A Person’s Eternal Destination Is No Laughing Matter

I have made it a point not to respond to every time President Donald Trump said or tweeted something I disagree with. If I did that I would have time for nothing else.

The shot that President Trump took at the late U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., during a rally in Battle Creek, Mich. on Wednesday night is beyond the pale.

Watch:

The president went after U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who voted to impeach him on Wednesday evening, and then took a shot at her late husband who was the longest-serving member of Congress and implied that he was looking up from hell.

“Debbie Dingell, that’s a real beauty,” President Trump said.

He said he gave the family the “A+ treatment” after John Dingell died and conveyed that during a phone call Debbie Dingell told him that her husband would “be thrilled” by what was done and was “looking down.”

“Maybe he is looking up, I don’t know,” Trump said to a mixture of groans and applause. “Maybe, maybe, but let’s assume he’s looking down.”

Look, not a fan of either Dingell, but discussing a phone call he had with a grieving widow is in poor taste in and of itself. Speculating publicly about the eternal destination of a political opponent as a joke should be a no-go zone, but the president went there. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not.

Whatever you think of Debbie Dingell she is a human being who is still grieving the loss of her husband. She tweeted in response:

Look, I didn’t know John Dingell, I know nothing about his faith background. I’m not one to make assumptions that someone is in heaven if I don’t know whether or not they had a relationship with Christ. If that is the case, the polite, kind, and decent thing to do is to say nothing. Ultimately, God is the judge and former Congressman Dingell’s eternal destination is in his hands, we don’t need to comment on it, especially in the context of a political attack.

It’s also no laughing matter, it is the very reason Christians share the Gospel because eternity is at stake. Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again so that we would not have to face eternal death and damnation like we deserve.

If someone ends up in hell I don’t celebrate it and I don’t laugh about it.

Regardless of the eternal destination of the deceased, as a former pastor who has (fortunately) only had to speak at a handful of funerals, I want those who are grieving and contemplating death and what comes after death to know that if they want certainty about eternity then they need to flee to Christ. They need to confess that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, turn from their sin, and place their faith and trust in Him and Him alone believing that his death and resurrection is sufficient for the forgiveness of their sin.

President Trump’s joke about the late U.S. Rep. John Dingell’s eternal destination is not one that a faithful Christian should applaud or laugh about.