Loading ...Is Osama bin Laden in Hell?
flockwoodRecently, I interviewed Rob Bell, a Universalist megapastor who believes that everyone is going to heaven.
So I wondered aloud whether we’d meet history’s greatest villains beyond the pearly gates.
The story ran on Saturday, April 30, 2011. It included this paragraph:
Asked whether heaven could open its doors for Adolf Hitler or Osama bin Laden, Bell says: “Those kinds of questions are beyond my imagination and I assume they’re beyond yours, too. That’s why I’m so glad there’s a God who is just and can sort those things out.”
The next day, May 1, 2011, the question became rather timely, thanks to a team of Navy Seals.
Osama is dead. Is he in paradise or the bottomless pit?
May 3rd, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Regardless of the theological answer to this question, it is the ultimate act of sinful human pride to do God’s work of judging another human being. My hope is in God, who is much more loving and merciful than me or any of us. When we start thinking God shares our tastes, our likes and dislikes, etc., we are typically in very big trouble spirituality.
May 3rd, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Christ called us to pray for our enemies.
May 3rd, 2011 at 7:18 pm
If you believe that “with God all things are possible” then surely there is hope for the redemption of every miserable mortal soul.
May 4th, 2011 at 7:56 am
The Bible says that God is a just god, so I think the answer with Hitler and Bin Laden is pretty obvious.
May 4th, 2011 at 11:11 am
Are you going to hell? Nobody believes he or she will go to hell, so I guess that proves that hell is a fantasy torment for those we despise, and whom we trust that our deity also despises.
May 4th, 2011 at 11:21 am
Deuteronomy 19:13 “You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Isreal, that it may go well with you.” NASB
May 4th, 2011 at 11:40 am
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.” (John 14:6) I think that’s pretty straightforward. Of course, only God knows what was in the heart of bin Laden, but since he was a Muslim, I would kind of doubt that he believed in Jesus as the Savior.
I think that it’s not that we as humans dreamed up hell to give us a place to imagine bad people getting their due, but I think that we often want God to let everyone go to heaven so that we don’t have to admit that there’s a line that divides the sheep from the goats (and we don’t have to deal with what side of the line we might be on.)
May 4th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
If he declared his faith in Jesus Christ as his personal savior in the instant before he died, he goes to heaven, where he will look down on Ghandi in hell.
That is the “faith not works” approach.
If on the other hand our God is a just God, and salvation depends on our actions and not our beliefs, we are in BIG trouble based on our health care system alone. Health care based on a person’s income (or lack thereof) has killed way more Americans than Osama ever dreamed of.
May 4th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
The Word of God is very clear about salvation – only born again Christians will enter the kingdom of heaven. To be a Christian, one must repent of their sins and accept the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You must believe with your heart that Jesus died for your sins and is the living son of God. Unless the unbeliever repents and accepts Christ he will be separated from God for eternity in Hell. It is inconceivable to me that the people mentioned could be Christians – indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
May 4th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
“…so that we don’t have to admit that there’s a line that divides the sheep from the goats”
If EAM is implying that it is human nature to erase distinctions between groups of people rather than promote them, EAM is sadly wrong.
May 5th, 2011 at 10:59 am
The line between sheep and goats is a genetic marker. The line between irrational belief in one holy book or another is blurry. The Koran says that Christians have it wrong, much as Christians say that the Jews have it wrong. You folks might as well search between the lines of Jack and the Beanstalk for answers.
May 6th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Which heaven, Frank, are you talking about? Is it according to Christ or Prophet Mohamed? Per Muslim, those who believe in Prophet Mohamed and his concept of one god (Allah); die for spreading name of his Allah to non-Muslim people of the world, is sure to be in heaven, with award of beautiful women angel for heroic action in this world, no matter how many innocent people have been slaughtered by him. Matter of facts Bin Laden was found living with three wives while killed and youngest wife was gift from Yemen.
Osama is considered by many Muslim a saint equivalent to we Christian believe Saints Peter, Paul, Steven etc. who died for spreading Gospel to the west and rest of the world. But ideology behind for Osama’s death and St. Peter’s death is located in opposite direction like North and South Pole of a magnet. We know, the force belongs to God which is good for humanity and glorify one and only true God of Sprit and Truth.
May 16th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Good old St. Paul said there are degrees of glory (star, moon, sun) in the Kingdom of Heaven. We Mormons believe that all humans (with very few exceptions) will be eventually saved into some degree of glory. However, you can’t dwell with God, and become like Him, in the highest degree of glory without acceptance of His Savior as your personal Redeemer. If Bin Laudin gets a fair chance to do that, in this world or the Spirit World (kind of a celestial-like waiting room of sorts) where we all go when we die or, in Bin Laudin’s case, get exterminated, then he can conceivably go to the highest degree of glory.