one thing is necessary

Osama Is Dead, Shall We Rejoice?

Heard the news yesterday that Osama bin Laden was killed recently by American troops. While there is no doubt the man is worthy of death for his crimes, I am very uncomfortable with the spirit of celebration that went on at his death.

Many seem to have forgotten that the moment that bullet entered his brain he was sentenced by God to eternity of wrath and condemnation for his rebellion against God, and for what his crimes against humanity (killing humans made in God's image) represent about his rebellion and hatred for God. Many of those who celebrate Osama's death forget also they are headed in the same direction if they do not repent and believe in Jesus Christ, the only Savior, the only Mediator between God and man (1Ti 2:4-6).

D.A. Carson wisely advises, "we must eschew a vendetta mentality." He continues:

Love demands that we do not demonize Osama bin Laden. He is a human being made in the image of God. He is an evil man, and he must be stopped, but he is a man, and we should take no pleasure in destroying him. Vengeance is the Lord’s alone. Do not offer the alternative, "Should we weep for Osama bin Laden or hold him to account for his genocide and prevent him from carrying out his violent intentions?" The right answer is yes.

Justice is done, and for this fact I feel a sober satisfaction. Yet, vengeance is the Lord's, he will repay. For our part, we are not to have vendettas or pursue revenge, but love our enemies (cf. Rom 12:19-21; Luke 6:27-36), lest when we have "done justice" and destroyed all our enemies, God will then destroy us. 

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"Love your Enemies" and the Imprecatory Psalms

Of the many concise and surprising things Jesus instructed, "Love your enemies," rates pretty near the top. Many know the passage who've never picked up a Bible in their lives. When we are struck on the cheek, we offer the other also. When someone asks us to bear a burden for one mile, we are to carry it for two, we are to "go the extra mile". This teaching is so radical and unthinkable it has left a profound impact on his followers and even his non-followers, even on the English language in terms of the idiom "go the extra mile." 

One might say that love was the very center of Jesus "ethic". I would add that this love is taught in a context of grace. Jesus began that sermon by saying, "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God." This is tantamount to saying, "Blessed are those who come to God with nothing and know it, pleading God for mercy, for he will give them everything, both his kind reign now, and his future kingdom for eternity." This is pure grace: those with nothing get everything! This is the context for the love Jesus demands. Jesus expects this kind of radical love to flow out of hearts both cleansed and transformed by the grace of God.

This is a foundation of Christian teaching. We who follow Christ, who name him as Lord, if we know anything about what he expects of us, it is at least this: to love others, even enemies, as we have been loved.

For something to so mark Christian teaching, one begins to wonder and question upon reading the OT Psalms and finding what are called the "imprecatory psalms". Psalm 139:19-22 is a good example:

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 

One begins to wonder how these passages fit in with Jesus' command to love our enemies and bless those who curse us, which is so markedly a part of the Christian faith. How do these mix?

First of all, right before Jesus says "Love your enemies" in Luke 6:27, he spends Luke 6:24-26 saying "Woe to you who...", which, in a way, is calling down God's judgment and curse upon people who proudly reject God and think of themselves as self-sufficient! So Jesus is not against God judging people. He is interested in his disciples seeking the good of all people, as people transformed by grace, freely forgiving as they themselves have been.

But how are we to understand these Psalms? John Piper, in his What Jesus Demands from the World, has a very helpful section dealing with this question (pg. 221-223), in which he offers a helpful solution. 

[We are to understand] the psalmist speaking under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and foreshadowing the Messiah and Judge, who has the ultimate right to call down judgement on the enemies of God. (223)

Thus, we are to distance ourselves from such Psalms in the sense that we do not repeat their behavior, because we do not have the same role as the one speaking. We do not call down curses upon the wicked, because we are not the judge. The psalmist spoke prophetically as the future Messiah, i.e. King, Judge, and as such spoke on God's behalf condemning the "persistent and high-handed and God-despising" sin of the ultimately unrepentant. We, however, lack such credentials.

Piper counsels in closing:

We would do well to leave such final assessments to God and realize our own corrupt inability to hate as we ought. While there is unforgivable sin, we are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us and return good for evil. . . . This is our vocation by faith. (223)

Well said.

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I hate the lottery

Gambling makes many poor, and the few it makes rich, it does so at the expense of the many lives it has ruined.

Blow the trumpet for the unborn

If you have access to Brothers, We are Not Professionals by John Piper, pick it up right now and read chapter 27, "Blow the trumpet for the unborn", p. 211-227. 

Here are some highlights:

"Since that ruling we have killed on average 1.5 million babies every year" (213)

"In Minnesota they know that the Fetal Homicide Law makes a person guilty of manslaughter, or worse, if he kills the baby in a mother's womb. There is an exception clause for abortion. . . . It means that if the mother chooses to have the baby killed it is legal. If she doesn't, it is illegal. Nothing in the essence of the unborn determines the right to life. Only the will of the mother. They know it is the essence of totalitarian rule: the will of the strong determines the rights of the weak." (214)

"But abortion is emphatically not a 'personal' decision in that limited sense. There is another person, namely, the unborn child. If you deny this, you must give an account of what that little preemie is at Abbot Northwestern. Abortion is a decision about competing human rights: the right not to be pregnant and the right not to be killed." (215)

"The issue was whether the taking of human life is warranted by the greater good of a woman's right's. I have found this position repeated in talking with other pro-choice professionals; when pressed they don't dispute that they are taking the life of human beings." (220-1)

That shocked me. I had no idea they would openly admit that they are putting humans to death, and that they are consciously elevating the right of choice over the right of human life. It is supposedly "okay" to abort a 23-week old preemie in the womb, but wrong to strangle a 23-week old preemie born and viable. 

This is a ludicrous and wicked evil. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for much less than this, and Americans and Taiwanese and others will not escape the wrath to come from God, the Father. (punctuation emphatic, cf. James 1:27)

"Will you put the trumpet to your lips, or be silent?" (227)

Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, "Behold, we did not know this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:11-12)