Good theology is essential when bad things go down. So, to start with some theological preciseness, the question in the title would be better phrased: Is Scott Westerhuis hell-bound? The reason for that clarification is because it isn’t until after the Great White Throne Judgment that the books are opened and each one judged. It is then both Death and Hades are gathered up and together thrown into the Eternal Lake of Fire (aka Hell). The temporary abode for the unredeemed dead is Hades, not Hell. So no, no one is presently burning in hell.
The question was posed yesterday on Facebook by a seasoned journalist friend in South Dakota who, since last September, has been covering the horrible unfoldings in Platte, South Dakota. He took some criticism for even posting the question. Understandably this is still a very tender topic in our small home state.
Scott and Nicole Westerhuis and their four children, Michael, Connor, Jaeci and Kailey, died in Sept. 2015. Pic: Facebook/Nicole Westerhuis
Scott Westerhuis was husband and father of four, an active member of First Reformed Church and an involved member of a close knit small town community. Made aware he was soon to be in serious trouble for plundering a million dollars from a fund set up to help young Native Americans, late that night he took his shotgun and killed his wife and their four children all in their beds, and then set fire to their house and taking his own life.
For the benefit of others in our state, here were my contributions in the midst of a most interesting string of comments to the question.
Me: One doesn’t spend eternity separated from God for anything they did or didn’t do. The way you end up there is rejecting what Jesus did to make possible eternity with God.
A reply to me: Can someone profess Jesus is their Lord and Savior and then commit multiple murders? Were they lying when they made the profession or did they change their mind? Or did they not even think about it? (a subconscious decision)
Me: People profess Jesus as Lord and then commit adultery or break any of the other Ten Commandments. Our various traditions differ a bit on whether some sin is worse than other sin. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said if we are angry it’s the same as murder. A lawyer friend in Sioux Falls who has/is defended some of those facing the death penalty in South Dakota told me once that every murderer he’s ever met felt justified from their vantage point at that time to do what they did, and he and I agree that includes the State when we kill killers. We do what they do and then have our rationalisations for it. Psychologically suicide and killing occur in when we aren’t thinking clearly and rationally. Killing is irrational. Unless a person decidedly rejects Christ and then kills, I’m not sure we can say they go to hell– at least not for killing. I’m grateful I’m not judged according to the worse thing I’ve done. The Gospel is about what Jesus did, not about what we’ve done. Did he do enough on the Cross to pay the price for all our sin or do we need to add to his finished work by doing more right and less wrong? Reject him and we are on our own to stand before God on our own good merit.
This is pure speculation: perhaps this guy dearly loved his family and couldn’t imagine life without them or imagine ruining their lives and shaming them all so horribly with his crimes and to spare them that greater pain, in a colossal act of misguided mercy, and moment of irrational panic- hardly thinking clearly about anything – believing in Christ and heaven- reasoned to himself that they could all go together and be together and that God would understand.
Good people in society concoct all sorts of justifications for killing to save themselves and others.
I’ll wrap up here with some Gospel basics: Salvation is not genetic or hereditary any more than marriage is– your grandparents being married doesn’t mean you are– your parents being Christians doesn’t automatically make you one– a individual choice to receive what Jesus did for you appropriates salvation to an individual. Salvation is not by ritual or ceremony. Salvation is not by addition– doing more right. It is not by subtraction– doing less wrong. It is not second hand– not mediated by anyone other than Jesus. Salvation is not by comparison– we are less bad than those people down the street – those gays or Muslims or compared to that guy on death-row. It is not universal– you can decidedly reject what Jesus did for you and many do. He doesn’t force people to spend eternity with him when they make it clear they don’t want him part of their lives here. Salvation is not by showing up to church. It can’t be bought or sold. Salvation is not by sincerity. The 9/11 hi-jackers were sincere, sincerely wrong. You get the idea. And, by the way, our loving God doesn’t send anyone to hell. Hell-bound people chose that course themselves by rejecting the only way God set forth for salvation. If all religious paths were viable options, he wouldn’t have sent his only Son to die on a Cross to atone for our sin. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
As hard as it is to accept, I’m doubtful Westerhuis is hell-bound. The reason is because salvation isn’t based on what he did. It is based on what Jesus did. From what I can tell, he was a believing Christian. And yes we aren’t to judge or try to read hearts, but people in my line of work get asked these hard questions– and usually people like me have 2-3 days max to think of something to say at a funeral. It’s not a time to give false assurances. It’s a time to be clear about how it is that Jesus defeats death for us all. God has an amazing way to bring life from death and draw out good from bad. The possibility of salvation for Scott Westerhuis will hopefully result in the assurance of salvation of many others.
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Apr 22, 2016 at 2:38 pm
Steve
I’ll post here two of my replies to some pushback I’m getting over on Facebook:
1) Isn’t the best way to understand the verb tense in those “murderers will not inherit the kingdom of God” texts is that they are texts referring to those who are willingly persistent in living according to the flesh? If they also refer to those who seek to live according to the Spirit then it means we lose our salvation at every single screw up. Especially with self-murder and murder, there is a known psychological spectrum of sanity to insanity (irrationality) that is crossed and probably additionally exploited by spirit of death.
2) My primary intention was to give some needed clarity on how one is saved from hell, but also to point out there is a possibility for his salvation, which there is. Particularly my last line was the possibility of his salvation may lead to the assurance of salvation for others. It’s possible he was saved, and it is possible he wasn’t. In his case, his significant embezzling over a long period of time certainly complicates the possibility. Even so I’d maintain it takes a deliberate rejection of Him to be deliberately rejected by Him. And when we talk about salvation I’m assuming we are talking about salvation from an eternity in hell. He certainly wasn’t saved from himself or saved from the situation he created for himself. Frankly, a vast majority of Christians live in significant defeat. Usually I eventually meanander my way back to the Sermon on the Mount and of course that text creates the possibility that one can call Jesus Lord and be doing great works for Him and still hear him say on that Day “depart from me I never knew you.” As I understand that text, the repeated name “Lord, Lord” is a semitic expression of intimacy. We don’t know Scott’s level of intimacy with the Lord. Even here though I’d put forth a possibility based on being a pastor of people for so many years – and this may seem an even further stretch: it’s possible the crack in his moral faultline (financial integrity) didn’t turn into a full blown earthquake overnight. It’s possible he had a better prayer life than anyone else in that town begging God every single night for forgiveness and deliverance from the situation he got himself in. Who knows, but I’ve seen it many times over with gambling issues and sexual issues. Maybe what we have here is the ultimate example of a “defeated Christian.”