No Need for Repentance

Another men's Bible study. One of those side-tracks of doubtful relevance to the Bible, which I'm not sure how we get off onto. One of the men was telling of his brother's friend, a Vietnam vet, who told him, "I've been extremely fortunate. Forty-one times, I saw an enemy soldier before he saw me, and I was able to shoot first."

Someone said, "It makes you think God must have some great work for that guy to do." A couple offered opinions about what great work God might have so signally saved that man for.

I spoke the thought that came into my mind. "I've heard combat veterans say the experience of shooting someone only really hits you later, when you get older. Someone who killed 41 men, maybe God will send him a spirit of repentance, " Not said to be controversial: it just seemed that God would want anyone who killed so many people to repent.

The silence must have lasted two full minutes. It caught me by surprise. It was extremely uncomfortable, all the more so since I couldn't quite figure out whar it was about. I wanted to say something, just to break the silence, but felt like God said, "Don't speak." Eventually someone else spoke again, about something else, and conversation resumed.

It seemed then, and still seems to me now, a common-Sprirtual-sense view. It's inconceivable to me that someone who killed 41 people would not need to repent. It's inconceivable to me that anyone would think otherwise: least of all Christians.

I've written about it here before: when you really set out to think as God thinks, it sets you apart from the world...and also from other Christians.