Recently I forwarded some horrific pictures that had come my direction over the internet. They were snap shots of British Muslims demonstrating on the streets of London. Because Islam keeps claiming to be a religion of peace and because the Politically Correct have bought this lie, I found these images telling and chilling. They speak volumes, not only about Islam’s violence but about her intentions to take over the western world, an idea that today’s naive elitists tend to laugh at. Some of the captions read:
“Slay Those Who Insult Islam”
“Europe is the Cancer. Islam is the answer.”
“Islam Will Dominate the World.”
“Freedom, Go To Hell.”
“Europe, Take Lessons From 9/ll.”
“Europe. You Will Pay. Your 9/11 Is On Its Way”
“Be Prepared For the Real Holocaust.”
“Exterminate Those Who Slander Islam.”
Despite these photos, England comes down hard on those who criticize Muslims. England has also decided to stop talking about the holocaust in public schools because its Muslim population does not believe the holocaust even happened and finds such teaching offensive. And in Canada, it is now considered Hate Speech to speak against Islam. It is equally deemed, “Hate Speech” in Canada to speak against homosexuality, even though homosexuality is against the law in most Muslim countries and punishable by death in many. (You just have to see the irony.)
Stop….Before you continue. Yes, I am aware that there are peaceful Muslims in the world. My purpose right now is not to get into a discussion about Islam. I have already written many articles on the subject and I will put links to such blogs at the end of this one.
No, believe it or not, my concern at the moment, is not Muslim theology, but rather Christian theology! After sending out these pictures, I, (not I, personally, but I, along with many others on an E Mail list) received what appeared to be a loving challenge/rebuke from a Christian brother sharing a page out of a book he had recently written. The subject was forgiveness. He was reminding us that we are to forgive our enemies.
I will not mention the name of this person. I do not know him well but I do know him and from all I have ever observed, he is an intelligent, loving, dedicated Christian brother. I have nothing but respect for him. There is no doubt whatsoever that he was speaking sincerely, in a manner he hopes will please God. As far as his heart and motives are concerned, I am certain God is pleased. But this innocence is exactly what made the man’s response so frustrating to me. Often, the heart and the head are in two different places. Even smart, bright people can be sincerely misled. Still, his view is far from unique and so I offer this response not to him alone, but to the countless Christians who need to hear some very important words.
My concern comes from the fact that no where in the E Mail containing the pictures, did anyone ask Christians to not forgive Muslims, or not forgive their enemies. The purpose was simply to tell the truth: Islam is not a religion of peace. Indeed, Islam intends to take over the world. I doubt that they will succeed in such a goal but we should understand the goal. Monstrous evil is in the wind and people need to be warned. Because I and others choose to inform the world about an evil enemy, will people automatically assume we are unforgiving? If so, something is drastically wrong with our current understanding of Jesus and His message.
The truth is, Muslims today are coming to Christ in the tens of thousands, year after year. This is wonderful and I rejoice to see the forgiveness of God. I even had the pleasure of personally leading a Muslim to Christ and Arabic Christian Perspective has had numerous guests on my radio program. None of this means I will be silent or refrain from discussing the many Muslims who have not (as of yet) repented and who plan to spread a repressive cult. As Christians and American citizens, we owe it to our children to leave behind a culture and life as peaceful as the one we were blessed to experience.
I am convinced that today’s generation of Christianity is quick to embrace the doctrine of forgiveness without really understanding it. Yes, the command to forgive is Biblical but it comes with two extremely important qualifications: 1) There is a difference between forgiving and excusing. 2) There is also a distinction between who is or is not to be forgiven. Let’s unpack these amendments one at a time:
1) There is a difference between forgiving and excusing.
The Bible is literally filled from start to finish with warnings against evil, spoken by God through the mouth of his prophets and apostles. God called certain people evil and God called certain nations evil as well.
-Jesus, speaking of Judas: “Did I myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil” (John 6:70)
-John the Baptist calls Herod evil in Luke 3:19.
-Jeremiah, speaking for God about Israel: “The people of Israel and of Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done” (Jer 32:32).
-Jeremiah, speaking of the King of Babylon: “…the evil Morecach became king of Babylon.”
Although the Bible teaches that everyone has a sinful nature, the Bible does not imply that every single, human being is evil. Evil refers to a man who has seared his conscience and completely given into sin (1 Tim 1:1-19, Heb 6). This is why a book like Proverbs distinguishes between the righteous man and the wicked man. Yes, a righteous man has his own sins to contend with as well, and yes we all need the atonement of Christ on the cross, but righteous refers to one who is working through that process of sanctification with God’s Spirit.
VERY IMPORTANT: A righteous man does not go around calling himself righteous. On the contrary, he refers to himself as sinful (selfish) and cooperates with the Holy Spirit to have his heart continually purged and scrutinized. It is important that we not confuse a humble child of God for a self-righteous religious person. Jesus came to deal with many sins, but the sin of self righteousness was of special concern to Him. Such people could not or would not admit/confront their own selfish natures. The Pharisees (religious teachers of the day) were in this category, not all of them, but certainly many of them. Jesus did not hold back when describing the Pharisees. He called them “a brood of vipers” (Matt 12). He called them “whitewashed tombs with dead bones inside” (Matt 23).
Yes, Jesus said those things, the same Jesus who instructed us to forgive. If He came amongst us today and talked in such a manner to a self righteous hypocrite, some Christian (not knowing whom he was talking to) might remind Jesus that as Christians, we are called to forgive. Jesus would also be exhorted to love His neighbor.
The truth is, Jesus knew the difference between tough love and merciful love. With Him, it was not a “one size fits all” ministry. The woman caught in adultery was treated with tenderness and compassion. Why? Because she knew and admitted her sin. On the other hand, the Pharisees were so proud, they needed to be taken down a peg in order to be saved. At the beginning of the Book of Acts, we do read about many Pharisees giving their lives to Christ. Others may have turned so evil in their self righteousness that they reached a point of no return, blaspheming the Holy Spirit and committing a sin even Jesus did not die for (Matt 12). When talking about such men, Jesus was speaking, not to save people at a point of no return, but rather, to warn those who were under their wicked influence. Indeed, He lamented that Pharisees made some of their own converts “twice as fit for hell as they themselves were” (Matt 23).
Yes, as Christians, we proclaim the gospel (good news) about a God who forgives us for our sins. But that is not the entire gospel. The gospel also teaches that God wants to deliver us from sins committed against us. This is why demons are cast out. This is why supernatural healing takes place to release us from sickness that is the result of a sin cursed world. This is why the Messiah was not only to die for the sins of Israel but to rescue Israel from her enemies and rule over Israel as a benevolent king. This is why Jesus will return to save Israel and the church from her enemies. This is why, in heaven, we will no longer fear murder, racism or brutal oppression. We will be delivered from our own inclinations to do such things and those who do not want to be delivered are separated out, spending eternity in hell. This is why Jesus instructs us to spread His kingdom in the meantime, in the here and now. Why did Jesus call His gospel “good news to the poor?” Because the poor are the victims of a greedy society. God wants to deliver us from evil and God wants us to warn people when evil is approaching (Luke 4:18-19).
The early church spoke out against the evil of Roman slavery (1 Tim 1, Gal 3, I Cor 7). Christians like Wilbur Wilberforce and Charles Finny followed the example of Paul and condemned the practice in England and America. In America, such condemnation of evil inspired the Civil War. Should the war not have been fought? Should Christians of the North and the Christian slaves of the South have defined forgiveness as a willingness to roll over and allow slavery?
In the days of World War Two, was it proper for Christians to call the German Nazis evil? Was it proper to fight them? After all, not all Germans were Nazis and some Nazis repented of their sins. Despite, this truth, does it not seem right that Hitler was stopped and stopped by force, since Prime Minister Chamberlain’s concessions were about as effective as an ice cube in the desert?
As a pastor, I did a great deal of counseling. Many came to me who had been scarred for life, some by their very own parents. I met men and women alike who had been beaten or molested. With others, it was not a matter of what a parent had done, but rather, what they had not done. Some parents never told their own children that they loved them. These children grew up and as Christians realized how much hurt they were carrying. In all cases there was an anger against their parents. They heard somewhere that they must forgive, so they went through the motions of forgiveness, not really accomplishing anything and obviously not feeling any better. Deep inside, they still wrestled tremendous rage and resentment, but now, a Christian guilt trip was laid on top of an already large pile of pain. As if things weren’t depressing enough, they were also made to feel guilty for not forgiving, even though they had tried to forgive time and time again.
“The problem,” I said to so many of my parishioners, “Is that you are confusing forgiving with excusing. The reason you still feel anger is that you have not been freed up by Christians and granted permission by the church to express your anger.”
“But isn’t anger a sin?”
“Not all anger. God expressed his anger many times in the Bible. Exodus 4 says “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.”
In Ephesians we read, ‘Be angry but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger’ (Eph. 4:26). Anger is not a sin. Inappropriate anger is a sin and legitimate, but misplaced, anger is a sin. Anger at a person who has done you no wrong, simply because you feel annoyed and have a bad temper, is a sin. But if somebody has truly offended you by force, insult, gossip, or another abuse, not only do you have a right to be angry, it would be emotionally unhealthy to not feel that way. Even so, what we do or fail to do with legitimate anger can also be a sin. If you have a bad day at work and take the anger out on your family when you return home because you are too fearful to confront your boss, that is a sin. Anger held inside is also a sin because it ferments and becomes bitterness. Or anger released in a fit of rage is a sin because you are out of control. Appropriate anger must be expressed but it can be verbalized without throwing furniture. Often, I have sat down with people over a cup of coffee, very calmly saying to them, ‘Let me tell you exactly how you made me feel when you spoke those comments last week.’ Without yelling, I am releasing anger and when I am done with this benign encounter, I do not feel angry any longer.”
After sharing these truths, I would encourage my parishioners to confront their abusive parents, often with a letter so that they could take the time to carefully word things. The end of the letter might say something to this effect: “I needed to get these burdens off my chest so that I no longer harbor bitterness toward you. I do not want to continue being angry and sharing the anger was my way of stopping. It is my hope that by expressing this anger, we can heal our relationship. I want you to know that I do not excuse what you did. What you did to me was wrong and it will always be wrong. However, now that I have confronted you, I do forgive you.”
And yet, supposing the parent does not seek forgiveness, has not asked for forgiveness and does not feel they need forgiveness. In that case, the grown child still experiences a catharsis of released anger and evaporated bitterness. They now have an attitude of forgiveness, a forgiving heart, and a willingness to forgive their parent at any time, however (and this is my main controversial point) if the parent has not received such forgiveness, the relationship obviously is not healed. This means, the one who will not receive forgiveness is not forgiven, which leads to our second qualification:
2) There is also a distinction between who is or is not to be forgiven.
Luke 17:3 says, ” If your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.”
“If he repents, forgive him.” This is an extremely important and frequently overlooked qualification. Would not the reverse also be true? “If he does not repent, do not forgive him.”
Luke 17 makes even more sense when we remember that God is our example here. Does God forgive everyone? I know that as Christians we want to rush in and say,” Yes, of course.” You are correct in a sense, inasmuch as forgiveness is promised by God and commanded of Christians. But God not only authored those words, He went on to teach us what He meant by them.
QUESTION: Will everybody be in heaven? No, only those who receive Christ, or more specifically put, only those who accept God’s forgiveness. The person in hell for all of eternity does not feel forgiven and in point of fact is not forgiven. Yes, he could have been forgiven. Yes, God wanted to forgive him. Yes, Jesus died for his sins but not all sins. The sin of refusing to accept Jesus, the sin of rejecting God’s forgiveness, was not paid for (Matt 12, Heb 6, Heb 10). In similar manner, our friends or families are forgiven by us when they ask for forgiveness.
My dad disowned me for becoming a Christian. Any anger held toward my dad was eventually dealt with and I did have a genuine desire to forgive him. I could even picture in my mind what it would be like. But my dad never asked my forgiveness and passed away, separated from his son. My mother is still alive. She had gone along with Dad’s decision to disown me because she was afraid to confront him. After Dad passed away, my mother expressed regret over all that went on over the years. It has been a joy and privilege to forgive my mother and in her case, she was able to experience my forgiveness because she wanted forgiveness.
So far, it has been helpful to compare the healing of a human relationship to the healing of a God/human relationship. But there is also an important difference. God alone has a right to offer forgiveness to all who will receive it, because all have sinned against God. It is not the same with me. Not all humans have sinned against me. Only some have. It is not incumbent upon me to forgive somebody for what they did to a third party. That, quite simply, is none of my business. Oh sure, I could tell this person that God forgives them. But if they have wronged another individual, the two of them must settle things themselves.
Often times, when some murderer is on death row, I will hear Christians call in to talk shows, saying that we must forgive the man. Excuse me, but the only individuals in a position to forgive are the families of the victims. And in those cases, whether or not they extend forgiveness depends upon whether or not the murderer has owned up to what he has done and asked for forgiveness. Should they forgive him if he repents? Yes. Should they harbor bitterness in their hearts if he does not repent? No. Nevertheless, if the murderer has not asked the family to forgive what he did to their loved one, they have not forgiven him, neither should they be encouraged to.
Likewise, when Muslims go around with signs claiming the holocaust never happened, or rulers like Ahmadinnejad brag about how they will sponsor a new holocaust, it is a gross misrepresentation of justice when Christians jump in to quickly offer forgiveness. Let the Jews decide for themselves if they wish to forgive some holocaust deniers/instigators.
Christians may forgive those who speak and fight against Christians. Even so, in Revelation 19 we see Christians rejoicing over the destruction of those who murdered God’s servants, people who chose not to repent and to continue with their evil. True, I would love to see everyone turn from sin someday, but many will not. Nevertheless, I can celebrate when a wicked man dies because he is no longer going to be able to hurt anyone else and because justice has finally been done. Yes, he could have known mercy, but if he rejects mercy, I am still grateful to see justice.
There is another significant wrinkle to this conversation: Regardless of whether or not we have personally forgiven somebody, we should follow the example of Jesus and pray that God Himself will forgive them. This prayer is to be offered with or without observable repentance. Remember, Jesus from the cross said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Stephen, the very first Christian martyr (not counting Jesus) prayed something similar for the very people stoning him to death (Acts 7).
SUMMARY: Speaking out against evil does not mean we are unwilling to forgive evil. But speaking out against evil and working to stop evil are also part of the gospel. We are to forgive sin when the sinner asks for forgiveness. This is the way God handles it. Finally, even if one does not ask for forgiveness, we are to potentially forgive them and carry forgiveness in our hearts, rather than bitterness.
I know that for many of my Christian brothers and sisters, this was a whole new way of looking at things. I ask you to open your minds, consider what I am saying, and bottom line, if you do not feel I am being biblical, go with the Bible. If I should turn out to be wrong, heck…just forgive me.
This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.
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