Several years ago, I heard that within the Muslim religion, the pig is such an unclean animal that anyone who touches a pig, or anyone who eats any kind of pork product, willingly or unwillingly, is condemned to hell, with no hope of redemption.
On Friday evening, authorities finally captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of two men suspected of planting the bombs that were detonated at Monday’s Boston Marathon. This coming about 18 or 19 hours after the other suspect, his older brother, Tamerlan, was killed in a gunfight with police.
Monday’s bombing angered me, just as it did everyone else in America. I have absolutely no tolerance for terrorists of any kind. My anger has been so strong that I have thought that, if Dzhokhar is a radical Islamic jihadist, as it seems his brother was, this is what they should do with him: Presuming he is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for his involvement in the attack, someone should open a can of SPAM and force him to eat it. Just shove it down his throat. Then he will die knowing that he is going to hell.
But then I had to catch myself, knowing that this is an entirely wrong attitude for me, as a Christian, to have. Jesus died for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev just as much as He died for me. Let me put it another way. I deserve to go to hell just as much as Tsarnaev does. No, I’ve never killed anyone. No, I’ve never sought to kill, hurt, maim, and terrorize thousands of people by planting a bomb in a highly populated area. But I am a sinner. I have a natural tendency to break God’s laws, and I have broken God’s laws—many times. For that, I deserve to go to hell, just as the Tsarnaev brothers deserve to go to hell; just as each of us deserves to go to hell.
The real difference between me and a terrorist is not that the terrorist has killed, or sought to kill, as many people as he can, while I have not. The difference is that I have accepted Jesus as my Savior. I have been made a recipient of the unconditional grace of God. A terrorist like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to my knowledge, has not.
Therefore, rather than wishing hell on this man, what I should be doing is praying for his salvation. I ought to pray that somehow, some way, he might be exposed to the gospel and believe in Jesus Christ.
This does not mean that if he ever did become a Christian, I would then feel he should be spared of whatever sentence, including the death penalty, is placed on him if he is indeed convicted of this heinous crime. The reality of God’s forgiveness does not negate the consequences of our actions. King David committed adultery with Bathsheba. Then he tried to cover it up by having her husband murdered. When confronted with his sin, David repented and sought forgiveness. Through the prophet Nathan, God essentially said to David, “I forgive you. You are now once again in right standing with Me. However, you still have to face the consequences of your actions. Some very unpleasant things are about to happen in your life.”
Therefore, if this man is convicted and even put to death for involvement in this act of terrorism, regardless of his religion, justice will have been served. In that, I will find a sense of satisfaction, and I think rightly so. But I need to guard myself against finding any kind of pleasure in the thought of anyone going to hell, no matter how much of an enemy he has proven himself to be.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment