Neirai the Forgiven
Christian Guilds List Manager
What I am saying is that no matter how bad he feels, he still committed crimes and needs to face the repercussions for that.
Grace, man. Grace.
This is the point where God's view and humanity's really get different.
Much of the New Testament writings deal with the difference between Law (Rules) and Grace (Jesus' work). Under Law, humans have to keep a huge load or rules or else they go to hell. Fact is, under law, anyone who EVER breaks a single rule in the Bible --- and that's pretty well everyone --- is as guilty, evil, and deranged as Saddam Hussein. That means me, too. I'm as bad as Saddam. I'm as bad as Hitler*. Maybe worse because I hold Saddam and Hitler up as objects of scorn.
Grace is God's plan to redeem sinners. According to John 3:15-19:
"everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil."
Grace means that if someone believes in Jesus Christ as their God and as their salvation, they will be saved. No track record, no criminal check, no please-sign-this-form-to-guarantee-that-you-were-not-a-cruel-Islamic-dictator.
So... as to whether or not a serial rapist/murderer/pedophile/genocidist would be saved? "There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him." John 3:18. Pretty clear, that one.
So then, why do we say Saddam is 'most likely' not saved? Well, reading on to the next lines, "God's light came into the world, but people [Saddam, assumedly] loved the darkness more than the light, for their [his] actions were evil." John 3:19.
Now, bear in mind the distinction between belief and "fire-insurance-faith." I have not yet ever claimed (as has been implied) that you can live the way you want and then do some sort of ritual to get eternal life. "On my death-bed/I will pray to the gods and the angels/like a begger/to anyone who will take me to heaven" (Audioslave, Like a Stone) just does not cut it. But whether or not you convert early or late, live a life of sin or of altruism, does not matter one whit to God. What matters is if we, at the end of our life, believe in the Son of God who takes away the Sin of the World.
I realize that the idea that God can, and will, forgive anyone who asks him to seems rather strange, bizarre, and even stupid to you. But it is the way the Bible tells it, and that's a darn good thing, because like I said, I'm really not much better than Saddam or Hitler.
*oh, by way of postscript. Hitler may have professed Christian faith, but he never showed a single sign of being a follower of Christ. Matthew 7:15-20 has instructions regarding such people:
"Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions."
The holocaust seems to be pretty rotten fruit to me.