By Kellys Kaunda
“ECL IS GOING TO HELL”, ACKIM MWEEMBA, GOVERNANCE EXPERT. IS HE?
Mweemba made these remarks on a Prime TV program hosted by Paul Shingongo. He said Edgar Lungu did not forgive Hichilema hence his dying wishes that the latter should not attend his funeral.
Mweemba said forgiveness is Biblical and because Lungu failed on this principle, he is going to hell.
Let me start off by saying that Scripture has some hard passages to understand and some passages fairly easy to understand.
One of those passages include those that list the kind of sins and sinners that will go to hell. And there are several portions of Scripture that list them
Revelation 21:8 – ESV “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
The Bible mentions the kind of sinners that will go to hell for purposes of creating awareness around those sins but most importantly, to avoid them.
Note carefully that from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible places condemnation on sin but proclaims God’s love for the sinner.
And every human being is a sinner. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon, and all the disciples of Christ were sinners. Even the thief on the cross that Christ forgave was a sinner.
There are two striking examples in the Bible that illustrate the complexity of God’s love for sinners. For instance, the woman at the well. From a human point of view, this woman was promiscuous and the textbook definition of a candidate for hell.
On the cross, a thief, another textbook definition of a candidate for hell, was forgiven and promised a place in eternity.
What the two passages are saying is that, as human beings, all we can see is sin and a fellow sinner. But we are not privy to God’s intervention in the affairs of our fellow sinners.
Just as no one witnessed the conversation between Christ and the woman, no one can tell with certainty that God never had a conversation with ECL before he passed away. As human beings, ECL’s dying wish may have been those the family heard, namely, Hichilema must never come anywhere nearer my body.
But those may not have been his final dying wishes. Only God knows ECL’s dying wishes. God’s love for humanity knows no depth, knows no distance. The final moments of every human being on earth belong to God and the dying. God initiates life, it’s only logical that He terminates it. And knowing His love for us, He wouldn’t switch it off without granting us an opportunity to make things right with Him.
So, to Mr. Mweemba, l must say, “No, my brother, do not play God by assigning ECL a final destination – hell or eternal life. That privilege belongs to our Father in heaven, alone”.
Amen.
Matthew 6:14,15
‘For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’
A person who has himself experienced forgiveness, will forgive others.
By the way, the Samaritan woman was not promiscuous- she had been married 5 times. Women were divorced by men.
And there is no evidence that the other man crucified with Jesus was a thief. He was just a wrong doer against Roman law. This could be anything from treason to murder to theft (even of bread).