Am I Happy Baghdadi is Dead?
On October 27th, 2019 President Trump made a long awaited announcement: the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is dead.
As I watched the video announcement I asked myself a few questions:
Am I glad this man is dead?
Do I have Biblical support to be glad he is dead?
Am I, ultimately, hoping for the death of each and every one of Baghdadi's followers?
What do the answers to these questions mean for the CEO of a ministry like The Truth Collective?
It may frustrate you to learn I don't have answers to all those questions. For you the matter may not be complicated. However, I can only honestly answer the first one: yes....yes I am glad he is dead. But, I have to tell you, I don’t feel valiant or even patriotic to say that.
A man, whose heinous acts of evil spread torment to millions, is now spending eternity in torment and torture separated from the presence of the One True God who actually - miraculously - loved him. I ask you: is al-Baghdadi in hell because of his heinous acts?
The Truth is, as much as my evil heart wants to join President Trump in dancing on the grave of this hate-filled man, he is only eternally damned because he failed to accept the grace offered him by Isa al-Masiha (Jesus the Messiah). The difference between me and Baghdadi...is Belief.
I leave you with this. President Trump said many true things in his statement to the nation. But two need critical clarification:
The United States did not bring al-Baghdadi to justice. True justice was delivered on the Cross when Jesus died to give Baghdadi, and all of us, the right to become children of God. True justice was served when Baghdadi stood before Yahweh and realized he had denied the Truth and was now receiving his just reward from the only Being holy enough to administer it.
The world is not a safer place because Baghdadi is dead. To say so is a spiritually and politically ignorant understanding of evil. Baghdadi rose in the wake of bin-Laden and another will rise in the wake of this man. But more importantly, the implication that we can eradicate evil without changing the hearts of evil men, is a prideful mistake.
The only True hope for world peace and the end of all war and violence is humanity's complete submission to a God who is perfectly loving, perfectly just, and perfectly merciful...all at the same time. Only the God of the Bible can live up to such a challenge. Only the God of the Bible - already has.