Monday, May 21, 2012

Love your enemy is a hoax

My debate opponent Saaib Ahmed has created a Facebook page called "Biblical concept Love your enemy is a HOAX", which apparently attempts to imply that since no one follows Jesus' teaching to love one's enemy, Christianity is false.

This makes zero sense for a number of reasons.
Yes, we know this command is impossible to carry out fully. That's the point. Read Galatians.

The page trades on gross ignorance of the Bible, and that's really too bad. Saaib has not bothered to engage in any biblical exegesis.

In one particular place, he throws in a stylised picture of Osama bin Laden:


My dear Christian brothers and sisters, how much do you love this man?
If you are not willing to answer then I will have to do it myself.
Waving the national flag and chanting "USA, USA, USA!" thousands of jubilant Americans have flooded to the White House in Washington and Ground Zero in New York in spontaneous celebrations after the death of Osama bin Laden. - The Telegraph
"We found him. He killed 3,000 people. It's justice," said 19-year-old student Jon Garcia, explaining he had come to the White House "to be a part of it. It's very historic."
Together as one: Americans around the world gather to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden - The Daily Mail
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the terrorist's death was a "great result in the fight against evil," and French President Nicholas Sarkozy celebrated the "tenacity of the United States" in its long search for bin Laden. - ABC News
Osama bin Laden's death brings celebration to crowds across U.S. - Origen Live
Nation reacts to Osama bin Laden’s death. Americans gather to celebrate the death of the al-Qaeda leader and mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. - The Washington Post
Accept the fact that the Biblical concept "Love your enemy" is a HOAX.

Yet here are some of his mistakes:

-In thinking that most Americans are followers of Jesus. This is completely untrue. Most Americans are not followers of Jesus. Much less are Sarkozy or the philandering premier of longtime spiritual dead zone Italy.

-That said, the other mistake is that his notion of love is far too simplistic. Has he read the Zabbur recently? They are full of songs asking God to execute justice against evildoers and for the victim. The victim is glad when he is vindicated by the Lord, when the Lord judges his oppressor.
If I'd met O bin Laden before he died, I would have told him that God will judge him guilty and he will spend eternity in Hellfire, but that Jesus the Messiah died for sinners and offers him forgiveness of all his sin. I would have told him how to obtain that forgiveness - repent of all your sin and put your complete faith and trust in the Messiah.
But he refused to repent of his evil all his life, and he was killed in a cowardly way in a firefight. If I rejoice at his death, I am following the example of King Dawud in his songs that were inspired by God.

-Saaib needs to demonstrate why these jubilant Americans are wrong and not just assert it. Maybe they're showing gladness and gratitude to God rather than hatred toward ObL. Maybe they're showing love toward the victims than hatred toward ObL.
But of course, it doesn't prove that Jesus is not the Messiah of God or that the Bible is not the Word of God if people (even Christians) are sinners or do something sinful. That's exactly what the Bible teaches.

A better question is: Since Islam teaches that people are born pure, without sin, and ObL grew up in perhaps the purest and most purely-Islamic of environments, how is it that he became a mass murderer and terrorist?

2 comments:

Darlene said...

I would suggest that you use a bigger font for vision-impaired readers. :-)

Rhology said...

Duly noted. Sorry about that.

One thing that might help you is this: If you have a PC, hold down the Control key on the keyboard and then move your mouse wheel up and down. That should increase or decrease the magnification of all text.