Killing the Messenger

Acts 23:12–21 ESV

12 When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. 13 There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. 14 They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. 15 Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.” 16 Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. 17 Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” 18 So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, “Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.” 19 The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” 20 And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him. 21 But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.”

I. Top Reasons people commit murder

A lot of people die every day but not all of them are murdered. Murder is when a person kills another for selfish reasons. But what could be those selfish reasons for which someone might kill someone? Jealousy? Greed? Love? Hatred?  There have been a lot of discussions over this question and many experts, psychiatrists, and defense department genius people have studies the criminals and came across a lot of reasons for killing someone. There are a lot of answers to this question and the very common reasons are discussed below:

10. Mercy killing:

Mercy killings are not very common but prevail in every society by a certain percentage. Mercy killings are those categories of killing when the person being killed has asked to do so. If a person is extremely ill and sick and cannot be cured, he/she is lying all day on the bed, suffering the pain each second and bear it even if it is worse; then the doctor injects something and all of a sudden the patient is free from all the pain and free from the painful life and rests in peace. If not the doctor, it can be someone who was a loved one to the patient and could not see the patient in that painful condition and kill the patient to bring peace to the body and soul. Mercy killings are also known as the easier and faster way to die from the old age diseases and also considered as peaceful, unnatural deaths in some places. But

1 Samuel 31:4 ESV

4 Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.” But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.

9. Road discipline:

Despite of many policies to control the traffic, the problem is not yet solved. Many people die in road accidents. Accident is not a specific reason to kill someone until and unless planned of. Other cases of road rage are examples where a person may overtake and you don’t like and try to overtake instead even if no space to do so. Other such example is killing someone while having a road race and if it seems that he/she cannot win, and then they will not let the other party win and kill them instead. Sometimes, it is just the drunk driver who does not like if someone blows a horn and kill him or maybe he is drunk and so cannot see those people walking in front of his car and kill them.

8. Greed:

Greedy is again one of those people who will kill. Just as anger shapes into killings, greed also does the same. Majority of the times it is the inheritance factor that involves killing and murdering people. Suppose you have an uncle who has a large business and a big property. You may think that before this uncle changes his mind about sharing the property with someone else and change the will, let us get rid of him. Another example of greed is that you are an eligible candidate for getting promoted in the office and so is one of your colleagues. So you might want to get rid of the colleague so that only you will be eligible for promotion and you will definitely get it.

Matthew 23:25 ESV

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

7. Anger:

Anger is another reason to kill someone. Many have died just because the murderer was in an angry mood and could think rationally. Being angry means nothing more than being out of control. The mind focuses only on those things that have been the root causes of anger; in other words, the mind pays attention to whatever you think is the reason for anger. The main reason for anger is that things are not the way you want them to be. If anything goes unexpected and you don’t like it, you may get angry. And if a particular person is responsible for your anger, then you start hating that person and want him off this planet and you don’t want to see his/her face any longer. In such situations, the person loses the capacity to think of the consequences and simply focuses on killing that person.

James 1:20 ESV

20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

6. Self-defense:

Self-defense is another very common reason of killing someone. If you are alone walking on the street and someone tries to hurt you for getting away with your purse or wallet, then if you attack that person for your protection and for protecting your property, then this is called self-defense. In the eyes of the law, self-defense is a valid and just thing to do. But in the process of self-defense you may even kill that person trying to rob you or kill you. Courts in our country handle such cases on a weekly basis. There are a lot of cases when people have been killed because of self-defense. Self-defense is not natural only on the streets, but also, in the domestic life, for instance, if you are being tortured by your mother-in-law or husband. Self-defense can be in any form and anywhere.

5. Religion arguments:

Although this is not very common reason in all the countries, but it does exists very prominently in India. The best example of this is that a secular nation as India might have many religions and various followers; there are still wars between Hindus and Muslims. One can never hear anything against one’s religion. This is a tendency of humans to love the Gods whom they worship and so there is nothing wrong with this. One can worship anyone they want and anytime they desire and in any manner they like. But the thing that is wrong is that they should not oppose what others are doing. If the government allows you to worship in your way, then you should not object on the way others are worshiping. This is the problem with the population that they do not ignore and always interfere. This leads to a lot of fights, in turn, leading to death of a person or death of the whole group believing in that religion.

How many deaths have been caused by religion? Here's a list of religiously motivated wars and genocides and their death tolls.

from an Atheists source...

The Crusades: 6,000,000

Thirty Years War: 11,500,000

French Wars of Religion: 4,000,000

Second Sudanese Civil War: 2,000,000

Lebanese Civil War: 250,000

Muslim Conquests of India: 80,000,000

Congolese Genocide (King Leopold II): 13,000,000

Armenian Genocide: 1,500,000

Rwandan Genocide: 800,000

Eighty Years' War: 1,000,000

Nigerian Civil War: 1,000,000

Great Peasants' Revolt: 250,000

First Sudanese Civil War: 1,000,000

Jewish Diaspora (Not Including the Holocaust): 1,000,000

The Holocaust (Jewish and Homosexual Deaths): 6,500,000

Islamic Terrorism Since 2000: 150,000

Iraq War: 500,000

US Western Expansion (Justified by "Manifest Destiny"):20,000,000

Atlantic Slave Trade (Justified by Christianity): 14,000,000

Aztec Human Sacrifice: 80,000

AIDS deaths in Africa largely due to opposition to condoms: 30,000,000

Spanish Inquisition: 5,000

TOTAL: 195,035,000 deaths in the name of religion.

4. Alcohol and drugs:

One of the reasons of killing someone is just that the person is high. People lose their sense when they are loaded with alcohol and drugs. Drugs have a very powerful effect on the brain of a person irrespective of the age and sex. Same is the case with alcohol and same is the effect. While they are high, they forget the difference between right and wrong. Everything they do while being drunk seems rational to them. Some people believe that whatever mistakes they do are justified if they were not in control at that time. Many people have died only because the other person was drunk and did not realize what he or she was doing. If a person is drunk, then a single statement can make you dead.

3. Revenge:

Revenge is a very strong feeling that can even make non-criminals kill others. If someone did wrong to you, then revenge is the feeling that where you want the other person to experience the same, experience everything you went through. People dealing with the feeling of revenge always end up hurting people. Such people do not believe in the legal system and try to solve things on their own and by solving things I mean punishing others and killing them. They always take the matter in their own hands and try to make others suffer just like they did. They also consider it a valid thing to do. They justify themselves saying, “you get what you give”.

Hebrews 10:30 ESV

30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

2. Money:

Isn’t money an obvious reason to kill someone? No, it isn’t, but it is indeed the most common reason to kill others. Money influences a lot of people and in fact, I would say money influences all of us but in different ways. All of us are fond of money and want to have a lot of it. But some people can go upto any extent to have money. Sometimes people kill the one who have lots of money and sometimes they kill someone because they are getting a lot of money for doing so. People plan on attacking a bank a take away all the money and do not care about the number of people getting killed in the process.

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

1. Domestic reasons:

Cases for killing someone because of domestic reason have grown a lot during the past few years. Domestic killings involve both the men and women as victims, but mostly it is the female kind that fall victim of the domestic violence. The reason for more female victims is the age-old systems of dowry and the fights between the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, and also the fights between husband and wife leading to domestic violence. Another common reason for domestic violence is the love percentage. The law must be such that it punishes the murderer and not the victim for not loving his/her partner. Sometimes people kill because they love the other one and cannot tolerate the thought of seeing that loved one with someone else.

II. Top reasons why people don’t believe the Gospel

10. They have never really heard the gospel.

The more I speak to people in North America, the more I realize this truth: some folks on our continent are just as distant from the gospel as unreached people groups around the world. Within the shadows of our church buildings are people who have never heard the truth.

9. They struggle understanding the Bible.

Even for those who are willing to read the Bible, the content is often new – and challenging. If genuine believers wrestle with interpreting the Bible, it shouldn’t surprise us that non-believers face the same battle.

8. They see the gospel as too good to be true.

The story of the gospel really is quite astounding. That the one and only creator God would forgive our sins, make us whole, place us in His family, and indwell us is hard to fathom, especially if the story is new. Nobody I know – believer or unbeliever – fully grasps God’s work of salvation.

7. They see hypocrisy in the church.

I’ve heard this general excuse for years, but more recently I’ve heard the words with specificity. “I don’t expect people to be perfect,” a family member told me, “but if _______ represents what a Christian is, I don’t want to be a part.” We may defend the church all we want, but we must not forget that watching unbelievers see the reality in our lives.

6. They hear other messages more loudly.

Even if a non-believer hears three one-hour Christian sermons per week (which seldom happens), he still hears dozens of hours of other messages throughout the week. The media emphasizes moral stances in opposition to Christian teaching. Preachers of false gospels dominate the television. Political correctness reigns – and the gospel gets clouded in the process.

5. They are enjoying their sin.

There’s no other way to describe this obstacle. Sin can be fun (at least for a while), and some of the people I know are having a good time. Following Christ, they assume, would cost them too much fun. Combining this reasoning with the next reason, they see no need to turn to Christ today.

Jeremiah 6:15 ESV

15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,” says the Lord.

4. They believe time is on their side.

This is not always the case, of course. Some of my older family and friends are now more willing to talk about eternal matters as they see their own generation passing away. Those who are younger, though, have been more interested in waiting to consider Christianity. No urgency drives them to consider life and death matters now.

Luke 17:27 ESV

27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

3. They still fail to see their lostness.

Their reasoning is neither new nor unique. “I treat people well, and I try to help my neighbors.” “Let me tell you some of the good things I’ve been doing.” “I just don’t believe a good God will send good people to hell.” “I don’t do anything that’s just evil.” Folks who see no need for forgiveness seldom seek it.

2. They cannot understand the preaching.

Obviously, this reason assumes non-believers who have attended church (as does the next one). A family member told me, “I like hearing _______ preach, but I don’t really understand him.” Granted, the Spirit of God helps us to understand the Word, but this message is nevertheless clear: we who preach the Word are not there to impress; we are there to communicate the life-giving message of the gospel. Clarity is a must.

2 Corinthians 1:12 ESV

12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.

Proverbs 10:19 ESV

19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

1. They are overwhelmed by Christian follow up.

Frankly, this response has surprised me. Occasionally, a church fully committed to outreach and follow up has been so faithful to the task that they have frightened off a non-believer. I am grateful for churches this passionate, but it’s worth remembering that non-believers may not be prepared for our zeal. Sensitivity matters.

Titus 1:7 ESV

7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,

God’s Plan of Salvation

Hear God’s Word

Romans 10:17 ESV

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Believe God’s Messenger

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Repent of Tradition and Past Sins

Acts 17:30 ESV

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

Confess Jesus as God’s Son

Matthew 10:32–33 ESV

32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Be Baptized for the remission of your sins

Romans 6:3–4 ESV

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Remain Faithful till death

Revelation 2:10 ESV

10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.