Christian Response to the Killing of Osama bin Laden

Christian Response to Celebrating Justice

Welcome, we got a question that came into the ministry that asks how Christians can seemingly be rejoicing and celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden. It's an interesting thought and the way to address this is really two-fold.

One, break down what the question really is assuming or asking. Are Christians celebrating the death of an individual or as it's said in the question, are they celebrating or rejoicing over the fact that someone is in hell?

Christians Should Not Rejoice Over an Unbeliever’s Death

So let's deal with this as a Christian response. Christians should not be rejoicing over the death of anybody who is not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ because of the fact that without the redemption of Christ, then they will spend eternity in a lake of fire and that's nothing to rejoice about.

We should be upset and weeping in a sense for that. But the question, should we be rejoicing over or celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden? The issue really isn't that we're celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden, but we are celebrating justice being served.

And that's a totally different thing. What the right response would be is to celebrate the justice meted out by the American government on someone who committed or organized attacks on the country. To give some scriptural basis for that, where would I see?

David, Saul, and Justice in 2 Samuel 1

Well, if you go to 2 Samuel chapter 1, you'll see there that David is, this is right after the death of King Saul, Saul is killed. This Amalekite comes and he's trying to win favor over David and he says to David that he knows that Saul and Jonathan are dead.

David asks how and the response is, he said he saw he was there with King Saul and the Amalekite said that Saul said, please stand beside me and kill me for agony has seized me because my life still lingers in me.

So I stood beside him and killed him because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. And David asks him, who are you that you should touch the Lord's anointed? And so in the end, after David is mourning and weeping over the death, but then in verse 16 of 2 Samuel 1 it says, and David called one of the young men and said, go cut him down, referring to the Amalekite, and so he struck him and he died.

David’s Justice and the Proper Response to Osama bin Laden’s Death

David said to him, your blood is upon your head for your mouth has testified against you saying I have killed the Lord's anointed and that's the issue. David was meeting out justice and that's what America did with Osama Bin Laden and no one's rejoicing over the death of Osama Bin Laden or they shouldn't be.

They shouldn't be celebrating the fact that he's spending eternity in a lake of fire, but what's being celebrated is that the justice that God has given us and we are meeting it out and when justice is served it reflects back on the creator who gave us justice and therefore we can rejoice in justice being served, but we shouldn't be rejoicing in the death of any individual apart from someone who knows Christ and is spending eternity with him.

So some things to think about. Go out and make sure the way we respond doesn't be perceived in a wrong way, but that we are rejoicing in the justice of God being served on earth. Now go out and strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.