I'm sorry but...
God hasn't forgiven the gunman, why should the Amish? (If I can presume to divine God's will here.) According to the Bible, you would have to repent your sins and accept Jesus as your savior before being allowed into God's kingdom. Since the gunman's last sin was suicide, he never had the chance to repent and is therefore damned.
I find it hard to respect the Amish for their forgiving ways. It's nice and all, but every now and then PEOPLE need to take a stand against evil. How great does the sin have to be for them not to forgive? Would Hitler be forgiven? Their conscientious objection to judgment, let alone violence, makes them sheep to the slaughter and endangers the lives of their children.
The gunman is trash and I'm thankful he's dead.
I'm guessing someone might find this post offensive, but it is not meant to attack anyone personally. When one looks at the parallels between a willingness to fight against terrorists and conscientious objection to that fight, you may see my point. Those that would always refuse the fight are ripe to be slaughtered by Islamofascists.
Maybe because they do not wish to live the rest of their lives in bitterness over what happened to them?
I guess some people simply cannot accept the basic grace of what the Amish has done here. Heck, Mineral Man is an atheist and HE gets it.
"God hasn't forgiven the gunman, why should the Amish?"
Because the Amish are not deities, and because Jesus told them to forgive the gunman.
According to the teachings of Jesus, his followers are called on to forgive and to leave judgment of others to their deity.
The Amish would tell you that they cannot know whether God has forgiven this murderer or not, but that they, themselves, are called upon to do so by the teachings of Jesus. Jesus was very clear about this, and the Amish are very clear in their intent to follow those teachings.
You can find everything you need to know about what the Amish believe in Matthew. It's all there, clear as a bell.
You may not believe exactly what the Amish believe, but they sure as heck follow what they believe...to the letter. No doubt, some in the affected community are struggling with this forgiveness. They're only human, after all. But, the community, as a whole, believes in, and follows, the teachings of Jesus, himself. They're devout in that.
Since you're not Amish, they wouldn't expect you to do the same.
Them forgiving his family is awe inspiring.
Forgiveness that matters to the perp is out of their hands. I assume they are mourning his eternity in hell.
From Romans 12:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I find it nauseating when self-appointed holier-than-thou types urge me to "forgive" a murderous nutter like this guy, especially when there has been no repentance. He did no harm to me personally. If his victims' families want to forgive him, good for them and God bless them. But for me or anyone unaffected by his crazy outburst, it is arrogant and presumptuous to call for forgiveness for such an animal.
In some respects it is even like the competitive altruism of hippie backpackers parachuting into Third World hell holes to see who can hold hands with the most dying babies. The focus falls on the loud third-party dispenser of pious forgiveness, rather than on the victims of the perpetrator.
Also, there are are a lot of soft headed leftists who think "forgiveness" means murderers and other criminals shouldn't have to pay the price for their misdeeds. They are mistaking God's law for man's.
If a man murdered my child and got sent to death row, and did not ask me for forgiveness, I would watch him go to his execution with a hardened heart. If he begged me for forgiveness, I would try hard to find that spark of Christian love that would allow me to do so, and remove the hatred from my heart. But even then, I would not ask the authorities to let him go free. Forgiveness has meaning only in the realm of the spirit, not under the laws of Man.
-ccm
"The gunman is trash and I'm thankful he's dead."
Don't you think that if a person such as this murderer had his or her choice, they would not have brought this horrible event into the lives of others, none the less his own children? These kind of killings have to be propelled by a thought process that no sane person can even begin to understand.
Its not for the gunman's sake. He will stand and kneel before God. if the Amish are unwilling to gforgive others, why would God forgive them? They like all are born sinners and do sin.
Not only this, but who can endure the chains of bitterness and wrath towards the gunmen. It may keep you warm for a time, but it would eventually consume a person.
Well, you should have stopped there. That was the brick wall of your argument.
You presume a lot.
God controls time and eternity. You have no idea what an infinite God can or will do. Or do think God is bound by the same laws of physics than we are? If you want to condemn the man, go ahead. But please don't pretend to know the mind and power of God.
There is one thing that differentiates the God of the bible, the God the Amish worship, the God I worship, the God that allowed and encouraged our founding fathers to feel righteous .. righteous, I say .. in claiming sovereignty from their own countrymen to the point of fighting to the death for the individual liberty and freedom they believed God meant for man .. it is God's desire and will to forgive man and his sins.
That God is a forgiving God.
Now the gunman may burn in Hell if he is not saved, but it is equally true, if he is saved .. whether you agree with the biblical theology or not ... he is in heaven .. no longer tortured.
.
The Amish know this.
.
And I believe they desire we "English", by God's grace .. to know it also.
That's not a biblical concept. We are saved by the sacrifice of Jesus, by the grace of the Lord, not by the act of confessing every sin that needs forgiveness. If you die not having confessed every single sin, if you have placed your faith in Jesus, He will welcome you into heaven.
Ah, but you see, you will never know what he thought in the instant between pulling the trigger and death. So, you will never know whether or not God forgave him.