Osama deserves Hell...Me...notsomuch:

Without a doubt, the Internet is certain that President Obama will be announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden in just a few minutes.  How can I tell?  Because, "God Bless America!", "Osama Bin Laden is dead. and i'm not feeling that good myself.", "OSAMA DEAD?!?!?!?! HELL YES!!!!", and "Osama bin laden has finally received what he deserved!" just filled up my news feed.  That's one heck of a coincidence.




As of writing that sentence I just heard our President confirm the fact that Bin Laden is in fact dead.  So, they were right, and what a stunning proof of the speed and power of the Internet.  But, all that aside, I was a little weird about the idea of people being so excited about his death.  While I have to admit, hearing that he had died did give my patriotism a little rise, I couldn't sustain it, it was death and death has a permanent consequence.  So, I put this out on facebook, "Can a christian really celebrate someone going to hell?" and here are the responses I got.

in this case, I would have to say yes

Nope.

We can celebrate justice.

good point...

are we talkin bout bin laden here? cause if we are, i dont know where he went, im just glad hes gone!

agreed...I celebrate justice but I still have a hard time celebrating death.

Agreed. Not to mention that there are reactions for every action. I'm scared of the consequences this might bring. To me death is never happy.

It's not an overwhelming dissent or approval, but the one thing that jumped out at me through all of this is the idea that his death is justice being doled out for the atrocious things that he did.

I get it.  I really do.  He was a bad guy.  But, I wasn't asking about if we should feel a little bit better about getting a bad man off the streets.  I asked if we should celebrate when a man goes to hell for eternity.  That, personally, makes me sad.

I'm no apologist for terrorists.  But, I don't want anyone to go to hell.  I wanted the story to end with Bin Laden giving himself up and turning over a new leaf.  I want to believe that dyed in the wool terrorists can change.  I can't celebrate his death.  I can't celebrate what might feel like justice.

Isn't our faith about justice denied?

Isn't grace about never feeling the punishment we deserve.  Jesus died for us while we were still planning terrorist attacks against his kingdom.  I don't hear anyone crying out for justice if you're on the right side of grace.  But, Osama, he deserved to die.

Sure he did.  And, so do you and I.  Maybe not according to earthly standards.  But, we're playing the game of relativism, "At least I'm not as bad as Hitler!" can so easily be replaced with, "At least I'm not as bad as Bin Laden!".  But, we are, we are a people turned completely towards the destruction of God's kingdom until he reaches down and replaces our heart.  And, now that he's shredded up the ledgers we're shouting for the death of someone who was just like us before grace (not to mention the common grace of being born in America to be awash in the Gospel).

Let's not kid ourselves, we didn't want justice.  We wanted revenge.  We can't even comprehend justice. We got our revenge and now he's got his eternity.  But, revenge isn't ours to take.

God, thank you for being completely unjust in relation to my punishment.  I'm so sorry Christ had to suffer for me.  I know that there was no other way though.  Thank you for being patient and not vengeful with me.  Expedite your gospel to the furthest reaches of the world.  Penetrate the hearts of the most venomous before they meet their end.  Save the terrorists.