In The Presence of Mine Enemies: Should We Pray For Them To Die? (Reflections on Fidel Castro)

Last updated on: November 29, 2016 at 5:50 pm by David Bordy

In The Presence of Mine Enemies: Should We Pray For Them To Die? (Reflections on Fidel Castro) 2016-11-29T17:50:17-05:00 David Bordy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

9609361_053404a0f7_b

Photo By Marcelo Montecino; CC 2.0

Growing up in South Florida, I wasn’t exactly unacquainted with the Cuban community. Several of my classmates were 1st Generation Cuban Americans. They would recount to me stories, both past and present, of what the tyrannical Cuban government under one Fidel Castro was doing. This was a particularly hard reality on the Christian Cuban community. In a country where even freedom of speech is limited, Christian liberty was (is) not exactly a smiled-upon concept.

I personally remember the day, several years ago now, when American news first announced that Castro was sick and had the prospect of facing his own mortality before him. I remember the discussion of transitioning power to his brother Raul who, many Cubans have told me, is not any better (in fact, probably worse) than Fidel. Excitement at the prospect of Fidel Castro dying was not unlike the celebrations you’d find in Little Havana today, now that he’s gone. When the Cuban American community of Christians in South Florida first heard that he was ill though, many actually started praying for his death.

This begged an interesting theological question for me… Is it appropriate for a Christian to ask God for the death of their enemies? After all, Jesus not only forbade us from hating persons in our heart, but also told us to LOVE our enemies. The famed 23rd Psalm reminds us that our Good Shepherd prepares a table of His bounty in the very presence of our enemies. We are told that it is important for the wheat and chaff to grow up together, and it is GOD who will separate them at harvest. Factoring in all these truths, how can it be acceptable to pray for the death of another human being, regardless of how evil their actions in life have been?

Moreover, if we assume that it IS theologically acceptable to pray for their deaths, what would such a prayer look like? It can’t be filled with hate, or even a desire to take right the wrong ourselves (“Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I WILL repay”, Deut. 32:35, Rom. 12:19). How exactly would one ask God for the death of their enemies?

The more I studied and sought scriptural council on this, the more it drew me to the imprecatory psalms. An imprecatory psalm is one where the author invokes, of God, trouble, judgment, or even curses upon their enemies. There are 19 such Psalms in the bible. If we’re going to look at the possibility and/or method of praying for our enemies’ death, these psalms would be a good place to start. By means of example, let’s examine one of my favorite examples of an imprecatory psalm:

PSALM 137

By the waters of Babylon,
    there we sat down and wept,
    when we remembered Zion. (Israel has been captured by the Babylonians and are exiled in a foreign land, longing for home)
2 On the willows there
    we hung up our lyres. (Lyres were for celebration music. Israelites hang their celebration instruments on the trees. There’s no use in singing joyfully when we’re in exile)
3 For there our captors
    required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
    “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” (Our taskmasters mock us in exile. “Sing one of your happy little Hebrew songs”, they say as they laugh at our misery)

4 How shall we sing the Lord‘s song
    in a foreign land? (How can we sing happy songs while we are far from home in exile?)
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
    let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
    above my highest joy! (If Jersualem is out of my mind then may my hand forget how to play and my voice forget how to sing)

There’s the context… Now comes the imprecatory part…
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
    the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
    down to its foundations!” (During the Babylonian conquest, the Edomites were particularly vicious in their conquest. Don’t forget their merciless cruelty in the Day of Judgment, O Lord.)
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
    blessed shall he be who repays you
    with what you have done to us! (Lord, we pray You will do to THEM EXACTLY as they have done to us)
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
    and dashes them against the rock! (Ouch! What kind of prayer is THAT? No doubt one of the most vicious things Babylonians or Edomites did during the invasion was to take little Israelite babies and murder them by smashing their tiny heads against rocks, as there horrified mothers looked on. The prayer here is for retribution for what has ALREADY been done to them)

In summary, as usual when it comes to prayer, the answer to our question lies in the object of our prayer. If your prayer is solely focused on your enemies’ death, for example, then the eyes of your prayer are looking around you (at your present circumstances) rather than on the right Object and focus OF your prayer, namely God and His Son Jesus Christ. When Peter took his focus off Jesus, he sank. On the other hand, if (in the midst of an onslaught of troubles for your enemies), your prayer cries out to the Lord for justice and righteous retribution (as He sees fit), then I think it is perfectly acceptable to pray in that way. David never sought the direct death of His enemies. He had a chance to kill King Saul and passed it up. Rather, he sought the Lord. In such a seeking, several of his psalms are prayers for vindication and protection from his enemies. His prayers are for, as Longfellow put it, the hope that “the wrong shall fail, the right prevail”.

Cuban Christians’ prayers for the death of their enemy, while emotionally understandable, miss the greater truth of prayer. Jesus taught us to pray “Thy will be done” and that is certainly true when it comes to our wicked adversaries as well. If your focus on the immediate action (death, in this case), it is so narrow that can’t see the Source of such action, namely God and His sovereignty. Our ultimate hope is not the death of our enemies, but the righteous vindication and peace that will come as a result, which will free us up to dwell God’s unadulterated presence forever. While our circumstances with our enemies may not yet cause us to see the sunrise, we must use the pre-dawn twilight hours of prayerful faith not to focus on the darkness ending, but to praise God for the light.

Prayer

Enemies

Fidel Castro

Previous Post

November 9, 2016

David Crowder Mistaken For Bigfoot Again

Next Post

December 1, 2016 BuzzFeed Owes Chip and Joanna Gaines An Apology

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #ShoutYourAbortion 10 Commandments 2016 Election 2017 2020 Election Abortion Accelerate Books Adultery America Andy Stanley Arminianism Ashley Madison Atonement B&H Academic Baptism Barry Horner Beauty Biblical Elders Billy Graham Blog Book Review Bruce Jenner Caitlyn Jenner Calvin Calvinism Cheating Chick-fil-A Children Christ Christian History Christian Living Christian Podcasts Christianity Christmas Church History Church Leadership Civil Disobedience Constitutional Coronavirus Culture Death Demoninations Discipleship Doctrine Doctrine of God Donald Trump Ecclesiology Entertainment Eschatology Ethics Evangelical Evangelism Evil Evolution Fear Forgive Yourself Forgiveness Francis Chan Future Israel Gay Marriage Gender Genesis George Floyd Gospel Government Gun Control Halloween hamartiology Heavenly Reward Hermeneutics History Hollywood Holy Spirit Homeschool Homosexual Homosexuality Hope Hospitality Humor Husband Infant Baptism Interview Jesus John Piper Josh Duggar Joshua Harris Judgment Justice Kathy Griffin Kim Davis Leadership Logic Love Manhood Marriage Martin Luther Messianic Prophecy Miscarriage Mocking Modesty Money Movie Reviews Music Music Review Netflix New Testament Obergefell Old Testament Parenting Pastor Pastoring Persecution Planned Parenthood Podcast Politics Pop Culture Pornography Prayer Preaching Predestination Pride Prosperity Gospel Rachel Held Evans Racism Ravi Zacharias Redemption Reformation 500 Reformation Day Reformed Theology Relationship Repentance Salvation Same Sex Marriage Satan Satire Scripture Seminary Sex Sin slavery Sola Scriptura Soteriology Sovereignty Spiritual Gifts Spurgeon Star Wars Steven Furtick Suffering Sufficiency of Scripture Sunday School Supreme Court Technology Testimony The Church The Lord of the Rings The Problem of Evil The Shack Theology Theonomy Tithing Transgenderism Tullian Tchividjian Uncategorized Universalism Vanity Fair Video Games Virgin Birth Voting Wife Women Worldview Worship

Select a Month June 2025 April 2025 March 2025 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 June 2023 April 2023 March 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz