Yesterday was a day that will forever live on in the minds of those who experienced the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and the tragic, cowardly attacks of 9-11-01. The best of the best, the Navy SEALS, killed Osama Bin Laden in a compound where he appears to have been living the good life of a rich Saudi Prince. There was immediate acclaim for this symbolic victory of the west in the War on Terror. People were proud and celebrating that this man, who was responsible for the killing of so many innocent people, had died. To be perfectly honest I was excited and glad to hear that this evil man would have no more opportunity to do harm to people anywhere. As I started to process this information it evoked within me a couple of different reactions first as a Christian, and then as a fireman, and then as a Christian again.
While I was immediately proud of my country and relieved that this evil man was no longer able to hurt people, it struck me that this evil person was now in a place of eternal damnation where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, where there is no presence of God because God Himself restrains it, and I was slightly saddened. Granted there is some justice as the world sees it in this man's death but I do not know that we as Christians are to be encouraged by such low standards. While I believe the NAVY SEALS, who risked their lives to accomplish the mission placed before them, were completely righteous in their actions I am not sure we should be so happy about it. While in Psalm 116:15 says that precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His godly ones, but in the same Bible it says, The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). This evil man is dead, and I would say deservedly so, but now he has learned the hard way that his faith was misplaced, and has no chance to ever leave his eternal damnation. So it brought about a conflict within me, glad that this man would no longer would be able to hurt people, but saddened that he would spend eternity in fiery punishment devoid of the goodness that comes from God.
As a firefighter as I thought back to the images of that September morning where so many police officers, and firefighters rushed into a building burning and soon to collapse to try and save as many as possible, and was enraged that this man fostered and helped fund and prepare for these cowardly acts and was glad he was dead. Almost immediately I was again conflicted should I take joy in the death and damnation of someone no matter how much I am enraged at the indvidual.
In response to the conflict within I turned to Scripture and found a great deal of help and instruction on how God would have me to respond. While there is a great deal of justice and capital punishment withing the Old Testament there is an even greater amount of forgiveness and grace in the New Testament. I am convinced that as a Christian Firefighter I should be relieved over Osama Bin Laden's inability to hurt anyone ever again, but should also be saddened that Bin Laden will also be unable to escape the eternal damnation that he is now in. For while we have all been hurt deeply by Bin Laden's actions, I am convinced now as much as ever that we as Christians should never wish hell on anyone one, not even our worst enemies, nor rejoice in anyone's damnation.
Just my take on the whole matter, relief that he is no longer able to hurt, saddened that he will hurt forever.
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