As more details of the Norway tragedy come out, we should brace ourselves for another round of pummeling. The mass murderer is being described as a fundamentalist Christian. I would imagine that MSNBC is already beating the drums about right wing extremism. Here are a few thoughts . . . .
This murderous fellow (deceptively dressed up like a policeman to kill young people) must have some sort mental disconnect. He might be naming the name of Christ, but he is not doing the work that Christ calls us to. We should be reaching out to the downtrodden and to the immigrant. We should be fighting Islam, but not with bullet and bombs. We should be fighting with the gospel, with works of charity (which make little sense within the Islamic Power Entranced Worldview and thus are highly apologetic), and by bearing the cross.
Christians in our day tend to fall of the log two ways. Some Christians wanting to fit in to the majority secular, democratic, egalitarian culture have given up Christ’s crown rights. They are content in saying that Christianity is just one religion among many and that Jesus is one option for your salvation (or personal fulfillment…or feeling of personal fulfillment). If we take our Bible’s seriously, we cannot say this. Jesus did claim to be a King. He will judge the nations and every knee will bow to Him—willingly and unwillingly. Also, we will not be able to look our martyred brothers and sisters in the eye if we renounce Jesus universal claims to be the true king and to be THE way and THE truth and THE life. Some today do this so that they can fit in with the majority culture or avoid some sort of ostracism. Our brother and sisters in ancient times died because they would not say that Caesar was lord, but instead answered “Jesus is Lord!” We must do this too.
Yet, there is another side of the log which a few—to the harm of all of us—fall off. They claim Christ’s crown rights, but they want to bring in His rule in the wrong way. They pick up weapons thinking that they can force people into the kingdom—or kill people so that others will buy their ramblings. Christianity is not about starting some sort of Helter Skelter race war. This is so misguided! Christ came to cleanse all the families of Adam. He has empowered His Church to conquer the world, but not with guns and bombs. These weapons are of no use in this warfare. They are not strong enough. He gives the Church the power to persuade her enemies to lay down their weapons and embrace the gospel. The path to dominion is one of loving our neighbors, of meeting the needs of the poor, and suffering as we bear the cross. If we would do more of this, we would see the faith having more influence in the world.
