By Marie Jon

“When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish, there is joyful shouting.” — Proverbs 11:10

Should God’s people consider mourning the death of Osama bin Laden? One wonders how people of faith should appropriately respond to his demise.

God’s love

Some Christians do not feel comfortable with the thought of their fellow Americans expressing jubilancy over another’s death. Even a wicked person is very special in God’s eyes. Christ came to this earth to save the sinners of this world.

Christ gave a demonstration to prove His love at Calvary. He died a cruel death on a cross. Jesus died to set free those captivated by evil. He died for the ungodly. He took their place and suffered the punishment they deserved.

By dying on the cross, God proved His supreme love for a world tainted with sin and rebelliousness. There was no other way to clearly demonstrate His love.

However, The Almighty will never force His love or plan of salvation upon humanity. And bin Laden, after all, if viewed biblically, was a lost soul, one who decided to take a wrong path. Bin Laden is now dead without any hope of eternal life. It was his choice to die. Ultimately, the wages of sin is eternal death.

Overcoming evil

But there is much to be said about the thousands of lives lost at the hands of this mastermind of terror.

On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people perished, many of whom lost the opportunity to turn to their Maker. Because we are not promised our tomorrows, our eternal fate can be sealed at a moment’s notice.

Bin Laden inflicted great suffering upon the families of his victims. Without a life infused in God, many will live out the rest of their lives in sorrowful pain. However, in Christ they can be assured of the “Blessed Hope.”

Our country was violated by bin Laden’s wickedness. Yet there was the fortitude and resolution among the American people to move forward with heads held up high. We will never forget what took place as a result of the enormous tragedy and destruction.
Terrorism will haunt the American way of life for many more decades to come.

Child of God — or of Satan?

Who was bin Laden? Was he a child of God, or of the father of lies? What do the scriptures have to say about those who are considered “sons of God”?

In Matthew 5:9, we read, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Romans 8:14 says, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” And Galatians 3:26 declares: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

The above characteristics were definitely not possessed by bin Laden. So what is a Christian to feel or express in a time such as this?

Certainly, death should not be “celebrated” — but an end to evil should! You can rest assured, God’s Word promises that all that is evil will eventually cease to exist. God is good, and eventually only righteousness will prevail for an eternity.

The great controversy is not just a supernatural controversy that occurs in the heavens alone. Not at all! In fact, all humanity is now involved in a great controversy between Christ and Satan regarding the character of God, His law, and His very sovereignty over the universe.

This conflict originated in heaven when a created being, endowed with freedom of choice, in self-exaltation became Satan, God’s adversary. Lucifer led into rebellion a portion of the angels, and introduced the spirit of rebellion into this world when he led Adam and Eve into sin. This human sin resulted in the distortion of the image of God in humanity, the disordering of the created world, and its eventual devastation at the time of the worldwide flood.

Imagine this being observed by all of creation. Our world became, and still is, the arena of the universal conflict, out of which the God of love will ultimately be vindicated.

Eye of the beholder

On Sunday May 2, 2011, evil received a slap in the face — while a human life was also taken. And while the whole spectacle of revelers was a bit distasteful for some, many other Americans thought of our brave troops and the Navy Seals who took out the world’s most wanted fugitive. May God bless America and us all.

Inspired by “Should religious people be mourning the death of bin Laden?” by Pastor Santiago Cuellar

Related Reading: American Thinker: “Interrogation Not Litigation Led to Osama”
EDITORIAL: No Class: Obama snubs Bush, praises himself — Washington Times
The killing of Osama bin Laden: how the White House changed its story — UK Guardian
Marie’s Chosen Song: The National Anthem USA By Tim Davis

© Marie Jon

 

WesternFront America

Has it been eight years?

What I learned from 9/11 was that a lot of Americans have concluded that it was America’s fault we were attacked. That may sound screwy to people who correctly believe that al Qaeda planned, funded and provided the men who carried out the attacks, but why deal with the facts when conspiracies are so much more fun? Why not just blame the victims?

9/11 was not the first attack on the Twin Towers. For those with any attention span, the first attack came in 1993 and was treated as a criminal act by a “gang who couldn’t shoot straight” Muslims, one of whom actually returned to the rental agency to get his money back because the truck used in the attack was destroyed.

Here’s where we are eight years later. As far as the government is concerned, it has learned NOTHING from the event and the subsequent efforts to kill the Taliban and al Qaeda lunatics who were operating in Afghanistan and badlands of Pakistan.

Not only are we still in Afghanistan, not only have we blandished billions on “nation building” in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well on Pakistan, but the Obama Justice Department thinks the CIA interrogators are the bad guys and wants to extend Miranda rights, the full protection of the U.S. Constitution, to terrorists.

Astonishingly, your government has returned to pre-9/11 status wherein the FBI is now responsible for preventing terrorist attacks and the CIA is largely irrelevant, if not suspect.

Recall that, at the time of 9/11, the CIA was forbidden to provide information about terrorism to the FBI and vice-versa. Welcome to the bad old days!

And Obama is still intent on closing Guantanamo although he gave zero thought as to what we should do with the terrorists detained there. Those that were returned to their homelands promptly headed for new battlefields against American forces.

Eight years on, Osama bin Laden is presumably still alive. How is it that a nation with our enormous resources, spy satellites, drones to over-fly where we believe he is hiding, special operations military personnel, and yet this very tall Arab eludes us?

Here, too, is something worth considering. Al Qaeda waited eight years after the February 26, 1993 Twin Towers attack to strike again on September 11, 2001. And 2009 is eight years since the last attack. These people are patient. The next attack has been planned that will greatly exceed the casualties of 9/11.

Had the machinery that the Bush administration put in place and which kept the nation safe been respected and augmented, I would feel more confident, but who can feel confident with Janet Napolitano heading the Department of Homeland Security?

Napolitano cannot even bring herself to say the word “terrorist” and the Obama administration has not only expunged the phrase “war on terrorism”, but the Postal Service has issued of a stamp to commemorate Eid, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan!

It was the weak response of the Clinton administration that spurred al Qaeda to stage 9/11 and the same conditions are in place again today.

In addition, in an absolutely bizarre change of focus, instead of capturing or killing terrorists, it is the former Vice President, Dick Cheney, and dedicated CIA operatives that the Obama administration would like to drag before the dock and prosecute!

It is eight years later and I do not feel one bit safer. Do you?

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Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at FactsNotFantasy and a weekly commentary at the website of The National Anxiety Center.

 

WesternFront America