The Christian Response on Osama bin Laden's Death

I thought I would share this article that I received from God's World News http://www.gwn.com/ via email.  As I watched the news and saw how so many were dancing and celebrating Osama's death I was somewhat sadden.  Please don't misunderstand, I can not imagine the pain or the anger the families and friends endeared from losing their loved ones and I would think knowing that he is no longer out there scheming up new ways to destroy us would give them peace and feel justice has been received.  I personally thought Warren Cole said it well on the Christian response.



What Is the Christian Response?


I watched President Obama's speech announcing Osama bin Laden's death and ended up writing a couple of articles about it. One of the stories summarized reactions that almost immediately started coming in from around the world.

But the next day, I said to myself: Yes, these are the reactions of our politicians and pundits. But what should be the appropriate Christian reaction? As it turns out, this is not so easy a question. The Bible has much to say on the subject, some of it difficult to reconcile. Consider this:

"The authorities are God's servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God's servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong" (Romans 13:4, NLT).

The Psalms, too, have much to say about the punishment of evildoers. In the interest of brevity, here's just one verse of many:

"At the time I have planned, I will bring justice against the wicked" (Psalm 75:2, NLT).

Governments are established by God. Punishing evil is their job, and we should take satisfaction in our own government's role in seeing that justice was done. So, given this, there is certainly no reason not to celebrate Osama bin Laden's death.

On the other hand, we must acknowledge that bin Laden, as violent and reviled as he was, was surely just a man like me. As distasteful as it is to contemplate, none of us is so different from him. Compared to a holy God, my righteousness and bin Laden's alike are as "filthy rags." Further, Scripture is clear that we are to love not just our friends but also to "love our enemies." God, I'm sure, takes no pleasure in the death of someone who has rejected him. In fact, he so much as says so here:

"'As surely as I live,' declares the Sovereign LORD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?'" (Ezekiel 33:11, NIV)

Clarence Darrow once said, "I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." Darrow is, as usual, winsome and witty--and completely opposed to Scripture. If God takes no pleasure in bin Laden's death, should we? I'm guessing not.

So what should our response be? I certainly think we can and should celebrate the excellence, professionalism, and courage of the Navy SEALs who accomplished their mission. I think we should be grateful that an evildoer is now no longer able to do his evil in the world.

But I also think we should be careful not to gloat. We should guard against triumphalism and pride. As a young man, Osama bin Laden drove fast cars and played soccer. There was a time when he was not so different from you and me.

Somewhere along the way pride overtook his life. It became his undoing. He became his own final authority. We should not think that we are immune from these same corrosive effects of pride. If we do, we may come to a time in the future when we find ourselves--both as individuals and as a country--committing the same kinds of monstrous evil that became bin Laden's undoing.

So can we celebrate that justice was done? Said more bluntly: Can we celebrate Osama bin Laden's death? I think the answer to that question is yes. But let us remember his ignominious death with grateful and even humble hearts, mindful that but for God's grace, so go we all.

-- Warren Cole Smith (World magazine)

Jesus, the Motilone

I am reading Bruchko, a story about a young missionary man who travels into the jungles of South America looking for a tribe of Indians who call themselves the Motilones. I haven't quite finished the book yet. I can tell you though if I didn't have children I would have read this book in one sitting. It has been hard for me to put it down. Finishing a chapter, excited to see what the next chapter holds. Wondering is the next chapter going to be the one that Bruchko finally has the opportunity to lead them to Christ.

You have to know first that as Bruchko went into this tribe he went in with not wanting to change their way of life to ours. He didn't see himself better than them. He introduced everything building upon what they already knew or did. He used their way of life as a tool in sharing the gospel.

I was finally at the chapter I had been so anticipating. As I read the pages tears of joy fell down my cheeks. God arranged the perfect opportunity for Bruchko to share Jesus.

Bruchko began with a Motilone legend of a man who became an ant. (He had been sitting on a trail after a hunt and had noticed that some ants trying to build a home. He'd wanted to help them make a good home, like the Motilone home, so he'd begun digging in the dirt. But because he was so big and so unknown, the ants had been afraid and had run away.

Then, quite miraculously, he had become an ant. He thought like an ant, looked like an ant, and spoke the language of an ant. He lived with the ants, and they came to trust him.

He told them one day that he was not really an ant, but a Motilone, and that he had once tried to help them improve their home, but he had scared them.

The ants said their equivalent of "No kidding? That was you?" And they laughed at him, because he didn't look like the huge and fearful thing that had moved the dirt before.

But at that moment he was turned back into a Motilone and began to move the dirt into a shape of a Motilone home. This time the ants recognized him and let him do his work, because they knew he wouldn't harm them. That was why, according to the story, the ants had hills that looked like the Motilone homes.)1 The lesson being that if you are big and powerful, you have to become small and weak in order to work with other weak beings. It was the perfect parallel for what God had done in Jesus per Bruce Olson aka. Bruchko.

Bruchko continues on every time using an example, story, legend of their world and paralleling it to the Word of God. The next day his pact brother approaches him and says, "Bruchko, I have tied my hammock strings into Jesus. Now I speak a new language."

To fully understand what his pact brother is saying you have to read the book. I don't think you will fill it is a disappointment.

1) excerpt from pg 123 and 124 Bruchko