[Preamble to this article: I wrote this over a year ago in the aftermath of Osama Bin Laden's demise. I wrote it as a response to Bill Maher's video which was aired on his show "Real Time with Bill Maher" on May 13, 2011. This video can be viewed on You Tube if you need to view the context for this rebuttal. I will not provide a direct link to it from this website but you will be able to locate it by searching "Bill Maher" and "Thy Will Be Gun" in the search criteria for that website. But be forewarned that this video clip is rated R for language and is not censored.]
I do not care about addressing
politics or humanistic moral viewpoints in this reply. I have no rebuttal for that nor will I give
one because my only concern is for getting the integrity of the Christian faith
correct of which Bill Maher failed.
Nevertheless, I am not going to stand idle while, Bill Maher, an unrepentant
atheist sinner, twists Holy Scripture out of context in order to lead people
astray concerning the Christian faith.
I will occasionally give an ear to
Bill Maher on secular topics involving politics and social issues but, even
then, I don’t normally agree with all of his agendas. Bill Maher is an entertainer and he is like
every other pundit that pontificates at the extremes of liberalism or conservatism;
they exaggerate and decontextualize opposing view points in order to, for the
sake of their own glory, gain public approval and higher television ratings. This video clip is no different and I find it
laughable that an atheist is trying to rebuke all of Christendom with Holy
Scripture as to how their reactions should have been to the assassination of
America’s public enemy number one. Moreover,
in this case, Bill Maher deserves to be rebuked for his ignorance.
His ignorance to what Holy
Scripture actually says, if left unchecked, is poisonous to anyone that is weak
in his or her own Christian faith or is a seeking unbeliever. The basis of Bill Maher’s entire rant against
the “so-called Christian hypocrisy” is,
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44 ESV). However, Maher chose to truncate Jesus’
entire thought (notice the comma instead of a period after the word, “you?”) in
order to isolate it and twist it so he can use it for furthering his own agenda
which is blaspheming Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, Maher wrongly
attributes Jesus as saying, “do not repay evil with evil” and “do not take
revenge on someone who wrongs you” when Holy Scripture shows that the author
(under the power of the Holy Spirit, of course) was the apostle Saint Paul of
Tarsus when he wrote the epistle to the Romans.
The passage that Maher is refering to:
Romans 12:17-21 ESV
(17)
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in
the sight of all. (18) If possible, so far as it depends on you,
live peaceably with all. (19) Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave
it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will
repay, says the Lord." (20) To the contrary, "if your enemy is
hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so
doing you will heap burning coals on his head." (21)
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
This is exactly the same way that
satan tried to tempt Jesus into jumping off the top of the temple in Matthew 4:6 ESV
by reciting Psalm 91:11-12 ESV. Satan
truncated the Scripture in order to twist its context and meaning. Psalm 91 is about trusting God not about
testing God and so Jesus thoroughly rebuked satan with Scripture by reciting
Deuteronomy 6:16 ESV.
If you allow Jesus to complete his
thought, he says:
Matthew 5:44-48 ESV
(44) But
I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45) so that you may be sons of your Father who is
in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust. (46) For
if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax
collectors do the same? (47) And if you greet only your brothers, what
more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (48) You
therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus is giving an object lesson on what true holiness is and how it involves mercy and compassion even to one's enemies. He did this because the self-righteous in the crowd felt comfortable and secure with the love of their neighbors. In fact, the entire Sermon on the Mount was one gigantic gut check for the self-righteous in the crowd because Jesus raised the bar higher on every subject concerning holiness.
Lastly, Jesus concludes his thought on the love of one's enemies
with “you must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Who can be this perfect? Not a single finite human being can and that
is Jesus’ point here. He is calling the
self -righteous to repentance of their sins.
He’s calling out anyone and
everyone that has falsely put their faith in themselves or their good works to
secure eternal life. The Scripture says,
“What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already
charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for
God.” (Romans 3:9-11 ESV)
The linchpin for the gospel of
Jesus Christ is simply that there is nothing that a human can do or practice
that can reconcile oneself to God and earn eternal life. Jesus’ ministry wasn’t to teach everyone to
practice trying to be holy. Rather,
Jesus’ ministry was to tell people to “repent and believe the gospel.” (Mark
1:14-15 ESV) All other world religions
center around humanistic endeavors and deeds and, therefore, the followers of those false religions spend an
inordinate amount of time building a ladder to try to get to heaven based on
their own merit.
Christianity is the only religion in
the world where the ladder of reconciliation with God drops down from heaven. In Christianity, God does all the work
through Jesus Christ and asks for people to acknowledge it through repentance
and belief. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
was designed to show people how far away they are from God's standard of holiness and to call them to repentance. That’s what Bill Maher gets wrong.
Because, in reality, the true enemies of God
consist of all of humanity, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God,” (Romans 3:23 ESV). Jesus is actually teaching on how God loves
all of his creation even though they are enemies because of their sin against
him “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.” (Romans 5:8 ESV) Therefore,
the following pretty much sums up what Jesus’ first advent on earth was all
about:
Luke 4:18-21 ESV
"The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the
year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to
the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on
him. And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing."
(Jesus is actually quoting Isaiah 61:1-2 ESV here. Remember this because I am going to refer to
it later in a couple of paragraphs.)
God sent his son, Jesus, to release humanity of their sin
guilt against a Holy and Just God so that He could extend mercy and compassion
to humanity. This is only possible for
those who repent of their sins against God and receive Jesus as Lord and
Savior. Which is why the most famous
Scripture in the Bible rings true, "For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life.” (John 3:16 ESV)
All of this is possible because, “For our sake he made him
to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God. “ (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV) That’s
the gospel for those that believe in His name.
“Jesus” in the Greek literally means, “The Lord saves.”
However, there is something peculiar and interesting about Jesus
quoting Isaiah 61: 1-2 ESV. Jesus, Himself, truncated
verse 2 when he finished reading the scroll that day in the temple. Some Christians speculate that
was because he was only talking about his first advent when he closed the
scroll and proclaimed the Scripture fulfilled. In other words, this was no mistake, the Lord Jesus did so with a purpose. Therefore, when he comes again the balance
of verse 2 will ring true:
Isaiah 61:1-2 ESV
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has
anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and
the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;”
The true and living God is a God of mercy and compassion but he is also a God of justice as well. Jesus’ second advent on
earth will be for holy judgment. In the
day of the Lord, impenitent people will be judged according to their deeds,
which, according to Scripture, are all (both "good" and "bad" deeds) “like a polluted garment.” (Isaiah 64:6 ESV)
Furthermore, God doesn’t have to wait until judgment day to
execute His justice. God executes
righteous judgments in His own time and in His own way. Osama Bin Laden’s death, although carried
out by the US government, was ultimately successful due to God’s sovereignty. The Scripture says:
Romans 13:1-5 ESV
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been
instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God
has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a
terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in
authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is
God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not
bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries
out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only
to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.”
There are many examples of God using foreign governments to
execute His righteous judgments throughout the Bible. The 23rd chapter of Ezekiel shows
one such example. God is patient and
loving but when it is clear to Him that the objects of His mercy
reject Him and refuse to repent, He will execute righteous judgment.
While it is true that some Christians “rejoiced” when Bin
Laden was executed, I contend that on this side of eternity, it may not have been
the best way to display God’s mercy through Jesus Christ to an unbelieving
world. In fact, it displayed their
immaturity in Christ especially since we are still in the age of mercy. However, were they unrighteous for rejoicing? Are they not Christians for rejoicing? That is between them and the one true God.
Nevertheless, I think it’s clear that a day is coming
when all who are in Christ will rejoice at God’s judgment on unrepentant
sinners:
Revelation 19:1-3 ESV
“After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a
great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory
and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has
judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and
has avenged on her the blood of his servants." Once more they cried out,
"Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever."
Lastly, all Christians did not categorically “rejoice” at
the news of Bin Laden’s execution as Bill Maher lamented. Some Christians received the news and took it
to prayer. These more mature Christians
looked at the whole event with sober reflection and said to themselves, “that
could have been me without Christ.”
