Q. Does it follow that it's dangerous to fight evil because it's easy to slip into the mindset that the person is evil and thus should be condemned?

Well, I s'pose the temptation is there (and that's really what it is, a tempation to judge people, a temptation to usurp God's authority), but it's more a matter that christian's are very succeptible to self-righteousness which leads them to say "I am better than that person, he does evil things so he must be evil. I'm good". That is something Jesus (and the prophets & Paul etc) all heavily condemn. I think christian's (and other's even moreso) make that slip, not because they are fighting evil but because they don't understand it enuf (cuz of the reluctance to talk about it) they fall foul of it. It's not fighting evil that can lead to the slip, it's remaining in ignorance of evil and so mistaking what the evil we are s'posed to combat actually is, viz the acts not the do-ers.

I know _many_ christians who stand willing to condem individuals for the deeds they have commited and many who are willing to not only judge them but also convict them and desire sentence to be carried out (I'm talking about those who favour the death penalty here). Once someone has been judged and killed then they no longer have the chance to repent and become christians. And that's what God wants - ALL sinners to repent, even people like Hilter, the people who did the Oklahoma bombing and so on. He doesn't want us to judge them and then kill them. Judge their deeds, yes, but not _them_. During the war crime trials after WWII there were several chaplins who ministered to the nazi's who were on death row. Some of them laughted at the chaplins, some cursed. But some, realising that in a few weeks, months they would be going before God, they repented and turned to God. Death bed repentance p'haps, but if it was genuine then while there's life there's still hope. And the only person who knew of these repentences was the chaplin in question who only revealed it in his autobiography published after he died. Errr, chaplins. The point is, they repented knowing that it would not affect their fate here on earth. Do we have the right to take that God given right away from anyone?

That's the extreme case. Most times christians condem both the crime and the person and the result is that the person who did the crime is given the cold shoulder by christians. What chance then does that person have of being evangelised to? None! That's the real danger in condeming the person, in condeming them you also decide that they are not worth witnessing to and so are not worth going to heaven. I'll repeat that. "You" are saying that person is not worth going to heaven. Even if you think they really deserve getting "it" and the temptation to curse them to hell is strong. Only God can make that decision. Besides, God desires that _ALL_ people might be saved. And, remember, God describes himself as a jealous God, infringing on his rights is bound to draw an unwelcome reply.

Return to my home page