4 May
What if Osama bin Laden accepted Jesus as his savior before he died?
One of my passions is the study of ethical dilemmas. I, for one, love raising the great philosophical and theological questions that challenge today’s thinking person.
Jesus says in his famous Sermon on the Mount,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48).
After we heard the news about Osama bin Laden’s death, I began wondering about several interesting questions.
This passage made me wonder: What would Jesus say about men like Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden? Are we commanded “to love” this kind of enemy? Put in a different way, had Osama bin Laden or Hitler accepted Jesus as their savior one minute before they were killed, would they be granted instant forgiveness of sin and enjoy an eternal life of companionship with God in Heaven or Paradise?
The Protestant theologian Karl Barth is purported to have been asked such a question. Bear in mind that Barth was one of the greatest Christian theologians who defied Hitler, yet when he was asked such a question, he would cite the passage from Romans 5:8-9 that reads, But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. Only such unparalleled mercy and forgiveness, such unstinting gladness could have prompted the Führer’s genuine repentance. To accuse him, though justly, of his dreadful sins would have prompted Hitler’s self-righteous defense, his angry justification of his ‘necessary’ deeds.“[1]
Thus, according to the classical Protestant view, God would grant clemency and forgiveness even to the worst kind of sinner. Barth’s perspective is not much different from the Catholic view expressed after WWII, which claimed, “God forgives even the worst kind of sinners—such as Adolf Hitler. Just the other day, Jennifer Fulwiler wrote in the National Catholic Register: Continue Reading
