We will never obtain a univocal language with God. His ways are not our ways for He is God and not a human (Hosea 11:9). Therefore, how can we possibly begin to understand how God thinks regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden? The answer comes when examining the broader picture of what ‘kind’ of God exists within the pages of scripture.Before we begin I would like to ask what your feelings are regarding Bin Laden’s death. Overall, this post is about whether or not Christians should rejoice in Bin Laden’s death. Did you rejoice when you heard about his death? Did you have mixed feelings? Where you against any notions of rejoicing? Whatever your response – chances are I will not change your mind with what I have to say. We all struggle with reading scripture through our own worldviews – there is no way around this. However, where we can begin is acknowledging that we read through these worldviews. We need to realize how we are impacted by the world and how it enables us to read scripture within our own context. This is something scholars continue to point out. Luther’s view of the Jews impacted the way he read about Jews in the New Testament. N. T. Wright, in his works, ‘Jesus and the Victory of God’ and ‘Scripture and the Authority of God,’ points out the fact that we all come with some baggage when reading scripture. We are (or at least most of the ones reading this post) 21st Century, Westerners that have been raised in a politically correct culture. This has huge ramifications of how we read through a biblical text –especially if we are passionately involved –such as the death of Bin Laden. The question is – when God works through humanity, did He know this would be the case? Did He understand humanity and their hearts and how He would reveal Himself? I do believe He did. This then helps to shape what kind of biblical, historical, theological image we obtain of God who has revealed Himself through such occurrences. When our image of God is clearer – the better chance we have of obtaining a better theological interpretation of difficult areas.
M. Scott Peck, M.D. in his work, ‘People of the Lie,’ warns his readers of what they study because it can have an immense impact on their lives. He cautions because it can be areas of negativity or positivity. This is not only so in the world of study but also in what one believes. How does belief impact what we study? All of this is said to show that both, 1) what we believe and 2) what we study regarding scripture forms us in such a way that can lead us to various conclusions that may not be in accordance with God Himself. People have their proof texts of scripture they cut and paste in order to support a belief they have. All of this needs to be discussed because one Christian has their texts that support rejoicing in Bin Laden’s death while others hold out other texts down- playing such a response. What is the solution?
We need to move over and make room for God. Well, then the question becomes ‘which god?’ The question I want to ponder regarding Bin Laden is not necessarily about us rejoicing or not rejoicing as it is participating in what God is doing. Sometimes that goes against what we want. For example, many Christians think that God will still save the Jews without Christ (and they have a problem with Rob Bell?) - they get this idea from Romans, the very book by which Paul says that is not the case. Paul says that they (the Jews) might be grafted back in only through Christ. People don’t like what God is doing. More on this below.
There can be many aspects of this agenda (whether or not we rejoice in Bin Laden’s death) that can be discussed and will continue being discussed – but the idea of asking whether or not rejoicing in the elimination of a person of any range of morality is by no means a new argument. I do not have the final word on the issue because I am not God. But that is the question isn’t it? Does God rejoice in Bin Laden’s death? If God does, then surely we should be able to rejoice as well. Again, it is about participation with God.
I’m afraid this begs for reflection on what Dr. Scott Peck calls ‘delayed gratification.’ In other words don’t ask a complicated question and expect to get an easy answer in return. As Britains would say, ‘it’s not so jolly easy.’
Let’s examine a few passages used:
Not rejoicing
Proverbs 24:17-20
17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
18 Or the LORD will see it and be displeased,
And turn His anger away from him.
19 Do not fret because of evildoers
Or be envious of the wicked;
20 For there will be no future for the evil man;
The lamp of the wicked will be put out.
Ezek 33:10-16
10 "Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus you have spoken, saying, "Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?"' 11 "Say to them, ' As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?' 12 "And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, 'The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.' 13 "When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. 14 "But when I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, 15 if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16 " None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.
Rejoicing
Revelation19:1-4
After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, " Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; 2 BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER." 3 And a second time they said, " Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER." 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, " Amen. Hallelujah!"
Deuteronomy 28:58-63
58 "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 " He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 "Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you until you are destroyed. 62 "Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the LORD your God. 63 "It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.
Each individual holds to their various verses – and they seem to support each position. However, what I think we should look at is exactly what we are rejoicing in. I believe it is about rejoicing in God – not death.
These are just a few of the passages used by some to justify ‘their’ position. All of these texts of course have their own context. These contexts – as well as the entire bible - can be put in what is known as ‘conditional’ context. Practically the entire biblical narrative is written on this conditional basis. What the condition basically says, ‘It’s God’s way – or no way.’ The formula found in the bible is as follows: ‘If you do _____ then you will be rewarded. If you do not do ______, then you will be punished. God is giving His will to follow and also the option to reject this will. However, if they reject His will – punishment comes. I’m will not be discussion God’s love being conditional here but His will. A good example of this is found in the book of Exodus:
Ex 15:26
"If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians;”
Ex 19:4-6
4' You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. 5'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'
What this conditional paradigm establishes is an either / or aspect. God gives a way out. He gives options. Even more so – when there is evil, God gives options to repent and turn away from sin and return to Him. This is not only for His people but others as well. If they do not return from their sin, God will do something about it. God gave Egypt an option to let His people go. They refused. God used them to show His power. He punished them. The Hebrews did not obey God at Sinai so He didn’t allow them to enter into the Promised Land. Israel did not follow God and worshipped other gods – so God brought Assyria and Babylon. It is the divine vision. God takes credit for the punishing of the disobedient. We need to be careful when we say, it ‘pleases God’ to punish because if He punishes it is usually after He has tried to keep them from being punished. It needs to be seen as God being pleased in His will being done – this can be from saving or from punishment.
Another illustration of conditional context is the story of Jonah and Nineveh. God asks Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry out against it because of its wickedness. Jonah does not like this and flees. Jonah knows God and knows that He would spare them if they repented (4:1-4). The narrative shows Jonah going to Nineveh and proclaiming that if it doesn’t repent it will be overthrown. It is debated if this ‘overthrowing’ came from God – but it is a clear likelihood.
What I want to examine in these contexts is the idea of God’s will. God desires all to come to Him – but following His will He also desires. That is more important. His will is to save and to punish. God wants all to come to repentance – but those who do not and continue to do evil - it is His will to punish them. Not only with death – but the 2nd death which is the lake of fire (Revelation 2:11; 20:6; 20:14; 21:8).
Let us also keep in mind when we think about death that it is God’s will to bring about death. It is a punishment. It is God’s will to create Hell.
The reason why we need to examine this conditional context is to see that God’s will is being done whether it appears to ‘us’ good or evil. That doesn’t mean that it is evil – just that God’s will is being done. God can be displeased by an event – such as His people being taken into exile – but it achieves His will. So to some extent it is pleasing to Him because in the long run His goal (Greek: Telos) is being accomplished.
God is holy. We need to redefine our definitions of love and wrath around God’s holiness. Much of what God does through His holiness might strike a nerve with us.
It is interesting that on Sunday morning, May 1st, I gave a sermon on how God is love and a God of wrath. These two concepts seem to be contradictions to many. However, I concluded that we need to redefine these two characteristics by viewing them through God’s holiness. We cannot help but read so many things in scripture through our own worldviews and our idea of love and wrath – but we do need to acknowledge that we struggle with this and in turn be able to have a more open mind in our study of the biblical texts. We need to examine God first and interpret Him and His love through holiness instead of forcing our understandings of love around Him.
That same Sunday night of May 1st the world discovered that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. It didn’t take long for headlines to rip through with praise of his death. Christians followed through with posts on Facebook and blogs praising his death while other Christians proclaimed they would not celebrate such a moment. It was a reflection on God’s love, wrath and holiness.
Death is the enemy of God. God allowed death for humanity because it revealed that humanity can only go so far in their evil. Death, regardless of whether or not it was enacted by Navy Seals, points to God.
We are not merely rejoicing in the death of a man, but in the end of evil. God’s mission is to reverse evil. Reversing this evil takes a personal response, a repentance. Where there is no repentance there is death. As with Nineveh, when there is repentance, there is life. Some might say that Bin Laden did evil things but in the eyes of God he is no worse than any other sinner in history. Biblically, this is nonsense. We are all sinners – but there is sin that displeases God more than other sins. There is sin that leads to death once again and sin that does not lead to death: Matthew 11:23-24; 1 John 5:16.
In conclusion:
Do we celebrate or struggle with death? We do both to some extent. We celebrate because of who the celebration points us to. We also struggle with death because of who it points us to. It points us to a God that desires His creation to be obedient to Him. We don’t necessarily celebrate the death of a man – but what it points to. God’s will is done in death already. Evil has its limits. God has set it so.
We do not celebrate death as it were. We celebrate and participate in the God that works through death.
Not rejoicing
Proverbs 24:17-20
17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
18 Or the LORD will see it and be displeased,
And turn His anger away from him.
19 Do not fret because of evildoers
Or be envious of the wicked;
20 For there will be no future for the evil man;
The lamp of the wicked will be put out.
Ezek 33:10-16
10 "Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus you have spoken, saying, "Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?"' 11 "Say to them, ' As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?' 12 "And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, 'The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.' 13 "When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. 14 "But when I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, 15 if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16 " None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.
Rejoicing
Revelation19:1-4
After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, " Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; 2 BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER." 3 And a second time they said, " Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER." 4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, " Amen. Hallelujah!"
Deuteronomy 28:58-63
58 "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God, 59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. 60 " He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. 61 "Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you until you are destroyed. 62 "Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the LORD your God. 63 "It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.
Each individual holds to their various verses – and they seem to support each position. However, what I think we should look at is exactly what we are rejoicing in. I believe it is about rejoicing in God – not death.
These are just a few of the passages used by some to justify ‘their’ position. All of these texts of course have their own context. These contexts – as well as the entire bible - can be put in what is known as ‘conditional’ context. Practically the entire biblical narrative is written on this conditional basis. What the condition basically says, ‘It’s God’s way – or no way.’ The formula found in the bible is as follows: ‘If you do _____ then you will be rewarded. If you do not do ______, then you will be punished. God is giving His will to follow and also the option to reject this will. However, if they reject His will – punishment comes. I’m will not be discussion God’s love being conditional here but His will. A good example of this is found in the book of Exodus:
Ex 15:26
"If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians;”
Ex 19:4-6
4' You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. 5'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'
What this conditional paradigm establishes is an either / or aspect. God gives a way out. He gives options. Even more so – when there is evil, God gives options to repent and turn away from sin and return to Him. This is not only for His people but others as well. If they do not return from their sin, God will do something about it. God gave Egypt an option to let His people go. They refused. God used them to show His power. He punished them. The Hebrews did not obey God at Sinai so He didn’t allow them to enter into the Promised Land. Israel did not follow God and worshipped other gods – so God brought Assyria and Babylon. It is the divine vision. God takes credit for the punishing of the disobedient. We need to be careful when we say, it ‘pleases God’ to punish because if He punishes it is usually after He has tried to keep them from being punished. It needs to be seen as God being pleased in His will being done – this can be from saving or from punishment.
Another illustration of conditional context is the story of Jonah and Nineveh. God asks Jonah to go to Nineveh and cry out against it because of its wickedness. Jonah does not like this and flees. Jonah knows God and knows that He would spare them if they repented (4:1-4). The narrative shows Jonah going to Nineveh and proclaiming that if it doesn’t repent it will be overthrown. It is debated if this ‘overthrowing’ came from God – but it is a clear likelihood.
What I want to examine in these contexts is the idea of God’s will. God desires all to come to Him – but following His will He also desires. That is more important. His will is to save and to punish. God wants all to come to repentance – but those who do not and continue to do evil - it is His will to punish them. Not only with death – but the 2nd death which is the lake of fire (Revelation 2:11; 20:6; 20:14; 21:8).
Let us also keep in mind when we think about death that it is God’s will to bring about death. It is a punishment. It is God’s will to create Hell.
The reason why we need to examine this conditional context is to see that God’s will is being done whether it appears to ‘us’ good or evil. That doesn’t mean that it is evil – just that God’s will is being done. God can be displeased by an event – such as His people being taken into exile – but it achieves His will. So to some extent it is pleasing to Him because in the long run His goal (Greek: Telos) is being accomplished.
God is holy. We need to redefine our definitions of love and wrath around God’s holiness. Much of what God does through His holiness might strike a nerve with us.
It is interesting that on Sunday morning, May 1st, I gave a sermon on how God is love and a God of wrath. These two concepts seem to be contradictions to many. However, I concluded that we need to redefine these two characteristics by viewing them through God’s holiness. We cannot help but read so many things in scripture through our own worldviews and our idea of love and wrath – but we do need to acknowledge that we struggle with this and in turn be able to have a more open mind in our study of the biblical texts. We need to examine God first and interpret Him and His love through holiness instead of forcing our understandings of love around Him.
That same Sunday night of May 1st the world discovered that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. It didn’t take long for headlines to rip through with praise of his death. Christians followed through with posts on Facebook and blogs praising his death while other Christians proclaimed they would not celebrate such a moment. It was a reflection on God’s love, wrath and holiness.
Death is the enemy of God. God allowed death for humanity because it revealed that humanity can only go so far in their evil. Death, regardless of whether or not it was enacted by Navy Seals, points to God.
We are not merely rejoicing in the death of a man, but in the end of evil. God’s mission is to reverse evil. Reversing this evil takes a personal response, a repentance. Where there is no repentance there is death. As with Nineveh, when there is repentance, there is life. Some might say that Bin Laden did evil things but in the eyes of God he is no worse than any other sinner in history. Biblically, this is nonsense. We are all sinners – but there is sin that displeases God more than other sins. There is sin that leads to death once again and sin that does not lead to death: Matthew 11:23-24; 1 John 5:16.
In conclusion:
Do we celebrate or struggle with death? We do both to some extent. We celebrate because of who the celebration points us to. We also struggle with death because of who it points us to. It points us to a God that desires His creation to be obedient to Him. We don’t necessarily celebrate the death of a man – but what it points to. God’s will is done in death already. Evil has its limits. God has set it so.
We do not celebrate death as it were. We celebrate and participate in the God that works through death.
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