Norway Bombing: Attacker, Shooter Anders Behring Breivik a Christian?
“One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100 000 who have only interests,” is the only post on the Twitter account of Anders Behring Breivik, the man who has been arrested as the possible culprit of Friday's bombing in Oslo, Norway, and for opening fire on a nearby youth camp. The tweet was inspired by a quote by the British philosopher John Stuart Mill.
So far, 92 deaths have been reported, 85 of which were from the youth camp rampage, but the total number may increase as the day wears on.
Breivik's Facebook page was taken down on Friday, but not before the media could glean some insight from it. The Atlantic reports that his favorite books are Franz Kafka's The Trial and George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four. His favorite television show is “Dexter,” which features a serial-killer as its main character.
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Spiegel Online reported that on Friday at around 11 p.m., a police unit raided Breivik's apartment, which is located in a four-story brick building in west Oslo where he also lived with his mother. He reportedly played the World of Warcraft computer game and previously served in the Norwegian army. He is described by the publication as a “right-wing extremist who had repeatedly made anti-Islamic statements on Internet forums.” He also had permits for both an automatic rifle and a Glock pistol.
A report from The Atlantic says that he also owned his own business, Breivik Geofarm, and started to run an organic farm in eastern Norway just a month ago, where he created and stored fertilizers that could be used in explosives.
OnlineSocialMedia.net reports that on Breivik's Facebook page he listed his interests as body building, hunting, freemasonry, stock analysis and the Modern Warfare 2 video game. Breivik said he had completed “3,000 hours of study in micro and macro finance, religion,” and describes himself as being both Christian and conservative.
Larry Keffer of the Biblical Research Center and Norwegian evangelist Petar Keseljevic spoke to The Christian Post on Saturday about the attacks and about Breivik.
Fortunately, none of Keseljevic's family or friends were harmed in the disaster, but he says that attacks on a “peace-loving country” like Norway can have a “maximum impact.”
“It'll have an impact all over Europe,” he said.
Keffer warns that people should not think that just because Breivik says he is a Christian that he actually is one.
“When I was out in Norway,” he said, “the people there thought they were Christian because they were Norwegian.” Many people in the so-called “Christian nation,” he says, claim the faith but haven't necessarily been genuinely converted.
"A true Christian would not go and ... shoot people in a camp or blow up buildings,” he said. “That's not what a Christian does. So just because a man claims to be a Christian, or even believes that he is a Christian, does not necessarily make him so."
"The Bible says that 'you know them by their fruit.'”
Keffer and Keseljevic have an interesting perspective on the attacks. World Net Daily reported that they were both arrested and convicted for proclaiming the Gospel in Oslo during a parade back in 2008.
They were arrested for trying to share life with the people of Norway, Breivik was arrested for taking it.
"Christians' ministry is to reconcile people to God and give life, not to blow them up and send them to hell,” stated Keffer.
