Vengeance vs Justice - News With Views

By Lex Greene

September 17, 2025

They say God will use even bad things for good and his will. I believe this is true. In fact, I have witnessed it in life and I’m witnessing it again right now, and so are you.

The tragic and unnecessary assassination of Charlie Kirk last week is a shot heard across this land and all the way around the world. We’re being told that they have the person who killed an amazing young spirit and leader of young people. Time will tell I guess, though our government is not known for telling the American people the truth.

But we can already see it! The assassination of Charlie Kirk sparked a global revival in faith and true patriotism, like nothing else has in the past hundred or more years.

People have had all kinds of reactions to the event, from extreme anti-American leftists celebrating the final cancellation of a peaceful man, husband, and father, for the Christian culture they disagreed with, to heartfelt prayers for Charlie and his beautiful family, vigils held all across the USA and around the globe, to those full of anger and ready to stand up against this evil that has infected our beloved land.

This is a battle between GOOD and EVIL. Make no mistake about it.

Even I have had to take some time to live with the reality of what happened on September 10, 2025, to get my anger under control and my thoughts in order. I had to spend some time in the good book to sort it all out. Hopefully, this will help others.

Good has no choice but to put down evil. Just as darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good. If good does not deal with evil head-on, then evil will consume everything until there is nothing good left.

Vengeance is Not Ours

To act out in a fit of anger, in vengeance, while justified, would make us no better than the people who are responsible for Charlie’s death. And there are a lot of people in this country, sick citizens, in government, in the media, who are responsible for Charlie’s assassination. People full of evil, in all cases…

But vengeance is not ours, it belongs to God, and I have no doubts that God will judge them harshly for their actions. I would not want to be any of them.

Justice, however, is Ours

Vengeance is punishment inflicted in retaliation for an injury or offense : retribution. Justice is something different.

Justice is the maintenance or administration of what is just, the administration of law, the quality of being just, impartial, or fair, based upon equality and equity.

I have always been opposed to cherry-picking scripture to suit the moment, especially when it is taken out of context to accomplish the goal of using “God’s word” to manipulate others.

Through the sixty-six books of the modern Bible, it’s just too easy to find something there to suit your agenda. But it usually requires ignoring everything else in the Bible.

While it’s true that none of us sits in judgement of who goes to heaven or hell, it’s also true that we must make judgements about our environment and things that affect us daily. It’s critical that we know the difference between good and evil and take appropriate measures to keep evil at bay.

The Bible explains how we are to make these judgements in life and that is to judge a tree (or person, or organization) not by its words, but by its fruit. According to scripture, a tree of evil can never produce good fruit, and a tree of good can never produce bad fruit.

Today, we clearly see evil in our midst. That evil came from a poisonous tree of evil. We have a duty to not only deal with evil people, but the poisonous tree from which they came.

However, when talking about human nature, we see people raised in terrible conditions who turn out to be great members of society, while witnessing others who were raised in seemingly perfect conditions, turn against everything they were taught at home, becoming consumed by evil.

This is the “free will” part. We choose to be good or evil.

Those who do evil things have chosen to do those things. Justice must prevail when they do.

Proverbs 21:15 “Justice is a joy to the godly, but it terrifies evildoers.” (NLT)

Evil must have consequences, or evil is all we will have. The 1828 Dictionary defines justice in part as “Impartiality; equal distribution of right in expressing opinions; fair representation of facts respecting merit or demerit. In criticisms, narrations, history or discourse, it is a duty to do justice to every man, whether friend or foe.” and… “Vindictive retribution; merited punishment. Sooner or later, justice overtakes the criminal.”

We Are NOT the Same

Many of my Christian brothers and sisters seem uncomfortable with the concept of justice, despite justice being mentioned at least 170 times in the Bible. Many call for “unity” and to avoid justice or retribution for Charlie’s death.

But this assumes that good can unite with evil or even should. Yet, good and evil are like oil and water, they can never be mixed together, or unified. Light and darkness do not coexist; you either have one or the other.

If we don’t have good, then we will have evil. Likewise, if evil is defeated, only good will remain.

Many years ago, a reader once reached out and said to me, “you claim to be a Christian man, but do not seem to be like Jesus in some of your writing.” I answered, which Jesus do you want me to be like? The Jesus that fed the hungry and healed the sick, or the Jesus that turned over the tax collectors tables in the temple? I will do my best to be both!

More than any time in my life, the line between good and evil is crystal clear. The fruit of the tree lets us know which is which.

Not vengeance, but justice must happen. And it’s up to every Citizen to make sure it does… or, our world will be consumed by evil. It’s just that simple.

E-Mail Lex Greene: LexGreene24@gmail.com