Where is Moammar Gadhafi now?
“The dictator is dead, the dictator is dead. Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar!”
These cries rang out unceasingly in Libya and other Middle Eastern countries on Thursday morning as word spread that Moammar Gadhafi had been captured and killed.
Ruling for some 42 years, Gadhafi was the longest reigning dictator in the world. And for the many who suffered under his crushing oppression, I’m sure it was a great relief to see him delivered to some form of justice.
Kathy Tedeschi, who lost her husband in the Lockerbie bombing said, “I hope he’s in hell with Hitler.”
Con Coglin, an expert in the Middle East, sees it as fitting that he should have been killed in a Libyan sewer since, “He had all the morality of a sewer rat.”
I wonder where Gadhafi is now. One of my Muslim acquaintances told me bluntly that such an evil man would now be in hell. My Buddhist friends would tell me that he will be reincarnated as some lower life form so that his bad deeds can be atoned for by his own future suffering. My Hindu friends would probably agree with this assessment. I don’t share this view for the Bible says we die only once (Hebrews 9:27), and then face judgment.
Where do I think he is? Well, I can’t be dogmatic because it is God who judges people. He decides their fate in eternity. Having said that, however, I am inclined to think he is in hell or will shortly be making his way there. I know, I know, to say that is so politically incorrect, and some will probably take me to task for saying it.
But please don’t shoot the messenger. Why not take it up with my boss, to whom I am accountable? For it was God who caused scripture to be written as it is; and I simply use it as a touchstone to measure all truth claims.
And the Bible is clear in Revelation 21:8 that murderers shall end up in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This evil tyrant slaughtered his own people, which makes him a murderer. In simple terms, Gadhafi seems to be a prime candidate to end up in a very unpleasant future.
I know many reading this will say Gadhafi was a brutal, murdering wretch and he deserves to rot in hell just like Hitler, like Stalin, or like Pol Pot. And it will seem eminently natural to them that such a great evildoer should be judged and punished. But it will never occur to them that judgment day is coming not just for the likes of Moammar Gadhafi, but for all of us who live on Earth. Paul the apostle writing in Acts 17 informs us God is now calling all men everywhere to repent (turn from sin) for, “He has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Where is Gadhafi now? Let’s be frank—his fate is totally out of our hands. God, not we mortals, is his judge. However, historical Christianity teaches that Jesus one day shall be our judge as well. That will include every person reading this article.
Wouldn’t it be amazingly wonderful if on that day we could stand before God with serenity and confidence? Yes, it certainly would. Maybe, just maybe, that’s why the teaching about Jesus is such astonishingly good news.
Royal Hamel is an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and a freelance writer.
Published October 22, 2011 in the Guelph Mercury
