about how we should not be happy that he was dead, since he died without knowing Christ- even making it seem as if we were terrible people for rejoicing. Hm. Well, that poses an ethical dilemma I suppose. But the more I thought about it, the more irritated that made me, and I'll explain why.
There are several arguments people are making for why we should not celebrate the death of this horrible man. I'd like to respond to a few of them.
First of all: "you should not repay evil with evil." I find this one a bit mind-boggling to be honest. Do we really have such a skewed view of good vs. evil? I would argue that removing a man from the face of the earth who slaughtered innocent people with pleasure is not evil. This is the same argument that villifies our men and women who are protecting our nation overseas by saying that taking any life is evil. I disagree strongly with this argument, and I think that this argument can hold water only for believers who hold only to the New Testament as there is overwhelming evidence of God sanctioning war in the Old Testament. If God is absolutely perfect and good and always has been, how can you make that argument?
The next argument is that if we celebrate, we are no better than "them." Again, the lines between good and evil are blurred so badly in our nation that we cannot draw the line between a celebration of jubilant individuals dressed in ski masks, setting things on fire, shooting weapons into the sky with elation over the death of people whose only crime was to get up and go to work that day, or board an airplane and the rejoicing of a group of people draped in their nations flag, visiting the memorials of those who were tragically taken and celebrating the death of man who unrepentantly murdered thousands of people and called for the murder of thousands more, including the obliteration of whole nations. I don't see how you can even make a moral equivelant between the two.
When the argument is made that we should not rejoice in his death because we are believers who should not rejoice in anyone's death, I have to think of the death of Hitler. They were not so uncommon. Both called for and carried out the slaughter of innocents. Both were hunted. Both died cowardly deaths. There was no honor in these lives. And the people of America celebrated (along with the rest of the world) when he was announced dead. Am I to believe that we, as a generation are just "that much closer to God" than those of that generation. That we are too "godly" to rejoice over the death of such a man while they obviously cared nothing for the ways of God? All indications from what I can see of how our two generations have responded to God show that far more individuals from that generation were concerned with the ways of God than of our current generation. So how could they justify this celebration? My guess is that they understood the whole picture of God far better than we do. And here's what I mean.
Our nation, and frankly our entire generation, globally speaking, has put God in this pretty little box- trying to make him who we want him to be. We want him to be appealing to the masses without offending anyone. We loooove to talk about how loving, gracious, merciful our God is. And we should! He is absolutely loving, gracious and merciful. But for as much as he is those things, he is every bit as much righteous, holy and just. We just don't like to talk about those things because they might be offensive. God doesn't need our favors. He will punish the wicked and avenge the innocent, and sometimes he uses other nations or people to exact his will.
We should be just as jubilant about his willingness to bring the wicked to justice as we are his willingness to forgive the wicked who repent. That man was given nearly 10 years after the 9/11 attacks when he could have repented. When the Scripture says that he "does not delight in the death of the evil" but wants them to repent, of COURSE he does. Yes, he died for Osama bin Laden, too. Yes, he would have forgiven him if he had repented. Yes, it would have been wonderful if he had. Can you even imagine the impact of this man repenting publicly and encouraging his followers to turn from their evil ways? And yes, God showed his exceeding mercy by keeping us from finding him for nearly 10 years and giving him every opportunity to repent. But at the appropriate time, God saw fit to say, "Enough is enough. You have scorned me and inflicted pain on the people of the world long enough. Judgement has come."
We should be just as adoring of THAT attribute of God as we are of his mercy. He plucked from the earth a man who was evil to his core. God knew his heart in ways no man on earth did. He knew whether he would ever turn to him. His death did not surprise God. God determines a man's days. The choice was His, not ours. And we are delighted by His wisdom and sovereignty.
As for those who believe we should be mourning over his lost soul, I can understand the sentiment. God wanted him to repent. We should have wanted him to repent. But what's done is done. A wicked man was brought to justice by the hand of God and we should not feel guilty for celebrating this fact. When the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, the people of God danced and celebrated God's omnipotent hand in rescuing them from their enemies. And I don't ever remember reading that David mourned Goliath's lost soul. And David was "a man after God's own heart." Are we so much more "godly" than he?
As for the "let's don't celebrate or we'll make 'them' mad" argument- I think that's the most ridiculous. Those who aligned themselves with this evil man will be 'mad' and retaliate whether or not we celebrate his death. Those who did not, would not be offended in the least, as they would see him as appalling a figure as we do. If anything, it draws a line in the sand. Are you with him, or against him? Are you for evil or against it?
I think that we need to be able to see good and evil for what they are and stop blurring the lines. We need to stop feeling guilt for rejoicing in seeing the demise of evil. We need to be thankful for those who were willing to put their lives on the line to bring justice and closure to the families of those who've lost so much. If you believe that you should mourn Osama bin Laden's death, because of some personal conviction- so be it. Feel free. By all means, if you think the Spirit is convicting you to mourn, do so. But don't go around attempting to bring guilt to those of us who do not feel that need. Allow us to rejoice in a God who is all-powerful, just, holy, righteous and sovereign as much as he is gracious and merciful. Let us rejoice that He is good to His word when he says, "If the righteous are rewarded here on earth, how much more true that the wicked and the sinner will get what they deserve."- Proverbs 11:31
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