Moral Curiosities

II. The Christian Murderer

Peace be with you.

Epitome
A Christian is specifically defined as one that follows the commandments of the Lord and possesses a living faith in Him. These together, it forbids acts of murder. Murderer implies they do not repent, and repentance is the entire changing of one's ways from what they are repenting of. Where there is no repentance, there is no change; where there is no change, there is a dead faith. Dead faith does not save, and they are cut away from the vine (and subsequently, from the Church).

Furthermore, salvation is assumed to be earned when it is not. And lastly, this particular understanding of heaven and hell is not one I share—heaven and hell in Orthodoxy are different reactions of the soul (depending on its purity) from the same love of God. It fails on all accounts.

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? . . So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (James 2:14, 17)

"Let it be understood that those who are not found living as He taught are not Christians—even though they profess with the lips the teaching of Christ." (St. Justin Martyr)

Expressed
A common argument poses two polar opposites. One is Christian and murdered people, the other is a polite atheist that contributes and volunteers to charity. The rationale in making this an example is to pose how irrational it is for someone who commits an evil deed like murder to experience eternal bliss whereas the kind atheist will experience eternal torment.

It is, on its face, an error based on how "Christian" is being defined. I would not define "Christian" ever-so loosely. On the other side, killing, even in self-defence, is commonly regarded as still a sin, taking a life God has made, in Orthodoxy. This is not a dogmatic perspective but it does illustrate a private opinion which regards seriously the life of everyone. Even Orthodox soldiers in many countries abstain from the Holy Mysteries (also called sacraments in the Western tradition) if they're aware they'll have to kill someone. Such an act would need to be confessed and forgiven, penance done, with proper remorse for the loss of life, before they could be permitted to participate in the Holy Mysteries.

In the case of the "murderer", there's a lot of factors that would need to be considered. Keep in mind the life of St. Paul. Before being the saint that he is regarded as now, he had been Saul, a Christian persecutor. His mere presence would strike fear into Christians that heard of him. Ananias in the Acts of the Apostles said to the Lord, "I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." (9:13-14)

It was said of Saul that he was "still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord" when he went to the high priest. He still fully intended to bring them bound to Jerusalem. (9:1-2) He was even present at the first Christian martyrdom of St. Stephen, where, serving in a more official capacity, he witnessed St. Stephen's stoning. (7:57-60)

Saul, certainly, did not have a good background when the amount of persecution he had been involved in is accounted for. And yet, in his baptism and change into Paul, he changed his life entirely and is held in high esteem by the very faithful he'd once persecuted. Why is this? The answer is typical: He repented of his ways and became someone that would, later, be killed for his faith. In his lifetime, he'd even be arrested three times for his preaching and building of the church.

What does it mean to repent of something and why is this important? The Greek term is μετενόησαν (metenoēsan) from the primary term μετανοέω (metanoeó) meaning "to change one's mind or purpose". It is not giving an empty apology as some suspect (just saying sorry) but changing your entire mind, reworking your lifestyle, from what it is you're repenting of. Remorse and shame for one's sins are paired with this change, meaning they'd do their best to never do it again. So the common argument that a person can just keep doing it as long as they say sorry is not applicable because that isn't what it means to repent of something.