Norway Shooting: Pastor Implies Attacker Will 'Go to Place of Torment'
A Brazilian pastor and apologist has condemned the Norway massacre, saying nothing can justify the atrocity that took place last Friday, leaving 76 people dead.
Pastor Natanael Rinaldi, one of the most renowned apologists in Brazil, has told The Christian Post Monday that nothing can justify what had happened. In particular he rebuked the notion presented by killer Anders Behring Breivik of trying to justify the event as an action aimed at stopping the spread of Islam.
“Under no circumstances can he justify the heinous massacre of so many innocent people to stop the spread of Islam,” Rinaldi said.
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Breivik has admitted responsibility for the car bombing in Oslo, as well as the massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utoya, which left at least 76 dead.
Rinaldi cited the Bible book of John Chapter 16, verse 2 to point out the incongruity of killing someone and saying it was done as a service to God; “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.”
The leading pastor from Brazil also urged Christianity in Norway to return to its authentic image to help stop such atrocities occurring again in the future.
He explained how Christianity in Norway was suffering right now: “Norway, despite being a Protestant country does not reveal the authentic Christianity that Jesus talked about.”
Andrew Behring Breivik, 32, confessed in his first appearance before a court since his arrest Friday that the attacks were necessary to “save Norway and Western Europe from a cultural Marxism and Muslim takeover.”
In a 1500-page manifesto, Breivik points to the alleged problem of miscegenation – a mixing of racial groups – giving as an example countries such as Brazil, which he refers to as a “second world country with an extremely poor degree of social cohesion.”
In the document he calls for violence against Muslims and communists. Breivik alleges that miscegenated nations have “high levels of corruption, lack of productivity and eternal conflicts between several competing cultures.”
Since the attacks Norway has been a nation in mourning. More than 100,000 are estimated to have attended a rally in central Oslo for a peace vigil in memory of the victims of Breivik’s massacre. The peace vigil was also organized to repudiate Breivik’s doctrine of hatred.
Breivik’s manifesto openly declares how he describes himself as a Christian, but denies having any relationship with Jesus Christ. Pastor Natanael Rinaldi proposes that such self-proclaiming Christians that were not truly born-again in Christ, and who did not live according to the Gospel, were not true Christians.
Rinaldi declared that such people would “certainly go to a place of torment" after death.
Norway is considered a Christian country with around 93 percent identifying themselves as Christian. Protestants make up 89 percent of that figure.
