A Christian's View of Osama's Death - Part 2 (Thankful)

As our dinner conversation continued I interjected, "As much as I'm sad that he was not a Christian before his death, I'm also thankful upon hearing this news".

"Why thankful Dad?"

I'm thankful because the Bible teaches that God has put governments and earthly powers in place to restrain evil and even punish evil, at least in an 'earth-bound' sense. God even uses governments and leaders who do not believe in him and do not submit to his law or believe his gospel.

Osama bin Laden was a man who ordered the murder of thousands of people. I believe it was right to order that he be hunted down and stopped. That is the role of the state, as fallible and imperfect as it is.

But I don't think that my thankfulness should turn to jubilation or celebration. That implies vengeance and that is not something that Christians are to take on (Rom 12:19). As thankful as I am for this event, the scenes of partying, flag waving, and raucous singing of songs like "We Are the Champions" seems grossly inappropriate for Christians because even God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek 18:23).

These two feelings, sadness and thankfulness, remind me of the two Kingdoms of which I'm a part. First I'm a part of the heavenly Kingdom because of faith in Christ. My citizenship is ultimately in heaven. This is my most important citizenship (Phil 3:20) and my desire to see all men come to a saving knowledge of Jesus is the sentiment that brings sadness at Osama's death.

But I'm also a citizen of an earthly Kingdom; the United States. And I'm commanded by God to obey the authorities over me in this Kingdom as well, in as much as they don't force me to disobey God. So I'm glad when the government restrains and punishes evil as God has intended it to do. (Incidentally, I'm also a resident of the United Arab Emirates and I see it as my duty before God to obey their laws and be subject to their government as well, in as much as they don't command me to refrain from doing something that God has commanded me to do).

The goal of the people in the first Kingdom, local churches, is to spread the knowledge of God and his Gospel (see Matt 28 again). And a major goal of the second Kingdom, the State, is to uphold earthly justice, restrain and punish evil (1 Peter 2:14). It's the proper role of militaries to defend, protect, and restrain evil but the role of the church in the world is take the Gospel to the nations.

And so you and I live with a cross section of responsibilities and citizenships, both "in the world but not of the world". That's how I can be both sad and thankful for Osama's death.

Note: Some of you have commented on what it means to "love your neigbor" if your neighbor was Osama bin Laden. I would hope you would share the gospel with him (if possible). Or at least wouldn't you want the gospel shared with any jihadist? One popular account these days is of the conversion of son of a Hamas leader. What if no one had shared the gospel with him? And I would hope too that you would pray that any murderer would be caught and punished for his actions. Loving people doesn't mean we let them do whatever they want to do, but it doesn't include withholding the message of hope from them either.

A Christian's View of Osama's Death - Part 1 (Sad)

We finished thanking God for our dinner and then began eating.

"So Osama bin Laden was shot and killed yesterday. There are pictures all over the internet of cheering Americans waving flags celebrating. What do you think a Christian should think about his death? How should we think about this event in a Christian way?"

"We should be sad because he wasn't a Christian" piped up Emma, my youngest and only not-yet-a-teenager.

As much as I'm glad that a mass murderer has met with justice (more on that in another post) I agreed with her. To think about the world from a Christian perspective means to think about it from a Gospel perspective. And anyone who has not repented and believed in Christ still has the condemnation of God to face. (John 3:18) That's true for him and it's true for everyone else as well. It's why we share the Gospel with everyone and anyone. (Matt 28:18-20/Acts 4:12) Because the gospel message is the only thing capable of removing the condemnation of God from us and making us adopted sons and daughters of the King.

In the 2 Chronicles 33 there is a story of King Manasseh. If ever there was a despicable human being it was him. Charged with leading the nation of Israel in the ways of God, he did the exact opposite. He led Israel away from God. Injustice, murder, immorality, and idol worship all grew during his reign. And as if to characterize his evil reign with one sentence, it says he sacrificed his own children on the altar of foreign gods. (2 Chronicles 33:6) He literally put his children to death in a selfish attempt to gain favor with the foreign gods of the nations around them.

So God brought other nations to conquer Israel in judgment. And Manasseh was led away in chains and thrown into the prison of his captors. That seems just doesn't it?

But God is so rich in mercy that he moved in Masasseh's heart to truly and deeply repent of his sin. Sitting in that dungeon was the mercy of God to awaken him to his own wretchedness. He truly and deeply repented. And God forgave him.

Not only that but God eventually had him rescued from prison and restored to the throne in Jerusalem.

Now that's amazing grace.

If God can forgive Manasseh then there is hope for everyone else on the planet. People like Osama bin Laden and even me.

Quranic Instructions for Muslims Encountering Christians During Christmas

Christmas has past but I wanted to pass on an interesting article that was sent out on a local Muslim email listserve. It's instructions for Muslims about how to respond to Christians during their Christmas holidays or other Christian celebrations.

It might sound harsh to some of you Christians out there but, in all honesty, I think if Muslims are going to be true to their holy scriptures then they should follow these guidelines.

I did have an observant Muslim friend talk to me on chat a few weeks back. He asked me how my Christmas was. I thought this was a very friendly yet perhaps Quranically acceptable way to handle the situation. Although you could possibly argue from the Quran that he is in grave danger having me as a friend in the first place.

See what you think about the article:

AssalamualaykumwarahmatAllah!
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) was asked about the ruling on greeting the kuffaar on the occasion of Christmas and how we should respond when they greet us on this occasion. Is it permissible to go to the parties that they hold on this occasion?

Is a person sinning if he does any of the things mentioned without intending to, and he only does it to be nice, or because of or shyness or embarrassment or other reasons? Is it permissible to imitate them in that?

He replied:

Greeting the kuffaar on the occasion of Christmas or any of their other religious holidays is haraam according to scholarly consensus, as was stated by Ibn al-Qayyim in his book Ahkaam Ahl al-Dhimmah, where he says:

"Congratulating the kuffaar on the rituals that belong only to them is haraam by consensus, as is congratulating them on their festivals and fasts by saying ‘A happy festival to you’ or ‘May you enjoy your festival,’ and so on. If the one who says this has been saved from kufr, it is still forbidden. It is like congratulating someone for prostrating to the cross, or even worse than that. It is as great a sin as congratulating someone for drinking wine, or murdering someone, or having illicit sexual relations, and so on. Many of those who have no respect for their religion fall into this error; they do not realize the offensiveness of their actions. Whoever congratulates a person for his disobedience or bid’ah or kufr exposes himself to the wrath and anger of Allaah." End quote.

Congratulating the kuffaar on their religious festivals is haraam to the extent described by Ibn al-Qayyim because it implies that one accepts or approves of their rituals of kufr, even if one would not accept those things for oneself. But the Muslim should not accept the rituals of kufr or congratulate anyone else for them, because Allaah does not accept any of that at all, as He says (interpretation of the meaning):

"If you disbelieve, then verily, Allaah is not in need of you, He likes not disbelief for His slaves. And if you are grateful (by being believers), He is pleased therewith for you.  .
[al-Zumar 39:7]

". . .

 This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islaam as your religion . .

[al-Maa’idah 5:3]

So congratulating them is forbidden, whether they are one’s colleagues at work or otherwise.

If they greet us on the occasion of their festivals, we should not respond, because these are not our festivals, and because they are not festivals which are acceptable to Allaah. These festivals are innovations in their religions, and even those which may have been prescribed formerly have been abrogated by the religion of Islaam, with which Allaah sent Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to the whole of mankind. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

"Whoever seeks a religion other than Islaam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers."

[Aal ‘Imraan 3:85]

It is haraam for a Muslim to accept invitations on such occasions, because this is worse than congratulating them as it implies taking part in their celebrations.

Similarly, Muslims are forbidden to imitate the kuffaar by having parties on such occasions, or exchanging gifts, or giving out sweets or food, or taking time off work, etc., because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Whoever imitates a people is one of them." Shaykh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah said in his book Iqtidaa’ al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem Mukhaalifat Ashaab al-Jaheem: "Imitating them in some of their festivals implies that one is pleased with their false beliefs and practices, and gives them the hope that they may have the opportunity to humiliate and mislead the weak

End quote from Majmoo’ Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 3/44.

From IslamQA.com
http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/69811

Interesting Article: The Coming Evangelical Collapse

Read this article yesterday. Very provocative. What do you think?