Mike Huckabee – Thoughts En Route

[EDIT, 5/3/2011: The commentary on this subject that I submitted to the Tomorrow’s World website was accepted and published today. My thanks to our editorial staff who helped make my quickly-noted thoughts even clearer! You can read the commentary here: “Welcome to Hell, bin Laden.”]

The news today that Osama bin Laden is dead has folks celebrating. Osama bin Laden helped to orchestrate the deaths of almost 3,000 people, and now the penalty for that has, in a very literal sense, been brought back to his very own doorstep, and he has been killed in his own home by special forces from the nation he sought to humiliate.

Still, God says that he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek. 33:11), so I will refrain from the jubilant feelings that have been expressed by many. He tells us, too, through the wisdom of Solomon: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles,” (Prov. 24:17). But I can say that I feel a certain satisfaction that some measure of justice has been meted out and that an evil mass murderer is, today, no longer able to murder, and I don’t see how that is wrong — either biblically or logically. Concerning the power wielded by the carnal governments of today, Paul says, “if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil” (Rom. 13:4). However imperfectly (and man is ever imperfect), wrath was executed this morning on one who practiced evil.

May the day come quickly when He who executes such wrath perfectly and in true righteousness comes to do so.

[EDIT, 5/2/2011: Shmuley Boteach has some related thoughts on this topic.]

In all the morass of news coverage, though, I must add that it was former governor Mike Huckabee who really grabbed my attention with his statement, “Welcome to hell, bin Laden.”

The subject of hell and the recent public spat over the topic held in the evangelical community over popular pastor Rob Bell’s book Love Wins was the topic of the telecast I was going to tape this week. (“Was” going to tape, past tense, because this swollen left eyelid of mine has delayed the taping until I return to a normal appearance–or at least my personal version of a normal appearance.) For a sense of the spat, you might check out this article: “Pastor loses job after questioning hell’s existence.”

The fact that many very likely (mistakenly) believe that Osama bin Laden is now suffering eternally as a new resident of the most horrific concentration camp in the cosmos and will do so in agony for billions and billions and billions of years — on through eternity — is interesting to me, not because it is surprising, but because of who would be there with him. Hitler, of course, but also, say, some 18-year-old young man from a far off country who, as selflessly as he may have tried to live his life, died before a “Christian” missionary could reach him and before he could even be aware he had a Savior to believe in.

The idea that such a person is spending that eternity in agony right alongside the bloody butcher of Al Qaeda is something that should make some think twice about the doctrine of hell and press them to ask hard questions. And if they do ask those questions, perhaps they will find their way to our booklet, Is This the ONLY Day of Salvation?

The biblical truth in this booklet meant so much to me when I was first learning the utter greatness of God’s Plan. There are so many out there who would be comforted by the truth, whose fear for their dead loved ones could be alleviated, and whose view of God could be rescued from the monstrous image created by this world’s “Christianity.” God is just, but He is not a monster — and the biblical truth shows us that He is not.

Anyway, two not necessarily directly related topics for blogging today, but my thanks to former governor Huckabee for giving me a chance to put them together. 🙂

Back in the WiFi parking lot! Well, actually I came in this time and am sitting in the McDonalds enjoying a (horribly) sweet iced tea and waiting for my iPhone software to update. I needed to get out and update the Branson Festival website with housing options and this was the place to do it! (Please forgive an increase in typos, by the way. It seems to happen every time I use my wife’s Mac!)

So, while the phone finishes downloading and installing, I decided to “cruise the news” and came across an item on Yahoo! (actually the Associated Press) making much ado of former governor and 2008 presidential contender Mike Huckabee’s comments concerning legalizing homosexual marriage. Read it yourself here: “Huckabee likens gay marriage to incest, polygamy.”

Now, I don’t know if Mr. Huckabee is planning a 2012 run, but let me simply say, “Kudos!” It seems few who have public attention are willing to make the obvious points that he does. If we can change the definition of “marriage” to include two men or two women, then what is to prevent it from being changed to one man and two women? Or two men and one woman? Or brother and sister? How would an argument that justifies allowing the former circumstances not also justify allowing the latter circumstances?

Some would say that all of those circumstances should be allowed and that none of them should be forbidden. These are those who would rather society be done with marriage and moral discernment in sexuality altogether (at least among adults). Some would say that the later things should not be allowed because they are still socially unacceptable. Of course, “still” is the operative word, here, and the same could have been said of homosexual relationships not too long ago in this country. These are those who believe that morality is not a constant — that it varies based on human whim, which, of course, varies from year to year and generation to generation.

The facts are that our society has plummeted to such an extent that the concept of “sin” is meaningless, and we actually have states taking a word assigned to one of the most beautiful creations of God — marriage — and applying it to perversion, without distinction between the clean and the unclean and between the sacred and the profane (cf. Ezekiel 44:23).

Of course, this is simply the meeting of two trends of societal degradation: degradation of the esteem with which marriage is held (“no fault” divorces, etc., “living together” as an equal alternative, etc.), and degradation of the regard with which sexuality is held (the detachment of sex from marriage, the view of sex that treats it as a “biological toy,” the idea that moral sexual boundaries are prudish and unnecessarily restrictive, etc.).

Actually, in light of what God has to say about the matter, Mr. Huckabee’s comments are quite tame and far less than what the nation’s plight calls for. Yet, compared with his fellow politicians (or former politicians) and talking heads, his willingness to be clear and straightforward is a breath of fresh air.