Church warned about 'blacklisting' bin Laden

Brother Andrew, the famous Bible smuggler who hauled banned Scriptures into the old Soviet Union, is asking Christians whether they have prayed for Osama bin Laden today.

In an interview with Christianity Today, Brother Andrew, who later founded the Open Doors ministry, said bin Laden and his compatriots "are not our enemies."

"God loves the world," he says. "And in my new book, 'Secret Believers,' we propose the question, 'Have you prayed for bin Laden today?'

"That question should shock a lot of Christians. Of course we haven't! That is why he is what he is," he said. "We have an evangelical black list of people we don't want to see in heaven and put bin Laden on top. Saddam Hussein is probably second."

Brother Andrew, following the 1960s publication of the book "God's Smuggler" about his work providing Bibles to the seekers in the Soviet Union, turned his attention to the Middle East and in more than 30 years of work there has met with Christians, Muslims and Jews.

He said the situation in Gaza, which was taken over by Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, in recent days, now is "quiet" but will get worse.

"Gaza will not only be a prison camp, but also will become a concentration camp. It will become much worse, not because of the Islamist influence, but because of the repression from outside. The boycott and all the feelings that come from outside. That includes you and me, our nations, our governments."

He said he's talked with terrorist leaders, asking whether they will persecute him, too.

"They said, 'No Andrew, there will always be a place for Christians like you,'" he said.

In his interview with Deann Alford, senior writer for Christianity Today, he described the fight in which America is engaged in the Middle East as "a losing battle."

"We are sacrificing our young people, we ruin our economy, we spoil our reputation, and we make life impossible for the American dream of Western influence," he said.

The focus should be not on the West, the United States or anything else but Jesus, he noted.

"I love our culture. But if God does not see anything in our culture that he wants to protect, we face this self-chosen conflict in which we will definitely go under. And that will be a great shock to us," he said.

Instead, the United States should be trying to understand Islam and the roots of the conflict, and practicing the forgiveness Jesus taught.

"We in the West are following or believing in the God of revenge as much as every Muslim does. So there's no need for us to sit on a pedestal. We have to come down to the foot of the Cross and learn from Jesus. He came to forgive, and he came to die," Brother Andrew said.

He indicated the Christian church has lost sight of its Savior in many respects, and Muslims are expressing a greater desire to learn and understand than Christians.

"They barely let me speak at my own evangelical church in Holland!" he said. "I'm being sarcastic, but it is the truth. I find it easier to get speaking engagements with the Taliban than with my own evangelical church."

What must be understood is that Muslims today, he said, simply view the bombs being dropped from helicopters and the "Christian" church as the same power.

"They think every white person is a Christian, every soldier in uniform is a Christian, every bomb is a Christian bomb. Nobody ridicules the idea. When we read about nuclear plans, we always talk about the Muslim bomb. Why shouldn't they talk about the Christian bomb?"

One path to understanding is a better engagement between Western Christians and the Arabic-speaking church.

"We should be flocking to Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and seek the Christians and help them. And then, please, for God's sake, listen to what they say. They have something to say. This should be the driving force in our lives. It's not solving political or economic problems. It's being Christian."

He said Hamas leaders in Gaza simply are following a plan.

"They have a very strong belief, and they act upon it, that in the end times in which we now live, they believe that Islam is going to conquer and rule the world," he said. "And what they see – in very concrete terms in Gaza and West Bank and the surrounding countries, across Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan – is a pan-Arabic republic. No borders. No Jews. They say that literally. That's not antagonism. That's their faith dictating them to say so."

His suggestion to Christians?

"Get up and get going for God. It's still not too late. I can still reach them. And I'm not the only one. We can reach the Taliban. We can reach Hezbollah," he told the magazine. "I'm saying at the moment as a church we're not on the right track and we ought to do something about it."

"It's not their fault that they have not heard who Jesus is," he said. "When we look at the history of Islam and other religions, it's always been where we've not done what we should have done, where we have not brought the gospel when we should have. We have not reached out in love and compassion.

"These things can still be done," he said.

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