Yesterday, when I heard the news of the latest atrocity committed by ISIS, aka the Islamic State, I felt a mix of emotions: horror, anger, rage, grief and profound sadness. How can a rational human being understand the utter depravity of the human heart that would lead them to burn a living human being to death? A person created in God’s image.
I will not watch these awful, obscene videos that Islamic monsters have put out. I don’t want the images seared in my mind. Yet, how can I not ponder and imagine what the Jordanian pilot suffered?
As I tried to sleep the one solace that I found in the face of evil is the promise and assurance from God’s word that He will punish evildoers. The Jordanian pilot suffered unimaginably in the last moments of his life. But I am comforted by the thought that the unrepentant evildoers will be punished by God who is sovereign, just and righteous. Vengeance is God’s and He will repay. He will do so in His perfect timing.
The unrepentant sinner’s suffering will begin the moment they die. They will be punished, not for a few years, not for a lifetime, but for eternity. Forever…it will never stop. Ever! He will be in a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. In a place where the fire is not quenched. In a fiery furnace he will be burned, but not consumed. It’s a place of everlasting shame and contempt. A place of torment, gloom and utter darkness.
I thank You God for the day of justice which will one day come…when the wicked and unrepentant sinners will be punished.
What’s equally hard for me to comprehend is that God’s desire is that sinners repent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved (even the people who have committed unimaginable atrocities). Jesus bore their sin on the cross, He paid the penalty in full for the horrific crimes they have committed and the “little sins” that only the God knows about. And the Father stands ready to embrace and forgive the genuine repentant sinner who comes to Him through Christ.
God’s forgiven all my sin. While I may not have lobbed off someone’s head, I have sinned greatly against the Father. There’s not a day that’s gone by when I haven’t sinned in thought, word or deed. I’ve hated people and in my heart committed murder. But in Christ Jesus, God the Father has forgiven me and He will do the same for all who repent, confess with their mouth and believe with their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and they will be saved.
I’m left with a question that I’ve really not heard answered. What is it going to take for decent Muslims to stand up and speak out against these awful atrocities that these monsters are doing in the name of Islam? Why aren’t you crying out loudly against them? Condemning their actions? Are you afraid, afraid they are going to do the same to you?
Why aren’t you storming the talk shows and condemning ISIS and radical Islamic followers? Why aren’t you writing to newspaper editorial pages and decrying what these people have done in the name of your religion? Where is your voice speaking out against these atrocities that have now become an everyday event in the news? Why aren’t you telling your friends, neighbors and co-workers that these people don’t represent your religion? I don’t hear too many Muslim voices condemning radical Islam. Why is that? Why in the world don’t you loudly and publically condemn such actions? Why don’t you rise up against them?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
I hear a lot of silence!
Don’t let evil triumph. Speak up and speak loudly, unapologetically and bravely condemn the evil done in the name of Islam. The time is now.
Susan's Blog 
Very well written my dear friend. Your thoughts mirror my own.
God bless you…
Hi Dee,
Thanks for stopping by and voicing your thoughts. I can’t help but think that it would be the beginning of the turning of the tide if decent, honest Muslims started speaking out against this barbarism from militant Islam. I would very much respect those people.
Hope all is well with you. Sure do miss you and my Kindred and CBS friends!
Love and blessings in Christ! Susan
What I find confusing about your comments is that while you seem sincerely and profoundly touched by the pilot’s horrific torture at the hands of these depraved terrorists (as any rational person would), you seem almost gleeful in anticipation that God will inflict the same horrific torture on other persons. With exclamation points you thank God that he will eventually confine human beings in a place with no escape (like a pilot in a cage?) and set them ablaze. The difference of course is that unlike the Jordanian pilot whose torment was mercifully ended at his death, God will purposely arrange that those he torments can never die, as you note in your post with an exclamation point for emphasis. Torturing a human being by fire is something you cite as beyond rational human understanding because of its utter depravity, yet you seem to relish the day that God will do the exact same thing. How can it be monstrous for a group of humans to set a person on fire but perfectly lovely for God to do so?
An additional comment for reflection: Your words of sadness and grief for the Jordanian pilot’s horrific torture are beautiful and profoundly empathic. But your heartfelt sorrow is diminished by your blog post which suggests that at the moment of this pilot’s death he was set afire again by God in hell since he was a practicing Muslim, not Christian. What utter horror for this poor soul to have his earthly life ended in an agonizing fire and find immediately after his death that God planned the exact same torture for him! I worship a God of love, not hate, a God of mercy, not revenge, a God whose every act toward his creation is one of love and goodness, a God whose stated purpose is to reconcile all creation to himself. To paint this God as a monster who, instead of embracing this pilot with love and compassion after his death, would set him on fire again, is a sad, sad theology indeed. What rational person would consider such a monster worthy of worship?
Dear Robert,
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post and share your thoughts. In response to some of your comments:
I am not gleeful in any way at the thought that the unrepentant sinner will go to hell. I am desperately grieved and that’s why I also shared that God stands ready to forgive and embrace the repentant sinner. Remember the parable that Jesus told of the father waiting for his prodigal son to return. He ran to him, embraced and kissed him and celebrated his return. That’s what our heavenly Father does when one sinner repents. Thank You Lord!
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. – John 3:16-17
I was one of those hell bound sinners who was saved by God’s grace. Not because I deserved it or earned it, but because God saved me. That is incomprehensible because I did not seek Him, He sought me. There is nothing good in me! My heart, apart from God, is deceitfully wicked above all things and I deserve hell. But because Jesus Christ on the cross bore my sins and paid the penalty in full, the penalty I deserved, I have been forgiven when I recognized my sinfulness, repented and confessed with my mouth and believed with my heart that Jesus Christ was Lord. I couldn’t even do that of my own accord, only because God enabled me do that.
God stands ready to forgive all repentant sinners…even those people who have committed atrocities. How He can do that…I don’t know. His ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts. He is a God who is merciful and compassionate. He is longsuffering and patient. He is love and truth and so much more.
God is also just and righteous. He has warned us in the Bible that one day He will judge us and punish sinners. Every one of us will give an account to God for our lives and the sins we’ve committed against God.
God is a God of love and He is also a God of wrath and has declared in His word that vengeance is His and He will repay. As human beings we may not be able to fully reconcile how God’s attributes of love and wrath are both good. If God did not punish sin, He would not be a just God, nor would He be righteous. His wrath is not tainted by ugly motives and a sinful heart.
God alone is the One who will punish sinners. He has warned us about hell and the wrath to come if we fail to repent and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Am I comforted to know that monsters that slaughter innocent people in horrific ways will be punished? Absolutely.
I’ll bet we could both agree that are times when it seems that justice was not served on this earth. That people sometimes get away with committing horrible awful crimes. If this world was all there is and these people were never caught and never punished for their crimes…that would be a far cry from justice. .
But this earthly existence isn’t all there is. There is a God who knows all things and sees all things. He is holy, holy, holy, just, righteous, compassionate, merciful, longsuffering and perfect. This is the God that will determine what is the right and just punishment.
That’s why I continue pray for family, friends, co-workers and others who don’t yet know God. My greatest desire is that they will come to repentance and be broken over their sin, confess with their mouth and believe with their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Here is what you said about God: “I worship a God of love, not hate, a God of mercy, not revenge, a God whose every act toward his creation is one of love and goodness, a God whose stated purpose is to reconcile all creation to himself.”
How do you reconcile the God whom you described with what the Bible also tells us about God, which includes wrath, punishment and hell?
Thank you again Robert for taking the time to share your comments.