When someone evil is killed or dies should we celebrate in the fact that that unsaved person will be going to hell? For instance, Hitler and Osama Bin Laden were evil men. Should we be mourning and sadded by this? Yes. This person was not saved by God and another soul is in hell because of his unrepentant sin and trust in Christ to atone for his own sins. Love is twofold. There is love and holiness and when love and holiness are violated there is justice. My continuous reflection has got me thinking, “Why am I not more appreciative of justice?”
This is how I work it out and how I believe God views mercy and justice. Antecedently, God willed and genuinely desired Bin Laden to repent and to respond to the revelation he has been given. However, consequently, because of Bin Laden’s rejection of God and infatuation with evil, God has willed that Bin Laden atone for his own sins and for there to be justice. This justice is his death and punishment in the afterlife. Why am I not taking joy in God’s justice? I believe my apprehension of justice is far removed from how God loves justice since it is ontologically based in him.
Yes, antecedently we should not be joyful that Bin Laden is taking on his own punishment. However, in turn and consequently, God is receiving his glory from Bin Laden’s sins being atoned for. For the Christian, hell is a good thing, hell is the means by which God renders justice to those who have not had their sins atoned for by Jesus Christ on the cross. The important thing is to make the antecedent-consequent distinction in how we respond.
July 6, 2012 at 23:07
We shouldn’t use this concept of “Hell” in our lives and decisions.
If we want justice we must make it grow in peoples minds.
What happens in this world must never be let to divine justice.
The World doesn’t work this way. Hell will be this world if good men don’t take their duty.
July 8, 2012 at 10:05
I’m certainly not denying the justice here in this life. However, the justice we can offer is only part of an ultimate justice. Thanks!
July 8, 2012 at 08:54
Max,
I have two things to ask about. First, I’m not sure what you mean when you say that you are “antecedently” sorrowful but “consequently” joyful. Do you just mean that you are sorrowful at first but then after a while you get over it and become joyful? That doesn’t sound correct, but I don’t know how else to make sense of your comments.
The second thing I’m curious about is this: You asked yourself why you are not more appreciative of justice. But I wonder, why should you appreciate justice? Oh, to be sure, human justice systems play an important role in human society, and so it’s easy to see why we should appreciate successful justice systems set up by governments, and why we should instill values which celebrate such systems. But when it comes to an omnipotent and omniscient deity unconcerned with resource limitations, why would we want this being to set up an analogous system of rules for itself to follow?
It seems to me that when you suggest God loves justice, you’re saying that God is putting his own desire to follow certain rules (e.g., send people to Hell under conditions X,Y,Z, and to heaven under conditions A,B,C) ahead of his desire to protect and serve the well-being of conscious creatures. In other words, God is celebrating mindless abstractions (the rules of his favorite cosmic “justice” system) at the expense of intense suffering on the part of countless human beings. If we should respond with sorrow to anything, God’s priorities when it comes to human suffering sounds like a prime candidate!
Regards,
Ben
July 20, 2012 at 22:18
You say that Bin Laden is suffering eternal consequences because he rejected God. Yet, Bin Laden was adamant that he was doing God’s will, not rejecting it. The actions he took were, in his view, carrying out God’s justice.
Now, I don’t believe Bin Laden was doing the will of God, but I wonder, how we can be sure that he is in hell, if hell is to exist – and why that is a good thing. I assume that, for you, hell is avoided by “confessing your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior”. In other words, you have to say you believe in God through Jesus Christ. Of course, you secretly hope that God’s requirements for avoiding hell are to say that one sentence and not something else (such as “I believe in Allah as my God and savior”). The question becomes, how do you know you are right and Bin Laden was wrong? I suspect your answer is along the lines of “because the Bible told me so”, similar to Bin Laden’s claim “because the Qoran told me so”.
But, let’s assume for the moment that you are right and Bin Laden is in hell right now suffering eternal punishment. At what point does God’s justice become satisfied? You mention Bin Laden and Hitler as an example of people who deserve eternal punishment because of their crimes against humanity. Nevermind the fact that you are enacting Godwin’s Law, where is the line for this punishment? Surely it is not being a political tyrant and killing thousands of people – if so then only a few people throughout history would be living in hell. But if it the line is somewhere lower than that, where is it? And how do you determine that line? It would seem arbitrary. That is, of course, unless you go back to the early point of saying the line is saying the right sentence (namely that is my Lord and Savior).
If not saying a particular sentence is what deserves an eternity in hell, then God’s justice would seem to be much harsher than any human’s standards. In fact, God’s justice would seem more tyranical than Hitler or Bin Laden.
I doubt I’m convincing you of much, but surely you must recognize that Hitler and Bin Laden are extreme examples that could have been avoided in your argument. It would be just as valid to say “John, someone who was charitable in every manner, giving of his time, money and energy to helping the poor, never said Jesus was his Lord and so is currently in hell and deserving of that”. But, then again, that wouldn’t sound nearly as good, would it? Better stick with the tyrants.
Trackbacks
September 20, 2012 at 06:13