BIN LADEN IS NOW IN HELL?

My friend Joel Rosenberg has recently blogged the death of Usama Bin Laden and I thought his words were appropriate, bold and necessary to our current atmosphere, even among the Christian community, in denying the existence of hell. Jesus was very clear about hell. It would seem that Jesus spoke of hell as a warning to us earthlings of the eternal consequences of our choices on earth. The following are just a few of His comments on the subject:

“But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!‘ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” – Matthew 5:22

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” – Matthew 10:28

“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” – Matthew 23:33

BIN LADEN IS NOW IN HELL

By Joel C. Rosenberg

(Washington, D.C., May 4, 2011) – The long nightmare is over. Osama bin Laden has been brought to justice, killed in Pakistan yesterday by U.S. commandos after a decade-long hunt. Justice has been served. But let’s be clear: bin Laden is not now in Paradise with 72 virgins.

Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.”

Bin Laden was a fanatical Radical Sunni Muslim. He hated the Lord Jesus Christ. He hated and cursed Christians and Jews. He murdered Christians and Jews and others; recruited, trained and deployed thousands of others Muslims to murder Christians, Jews and others; and pursued a life of sheer evil defiance of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Unless he truly and sincerely repented at the last possible moment and received Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior – unlikely given the speed of the raid – he is now burning in the fires of Hell.

In the days ahead, notably at the 2011 Epicenter Conference in Jerusalem, I’ll analyze how the death of bin Laden could affect the U.S., Israel and the epicenter. But it is important to first understand the conclusion of his life. Bin Laden was deeply religious and deeply sincere, I have no doubt. But he was sincerely wrong, and the Bible teaches there is a consequence to defying the One True God.

Hell is not a topic much discussed in our world today, even by many Christians. Some pastors choose not to teach what the Bible says about Hell. One high-profile American pastor, Rob Bell, recently published a book – “Love Wins” – denying that Hell is real. “A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better,” writes Bell. “It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.”

As difficult as it is to conceive of such a place of eternal torment – indeed, no one wants to think about it – its reality is exactly what the Bible teaches. Indeed, since Jesus was God incarnate, all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-loving, He knew all too well the reality of Hell. He came to Earth to pay the penalty for our sins and to rescue all who would follow Him from having to spend their eternity there. In fact, Jesus taught more about Hell than He did about heaven. Why? Because He loved all people so much that He wanted to save them from eternal damnation. He wanted them to understand the choice of rejecting the Messiah. And He wanted to give each of us a way of escape, if only we would say yes by faith.

Check out Joel C. Rosenberg’s blog here: OSAMA BIN LADEN NOW IN HELL by Joel C. Rosenberg