What should Christians say to the families of terrorist victims? Should they be told that the Christian response is to forgive automatically and unconditionally? Picture yourself talking to the father of a victim. What would you say?
Before you read further, let me first issue a warning. There are legitimate reasons it is not wise for some to read about violence. If you are one of those people, skip to the next subheading. But if Christians are to responsibly answer forgiveness questions, we must be willing to do so in ways that address the worst kinds of violence.
I am writing this article in October of 2023, and the violent images coming out of Israel have been unthinkable. News sources report that infants have been decapitated. One grandmother’s cell phone was used to video the grandmother being murdered. The video was then posted on the grandmother’s Facebook page. A mother received footage of her son being murdered.[1] Videos of a young German-Israel woman named Shani Louk showed gunmen celebrating over her naked and apparently lifeless body while others chanted “Allah akbar.”[2] Louk’s mother released a video asking for help. Many leaders including diplomats, politicians, military leaders, and economists have responded. But no response to Shani Louk’s mother is more important than the Christian one. Christ followers are called to always be ready to give a reason for our hope (1 Pet. 3:15). But where is there hope in this situation? And what should Christians say to Louk’s mother, who later learned that her daughter was decapitated? Are we prepared to wisely and biblically reason for Christian forgiveness and hope in the face of terrorism?
1. Bari Weiss, “The Stories—and Stakes—of War in Israel,” Honestly with Bari Weiss, loc. 2:30 minute mark., accessed October 19, 2023.
2. Bojan Pancevski, “Woman Abducted From Dance Party Identified as German Citizen,” The Wall Street Journal, October 10, 2023.
Trite answers will not do.
It is by no means a foregone conclusion that Christians will speak wisely in such contexts. Several years ago, Dennis Prager took exception to the tendency for Christians to automatically forgive evil. Prager complained:
The bodies of the three teen-age girls shot dead last December by a fellow student at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky., were not yet cold before some of their schoolmates hung a sign announcing, “We forgive you, Mike!” They were referring to Michael Carneal, 14, the killer.
This immediate and automatic forgiveness is not surprising. Over the past generation, many Christians have adopted the idea that they should forgive everyone who commits evil against anyone, no matter how great and cruel and whether or not the evildoer repents.
The number of examples is almost as large as the number of heinous crimes. Last August, for instance, the preacher at a Martha’s Vineyard church service attended by the vacationing President Clinton announced that the duty of all Christians was to forgive Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who murdered 168 Americans. “Can each of you look at a picture of Timothy McVeigh and forgive him?” the Rev. John Miller asked. “I have, and I invite you to do the same.”
Though I am a Jew, I believe that a vibrant Christianity is essential if America’s moral decline is to be reversed. And despite theological differences, Christianity and Judaism have served as the bedrock of American civilization. And I am appalled and frightened by this feel-good doctrine of automatic forgiveness.[3]
3. Dennis Prager, “The Sin of Forgiveness,” The Wall Street Journal.
Prager’s concerns are well founded. How is it possible that Christians would think it is wise or loving to issue automatic forgiveness in the face of evil? And why are there such deep differences regarding forgiveness amongst Christians? The answer to these questions is that there are basic differences in how forgiveness is defined.
In the last forty years, two views of Christian forgiveness have emerged within Protestant Christianity.[4] One is grounded in Scripture and conditioned on the gospel; the other is distorted by modern psychology, even as it carries the all-attractive label of “unconditional forgiveness.” In what follows, I will argue for the former (gospel-shaped forgiveness) and against the latter (therapeutic forgiveness).[5]
4. See Jones’s discussion of therapeutic forgiveness in Jones, L. Gregory Jones, Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 35–69.
5. Editor’s Note: Failure to understand these two kinds of forgiveness is not only a problem for responding to terrorism and atrocities in the world; it is also the genesis of countless problems in the church. When Christians use different standards for forgiveness—one biblical and the other sub-biblical—but do not know that they do so, then peace-making is undercut because the Christian virtue of forgiveness proceeds on a mixture of truth and error. Let the reader understand then, this article on global terrorism has application for the local church too.
Gospel-Shaped Forgiveness
First, conditional forgiveness, or what I prefer to call biblical or gospel-shaped forgiveness (GSF), defines forgiveness as an act by the offended to graciously pardon the repentant, though not all consequences are necessarily eliminated.[6] This definition of forgiveness flows directly out of an orthodox understanding of the doctrine of salvation and the recognition that God calls Christians to forgive as he forgives. God graciously offers salvation to all (John 1:12). Yet only those who repent and believe are forgiven (John 3:36; Rom. 10:9–10). Likewise, Christians are called to graciously forgive others as God forgave them (Matt. 6:14–15; Luke 17:3–4; Eph. 4:32). But Christians are not required to forgive the unrepentant, though they should proactively show love and grace.[7]
6. I previously distinguished between “therapeutic forgiveness” and “biblical forgiveness” in Chris Brauns, Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 64–73. Here, I use the label “gospel-shaped forgiveness” rather than “biblical forgiveness.” Credit to Geoff Harper and Kit Barker for suggesting the label “gospel centered forgiveness.” Portions of this article are adapted from, Chris Brauns, “The Pastoral Importance of Gospel Shaped Forgiveness,” in Gospel Shaped Forgiveness: Forgiving One Another as God Has Forgiven Us, ed. Kit Barker and G. Geoffrey Harper, forthcoming.
7. Admittedly, “true repentance” must also be defined. For excellent definitions, see the Westminster Shorter Catechism question 87, the Westminster Confession of Faith Article XV as well as Thomas Brooks, Repent and Believe, Pocket Puritans (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008); Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Grace of Repentance, Reprint edition (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2011); Thomas Watson, Doctrine of Repentance (Edinburgh; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1988); Kevin DeYoung, The Art of Turning (10Publishing, 2017).
Jesus spelled out the conditional nature of interpersonal forgiveness:
Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, “I repent,” you must forgive him. (Luke 17:3–4, emphasis added)[8]
The conditional nature of forgiveness is straightforward. The Reformed theologian John Murray (1898–1975) summarized:
Forgiveness is a definite act performed by us on the fulfillment of certain conditions. . . . Forgiveness is something actively administered on the repentance of the person who is to be forgiven. We greatly impoverish ourselves and impair the relations that we should sustain to our brethren when we fail to appreciate what is involved in forgiveness.[9]
Likewise, the Kairos statement issued in South Africa in 1986 outlines the conditional nature of GSF:
What this means in practice is that no reconciliation, no forgiveness and no negotiations are possible without repentance. The Biblical teaching on reconciliation and forgiveness makes it quite clear that nobody can be forgiven and reconciled with God unless he or she repents of their sins. Nor are we expected to forgive the unrepentant sinner. When he or she repents we must be willing to forgive seventy times seven times, but before that, we are expected to preach repentance to those who sin against us or against anyone. Reconciliation, forgiveness and negotiations will become our Christian duty in South Africa only when the apartheid regime shows signs of genuine repentance.[10]
To be clear, proponents of GSF believe Christians should unconditionally offer or maintain an attitude ready for forgiveness even if the offender is unrepentant. Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff writes:
8. Jesus’s short declaration in Mark 11:25, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive,” should be understood in light of the more detailed statement in Luke 17:3–4. The solution is not to assume that Jesus uses the word “forgiveness” in two different ways. Rather, Luke provides more information about what forgiveness involves. The original audience of Mark’s gospel would have understood that forgiveness is something that happens between two parties. We might think of forgiveness as analogous to a hug. A hug, by definition, requires two people. One can be willing to hug the other. But unless there is a willingness to receive the hug—to appropriately participate—the hug does not take place. A father might say to his son, “Dick, always hug your sister Jane,” without specifying the condition that he can only do so when Jane is willing to be hugged. But if Jane refuses her brother’s hug, Dick is not guilty of disobeying his father. At the same time, Dick should not say to his father, “I hugged Jane.” Calling Dick’s willingness to hug his sister an actual hug would redefine what it means to hug and diminish the actual hugs that did take place in his life. And Dick’s claims of hugging his sister would not treat his sister, who did not wish to be hugged, with proper respect.
I can be willing to forgive him—when he repents. I can have a forgiving disposition toward him. But it appears to me that no longer to hold against someone the wrong he did one while believing that he himself continues to stand behind the deed, requires not treating the deed or its doer with the moral seriousness required for forgiveness.[11]
So, Christians should be willing to forgive. However, forgiveness should not take place unless the offender repents. Hence, when Paul mentions the persecutions and afflictions that the Thessalonians are enduring, he does not encourage them to automatically forgive their persecutors (2 Thess. 1:3–9). Rather, he encourages them to hope for the return of Christ and trust God to administer judgment for those who persecuted them.
In the absence of their penitence, Scripture calls us to love our enemies and refrain from revenge (Matt. 5:43–48; Rom. 12:17–21; 1 Thess. 5:15). Furthermore, GSF does not mean Christians should harbor bitterness. “Fret not yourself because of evildoers,” Psalm 37:1 begins, and the balance of the psalm is concerned with how God’s people can turn from the inner turmoil caused by evildoers to the confidence that the meek shall inherit the earth (Ps. 37:11; cf. Matt. 5:5). Rather than “fretting” or being bitter toward those who offend them, Christians should proactively show love, remembering that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Again, the emphasis of GSF is an act by the offended to graciously pardon the repentant, though not all consequences are necessarily eliminated (2 Sam. 12:14).
9. John Murray, “A Lesson in Forgiveness,” in The Collected Writings of John Murray, vol. 3 (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1982), 191.
10. “The South Africa Kairos Document 1985,” Kairos Southern Africa, May 8, 2011.
11. Nicholas Wolterstorff, “What Is Forgiveness?,” in Justice in Love, Reprint edition, Emory University Studies in Law and Religion (Eerdmans, 2015), 173. See also Others on Conditional Forgiveness.
Therapeutic Forgiveness
In contrast to gospel-shaped forgiveness, a second way of understanding Christian forgiveness is therapeutic forgiveness (TF). While GSF understands forgiveness as happening between two parties, TF promotes forgiveness as an individual or private act where the offended determines to no longer harbor feelings of bitterness or resentment towards another regarding an offense or perceived offense. TF is a private coping strategy. Wolterstorff summarizes:
What the therapeutic literature has in mind by “forgiveness” is an a-social and a-moral process that is entirely internal to the victim. The therapist offers to help the victim overcome her negative feelings toward the deed and its doer without in any way engaging the wrongdoer. If the victim finally arrives at the point where those negative feelings are gone, she is said to have forgiven.[12]
12. Wolterstorff, 174.
Lewis Smedes, a professor of ethics at Fuller Seminary, was a TF proponent and pioneer. He explained TF in a chapter titled, “We Heal Ourselves”:
When you forgive someone for hurting you, you perform spiritual surgery inside your soul; you cut away the wrong that was done to you so that you can see your “enemy” through magic eyes that can heal your soul. Detach that person from the hurt and let it go, the way a child opens his hands and lets a trapped butterfly go free.[13]
13. Lewis B. Smedes, Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts That We Don’t Deserve (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), 45.
Notice, the forgiveness that Smedes encourages is a private inner operation accomplished by the person offended. In this way of thinking, forgiveness does not necessarily have any implications for the relationship. Rather, as Shalom Carmy has complained, this kind of forgiveness is essentially a “psychological laxative” rather than a transcendent act of love.[14]
14. Shalom Carmy, “Litvak at Large: Did Joseph Forgive His Brothers,” First Things, no. 285 (September 2018): 18–19.
Smedes’s Forgive and Forget was first published in 1984. A more recent number one bestselling book by Lysa TerKeurst, Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, illustrates how TF continues to hold sway at a popular Christian level.[15] Without using the term “therapeutic forgiveness,” TerKeurst advances this very position. She begins by describing forgiveness as a matter of how one feels rather than a concern of two parties over a broken relationship. Specifically, she lists cynicism, bitterness, resentment, and delay as the “soldiers of unforgiveness” and maintains, “This is forgiveness: making the decision that the ones who hurt you no longer get to limit you, label you, or project the lies they believe about themselves onto you.”[16] Consistent with TF, TerKeurst sees forgiveness as individual and private.
15. Lysa TerKeurst, Forgiving What You Can’t Forget: Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2020).
16. TerKeurst, 3–4, 222.
And you and I can forgive, even if the relationship never gets restored. It’s so incredibly freeing to forgive and not have to wait on other people who may or may not ever want to be willing to talk this through. Forgiveness isn’t always about doing something for a human relationship but rather about being obedient to what God has instructed us to do.[17]
17. TerKeurst, 9.
It is not only in these specifics that TerKeurst’s view of forgiveness is shaped by the therapeutic. The entire shape of her approach is to encourage the offended to travel through an extended time of inner reflection with the goal of finding the resources within to process pain. The quotes below are representative of how she encourages her readers to pursue healing through their own inner resources:
There’s an amazing person I want to make sure you don’t miss meeting. The one and only glorious you that you look at each day in the mirror. . . . Hello, beautiful, beautiful you.[18]
18. TerKeurst, 70.
Later she assures her readers, “There is a healed version of me that is waiting and wanting to emerge.”[19]
19. TerKeurst, 101.
I do not personally know Lysa TerKeurst. This is the first of her books I have read. But she is a sister in Christ, and I felt like I got to know her a little while reading her story. I am thankful for her example in several ways. Her tone is warm and loving. She obviously cares about her readers and was willing to be transparent about wounds she has received. I respect her example of grace, courage, and resolve. And I was personally helped. I put checkmarks in the margins of several pages where I benefitted.
But many people are influenced by TerKeurst’s bestselling book, and the inadequacy of what she taught must be considered.
Gospel-Shaped Forgiveness, Not Therapeutic Forgiveness, Addresses the Horrors of Terrorism
Returning to the question of what to say to the victims of terrorism, does anyone believe that such therapeutic forgiveness answers would be either biblical or adequate to say to a mother devastated by the brutal assault of her daughter? Would we really say to the mother of Shani Louk, “Mrs. Louk, you need to forgive because this is how you manage your feelings”? Or, “Rest assured there is an amazing you waiting to come forth”? Or again, “Just look in the mirror and say, ‘Hello, beautiful, beautiful you’”?
Given that advocates of TF define forgiveness as a focus on an internal action or a feeling rather than something that happens between two parties, some proponents of TF encourage people to not only forgive those who have sinned against them but also to forgive regardless of whether there has been any offense. Indeed, some, including Smedes, suggest that it is legitimate for people to forgive God.[20] After all, for those who hold that forgiveness is an individual, amoral coping strategy, it makes sense to not be bitter or angry with God.
20. Brauns, Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds, 67–69. See also David Powlison, “Getting to the Heart of Conflict, Part 3,” The Journal of Biblical Counseling 16, no. 1 (Fall 1997): 32–42; Chris Brauns, “Review: Totally Forgiving God: When It Seems He Has Betrayed You,” The Gospel Coalition (blog), August 20, 2012.
The contrast, then, is between two understandings of forgiveness. As I have defined it, GSF is a definite act by the offended to graciously pardon the repentant perpetrator, though not all consequences are necessarily eliminated. TF, on the other hand, is a private and individual strategy for not feeling bitter or angry, and it does not require actual engagement with another person.
Someone might argue that it is reductionistic to say that views on forgiveness fall in one of these two camps. And, of course, on some level it is reductionistic. There are many nuances within the understandings of TF and GSF and countless other views on the meaning of forgiveness in the Christian and psychological communities.[21] Yet comparing these two understandings of forgiveness positions us to see why Christians can speak in such divergent ways where forgiveness is concerned.
21. For a survey of definitions of forgiveness see David P. Gushee, “The Limitations of Forgiveness,” in The Art of Forgiveness, ed. Philip Halstead and Myk Habets (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books / Fortress Academic, 2018), 109–19; Nicholas Wolterstorff, “What Is Forgiveness?,” in Justice in Love (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 161–77; Kit Barker, “Drawing Pictures in the Water: The Place of Penitence in the Art of Forgiveness,” in The Art of Forgiveness, ed. Philip Halstead and Myk Habets (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books / Fortress Academic, 2018), 17–36; Craig L. Blomberg, “On Building and Breaking Barriers: Forgiveness, Salvation and Christian Counseling with Special Reference to Matthew 18: 15-35.,” The Journal of Psychology & Christianity 25, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 137–54; Brauns, Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds, 43–61.
Three Christian Guidelines for Forgiveness Where Terrorism is Concerned
What then should be said to the victims of terrorism or other grave offenses when the offender is unrepentant? In my book, Unpacking Forgiveness, I outline three guidelines based on Romans 12:17–21.[22]
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
22. Brauns, Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds, 129–52.
First, Paul admonishes his audience not to take revenge. He repeats this point three times (Romans 12:17, 19, 21). Victims cannot respond with vindictive hatred towards those who harmed others they believe are responsible. Revenge is not an option for Christians.
Paul does not prohibit a government response. Immediately following Paul’s prohibition of revenge is Romans 13:1–7, which is an admonition to submit to governing authorities who “carr[y] out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom. 13:4). So, Paul forbids personal or familial revenge, but he reminds us that God gave the sword to the state so that “God’s servant” can be “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”
In a second guideline, Paul tells Christians to authentically love all people. “Let love be genuine . . . If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all (Rom. 12:9, 18).” Christians are called to follow the example of Christ who died for them while they were still sinners (Rom. 5:8). Amish families who helped with the funeral expenses of a man who murdered their daughters is an incredible example of proactively showing Christlike love.[23]
23. Tracie Mauriello, “Amish Extend Hand to Family of Schoolhouse Killer,” 2006.
But the third guideline Paul offers is that Christians should “leave room for the wrath of God” (Rom. 12:19). Indeed, this is why Paul argued that Christians should refrain from revenge. Christians can rest in the certain truth that God will accomplish perfect justice. Such a confidence in the justice of God guards Christians from the bitterness that poisons those who believe it is their job to retaliate.
What About Revenge?
In his book entitled Forgive, Timothy Keller warns against an attitude that would delight in the thought of an offender facing God’s judgment: “‘Leave room for God’s wrath’ has often been interpreted like this: ‘Yes—leave it to God. God will let them have it! And in a way that you cannot!’”[24] Keller goes on to say, “If we don’t tell God what to do with his wrath but allow him to send it when and where he wills, what does he do with it? In Jesus Christ God comes and takes the penalty of justice himself.”[25]
24. Timothy Keller, Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? (New York: Viking, 2022), 195. My review is available at Chris Brauns, “Review: Tim Keller’s New Book Tackles the Central Subject of the Christian Life,” The Gospel Coalition, November 14, 2022.
25. Keller, Forgive, 195.
But Keller’s point that Christ comes and takes the penalty of justice on himself or that God’s justice always finds its way to people is not always the case. Drawing from a previous example, Paul did not tell the Thessalonians that Jesus would come and take the penalty of their persecutors. Instead, he assured them that:
God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you . . . when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. (2 Thess. 1:6–9)
To be sure, Christian victims ought not to take sinful pleasure in another’s destruction; instead, Jesus calls us to love our enemies. However, as I have said above, the Bible doesn’t see it as inconsistent with Christian love to rest in the truth that God is a just Judge (Ps. 37; Rom. 12:17–21; 2 Tim. 4:14, Rev 6:10). A loving Christian who renounces revenge but trusts the justice of a holy God is not bitter nor sinfully angry. Indeed, trusting in God’s justice should move us to love. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, explaining his compassion for the Nazis who would execute him, wrote from prison, “It is only when God’s wrath and vengeance are hanging as grim realities over the heads of one’s enemies that something of what it means to love and forgive them can touch our hearts.”[26]
26. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge, Enlarged edition (New York: Scribner, 1972), 157. Read out of context, this quote might be interpreted as being in support of a therapeutic understanding of forgiveness. But elsewhere, Bonhoeffer was emphatic that “cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, ed. Irmgard Booth (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 47. Interacting with Bonhoeffer, L. Gregory Jones summarized, “Cheap grace denies any real need for deliverance from sin since it justifies the sin instead of the sinner. As such, cheap grace offers consolation without any change of life, without any sense of either dying or rising in Christ.… Bonhoeffer concluded that…the Lutheran church in Germany had been unable to resist Hitler because cheap grace had triumphed…. Repentance and confession must be practiced in specific and concrete ways, as part of the larger craft of forgiveness, if they are to result in that truthfulness that empowers people for faithful discipleship to Jesus Christ. That is why Bonhoeffer stressed the importance of church discipline and why he insisted that forgiveness cannot be unconditional.” Jones, Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis, 13, 19.
Paul shared with Timothy how he put the truth of leaving room for the wrath of God into practice. “Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him” (2 Timothy 4:14–15a). Paul does not say he forgave Alexander. Neither is he bitter. He trusts God for justice.[27]
Conclusion
Returning to the question with which I began, “What should be said to the family of victims of terrorism and murder?” I have found myself addressing such families on a number of occasions. And, of course, when meeting with victims, much time is spent not speaking but only listening. But when it is the right time to talk, I’ve said very carefully, “For the Christian, personal revenge cannot be an option. In this life, we must entrust justice to the state as God’s servant to punish the evildoer. Indeed, Christ’s followers are to be defined by loving our enemies. But this does not mean there is no justice. We can be completely confident that vengeance belongs to God.”
I will never forget a conversation I had with an elderly Covenantor lady in Northern Ireland. She shared with me that her brother had been kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. The murder of her brother was a number of years ago. But of course, the pain was still there. I listened to her and then suggested that she read Psalm 37 with its beautiful exhortation:
27. Some argue that Jesus automatically forgave those who crucified Him. But this is not the case. Jesus prayed that they would be forgiven, which demonstrates that they were in fact, not yet forgiven. It was the repentant criminal next to him that Jesus forgave (Luke 23:34–43). Similarly, Stephen prayed that his killers would be forgiven (Acts 7:60). His prayer was answered in part when Paul repented, and was subsequently forgiven, on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1ff).
1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb . . .
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
She quickly gave a Covenantor response to my suggestion that she read Psalm 37 aloud. She said very quickly, “I sing Psalm 37.”
Ultimately, the perfect response to evil is given by the Lord Himself: “He did not retaliate …. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Pet. 2:23b). And Christ forgives all who repent and believe in Him (John 3:36). This, then, is the Christian response to terrorism. Love our enemies. Forgo revenge. And leave room for the wrath of God.
