How would you like to go to the judgment as the creator of the AK-47?

Aged 94, Mikhail Kalashnikov just did.

He had previously refused to accept moral responsibility for the people his creation killed. But as death loomed, fear of hell increased, and the 91 year-old went to church for the first time. He followed that up with a long emotional letter to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church saying he was suffering “spiritual pain” over the many deaths his gun had caused. If you’ve ever doubted the power of conscience, read these extracts from his letter, published in Russia’s pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia:

My spiritual pain is unbearable….I keep having the same unsolved question: if my rifle claimed people’s lives, then can it be that I… a Christian and an Orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?

The longer I live, the more this question drills itself into my brain and the more I wonder why the Lord allowed man to have the devilish desires of envy, greed and aggression.

He signed it “a slave of God, the designer Mikhail Kalashnikov.”

Don’t Give up
This should encourage us never to give up on someone, no matter how old they are or how hard they seem. The conscience within is our greatest ally and God can “drill” into it even after years of searing and numbing.

Let’s just hope that Kalashnikov took his conscience to the blood of Christ and not only to a Russian priest. The blood of Christ can cleanse from every sin, even the tons of blood shed by Kalashnikov’s guns.

Who’s to Blame?
It does raise the question as to whether it can ever be morally right to design weapons like the Kalashnikov. But is it really that different to someone making a bow and arrow or a primitive spear? It all depends on motive. Is it just to make money? Interestingly, Kalashnikov made virtually nothing from his gun. Is it to simply kill as many people as possible or is it to defend from aggressors? As the Russian Orthodox press secretary said:

The Church has a very definite position: when weapons serve to protect the Fatherland, the Church supports both its creators and the soldiers who use it. He designed this rifle to defend his country, not so terrorists could use it in Saudi Arabia.

Is it possible for a Christian to work in the arms industry? Yes, God can give some Christians that calling and a clear conscience in doing it.

Here’s hoping we see Mikhail Kalashnikov one day, dressed in white, washed in the blood of the lamb, and fellowshipping with many of the millions his gun sent to glory.