Now, with that said, I also want to make a point that
despite of Fred Phelps’ hate towards sinners and his self-righteous behavior…
we still should not celebrate his death!
In fact, I would have to say that Phelps’ death would come close to being
as celebrated as when Osama Bin Laden’s death came to light to us. Over-exaggerating? Maybe, but the celebration of the death of a
man is still there, whether it be Osama or Fred Phelps. Yeah, the death of someone (Osama) who caused
so much strife, war, and terror would become a good thing in terms of stopping
the terror over all… but that still does not mean that we should have been
celebrating it. In God’s eyes, every sin
(bar from one specific one) is equivalent.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 lists some examples on the sins that will keep us
from the Kingdom of Heaven. Why do I
point this out? It’s because we ALL are
guilty of some sin or another.
Based on the information I gathered, Westbro Baptist Church
members (most at least) are self-righteous – people who think that are not sinners
at all (perfect). Naturally, they are
wrong in this regard, as everyone has sinned in some part of their lives and,
as a result, are not perfect (Romans 3:23).
Now, even so, we too are just as guilty as they are when it comes to
sinning. We too have sinned, whether it
being drug addiction, love for money, lust, pornography, homosexuality... the
list continues on, and we have fallen in some form of sin at some point in our
lives.
As such, why should we celebrate a man’s death... a man that
has caused a spread of hatred around others and falsely testified God’s Word…
when we all have sinned ourselves?
Especially the Christian’s who are celebrating his death and speaking
about it as if out of joy… that’s hate right there – hate for a man who spoke
of hate. I’ve already pointed out that
God is love, and that as Christians we need to love our neighbor as ourselves… AND,
we need to be able to forgive the sinner (Ephesians 4:32, Mark 11:25), no
matter how hard that may be. We should
not celebrate his death… but feel sorry for the fact that he may not have
repented when he was near death. Chances
are that he didn’t… but he may have. If
he did pray for forgiveness for these sins and truly wished to repent, then I say that’s great for a man who has preached and spoke of hate
for so long, finally saw the error of his ways, repented at that moment of his
death, and was finally truly at peace. If
not, then it’s a shame that he didn’t.
Let’s take a good look at ourselves, see the sins that we
have caused (no matter the number or the amount of times we have sinned), and
have faith in God to help us remove those sins and repent. As such, by truly repenting, we may be able
to help those who are struggling with their sin and needs a helping hand to
guide them to Christ (Matthew 7:1-5). If
we each do that, then we may be able to lessen the hate in this world that we
have let creep into our hearts for all of these years/decades/centuries, and
follow the love that Jesus Christ has given us for so long, by paying for OUR
sins through His death on the cross… so that we may have eternal life, for
those who believe in Him and are faithful (John 3:16, Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter
2:24). As such, because of what Christ
has done for us, believers in Christ who commit to Him to the end will receive
such a glorious gift that we don’t rightfully deserve… but God says that we are
deserving of His love anyways.
