I last posted about the Kony 2012 movement. It's been a little while, enough time to let me cool off so I can talk about this, so I thought I'd post something a little more personal than just Invisible Children propaganda.
When I posted about making Kony famous, my girlfriend was staying with my family in Florida for Spring Break. Jordan is, and always will be, a pro at seeing when I'm talking out of my butt. Only my mother surpasses Jordan's abilities, and that's only because she knows I am always talking out of my butt, but I digress.
As I was sitting on the couch, fuming and spitting fire about Kony's continued existence and how I wish he was dead, Jordan gently laid her hand on my arm and said, "Alan? Look at me." I hate when she does this. When she does this, I know I am about to find out that I am wrong. I hate finding out I'm wrong. So I didn't look at her, but instead kept glaring furiously at the information I was reading about the latest Kony activities. "Alan? Look. At. Me." Jordan has this super power where she puts periods after every word in a sentence and it makes my tummy sink and I know I'm in trouble. So I groaned and reluctantly looked her in the eyes and I remember she looked so sad. "Jesus would want you to love Joseph Kony," she said.
I knew immediately that she was right, but I was damned if I was going to admit it. So instead I said something snide and went back to looking at my computer screen. Jordan is so patient. But also very forceful, sometimes. She grabbed my face and spun my head to look at her again. "You need to love him. Jesus loves him." I knew there was no getting out of it. So I sighed and I laid my head on her shoulder and I mumbled things like "You're right," and "I'll try." I didn't mean any of it, though. I knew in my heart that if I was locked in a room with Joseph Kony and a pistol, it wouldn't take two seconds for me to make a decision. Heck, I wouldn't need a pistol. Give me a rusty spoon and I'd have my satisfaction. But a seed had been planted. It wasn't long before I'd be changing my tune.
It was Jordan's Facebook status that really did it. It wasn't anything new, just a repetition of what she'd said to me earlier. She posted, "Jesus loves Joseph Kony." I was smart enough to keep from posting anything in response. I'm sure I would have said something horrible and cruel and Jordan would have gotten her feelings so hurt... I'm just glad I kept myself from doing it. But anyway! I didn't need to post anything because someone else did first. A friend posted "That's right. He died for his sins," or something like that to which another friend responded, "Not necessarily."
Not necessarily? When I read that, something inside of me snapped. Of course Jesus died for his sins! He died for all sin everywhere at all times! His sacrifice defeated Satan completely! This is one of the most fundemental beliefs Christians share as a group! And that's when it hit me. Everything I was feeling right then was God speaking into my heart through my own faith. Jesus did die for Joseph Kony. Jesus does love him. Kony is just as capable of redemption as any one of us. His crimes against humanity are no more grevious in the eyes of God than my own crimes against heaven. These are things I knew in my heart to be true, but for the past few days I'd been ignoring that in favor of nursing what I felt was a righteous fury against Kony.
Now, as it turns out, the person who commented "Not necessarily," is a Covenant student who was learning about Calvinism and TULIP. TULIP is an acronym that represents the five basic beliefs of Calvinist christianity. The L in TULIP stands for "Limited Atonement."
"Limited atonement": Also called "particular redemption" or "definite atonement", this doctrine asserts that Jesus's substitutionary atonement was definite and certain in its purpose and in what it accomplished. This implies that only the sins of the elect were atoned for by Jesus's death. Calvinists do not believe, however, that the atonement is limited in its value or power, but rather that the atonement is limited in the sense that it is designed for some and not all. Hence, Calvinists hold that the atonement is sufficient for all and efficient for the elect.[10] The doctrine is driven by the Calvinistic concept of the sovereignty of God in salvation and their understanding of the nature of the atonement. -- Wikipedia.
It's complicated, but as simply as I can put it, Limited Atonement doesn't mean that some sins can't be forgiven, no sin is too bad to be forgiven, just that not everyone goes to heaven. Any person who chooses to trust in Jesus for salvation is forgiven, but because God is all knowing and outside of time, he already knows everyone who will choose to do this and he decided which ones would choose to do this. (The concept of an all powerful God and human free-will working together is extremely strange and some would say impossible. It's better to just accept it.) These people are called "the elect". Or that's the way I understand it. Joseph Kony may not be one of the elect, is what this person was saying.
As for me, I believe that Jesus died for all sins, even the sins of those who are not part of the elect. His sacrifice wiped the record clean for every human soul. Whether or not someone accepts this as truth determines if they do or do not recieve atonement.
Imagine if you will you're at the grocery store and a very rich man has come in and paid for all the groceries being bought that day so no one has to pay out of their own pocket. You go to the register and the cashier says, "Your groceries are paid for, you can go." You thank the cashier and take your free groceries and go. Someone else, though, is told the same thing but chooses not to accept the free groceries and is then forced to pay for them on their own. It's the closest metaphor I can think of. Jesus paid enough for everyone to accept the gift of atonement and redemption, but some choose not to and therefore are not the elect. This is why I disagree when someone says Jesus may not have died for a certain person's sin. He died for everyone, even Joseph Kony, and if Kony chooses to accept the free gift of grace he will be forgiven.
So now I can say honestly that, while I still have trouble loving Joseph Kony, I believe that if there was a person on this earth who could change everything by welcoming Jesus into his heart and proclaiming his love to the world, it would be the number one international criminal according to the UN. That's Kony, in case you're unfamiliar with him. Admittedly, he would have to suffer earthly punishments for his earthly actions, such as prison and execution, but his sins would be forgiven just as easily as my own have been forgiven. I really appreciate Jordan straightening that out in my mind. I most certainly would not want to shoot Kony in the face any more. He still needs to be brought to justice, though, and if that means execution then so be it. God's will be done, as it always is.
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