Last month the U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted terrorist.  A man promoting an ideology of death and destruction through his acts and plots of terror was met with praise at his death.  People throughout the media world were praising the job of Seal Team 6, and condemning Bin Laden to hell.  This occurred throughout various media outlets like talk show host Sean Hannity, as well as comics like Jimmy Kimmel, who declared Osama Bin Laden in hell.  They were not the only ones who espoused this, but there wasn’t a large outcry against such declaration.  Why?

I believe the reason is because of what C.S. Lewis refers to as the Law of Human Nature.  This Law of Human Nature is a moral law which he sums up as “human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it.  Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way.”(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity,19)

Mark Driscoll's response to "What if people never heard of Jesus?  Does that mean they will go to hell?" 

At first I didn’t want to believe it.  Did you?  I saw the book trailer and found it inconclusive.  I heard the rhetoric, the bandwagon for and against the man from multiple outlets, and still wasn’t sold either way.  Maybe because I loved the Nooma video’s, own a couple of his messages, and thinking he would have too much to lose by such a provocative message, I wanted to believe in the best possible outcome.  But ring the bell, sound the alarm, Rob Bell has opened himself up to deserved criticism for his view of the afterlife that salvation “may” be extended into the life hereafter.

People who are critics of Bell’s views in his latest book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived claiming he takes a universalist view of salvation, are being criticized on the basis of the classic defense “Judge not lest ye be judged. That’s God’s job.”  This was a response posted on Twitter from @kristimcarlson not too long ago.  Rev. and Dr. Serene Jones from Union Theological Seminary conveys a similar sentiment, “I think the people who are going after Rob Bell’s controversy are themselves closer to heresy than Rob Bell is.”  By the way, Jones believes hell is “made up” and that “the question of heaven and hell is not something we should be worrying about”.  For more see here:  http://abcnews.go.com/US/controversial-book-debunk-concept-hell/story?id=13070964