Bernie Madoff robbed thousands of their life savings with his investment ponzi scheme (see NY Times article)

He pleaded guilty and is going to prison.  They are now trying to seize his assets.

Chuck asked me how Christians should respond to this.  My thoughts.  We should:

1) Further acknowledge the power of sin in this world. Sin is real and fuels most of our society.  It has a strong hand in your life and mine.  Not acknowledging the power of evil and sin is the first step to failure.  These sinful events should turn us to our need for Jesus and bring us to tears over how broken mankind is without Jesus’ salvation.  This should bring us to look forward to His coming kingdom and to pray eagerly for the redemption of this world.

2)  Pray for Madoff. The articles indicate that he feels bad for what he’s done.  Pray that this would turn him to repent of his sin before our Almighty God and ask for much needed salvation.  Pray for him to seek Christ’s forgiveness.

3)  Pray for his victims. Many (but probably not all) of the victims fell into the schemes because of their own greed.  They saw what Madoff promised and coveted it.  Jesus said we cannot serve both God and money (Matt 6:24).  Pray that these people will repent of their greed (which is idolatry) and will recognize the fruitlessness of trusting in their riches.  Pray that they would instead trust in the faithfulness of Jesus and would desire to work for treasure in heaven.

4)  Pray for God to weed out other injustices in America and to allow his goodness to cast light onto darkness.

5)  Forgive Madoff and others. Christ has paid a debt infinitely large for our forgiveness.  Likewise, we are to go out and forgive those who sin against us or who sin against our nation.  It doesn’t mean be friendly to them but rather offering them grace by acknowledging that God loves that person and eagerly desires to see that person repent and embrace His love.

6)  Check ourselves. Are we falling into schemes because of greed?  Are we trusting in something other than Jesus?  Are we stealing from others (be it a person or a corporation or the government) for our own self-benefit?  If so, we need to repent and confess our sin to Jesus.  John writes “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

John Piper also wrote about Madoff on the Desiring God blog:
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1684_bernard_madoff_how_are_the_mighty_fallen/