“If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.” Proverbs 29:12
In 2 Timothy 2:24 we read “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil.” Also, in Psalm 101:5, “Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy.”
With these verses in mind (not to mention so many others), allow me to tell the truth about the Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin and try and put things in the needed biblical perspective.
First, the trial of the young man for murder stems from his actions during the riots last summer after a police shooting of an armed black man. In the wake of the riots, which included the burning of businesses and rampant destruction of property, the leaders of the city ordered the police to stand down. To this Proverbs 28:16 says, “A ruler who lacks understanding is a cruel oppressor...” What understanding is referenced? Obviously it’s the moral law of God and the responsibility of the civil magistrate to execute his God-given duty to punish evil-doers (Romans 13:1-5). In this case, the Kenosha officials, whoever they were, ordered the police to stand down.
Arson and property destruction are crimes that the sovereign Lord demands punished by the magistrate. To not do so is anarchy. The officials who made that decision, and it was a decision not to act, are guilty of all the crimes and bloodshed that transpired during those anarchic nights. They should be on trial, not Kyle Rittenhouse.
The thing is, when anarchy rules, there’s never a power vacuum. Private citizens, recognizing the disorder, may decide to enforce the moral law of property rights themselves and, insofar as Scripture is concerned, they would have that right for the same reason that both Abraham and David used their own armed forces for righteous causes during times of political chaos and corruption.
So, here’s the rub. The officials that refused to enforce the law for one group (rioters), swung on a dime and charged Kyle Rittenhouse with murder for defending himself during the night’s anarchy. This is tyranny, pure and simple and all the officials involved should be summarily kicked out of office and, if the evidence warrants, charged with collusion, dereliction of duty, and conspiracy against Rittenhouse. If ever there was a case of self-defense, this was it.
Let’s be clear: a murder trial isn’t in regard to whether the defendant should have been in the danger zone in the first place. Poor judgment is irrelevant to a murder rap in the same way that a woman can’t be charged with inciting a rape because she’s attractive to the rapist. The only question that matters is whether or not Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. The evidence is so clear that we shouldn’t be surprised if the graveyards of Kenosha emptied with the ghosts of witnesses screaming “self-defense!” Oh, but they charged him anyway!
“O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.” Isaiah 3:12
Joshua Ziminski, 35, pointed a gun at Rittenhouse and chased him into a parking lot, all while threatening to kill him. Ah…that’s not cool, okay? Ziminski fired his weapon from behind Rittenhouse. Would you be scared for your safety at this point? And this is just the start of things. Another nice fellow, a convicted child rapist named Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, just released that very day from a psychiatric ward in a Milwaukee hospital after a suicide attempt, who had twice that night threatened young Kyle’s life (he was 17 at the time), lunged for his gun. Yelling and threatening to “cut his heart out” and he tried to wrestle the gun from Rittenhouse, Rosenbaum was shot and killed. After looking at the evidence, anyone who thinks this wasn’t a case of self-defense is in deep moral trouble. It can’t be an intellectual deficit. The deceit is willful.
At that point Rittenhouse tried to run to police. Remember that the police had abandoned the city. The media makes a case that Rittenhouse was from another state, making it seem as though there was something sinister about him being there in the first place. But half of his family was from Kenosha and he worked there. He knew the city well and it was only a few miles from his Illinois home. Nothing is said, on the contrary, of a deeply trouble man like Rosenbaum driving in from much farther away – the hospital in Milwaukee – to riot. Moreover, as we’ve said, it was the officials who invited anarchy that are to blame if private citizens decide to protect property if there are no other options.
So, anyway, down the road goes Kyle. He’s looking for the police because he just shot a man in self-defense. He isn’t running from the law, he’s running to it. He’s doing what he’s supposed to do. He doesn’t run a victory lap or go looking for others to fight with, which would be consistent if he was only there for trouble. No. He wants order and law. What happens next? Well, a mob chases him. They were yelling “cranium him, get him…” oh, and “kill him!”
That’s called intent.
He’s running away. They announce their deadly intent and chase.
Someone threw a lump of concrete at the back of his head as he ran. He felt faint, the adrenaline and chaos getting to him. He fell there on that savage road, danger all around. Alone. Deadly threats coming fast and from every direction. Put yourself in his position, citizen. The police aren’t there. There is no help.
Anthony Huber, 26, a convicted felon with a record of assault and domestic abuse (he once held a knife on his own brother and threatened to “gut him like a pig”) hit Rittenhouse, who was on the ground, his mobility gone, in the head with a Babe Ruth type swing of his skateboard. He tried to get Kyle’s gun. He swung the skateboard again. A clean hit could have knocked out Kyle and left him unconscious and at the mercy of the mob that wanted to kill him. He did what any reasonable person would and should do at that point. He fired and killed his attacker. Huber died because he attacked with deadly intent, and with a weapon, an armed man who couldn’t retreat. Huber died because he was committing a horrible crime. Kyle Rittenhouse lived because he fought back in self-defense.
At that point, others backed away but not Gaige Groskruetz, 26, a Marxist militia group member (the People’s Revolution). On the witness stand, corroborating the obvious video evidence we’ve all seen, Groskruetz admitted that he was shot only after he pointed his gun at the still prone Rittenhouse. The shot devastated the attacker’s arm, ending that fight.
So, in all, referring back to the verses we started with, I struggle to maintain a calm manner. I struggle with not being too quarrelsome. The evidence of self-defense by Rittenhouse is obvious. Righteousness demands that he be cleared of the charges. Moreover, because the Word of the Lord is sovereign and He is holy, and demands that we also be holy, we must condemn the leaders who accepted anarchy and then tyrannically charged a self-defender with a crime. That’s such a perversion of justice that Romans 1:32 comes to mind. Such is America today. She was once a great nation but now she must repent. It’s a crime that there is a trial at all. It’s a crime that the police were not allowed to fulfill their God-given duty to punish evil and protect the good. For three nights last summer anarchy reigned, businesses were destroyed, arson and looting were everywhere, because the civil magistrate refused their mandate from the Lord. Then, in their arrogance and sin, in their insufferable pride, they moved to punish a young boy/man for defending himself during the anarchy they invited.
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18
The leaders of Kenosha have committed horrible evils. They must repent. The church must pray for them and for all who have accepted/supported their lies. We must pray for clarity and truth to return to America. But we must be vigilant to call out these sins in a Christian manner and, yes, there is a way to confront sin boldly without being quarrelsome. You know how? By making sure that the gospel is attached to the presentation. The call to repentance must go out to all and the invitation to come to Christ must be offered. That is our duty and honor as Christians. This is not a day of appeasement. It’s not a day of “being nice” insofar as we don’t tell the truth. And that truth is that these leaders are, until they repent, agents of great evil.
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