“EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE” is the latest sensation on NetFlix, “a chronicle of the crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.”
Bundy was a notorious serial killer who confessed to murdering over thirty victims, as well as other horrible crimes; it was his philosophy about morality that allowed him to do these horrible things.
He wrote, …”I discovered that to become truly free, truly unfettered, I had to become truly uninhibited. And I quickly discovered that the greatest obstacle to my freedom, the greatest block and limitation to it, consists in the insupportable value judgment that I was bound to respect the rights of others. I asked myself, who were these ‘others’? Other human beings with human rights? Why is it more wrong to kill a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer? Is your life more to you than a hog’s life to a hog? Why should I be willing to sacrifice my pleasure more for the one than for the other? Surely, you would not, in this age of scientific enlightenment, declare that God or nature has marked some pleasures as ‘moral’ or ‘good’ and others as ‘immoral’ or ‘bad’?
Bundy obviously had no understanding of the 6th Commandment “You shall not murder.” Because he didn’t believe in God, he had no respect for people who were made in God’s image. It was Bundy’s lack of a belief in a God who would hold him accountable that allowed him to practice his wickedness.
Jeffrey Dahmer was another notorious mass murderer who killed seventeen young men, ate them, and stored various body parts in his refrigerator. The police ended up finding eleven corpses in his apartment.
Dahmer suffered from the same deficient reasoning Ted Bundy had. During an interview with MSNBC, Dahmer explained: “I always believed the lie that evolution is truth, that we all just came from the slime and when we died, that was it, there is nothing. The whole theory cheapens life.”
In other words, there was no accountability; he could do whatever he wanted.
Dahmer didn’t start out right away murdering people, he began with small crimes such as being cruel to animals. With an evolutionary mindset, it’s survival of the fittest—and no one cares.
But something happened.
“I started reading books about how evolution is a complete lie. There’s no basis in science to uphold it. And I’ve since come to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the true Creator of the heavens and the earth; it didn’t just happen. And I’ve accepted him as my Lord and Savior, and I believe that I, and everyone else, will be accountable to him. If a person doesn’t think that there’s a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior and keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I’ve since come to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly God—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—the only True God.”
Wait? You mean God can forgive someone like that? Of course, he can. He forgave Moses when he murdered an Egyptian out of anger. (Exodus 2:11-12)
He forgave David when he killed his “tens of thousands,” but more specifically, when he murdered a husband so he could continue an affair with his wife. (2 Samuel 11-12) God even called David “a man after my own heart,” twice! (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22)
God even forgave the murderer who wrote more New Testament books than anyone: The Apostle Paul! (Acts 22:20)
Why would God forgive serial killers? A better question to ask is this: Why would God forgive me? Think about the awful thoughts you have. Think about those dark secrets secured deeply down in your cold black heart. Jesus said, “…out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” (Matthew 15:19)
Yes, in every single one of us lies a little Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy.
Not one of us deserves God’s forgiveness. The Bible says that everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When you turn to Jesus Christ in trust and repentance, believing in his death, burial and resurrection, God will forgive your sin. God will change your heart and will change your life.
Then that old miserable you will be put to death forever. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (1 Corinthians 5:17)
