Would Jesus Be A Human Bomb?

ABCNEWS.com (14 Jan 2003): A young Palestinian woman made history of sorts today in the 3-year-old Arab uprising against Israeli occupation. She killed four Israelis in a suicide bomb attack at the main border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Reem Raiyshi, 22, managed to get right inside the border security office with a bomb belt under her clothes. According to the Israeli military, she calmly told soldiers she had a metal splint in her leg that would set off their detector. As she was taken to a special room for a personal search, she blew herself up.

The Lord Jesus Christ, just hours from His crucifixion, revealed to His disciples:

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"--John 15:13.

Is therefore honor among the Human Bombs of Palestine, who lay down their lives for their friends? Would The Lord Jesus Christ be a Human/God Bomb where He to walk the earth today? Of course, the answer to these questions is *no,* for the Human Bombs sacrifice not only themselves, but others as well. . .and their motivation (hate and/or covet) is sinful. A trickier question to answer might be: would it be righteous for a Human Bomb to kill only himself on behalf of his friends as an act of protest? Such an act might be compared to self-immolation, a practice which probably originated with Buddhists. The most well-known self-immolation of recent years is that of the Asian monk Quang Duc who torched himself at a busy Saigon intersection on 11 June 1963 to protest the Vietnam war. Indeed, the act was captured on film and became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. Can a suicide meant to highlight an injustice and persuade the guilty party to repent of its wickedness be justified? The answer has to be no, because as noble as the deed sounds to our carnal ear, such suicide is still a sin. Why? Because the act displays a lack of faith in the Almighty. Whoever would bomb or burn himself must arrive at the conclusion he must take action himself. . .he therefore convicts God of tardiness, indifference or worse. The *greatest* sin is the sin of unbelief.

The person who would bomb or burn himself to bring about repentance in another is, in essence, attempting to perform a miracle, a supernatural act. . .to save the world by sacrificing himself. . .this is God's realm. God did not invest man with the ability to perform the supernatural. For the miraculous to occur, man must follow God's rules, as outlined by The Lord Jesus Christ:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it"--John 14:12-14.

Thus, any person who would seek to initiate a miracle must first petition The Lord Jesus Christ. An infidel can never willfully perform a genuine supernatural act. Therefore, all that resulted from the bonfire (and bonfire, of course, is taken from the old pagan bone fires, in which human and animal bones were set on fire to *appease the gods* for supernatural favor) the hapless little Buddhist Quang Duc made of himself was a spectacular photograph that eventually ended up as the cover art work for a Rage Against The Machine cd (and such a crass commercial use of what was the poor ascetic monk's defining moment in life must surely sadden the damned ghost of the little yellow man).

What if a believer prays for a miracle and it doesn't happen? They must be patient, and not fall into unbelief, as was the case with some of Christ's disciples, who could not perform an exorcism:

"Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you"--Matthew 17:19-20.

How long must the believer be patient and wait on the Lord? Until the end of his life, if need be. The Bible is filled with examples of individuals who had to wait years, decades for God to fulfill His promises of miraculous action. But man is not patient, and if God does not come running when man snaps his fingers, he tries to fix everything himself. The result, of course, is the present ugly world we live in. Truly, then, patience is a virtue:

"Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not Thou He, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon Thee: for Thou hast made all these things"--Jeremiah 14:22

"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD"--Psalm 27:14

"Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth"--Psalm 37:8-9.

"Wait on the LORD, and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it"--Psalm 37:34.

"I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings"--Psalm 40:1-2.

"Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and He shall save thee"--Proverbs 20:22.

"The LORD is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD"--Lamentations 3:25-26.

Be patient, wait on the Lord. . .and let us not think too highly of ourselves. . .for we must also remember that those who would sacrifice themselves to highlight an injustice and persuade the guilty party to repent of its wickedness are themselves wicked. . .God sees every man as a sinner. . .isn't it the height of arrogance for someone to think their own death could have a cleansing action? For the person who would suicide himself to provoke another to repent must imagine himself a superior being. This is the ultimate delusion of grandeur. . .a mockery, a counterfeit of Christ, whose sacrifice was acceptable to His Heavenly Father because He was without sin:

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?. . .But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation"--Hebrews 9:14, 26 - 28.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

The Palestinian (or any other aggrieved party seeking justice) must come to Almighty God through the Lord Jesus Christ and patiently wait for Christ to deliver unto him all the promises of the Bible. . .even if it means waiting until the end of this life. . .even if it means enduring an occupation of a brutal tyrant. . .after all, the Lord Himself lived all His life under Roman occupation, and He Himself was obedient unto the death of the Roman Cross. . .

The Palestinian (or any other aggrieved party seeking justice) must come to Almighty God through the Lord Jesus Christ and then learn that "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God"--Colossians 3:1 - 3.

As described in Hebrews chapter 11, the great men of faith of the Bible realized not all the promises would be realized within this world system, but it was of little matter, since this is not our homeland, anyway: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an Heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city"--Hebrews 11:13 - 16.

This, then, is the answer for the Palestinian. . .learn what it truly means to be a refugee. . .and then rejoice when the Lord calls you home!