73 Turn Other Cheek?

Don Hawley

September 15, 2001

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As the result of the September 11 attack on America, some well meaning Christians are venturing into dangerous and misguided waters. They are invoking such texts as:

Let me give you an imaginary scenario. A serial killer has left a swath of multiple victims throughout Greater Portland. All of his victims are female, one as young as nine, and one as old as eighty. The killing itself is just to finish off the procedure; his real pleasure is in raping and torturing hour after hour after hour. He's still on the loose, and expected to strike again at any moment.

What is the proper Christian response to this murderer? Just, "I love you, brother. Not only am I praying for you, but I forgive you for the killings thus far?" Or should this madman be apprehended before he can kill again, brought before the bar of justice, and incarcerated for life or perhaps even executed.

The Bible doesn't merely say that God is "loving," but that he IS love. And that is not speaking merely of Jesus. Many make the mistake of trying to separate the God of the Old Testament from the God of the New Testament. Not possible, they are one and the same. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The God who said, "Love your enemies," is the same one who sent the people of Israel against pagan groups with the clear instruction to kill every man, woman, and child. Obviously, some of us are missing something along the line.

God can't help but love, that's his basic nature. However, that love takes different forms according to the situation at hand. Sometimes it means chastisement, even death. When God destroys the wicked in hell it will be out of love, not hate. The best thing for the universe, and for them, is that they cease to exist. They would be miserable in heaven, and would propagate the evil of this present world as well.

(I do NOT believe the Bible teaches that a loving God keeps the lost endlessly alive in hell just so he can torture them on and on without end. That would make both bin Laden and Hitler look like Boy Scouts. I wrote an article on this subject for my web site titled "How Hot is Hell," you can find it at www.spiritandtruth.com. I read just this week that Charles Darwin, who has caused Christians so much grief, decided that Christianity was a "damnable doctrine" because it consigned his nonbelieving father and grandfather to the flames. And by that I'm sure he understood endless torture. I can hardly blame Darwin, I wouldn't want to spend eternity with such a God either.)

Whenever God sent an earthly army out to war against another people, he was commanding a STATE action--the state of Israel. That makes all the difference.

As individual Christians we do not have the same prerogatives as the state. Consider the imaginary scenario presented previously. If one of the victims was my precious daughter, I would suffer intensely knowing what she went through before dying. That might generate understandable anger in my heart, but even so I wouldn't have the option of tracking down the killer and personally dispatching him. That is an appropriate action only for the state. Nowhere does the Bible permit me to seek vengeance personally. (I do believe, however, that I have the right--with all necessary force--to defend my home against an invading madman.)

One of the greatest shames of Christianity was the butchery called "The Crusades." It was wrong because the CHURCH does not have the right to that kind of warfare, only a STATE. The Word of God commissions us to go through the entire world and bring people to Christ--by persuasion only. Christians have no justification for trying to force anyone into the mold of Christianity. (The great Islamic leader Saladin was, interestingly enough, more merciful and decent than the Crusaders.)

Islam, I believe, has a different perspective. It too tells its followers to go throughout the world and convert people to their faith. However, if they don't comply willingly then force is permitted, even to waging "holy war," Jihad. This is a vital difference, and some Christians seem not to be aware of it. Having spent several years of my life in a Moslem nation, I may be more sensitive to this issue.

The Bible seems to indicate that there is such a thing as a "just war." Of course, making such a determination is not simple--usually. I feel that WWII was an exception. After the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor the American people bonded together just as they are in the process of doing right now. They vowed that the great U.S. STATE would track down the Axis killers and bring them to justice in no uncertain terms. And they did, with a massive loss of life. Then, they turned around and forgave their enemies and helped them to recover. Sometimes we don't speak well enough of our country.

Many younger people today have never known war, or true oppression. They spend too much of their time on college campuses spouting off inanities concerning matters they little understand. They don't know that civilization really was at stake in the 1940s. But thank God there were STATES like the U.S., Britain, France, and many others, who were willing to wage war against STATES such as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. My best friend, Jack, died after his body was blown apart by a German shell in the Huertgen Forest. His death, along with millions of others, bought me the privilege of marrying and raising a family in a wonderfully free environment. Young people should hush themselves until they are sure they know what they are talking about.

We need to pray for President Bush and other leaders as they try to determine the proper response to the horrible loss of life in New York and Washington. Some might be so bold as to suggest that we send a courier to Osman bin Ladin with the message, "Dear bin, what you did wasn't very nice, but we want you to know that we still love you, pray for you, and forgive you." Somehow I rather doubt that would bring him to repentance. In fact, I feel sure that such an approach would further embolden him in designing even bigger and more disastrous events in the future.

Let's stay with the Word, but without abandoning our reason. God says, "Come, let us reason together." Otherwise we might end up misconstruing another text that quotes our Lord.

Does that mean since bin Ladin (it seems now) blasted us on one cheek, we have to beg for more? Should we arrange for three commercial jets to be available for his remaining pilots, and clear the airways, so that they can slam into Camp David, the Whitehouse, and the Capitol building?

I don't think so. But let's not get so inflamed that we take things into our own personal hands, like moving against Islamic Americans who may be as dismayed as we are. Let's not call the Body of Christ to go to war physically, let that Body lead out in spiritual warfare. But let us back our United States as it moves to bring justice to bear upon the perpetrators of September 11th's horrors.

We don't know how all this will play out, but it does bring us another step closer to the return of Christ to establish his eternal Kingdom. Even the most sincere men can never, in their own wisdom and strength, bring about heaven on earth.

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