After the report of Osama Bin Laden’s death was reported, my wife asked, “How should Christians respond to news like this?”  Let me be honest.  My initial reaction was probably much less than “Christlike.”  My response to her however, demonstrated restraint, “I really don’t know.”  How would God’s Word direct the believer to respond to people like OBL?

My library shelves a couple of dusty books by DA Carson (maybe my response would have been better had they not been so dusty).  In 2000, Carson released “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God.”  In 2001, America was attacked by terrorists leaving much devastation and death.  In 2002, Carson released “Love in Hard Places.”  While similar in their approach to exposit the biblical definition of God’s love, the most current edition provides a section about the Christian and Osama Bin Laden.

Here is a quote from that section:

“…in the present struggle, even while we must try to prevent the terrorists from doing more violence, we must eschew a vendetta mentality.  Love demands that we do not demonize Osama Bin Laden.  He is a human being made in the image of God.  He is an evil man, and he must be stopped, but he is a man, and we should take no pleasure in destroying him.  Vengeance is the Lord’s alone.  Do not offer the alternative, ‘Should we weep for Osama Bin Laden or hold him to account for his genocide and prevent him from carrying out his violent intentions?’  The right answer is yes.”