The Bible View: Is Attacking, Killing, And Then Celebrating Success In Killing Osama Bin Laden Appropriate? Should We Have Prayed For This Moment?

There are many people who following the death of Osama Bin Laden proclaimed that no one should rejoice in the death of even someone like Bin Laden. Others rejoiced openly and said there should be only jubilation. Still others said it was possible and critical to strike some sort of middle ground. In recent days, there have been religious clergy and laymen of all sorts citing a verse here and a verse there from the Bible, or putting out statements about the Biblical and religious approach to the death of Bin Laden. Some of what I have heard has been sensible, other ideas have bordered on completely ridiculous sentiments that ignore straightforward Biblical text. The Associated Press even reported that "[f]or...religious leaders, it was sometimes hard to know just what to say." It is only because of this that I have therefore attempted to put forth a Biblical answer to the important and timely question of how to respond to the death of Bin Laden.

The first issue that must be addressed is whether a Biblical view allows for confronting and defeating evil in the first place, or instead demands passivity and acquiescence and if need be martyrdom at the hands of evildoers. The latter is a terribly immoral view because it allows evil to grow and spread. It allows evil to go completely unchallenged. This only leads to more atrocities and wrongdoing. The Bible specifically orders men in Leviticus 19:16 to take action against the murder of innocents, saying "thou shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." I have heard religious people claim that a man should willingly walk like Daniel into the lion's den rather than fighting back against his persecutor. This is an absurd lesson to learn from the story of Daniel which is an example of standing by faith even in the most extreme circumstances. In the case of Daniel, how exactly could he have resisted the decree that he go to the lion's den? The fact is that when there is a capability to stand up to and defeat true evil the Bible would never declare doing so immoral. In fact, a failure to act is all too often what is immoral. There are historical examples of nations standing idly by taking no action even as genocide took place, and there is nothing more shameful than this ignoble history. There are many examples in the Bible that can be cited to demonstrate the necessity and propriety of standing up to evil, but I shall cite only a few.

The truth is that God in Exodus has no problem with actually sending a man to stand up to the mightiest Pharaoh. It was "the spirit of the Lord [that] came mightily upon" Samson and let him find "a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand" and take it against his Phillistine persecutors and smite "a thousand men therewith" in Judges 15. There is nothing wrong with a David in 1 Samuel 17 standing up to a Goliath and declaring, "What shall be done to the man that kills this Philistine, and takes away the taunt from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should have taunted the armies of the living God?" Did the Prophet Elijah have a problem standing up to rulers like Ahab and telling him in Kings 18 that "you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord" and challenging the followers of Ba'al to meet him on Mount Carmel? Did he have a problem defying the word of Queen Jezebel as she slaughtered Prophets? Of course not. The Bible does not demand passivity and acceptance of terrible evils rather than standing up for what is right and if need be when possible fighting those that would defy the ways of right and good by persecuting you or others in the most grave fashion. Of course it is a matter of context and your ability to confront and defeat evil. Standing up to evil from a position of weakness is not necessarily a Godly, let alone smart, thing to do. But when evildoers bring their ways and tyrannies upon you, even shedding the blood of the innocent, and there is a way to confront and defeat it, I don't see how it cannot be seen as imperative to do so. Therefore, it should be clear that confronting and crushing someone like Osama Bin Laden, a great evildoer and symbol of immense wickedness, was not only the right thing to do, it was a moral imperative of the United States and an act of moral goodness. King David wrote in Psalm 144:1, "Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle." Man has a duty to train his hands for war and fingers for battle because the real haters of peace will continue to nefariously plot and plan whether good men are ready to defend themselves or not. The forces of evil will not suffer from some inner guilt but will have no problem committing the most barbaric acts to further their larger unholy atrocious goals. In order for those on the side of goodness to maintain peace, there must be constant vigilance, including readiness for war.

The next question that must be addressed is the proper approach to evil to begin with. Ecclesiastes 3:8 rightly declares, there is "a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace." The short answer is that the Bible is clear that the the righteous must love good, but also hate evil. This is clear to those that follow the words of Isiah 5:20, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil." In terms of how one should view Bin Laden, confusing good with evil should not be a problem. The Prophet Micah 6:7-8 declared, "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?' It has been told to you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord does require of you: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." It is all too easy to realize that Osama Bin Laden did not do justly, did not love mercy, and walked with a monstrosity of a deity that he believed commanded his abominable holy war and the slaughter of innocents. Since there are moral absolutes such as good and evil it is actually critical to hate true evil. This is expressly stated in scripture. Psalm 97:10 states, "O ye that love the Lord, hate evil." Proverbs 8:13 states, "Fear of the Lord is to hate evil." In Amos 8:15 it is written, "Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate." One might argue that all these sorts of verses only relate to hating the concept of evil in the abstract, but not to hating actual evildoers. King David would disagree. He wrote in Psalm 139:21-22, "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? And do not I strive with those that rise up against Thee? I hate them with utmost hatred; I count them mine enemies." The purveyors of grievous evils are certainly worthy of hatred. So the fact is that one should hate evil, and that real evildoers like Osama Bin Laden are deserving of the hatred as well.

Is it proper to pray for the destruction of someone like Osama Bin Laden and praise and thank God for his demise? After a military victory against an enemy and their king, the Song of Deborah was sang in praise to the Lord for allowing for the success. This song of victory over the enemies also ended with a final line in Judges 5:31 where Deborah prays, "So may all your enemies be destroyed, O God! And let those who love Him be like the powerfully rising sun." After crossing the Red Sea and the waters engulf the Egyptians, the response of Moses and the Children of Israel in Exodus 15 starting with the first verse is to "sing to God for he is exalted above the arrogant." Clearly there is a proper place for praying for the enemy's downfall and singing to and praising God for the destruction of the enemy. David composed a hundred and three chapters of Psalms, and he did not use the word "Hallelujah" until he saw the downfall of the wicked, as it says in Psalm 104:35, "Let sinners cease out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah."

What is it then exactly that should and is to be celebrated when the evil enemy is destroyed? It is true that there are verses such as Ezekiel 18:23 which states, "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God; and not rather that he should return from his ways, and live?" But with the likes of evil such as Bin Laden, it is clear that he reached the point of no return and there is no way that he deserved the right to continue to live. With certain sins committed against fellow men such as murder on a massive scale, a sin which results in so many victims around the world being no longer around to forgive their persecutor or for their persecutor to seek their forgiveness, God will not allow for someone to simply return from his ways and live. Nor would any sensible system of justice.

On the one hand we can read in Proverbs 24:17 the verse declaring, "Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles." But in the same book a number of chapters earlier a different verse sends a different message. Proverbs 11:10 states that "when the wicked perish, there is joy." How does one reconcile these two verses? There is no contradiction. A powerful message is being sent about the proper response to military victories against the enemy. First, if you rejoice because he is your enemy and have achieved a personal victory it is pointless. It is then a celebration of personal triumph and an act of arrogance rather than an expression of the necessary hatred of evil and its destruction. On the other hand, if you rejoice at the diminishment of evil and that justice has been done that is not only expected, but moral. Deuteronomy 9:4-6 makes this clear when God tells the Israelite people in the desert who are about to conquer the land of Canaan, "Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God does drive them out from before you, and that He may establish the word which the Lord swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." God does not approve of victorious acts of war leading to false arrogance, but focuses on the wickedness of the enemies and that such victories serve to humble the faithful. Second, there is at best a mix of emotions, we do not rejoice that we live in a world where man must use targeted assassinations against his fellow man, but there is no reason not to be joyful when a great evildoer meets his maker because of our successful operation at bringing about justice and diminishing evil. I don't agree with those who claim that that some element of joy should be either unexpected or considered wrong at all if one truly hates evil, because to pretend to have no joy at all seems far too apathetic toward that evil. In fact, King David goes so far as to declare in Psalm 58:11-12 that "[t]he righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. And men shall say: 'Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth.'" One can clearly rejoice over the death of the wicked if that celebration is the expression of the fact that justice has been done and recognized on the earth.

There are those that take issue with the New York Daily News putting a picture of Osama Bin Laden on the front page, with the words "Rot In Hell" also emblazoned on the cover. In response to Bin Laden's death, Mike Huckabee released a statement that said "welcome to hell." Some thought this rhetoric goes over the line. But there is no reason to think Osama is not receiving divine justice, as Proverbs says in verse 24:20, "There will be no future to the evil man, the lamp of the wicked shall be put out." He is the God of not only mercy, but also of justice. Ultimately God is the ultimate judge who will and can balance the two, but in Bin Laden's case I don't doubt that he will be light on mercy and heavy on justice. That's a God that is very much worthy of our praise. Tweet