Keith Devens .com

And you say you are christian? hipocryte!!

Haha, how am I a hypocrite?

You advocate death and killing? Eye for an eye and all that, but our Lord also preached forgiveness and mercy.
The Palestinians are going to seek revenge, kill Israelies as they go to work on a bus, then Israel sends in the gunships and tanks, destroy a few refugee camps, and the cycle continues.

You advocate death and killing?

You put it so generally in a way that you intentionally twist the argument. Of course I don't "advocate death and killing" in general, but I advocate the killing of murderers.

Eye for an eye and all that, but our Lord also preached forgiveness and mercy.

Yes, we are to carry out justice on earth. We and He may forgive if the sinner is repentant (which this monster clearly wasn't), though even if we forgive we should still do justice.

I'm sure he felt he was doing his people justice by killing Israelies. See how grey the world is? Not black and white anymore?

My first reaction when I heard the news this morning was to wonder what further atrocities both sides will commit in the name of justice, revenge, security, and God.

And in no way am I defending the actions of the man, but killing him isn't going to solve anything, 2 more will rise where he fell, and 4 after that and... Doesn't it all seem pointless?

I'm sure he felt he was doing his people justice by killing Israelies. See how grey the world is? Not black and white anymore?

Haha, no, not at all. It doesn't matter what he "felt"... he was wrong, and an evil man. Real simple. I have to wonder, would you defend someone like Hitler in the same way?

Doesn't it all seem pointless?

Not at all... one fewer mass-murderers in the world (heck, leaders of mass-murderers) is just fine by me!

killing him isn't going to solve anything

What would you like Israel to do? Surrender and its citizens commit mass suicide?

Would I defend Hitler in the same way? That occured to me before I hit submit, but then I remembered that Hitler committed suicide before he could be captured. If he had been captured he would have probably been tried in court as other Nazi leaders were.

Already international organisations are condeming the killing as illegal. Israel isn't a terrorist organisation that can do what it likes. If the State ignores the law then what justification does it have to condemn terrorists?

Wow, that was graphic. Like. Seriously Graphic. Dude.

As for the whole killing people, as a Christian, I'd have prefered it if he was captured, tried then executed. However a) While he was being tried their would be mass amounts of violence and b) Capturing him would have been very hard.
So given that he's guilty (and he wouldn't even argue that he wasn't guilty) it's fair enough they killed him. Governments have a right to do that sort of thing.

Maybe Keith shouldn't be so wonderfully ecstatic over it, but still.

I am shocked that you would post such a think on your weblog. The bible says "Thou shalt not kill". There is no room for interpretation in that. The bible does not say "Thou shalt not kill .... unless he killed someone first". Violence is wrong. It is wrong for the Palestinians and it is wrong for the Israelis. And it is wrong for you to celebrate it.

JR, you clearly haven't read your Bible. The 6th commandment is a commandment against murder, not killing, and the Bible demands the death penalty in lots of cases (murder, rape, incest, adultery, etc.). There are also other instances in which killing is justified, such as in war, which, of course, this situation is.

You should brush up on your Bible before you judge people for not following it.

Yeah, God is pretty hard-core. I vaguely recall a verse in the old testament where God killed a guy just for stumbling while carrying the Ark of the Covenant.

I'll have to look that one up again, it's been a decade since I "studied" the Old & New Testaments.

Correction, it wasn't that he stumbled (IIRC, the person who stumbled wasn't the person who God killed), but that he presumed to touch the Arc of the Covenant while trying to keep it from hitting the ground. The spiritual point I always took from that was that our sinful hands are dirtier than any piece of earth.

he presumed to touch the Arc of the Covenant while trying to keep it from hitting the ground

Thanks for the clarification. That sure mellows it out a lot.

Well, clearly he should've let that Ark hit the deck. Then instead of getting himself killed, the klutzy one might've just gotten an ass-whompin' from the Creator.

Now I wonder, did God trump up the charges to make an example of that guy, or did he genuinely fly off the handle (in a divine sorta way)? And did he go to straight to heaven? Now that there's a poser...

More information on the above Old Testament passage dealing with the Ark of the Covenant...
Israel had been commanded by God to carry the Ark by means of using long poles (i.e., not by carrying it on an Ox cart) which would have made it impossible to tumble over onto the ground. In addition, only Levites were to carry the Ark. Therefore, they violated the clear commands of our Holy God, the very one that had rescued them (the Israelites) from numerous enemies and trials.

...I forgot to mention that the Ark had rings through which the carrying poles were placed.

For what it's worth, I can't see any reason why he didn't just go straight to heaven. So it doesn't turn out to bad for him really.

And by that I mean the guy who tried to catch the ark, not the spiritual leader dude.

Well hey, that's a beautiful ending, then. I laughed, I cried-- doggone-it, I was entertained.

Depending on the number of pole-carriers, it was possible that the Ark could have touched the ground. (This might make for a good experiment on MythBusters.)

Even though he's probably in heaven now, I hope he appreciates my search for vindication and/or closure on a matter which biblical history given up to the ages.

Edoc,
You seem to have completely missed the point. Soil/dirt isn't sinful, human beings are. God didn't have a problem with the Ark touching the ground, but He did have one with a sinful human being; 1) violating his clear commands, and 2) being so presumptious as to believe that it was better for him to steady the ark with his sinful hands than it was for the Ark to touch the good earth that God had created. Remember, the Ark represented God's Holy presence here on Earth and therefore couldn't be touched by sinful hands without invoking God's wrath (as He Himself had clearly warned in Numbers 4:15). It's not like they didn't have warning, and evidence of what would happen if they didn't take heed (read what happened to the Philistines when they captured the Ark in a battle).

By the way, here's a good post from Josh Claybourn about this... well worth a read.

Whoever sheds innocent blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God He made man" (Gen. 9:6).

Well, it's a good thing Yassin wasn't innocent then.

Wait a moment. Can anyone of you honestly see Jesus lifting his hand against another human being? Murder /is/ killing, killing /is/ murder. When you make someone else die, taking away the life God bestowed upon them, you are breaking the 6th commandment, there is no way to justify taking away God's wonderful gift. Only God has that right.

Wrong. The Bible demands the death penalty in a host of cases. Try reading it sometime.

So you agree that we should kill prostitutes, and children who curse their father or mother - along with that being the punishment for a host of other sins (Levitcus 20-21)?

I'm not going to go into a discussion of tangential Biblical law here. The point is, Rosicrucian's assertion that "Only God has that right" is false, and we should celebrate the death of this evil man.

The Bible's delineation of what constitues a just death is clearly off topic.