Forgive

Jeffrey Dahmer became a Christian before he died. For those who don't know, Jeffrey Dahmer was a murderer, cannibal, and rapist, committing crimes from the late 1970s up until 1991, when he was arrested. Shortly after his arrest, he started reading the Bible, and also creationist material sent to him by his dad, and then became a born-again Christian. And along the way, of course, repented from the crimes he used to commit.

While we cannot be certain, it's pretty safe to assume Jeffrey retained his faith in Jesus until he died, thus he is most likely in Heaven now. But some people seem confused as to how God could allow Jeffrey Dahmer into Heaven. Which is interesting, considering many people also claim God isn't being merciful enough, yet at the same time these people apparently also want even stricter punishments for certain people?

But see, that illustrates exactly what we need to understand. God's system of justice doesn't work like ours. When Jeffrey expressed regret for his crimes, humanity sent him to prison. The human legal system doesn't care if you accept Jesus - they just want you to pay for whatever you did. God doesn't work this way. God is righteous, and brings mercy into the equation, as well. God does not want us to suffer. God wants all of us to be saved, no matter how small or how severe sins may look in our eyes. All sins are wrong, and wrong actions get punished. This is the law we have to answer to at the beginning. We've all sinned in some way, and those sins should be punished. But this is the truly great part: if we were speaking about human law which has no room for compassion or mercy, we would all be put on death row, and we would all go to Hell. But God is different, and God has mercy on us, and shows compassion for us. God has provided a way for us to get out of that situation, so that we won't have to face that trial and face that judgment, and that way is Jesus. We accept Jesus - we learn from His teachings, we believe that He paid the price for our sins when He was crucified on the cross and we accept that gift of salvation in our lives, we grow closer to God through Jesus, and we believe that God loves us enough to provide this way for us. Contrary to a post I read online in relation to Jeffrey Dahmer, it's not a simple matter of God saying "well Jeffrey claimed he was sorry so okay". It's not like God is being indifferent or irresponsible. It's quite the opposite. God is not indifferent nor is He irresponsible, and that's exactly why He shows so much compassion for us when we accept the gift of Jesus, and pray for forgiveness - because God wants us to be in Heaven with Him, because God values us and loves us. To be absolutely clear, this isn't limited to Jeffrey Dahmer - this same grace is available to everybody on this earth.

But this leaves us one more thing we need to keep in mind - we need to forgive, as well. This is difficult. Maybe nobody in our lives has been murdered, but people still do bad things to us. And if those people really repent, we need to forgive them. I fully understand this is difficult to do in certain situations - this, like all things, should be taken to God, in prayer. Definitely, ask for help, and for guidance on this. God wants to help us. And as He forgave Jeffrey Dahmer when he repented, so God forgives us when we repent. And as God tells us to forgive someone over and over again when they sincerely ask, He also forgives us, if we're willing to sincerely ask.

God bless you and guide you according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.




It honestly breaks my heart a bit to think that Jeffrey genuinely wondered in the end if he was sinning by continuing to live - that anyone would feel that way. But on the other hand, it's great that he became so dedicated to God that he would even think to ask such a question. How many serial killers just live by their own moral code until their dying day, and don't seek God at all? Or worse, just use God's name to justify their actions without actually believing in Him or actually seeking His genuine word at all? But look how God changed one who actually sought Him. God's mercy and His ability to work in our lives is astounding.