Might there be Jihadis in the Christian heaven?
Anybody who has read a minute of any of my articles know my thoughts on Islam so do not, for a second, think I am a subtle pro-terrorist propagandist. I will set aside my personal feelings about Islam for a moment and explore this question of whether a person who dies during Jihad might in fact find himself in heaven as Christians believe it.
First, in very similar vein to the “What of people who never hear the gospel?” question, I ask, “What about people who have grown up being indoctrinated into Islam and Jihad from childhood?”. What about kids in Gaza and Yemen who from the moment they are born are, to quote one sheikh in the Middle East, “raised on the milk of Jihad”? “Death to America!”, Islam, hate for Non-Muslims — especially Jews, is all they have ever known. How would God judge such people?
Christians believe God (in the person of Jesus Christ) will judge everybody fairly and according to their level of knowledge and exposure to the truth. As it is written,
“For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”
(Romans 2:12–16)
The tricky thing with applying this to Jihadis is that unlike someone who has never heard the gospel, Jihadis —Because of the Quran and Islamic theology — are raised on an active rejection of the gospel, denial of Christ’s atoning work on the cross as well a hostile refusal of the deity/divinity of Jesus Christ. A Jihadi is in a somewhat separate category from someone who has never heard. A Jihadi is actively rebellious. What if, however, these anti-gospel doctrines are all a Jihadi really and truly knows?
The above scripture talks about the possibility of the light of God being borne witness to by the human conscience. Is there something within a Jihadi (despite the fact he has been raised with this ideology from birth) even as he kills the infidels in the name of Allah nagging at him and going “something is not right with this?”. If there is such a light, then the Jihadi will likely be judged by his response to that light. If there are indeed universal moral laws given by the universal moral law giver, it follows that breaching these laws, even under the guise of a mistaken attempt to submit to the will of the law giver, would still warrant punishment. Ignorance is not an excuse under the law!
The counterpoint to all this might be that the Jihadi really and truly believes he is offering service to God as he terrorises the infidel, “Killing and being killed” in accordance with his scriptures (Surah 9:111). Afterall, Jesus Himself told His disciples,
“…the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.”
(John 16:2)
It is interesting that Jesus on the one hand acknowledges that those who kill His people in the name of God genuinely think they are offering God service while on the other hand stating that those who do such things really do not know Him or the Father — something that fits perfectly with Islam, a religion that says God is not a father in any sense (Surah 19:89–93) and does not view Jesus as the unique Son of God. The most significant evidence for knowledge of God is a lack of appetite to hurt or destroy others,
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.”
(Isaiah 11:9)
Will a Jihadi be judged based on his sincere belief that he is offering service to God or based on the fact that he really does not know the true God who he claims to be offering service to?
Motives will be very important on the day Christ judges the world so we must consider why exactly a Jihadi does what he does. Why does he offer such a murderous service to God? Is it because of a genuine devotion to and love for God? Or is it because he will get something in return? The one who dies while waging Jihad is guaranteed paradise according to Islamic belief. This paradise is full of women and wine. According to one classical Islamic exegete of Surah 36:55, the faithful would be deflowering virgins for eternity in paradise. Ultimately, the Jihadi gives up his life in this world for the hope of endless sex and booze in the next. If Jesus’ judgment will be based on even the very secrets of a man’s heart as per Romans 2:16, is there a case for the fact that deep in the heart of every Jihadi is a perversion and lust which is massively incongruent with a holy God?
There are other things to consider here. Men have committed the most heinous sins in the past. David for example impregnated a man’s wife and then killed the man afterwards, Moses killed a man yet Jesus’ sacrifice covered those sins. Are there sins so great that Jesus’ blood cannot atone for? I do not believe so — Is it not written that where sin abounds, grace abounds much more? — and as such Jesus’ blood could cover the sin of a sincerely ignorant Jihadi. Again the tricky thing with that comparison is that David repented, Moses afterwards followed and served the God of Israel but the Jihadi who dies in the act does not repent and so has not believed in God and as such would not be in the presence of God. But what if God in His omniscience knows that the Jihadi, despite his screwed up upbringing, under different circumstances and perhaps with a little more time on his hands would have repented in sackcloth and ashes (like Jesus says Sodom and Gomorrah would have done) if he was presented with the real gospel message of Jesus Christ? Would he then get into heaven on that basis?
All in all, I think a Jihadi deep down would have at some point at least been convicted by the light of God through conscience and ultimately undertakes Jihad for the promise of either earthly gain (the infidel’s booty and women) or perpetual sex with virgins in heaven, both of which are incongruent with the holiness of God in scripture so whichever way you dice it, no Jihadi will be in the kingdom of heaven. But I am just as stupid and brutish as any other man. I do not have the knowledge of the Almighty. Jesus’ judgment will be completely, perfectly just and within the parameters of the perfect justice of Christ, I would not be surprised if indeed we meet a Jihadi or two as we walk the streets of gold in the kingdom of heaven.
Also check out:
