Here's the deal: At 7 a.m. CDT on Monday, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh will be sent into eternity. If any of you reading this don't give a rip about McVeigh's eternal destiny, don't waste your time reading any further. I'm not going to waste my own time padding my comments with powder-puff softness that will make people happy until the next news cycle. Those of you who are still with me, please read on:
McVeigh's eternal destiny isn't sealed until he takes his last breath. Bottom line: it ain't over 'til it's over. It doesn't matter--and so, I don't care--how remote anyone thinks the odds are for McVeigh's repentance and salvation. I won't try to convince skeptics, and I don't have to convince believers, so I'll let my assertion fall where it may: God is not bound by either time constraints or human opinions when it comes to changing someone's life.
Nobody would've guessed a month ago that the FBI file fiasco would prolong McVeigh's life that much longer. Many people have written me asking if I thought that the ensuing stay of execution was God's way of giving McVeigh more time to repent. I replied that I thought that this was a distinct possibility, although I also thought God might use such a delay to give Christians the opportunity to examine their beliefs, the undeserved grace each believer has received--and to pray during this time that McVeigh would ask Jesus for forgiveness. This would mean--time for a wake-up call, boys and girls--McVeigh would go to heaven for eternity with the rest of us who trust in Christ. Anyone who doesn't want to see McVeigh in heaven doesn't have to go there. But God is a God of unimaginable possibilities and radical transformations. If Christ can change a heart as cold and calloused as it appears McVeigh's heart has been, can't He change the lives of anybody? Do we want to serve a Lord who can't do these things? Well, we don't--because He can. If we believe what the Bible says about Christ's radical, transforming power, Timothy McVeigh's last days in this world can be the perfect opportunity for Jesus to prove His power. Do we want this or not? Hello??
A person will not waste words if they know what they are about to say will be the last words they will ever speak. We won't know until Timothy McVeigh's final words how he will ultimately respond to Christ's prodding in his life. But since this isn't over yet, I'm asking each of you--and seeking at least 10 people to join me--to fast and pray for the 48 hours immediately preceding McVeigh's execution, beginning Saturday morning, June 9--that Christ would save McVeigh and totally shake up our anemic perceptions of what He can do. If Christ can save Timothy McVeigh, can't He save anyone? This kind of high-caliber testimony would really rock the world for Christ. Face it: nobody expects McVeigh's last words to be words of remorse and repentance. So what if this happens? Can any of you imagine the impact this would have on the kingdom of God? McVeigh, by all accounts, has an ax to grind until the very end. We won't know until the end, but just imagine how incredible that end could be if McVeigh turns to Christ.
How focused is our faith and how badly to we want to see lives changed for the sake of Christ? This is the weekend we can really make things rock by our prayers. Is anyone with me? I'll talk to you all on Monday.
Chad Steenerson, June 8, 2001
Below is a story published by The Associated Press the day after McVeigh's execution on Monday, June 11, 2001. Most Americans were probably well-versed on McVeigh's defiant attitude and profession of agnosticism in the weeks preceding his execution. I will let the following article speak for itself. We won't know until we enter eternity ourselves whether McVeigh did indeed accept Christ. But the point I've made before--and that I will make again and again until it is grasped--is that anything is possible with Christ (Phil. 4:13). Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh left one final mystery behind before his execution: Did he ask forgiveness for his sins while meeting a priest in private, even while refusing to express public remorse?
McVeigh was brought up as a Roman Catholic, and saw a priest in the final hours before he received a lethal injection Monday. There could hardly be a greater contrast between the words he issued upon his death and those of Roman Catholicism's so-called "last rites."
Rather than uttering last words, McVeigh released a handwritten copy of the poem "Invictus" with its defiant conclusion: "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul."
But Monday morning about 4 a.m., before being taken to the death chamber at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., the prison warden noted that a Catholic chaplain was available if McVeigh wanted last rites. According to his attorneys, McVeigh said "Sure, send him in."
The chaplain, the Rev. Frank Roof, then met with McVeigh. Roof is declining media interview requests, the prison said Tuesday. The Indianapolis archdiocese issued no statement and referred all questions to the prison.
The Rev. Ron Ashmore, a priest who knew McVeigh and whose parish is near the prison, said it's his understanding following talks with a McVeigh attorney that McVeigh received the sacrament of anointing the sick but not the sacrament of penance. The McVeigh attorneys were not at their offices Tuesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.
Penance, also known as the sacrament of reconciliation, is the normal means through which Catholics ask God's forgiveness for their sins. However, forgiveness is also possible outside of penance under certain circumstances.
Both penance and anointing are involved in what Catholics commonly call the "last rites," though the church does not officially use that term and considers it confusing.
To Ashmore "the very request" for anointing "is a request for the Lord's mercy and forgiveness."
Ashmore, who exchanged letters with McVeigh in recent weeks, said the man who killed 168 people in the bombing six years ago "had reconciled himself to God and was beginning to express his sensitivity to the pain and suffering of the people of Oklahoma."
"He was remorseful for the death and the pain, but not for going to war against the United States," Ashmore said.
In Ashmore's understanding, the sacrament of anointing would absolve the recipient of his sins.
In anointing, normally given to seriously ill patients or those at the point of death, the priest places oil on the recipient's forehead and hands, saying "May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up."
Associated Press Writer Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis contributed to this story.