Can A Mass Murderer Go To Heaven?
August 9th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
There’s an interesting article over at Yahoo! News about a recent Pennsylvania mass killer’s former church: Church says God will hold Pa. gunman accountable – Yahoo! News.
The killer, George Sodini, walked into a women’s aerobics class at a Pennsylvania fitness club turned out the lights and started shooting. By the end, three women were dead and nine were wounded. The killer, kept a blog were he outlined his plans and indicated that the reason he did this was because he had been rejected by women. In addition to his misogynistic ramblings the killer wrote of his understanding of the doctrine of heaven.
Among those he blamed for his perceived troubles were his family and Tetelestai’s longtime pastor, Alan “Rick” Knapp, whose teachings he interpreted as assurance he would go to heaven even after committing murder.
“This guy teaches (and convinced me) you can commit mass murder, then still go to heaven,” he wrote. – Source: Yahoo! News
This brings up an interesting question; Can you commit a horrific crime and still go to heaven?
A good friend of mine was involved in prison ministry for many years. One person he had the opportunity to be involved with was convicted killer Karla Faye Tucker. Her story was a little different. She was a drug addled killer, was convicted and sentenced to die, then found Jesus in prison. My friend was convinced, and so were many others that Tucker’s conversion experience was real.
But what about people who claim to be Christians, then commit crimes? The easy thing to say is that they must never have been Christians in the first place. But, we do know that just because we have a genuine faith experience that our sins don’t cease.
Sanctification, the process of becoming sinless and holy, has two parts. The first part was accomplished when we made a decision to trust Christ for our salvation. That part, was completed and is enough to assure us entry into heaven. The second part is a process that won’t be completed until we actually make it into heaven. We won’t stop sinning until we die and make it into heaven. You could describe sanctification as an already and a not yet.
Could a killer already possess a saving faith prior to his crime? I suppose that he could. Did this killer possess a saving faith? Only, he and God knows. It does kind of change your idea of heaven to think that you might share it with a killer or some other sinner just like you and me.
Shalom,
Scott D
