Christians - if Osama bin Laden begged forgiveness for his crimes and truthfully found Jesus?

Question

What would you do? How would you feel? Your religion of peace tells you to forgive, and says that accepting Christ and truthfully feeling sorry for your sins lets you into heaven?

So say Osama did all of that, and gave himself up to America so he could stand trial for his crimes. Say he gets the death penalty, doesn't he deserve to go to heaven at this point? What do you think?

Answer 1

I'll assume that you aren't asking the question in an attempt to try to expose some form of Christian hypocrisy, but I must admit my skepticism.

To answer your question, you must separate between earthly forgiveness and heavenly forgiveness. Also, to whom is OBL begging forgiveness? That's kind of a critical question too. to Us? Victims' families? The court system? To God?

Regarding heavenly forgiveness: This forgiveness is given by God. People can lie and be deceitful, thinking if they say X, Y, or Z, they will be off the hook. Only you and God know your heart. If OBL truly accepted Christ and sought forgiveness for his sins, yes, it could be quite possible he would go to heaven. However, that is up to God. Once again, it is what is in the heart that determines this. It is disingenuous to think you can just commit crimes and sin over and over and repeatedly seek forgiveness and that everything will be alright. When you accept Jesus as your saviour and seek forgiveness of your sin, you also seek redemption and salvation for your soul. You strive to not sin again. Obviously, humans are not perfect, thus the need for redemption. But we should all strive to not sin, not harm others, treat people with respect, and seek salvation. It makes us better people and makes the world a better place. It also, if genuine, opens the door to heaven.

Regarding earthly forgiveness: Unfortunately, people have a tendency to harm others on this planet. To protect us, we developed laws. The Christian faces an unusually daunting task of balancing forgiveness, as ultimately displayed by the only perfect man, Jesus, with self-preservation. Nobody should expect to be harmed over and over, or killed, and just take it without defending yourself. Or maybe we are. That is the unique problem facing Christians. Do we enforce the laws that protect us and fight against those who would harm us, or do we just take it and get slaughtered? Do we have an obligation to identify and combat evil, or just allow it to destroy us? It is my opinion, and I think the right one (of course), that we should enforce our laws and have the person serve the punishment for their crime. Ultimately the salvation of somebody's soul is in the heavenly realm and is decided by God. We should not disregard our laws and leave ourselves open to be harmed. So while the families or society in general may grant forgiveness and not hold a grudge their whole life, they can still expect the punishment for the crime to be meted out and feel sorrow that the person fell to such depths as to commit their crime and pray for the redemption of the person's soul. I see no hypocrisy in having a person serve the sentence for their crime and also praying for the salvation of that person's soul.

Sorry for the long answer, but in a nutshell, the answer is PROBABLY. If OBL truly accepted Christ, and truly sought forgiveness for his sin, then I believe God would probably see him as deserving to go to heaven. But only God could answer that question. That also doesn't mean that he shouldn't be punished by society's laws. We have an interest in removing the most dangerous among us from society so they do not hurt or kill anybody.

Finally, in today's world, there is much confusion over what it is to be Christian. Moral relativism helps cloud the conversation and makes dissimilar beliefs seem reasonable. Jesus did exist, and whether or not a person believes he was the son of God is irrelevant to believing that the philosophy taught in the New Testament is a philosophy that would make life on earth better for all people. It is not a philosophy based on hatred, persecution, or discrimination as many try to tell us today. It is a philosophy of love, respect, inclusion, and compassion. It is also this philosophy that makes the people who follow Christ wrestle so hard with how to respond to real threats and evil in the world. At least in Christianity this is a concern and a topic of discussion. That is more than I can say with some other religions.

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." - Jesus (Matthew 5:44)

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike the terror into the hearts of the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know." Qur'an 8:60

Answer 2

Yup. I can honestly say that if Osama Laden did all of that, he would go to Heaven. If he put his trusted in Jesus Christ as His Savior, who died for his sins then he would go to Heaven. I wouldn't be able to accept it honestly only because salvation is dependent on the condition of the hear and I don't know his heart so I'd never know if he was genuine or if he was mocking Christianity, which if he gave himself up to America for this reason then probably no, but you never really know. So it'd be hard. Could I forgive him, I actually think so. I wouldn't like the guy, but I could forgive him. I'd still want him to be punished and the injustice made as correctable as possible while on earth, whether that be done by life in prison, or the death penalty, I do not know.

Curtis

Answer 3

None of us deserve to go to Heaven. That's why God had mercy on us and provided salvation. The Bible teaches that the payment for sin is death and that all of us are sinners because we are descendants of Adam. Christ died to pay the penalty of sin for us and was raised from the dead because His sacrifice was accepted by God the Father. When we believe that Christ's death has paid the penalty for our sin - then we are given the gift of eternal life.
So, Osama, like any other sinner, could receive salvation by placing his trust in Christ. Will he? I really doubt it. If he claimed to be a Christian many (including myself) would have a hard time believing him. But that would be ok. God is the judge - he knows what is truly in the heart of man. There will not be any fakers in Heaven.

Answer 4

Good question. Biblical Christianity teaches that Jesus died for everyone's sins, so no matter who puts their faith in Jesus, no matter how bad a person's sin is, they can be forgiven. Think of it as a matter of God's transferring His wrath from the person to His Son Jesus. Without this kind of forgiveness, we'd all go to Hell.

Personally, even if bin Laden confessed and converted, I'd still advocate the death penalty as a temporal punishment, but I'd have to forgive him like I forgive everyone else God forgives based on the substitutionary sacrifice of His Son.

Answer 5

If he begged forgiveness AND stopped Al Qaeda from killing people, that would be worth something. We have to consider the lives of people who have not yet been killed by the violence he helped foster; if he could stop it, some forgiveness would be in order. Just imagine the impact it would have on the world, to see Osama pleading like that. It would make a big difference, and he would not become a martyr.

But he'd be in prison, that's for sure.

Really we hope for a peaceful outcome like this; it is better than earthly revenge.

Answer 6

If he was truthful in his finding of Jesus and truthfully sorry, I would forgive him -- but I would certainly expect some penance or some punishment on his part as well.

It's the same as if a teenager who is sorry for something he did wrong.

His parents could forgive him and accept his apology -- but still ground him for a week as punishment and as a deterrent from his ever doing that particular wrong thing again. Nothing wrong with that.

Answer 7

I would be glad. That would be the biggest Christian victory of this century. If he got the death penalty and truly found Jesus yes he would go to heaven. I am not a hypocritical christian. I believe in forgiveness and anyone can be saved.

Answer 8

If Osama Bin Laden asked for forgiveness, it's between him and God. To be honest, I have no hate for him (though I probably won't ask him over for dinner)

If He asks and receives God's forgiveness, if he accepts truth, than I would sit next to him at God's table gladly.

Answer 9

How about Bush, Rumsfield, Condy, and all those Neo conservatives. Lets find a single solution for all of them at one go as both of the parties are equally responsible for the current situation in the world today...

Who created Osama? Is it not US?

Answer 10

Same as the Men on death row good for you and God bless your soul. Now what will you be having for your last meal. Deserve doesn't have anything to do with it. None of use Deserve Heaven for all have fallen short.