The 1987 sitcom "Second Chance" premiered for only one season. In this clip, Gaddafi meets St. Peter.
This was a terrorist, a killer, and a murderer of innocent people. The UK Daily Sun has a full front page photo of dead Gaddafi's head with the blaring headline, "THIS IS FOR LOCKERBIE!"
Lockerbie was an incident that happened in 1988. Lockerbie is known internationally as the place where the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed after a bomb exploded during the flight. In the United Kingdom the event is often referred to as the Lockerbie disaster, the Lockerbie bombing, or simply Lockerbie. Eleven residents of the town were killed in Sherwood Crescent, where the plane's wings and fuel tanks plummeted in a fiery explosion, destroying several houses and leaving a huge crater, with debris causing damage to a number of other buildings nearby. The 270 victims (259 on the plane and eleven in Lockerbie) were citizens of twenty-one different nations. The bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven people in Lockerbie, in southern Scotland, were also killed when plane parts fell on them.
Libya, and Gaddafi, were behind it. They admitted it in 2003 when they sent a letter to he UN admitting responsibility (but not guilt). It was noted that the language of the letter contained no remorse for the victims. The motive was that Libya was angry with the US Navy. For these and other murderous and horrific acts long remembered, the world is breathing a sigh of relief that the crazy dictator is dead.
I had written earlier today about Gaddafi's death, and quoted Joel Rosenberg's notation that Gaddafi had called himself the "king of kings." Of course, bible students will know that the title is reserved for Jesus only, and right now Gaddafi is realizing his eternal mistake.
But this post is about the bigger mistake, and the bigger mercy. While the human side of me wants to engage in a little Schadenfreude, as did the UK Daily Mail, and in seeing the unique justice "St. Peter" enjoined upon Gaddafi in the sitcom clip, I must refrain. Gaddafi's bigger mistake is that if he had repented, he, too, would have been welcomed into heaven. Really? Yes.
Gaddafi was a sinner, like us, who are sinners. All sins are crimes against God, and all sins had been pardoned at the cross. The big mistake was that Gaddafi had not accepted that pardon for sins and thus believing on the One God had sent: Jesus. (John 6:29)
The bigger mercy is that God forgives crazy dictators as much as He forgives ...you and me. Because Gaddafi refused Jesus's authority and forgiveness, he will spend eternity in hell. Just as any person will.
So often people use evil people like Hitler or Gaddafi as a benchmark against which they compare their own 'goodness.' They say, "I'm a good person. I will go to heaven. Not like that crazy dictator Gaddafi. He was really bad!" Well God's justice is over all, including the small as well as the great.
Rev 20:12 says "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." But just as Gaddafi and others who refused Christ will be judged, He is merciful to one and all as well:
"and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life." (1 Timothy 1:14-16.)
I hope you are one of those who comes to Jesus. Realize that if you don't, you will share the exact same fate as Muammar Gaddafi.
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