May 2, 2011

Dear Marketplace Friend,

    ​It took almost 10 years; the hunt has been relentless. It consumed the bulk of the Bush presidency, and it was the legacy handed to the current president: the international hunt for Osama bin Laden is the initiative that has, in part, defined American foreign relations and actions since soon after the turn of the century.
    ​ ​Last night, President Obama announced the successful mission of a small cohort of American Special Forces in a suburb of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. In a mansion compound built for the express purpose of housing bin Laden, he was found and killed in a firefight that left him and one son dead. In the brief skirmish, reports said that bin Laden used a woman in the home as a human shield. It is reported this morning that his body was taken from the scene and later buried at sea, in respect to Muslim customs requiring burial within a day of death. It’s over… or, is it?
    ​​Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on the day of the 9/11 attacks, issued a written statement hailing bin Laden’s death as a momentous achievement. “The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done,” he said. No one argues that the death of bin Laden – as reported – was “just.” But, a huge question remains: has justice, in fact, been “done?”

    ​ ​Stories come and go in the instant-news age. While the final preparations were underway for the surgical strike that yielded bin Laden, the eyes of the world were preoccupied with a wedding in London, followed by the NFL draft in America (for men who had their fill of wedding coverage!) Just a few days earlier, Time magazine had captured public attention with a cover story that had emerged from a passionate debate within the Christian community over a newly released book by Rob Bell – a young, influential pastor in Michigan, titled Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (Harper One, 2011).
    ​ ​Bell’s proposition, in summary: God sent Jesus to make heaven available to everyone. God’s love is his overriding attribute. Most people die without embracing Jesus or the Christian Gospel. Bell sees that as “mission failure,” and unacceptable. Therefore – without solid biblical foundation or the agreement of 2000 years of Christian belief – God must effect some redemptive solution post-mortem… because a loving God could not send people to Hell as an eternal place of punishment for sin. The concise term for that belief is “universalism,” but Bell rejects the title while holding its key tenet.
    ​ ​Is it over, for bin Laden? Ask Bell, and his theory holds promise for Osama bin Laden to be in heaven, living next door to Billy Graham. Ask the Apostle John, who wrote the last book of the New Testament, and he would say, “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15.)
    ​ ​Ask a Muslim, and he might offer the solution extended to all Muslims who die in Jihad: bin Laden had immediate entrance to Paradise, and the gift of 70 virgins as a reward.
    ​ ​Everyone could be wrong, but everyone cannot be right. Osama Bin Laden is dead, but he is somewhere today. Is Bell right? Are the remaining zealots behind al Quida right? Or, is John’s vision – purported to be inspired by the Holy Spirit – the picture of Osama’s future judgment?
    ​ ​I’m going with John, and working to get peoples’ names in the Book of Life while there’s still time…

Bob Shank