[originally posted Sept. 2011]
I find this week’s cover of Newsweek magazine for the 10-year anniversary of 9/11chilling. It is simply a brilliant blue sky and in the upper right corner the underside of a jetliner frozen in a moment of time before calamity.
People are starting to tell their 9/11 stories to each other again. Where were you? What were you thinking? How did it affect you?
I’ve heard numerous people who were in New York that day talk about what a spectacularly beautiful day it was. Clear blue sky, sunlight, crisp late-summer air. That detail sticks out in people’s minds. And for most of us we were doing the things we do in the fresh part of the morning, for my wife and I, attending a parents’ meeting at our daughter’s school. Early September Tuesdays after the Labor Day weekend are new and energetic. Time to get the pattern for the year set. Routine in a good way.
Then the sky was torn open. Like a tearing of cloth that separates one room from another, suddenly there was an opening in our familiar world that allowed a grotesque monster to enter our lives. The planes in the sky, like scissors cutting through fabric, opened our fresh September to a terrible midnight.
What are we making of what happened then?
Terrorism is not the whole story. That is just the chosen technique of subversives who can’t afford real armies. Radical Islam is part of the story, but not the whole story. It is true that religious zealots have in the past and will in the future assault humanity in the name of God, despite the Genesis warning that all the Abrahamic faiths should know: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (Gen. 9:6).
Geo-political or socio-economic tensions are not the whole story.
We know none of these things are the whole story because the 9/11 attack was a conscious, pre-mediated, coordinated act by human beings against other human beings. Some evil entered the nineteen hijackers such that they could work for months preparing the heinous deed. Something made their blood go cold. These men lived for months in hotel rooms where they watched television, ate potato chips, and drifted off to sleep, living with their explosive plan in their heads day after day without their minds splitting apart. How is that possible?
The meaning and the mystery of 9/11 goes to the core of the human heart. How could this have happened? How could those men do that? What other atrocities are people capable of? This is not what we want to think about. It is more comforting to focus on winning a war against terror. Of guarding the borders. We gladly take longer going through security at airports.
9/11 was a human tragedy, played out on a human stage, perpetrated by young human males with real names. But we know there was a monster behind it all. On 9/11 the prince of darkness had his way, yet the limits of his reach were soon evident as we witnessed the acts of heroes of that day and the months and years that followed.
As I write this the large windows at my back look out to a perfect September blue sky. The trees are shaking in the breezes, and people are going about their routines. I don’t live in fear that something is going to streak across the blue and tear it today. But I know I have to think back ten years and remember that a spiritual war is going on in unseen places at all times. Evil will not give up, but God, by his very nature, cannot give up. We all have to keep growing up.
What do you think?
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9/11 awakened me like never before to the need to love Muslims for Jesus sake. We cannot ignore Islam, nor Muslims any longer. We must engage our Muslim citizens with friendliness, love and the gospel of Jesus. We must not seek to tear down Islam, but to love the Muslim here and globally. It is the love of Jesus that will attract Muslim people. We must wage peace on them in Jesus name. Jesus loves Muslims and as His follower so should I!
When I saw what was happening, I knew our world had changed immediately. I thought of Tom Clancy novels & hazy memories of terrorism in other parts of the world. I recognized the face of evil that draws men to commit such heinous acts, with zealous justification. I grieved for my children who would live in a drastically different era. But, that would indeed be all right because God is still sovereign and on His throne. Therefore, it must be all right, we will carry on, serving, sharing the Lord, and trusting Him even more. I remember going to church & hearing your message, Mel, on Psalm 25:3 and treachery without excuse. And, I remember going forward for prayer with Ralph Mierow for my sons who were considering joining (one son, rejoining) the military. Evil abounds in this fallen world, yet God reigns! He is good and worthy of our praise.
The best explanation I have heard as to what happened on 9/11 is that this is what humanity is capable when God is absent from their hearts.
“On 9/11 the prince of darkness had his way,”
Does this statement mean that God allowed “the prince of darkness” to have “his way” which was the execution of over thousands of innocent people? A scary thought.
I am a Flight Attendant for American Airlines and was grounded in the U.K., my two children at home and both individually traumatized. My 19 year old son was taking care of his 6 year old brother. We were personally touched in a very devastating manner. We have had to discuss the hard facts that attacks will continue to happen and do. (sadly) We now understand the meaning of “Bereft.” How sad that some people despite their profession of faith have no concept of God the Father. When we put our complete trust in Him, our comfort in endless. Our subsequent discussions have had to be very frank and practical. Oh death, where is thy sting? My sons now have comfort as do I of Christian Martyrdom. Now we can pray wholeheartedly for non-believers and those of the Muslim belief. God continually shows us evidence of His existence and our personal mantle of being his servant every second of our life. Despite the horrific loss of life how many more people, particularly Muslims now know and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? It wasn’t just a door that closed, it was a floodgate to eternal life.
There is a battle going on in the world from the time of Eve—the battle of Good and Evil….the battle of God, the creator of everything in the world, and the Evil One, Satan (the fallen angel).
A dietary issue of bad fruit… “And you shall know them (their motives) by their fruits (their methods).
Due to the magnitude of the event this was the I-Max presentation of the historical Cain vs Able story.
On one hand there’s Cain who was motivated by not believing God (read: Atheist), where as Able on the other hand was motivated by believing God (read: Christian). Both mens motives were tested by God and only Ables offering was acceptable by God because it was done without a self serving motive. God is always, always and always concerned about the motives of the heart because the resulting fruit. The type of offerings presented by the two men weren’t mentioned and for good reason because the focus of the test was all about doing something good without expecting something in return. If there were any non self serving politicians on the planet past and present they were and are in the minority and always under attack. Able met his end due to Cains self serving theology/ideology.
Yes, the 9/11 attack was still about good vs evil in principal but ultimately it was planned and carried out with a motive for selfish gain. People do use Gods name in vain for selfish ill gotten gain and the Koran is a manifesto for such purposes but then too so was Hitlers Mein Kamph and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Although Hitler and Marx didn’t campaign in the name of a god or God they did though make false promises to make life better for mankind according to their oppressive agenda which of course meant methodically purging Christianity from society. Atheism has many titles and many manifestos, Muhammadanism is one of them and it also uses extorsion as a method for financial gain for it’s elitists.
The result of atheism is always death, destruction, poverty and elitism. Hey, that sounds just like the life of Cain–bad fruit, bad spiritual diet!