Posted on 09/30/2001 12:34:47 AM PDT by Mr. Mulliner
Judgment DayGod promised that calamity would follow disobedience. So why are we quick to dismiss it as a reason for the September 11 attacks?
By Frederica Mathewes-Green | posted 9/25/01On the day after the tragedy I drove through Washington, surprised to find it uncongested and tranquil. I drove past the battered Pentagon, where cars crept along the interstate at a few miles an hour as people craned their necks to see and comprehend our national wound. A few miles further, down among the suburban office towers, is a tiny old white clapboard church.
I stepped inside the cool interior, which was dimly lit and covered on walls and ceiling with paintings of Christ and the Apostles, of biblical figures and heroes from long ago. I took a seat to wait for my spiritual father and looked around. I saw faces of men and women who had known suffering, much more severe than what I had ever experienced, even as rocked as I felt just then. They stood serene around the walls, many holding symbols of victory.
Father George Calciu came out from beside the altar and greeted me. He is a small, resilient man, unusually vigorous for his 76 years. His hair and beard are thick and white, and his face is permanently creased with the marks of indomitable good cheer. Cheerfulness is an unlikely attribute, given his story. In his native Romania Fr. George challenged the communist authorities repeatedly and forcefully, with a courage that defied self-preservation. He was confined in brutal prisons, subjected to brainwashing, and formed a lifelong friendship with a fellow prisoner, Richard Wurmbrand, author of Tortured for Christ.
Today the first thing he asked me was, "Why do you think that happened yesterday?"
I was stumped for a minute. I hadn't thought of exactly that question. I said, "I don't know."
Fr. George said, "It was the punishment of God."
Well, there's something I hadn't thought of. Though I wondered why I hadn't; I've just finished an intensive study of the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and knew that the Jews have always seen even that brutal and sacrilegious tragedy as divine retribution for their sins. In fact, that seems to be the Old Testament pattern; anytime Israel suffered a military defeat, they responded with repentance. It didn't replace other strategic responses, but was an indispensable companion.
This isn't just an Old Testament phenomenon. When people told Jesus that Pilate had killed worshippers at the Temple, he responded, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). There seems to be a biblical pattern here: national suffering should bring about repentance.
I have often wondered what might return our sick culture to health. I've sometimes felt overwhelmed at the ugliness of America's spiritual condition, at 40 million children killed by abortion, at the promotion world-wide of sexual promiscuity and materialism, the contempt of God, the spreading infection of American culture.
I've often wondered what might turn us around. Everything moves in cycles, and some sick cultures do return to health; it can happen in a generation. But I have never heard of a historical example that wasn't inaugurated by catastrophe. Healing is the fruit of repentance, and repentance comes in the wake of suffering. There aren't many examples of spontaneous remission from this sort of illness.
Fr. George told me that the night before he had opened his Bible and it had fallen to Psalm 127. He read me the first verse: "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." How, he asked me, could the hijackers have overcome such a high level of security unless the Lord somehow permitted it?
He then turned to Daniel 9:12-14.
He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done the like of what has been done against Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us, yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and giving heed to thy truth. Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteousness in all the works which he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice.Fr. George went on to say that the concepts of repentance and humility are mostly absent in America, and it doesn't seem likely that we'll understand the lesson. When he first came to the U.S. he would sometimes speak of the sins he committed in prison, and people would say, "How could you commit sins? You were in prison." He smiled at this. "Of course you still sin," he said. "You sin in your thoughts."
But Americans, he says, are very proud, and are used to being powerful, and the concepts of repentance and humility are not commonly expressed even among conservative Christians. Over the years I have come to see how these concepts are the very core of the Gospels; they were Jesus' most consistent message.
But we tend to skip over them in our rush to reassure ourselves that God loves us. He does, of course, but you don't really know how much he loves you until you dare to repent. Until you see how much God had to forgive in you, you can't really see the height of his love. Not many churches where that is preached today, conservative or liberal.
Thus it won't do much good for us to spray on some superficial piety, while not taking it to deep, self-challenging levels. Fr. George said that he was very moved when he saw the Congressmen singing "God Bless America." Then he began to think, in how many of their votes and actions do these same men and women work to cast away the blessing of God?
The thought occurred to me that what the song could really mean is, "God, bless the things we already do; bless the things we have decided to do." A friend of mine says the local strip club has changed its sign to read "God Bless America," which just about sums up the problem.
This gave me a lot to think about. For years I've been thinking that the main thing America needed to do is to be humble and repent. Here comes a blow that looks a lot like things God has done in the past to kindle that response, the kind of suffering that had Israel weeping in sackcloth.
But no one, including Christians, is likely to draw such conclusions. Instead, we'll focus on how much we have been wronged, and smite our adversaries by our own considerable earthly power, and feel satisfied at videotape of young Arab men frying to death in Jeeps. If Fr. George is right, if "repent" is indeed God's message, I'm afraid we'll need more than one lesson to get it.Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christianity Today magazine.
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First it places the US equal to Israel, the only country that God has an interest in as a country. We are not even on the radar in the Bible. God's interest in us is as individuals and what are relationship is to Him.
Second, it has God killing innocents to get our attention. That is an abomination and dangerously close to ascribing evil to God and the Holy Spirit. That mindset says that evil acts are all directed by God to get someone's attention. It also says that that every death is carried out by God for my benefit, to keep me on the straight and narrow. That is egocentric and wrong. We brought death and evil into the world, not God.
Third. Where God did act against a country, it was because they were enemies of Israel. And He acted against the enemies, not the allies. As far as Israel goes, when they sinned, He just left them. when they were on their own all sorts of bad things happened.
Third. Try to reach anyone who knows someone that was killed in this attack with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tell them that their friend or relative died as an object lesson for the country. I am one of those people. I would reject any religion that has suffering of innocents as a method of conversion. Christianity is personal and Christ is loving. Look at him for the lesson on how to act toward others. It was all in looking inward.
I am disgusted with this kind of mindset. It is egotistic, evil and denigrates God.
But first to laredo44:
The author is obviously looking for a device to introduce his "punishment of God" conjecture. The problem is he's told a lie to dramatize his point. This is the way liberals write opinions and report the news. If the facts don't fit the objective, make them up. I expect better from this site.
No offense, but you slipped, Laredo44. Mathewes-Green has established her (that would be 'her', as in: not 'his') credentials over the years as a pro-life, conservative Christian thinker. It's the liberals who would instantly blame the US. While I'm astonished that the thought of some kind of Divine punishment didn't cross her mind, I would be simply flabbergasted if she were liberal and it hadn't crossed her mind. Liberals are the ones just panting for God to punish the US, aching to blame us for everything.
Like it or not, from Amos through Zacariah, the Old Testament prophets see the hand of God in historical events. When Old Testament writers say "The sins of the fathers are visited on the sons," they're not necesarily saying they like that. They're saying that's the way it is. We are paying for our fathers' and gradfathers' support for FDR, for example.
And again, like it or not, we ourselves, whatever our religious or anti-religious affiliation, know that the "innocent" suffer the results of the misdeeds of others. If the contractors who build the bridge are corrupt, the innocent who are on it when it collapses pay the penalty for corruption.
One theme of recent commentary is that x42, the former commander-in-cheat, was too busy covering his, um, indiscretions to pay enough attention to national security and international politics. Remember, one of the themes of his '92 campaign was that Bush41 paid far too much attention to international affairs and not enough to bribing the electorate with their own money. And he won.
Enough voters evidently wanted to be provided for by someone who would coddle them and swathe them in false security. That's what they got -- especially the 'false' part.
And when it became obvious that Clinton was a self-absorbed and luxurious panderer, they STILL preferred him. They preferred a baby-killing adulterer who told them that their sorry situations were the fault of Republicans and that he would take care of them. They preferred to trust a known liar who sheltered them from responsibility for their own lives. And making that choice, they placed at risk not only themselves but the entire nation.
Of course that doesn't mean that ALL the blame falls on Clinton and those who voted for him. But it's hard to see how they don't deserve SOME of the blame.
An argument can be made that if it is somehow a divine law that we should care for one another, then the contra-positive is that the suffering of the innocent weak and poor is, in some respects at least, the consequence of our breaking divine law.
Being human and free involves having a LOT of responsibility.
I just don't think, though, that Frederica is (at least consciously) using a tactic. But you're right I did misread you.
How many parents tell their errant children, ‘don't do that, you'll get hurt?’ Finally, the parent, having failed to get the message across, allows the child to exercise their free will and the result is, the child gets hurt.
I believe God withdrew his protection and thus allowed this to happen. I believe it is a wake-up call to this nation to repent from the road of sin we have been happily traveling. Those who would nay-say and cast aspersions on such ideas are quite possibly part of the problem, not the solution.
FLAME AWAY!
When you read Deuteronomy 28, about the curses that will befall Israel for disobeying the laws that God gives, you don't get the idea that He delights in those things happening to them or even that He will do those things to them. It is more like, "Here's how to live, and here's what will happen if you don't live by these most excellent rules I've given to help you." And even when Israel did disobey, God was not in a hurry to let them suffer the consequences. He constantly delayed the just consequences they deserved by keeping His protection on them in hopes that they would repent and avoid the consequences.
However, I believe I have the answer. I know where my God was the morning of September 11, 2001! He was very busy.
First of all, he was trying to discourage anyone from taking this flight. Those four flights together held over 1000 passengers and there were only 266 aboard. He was on 4 commercial flights giving terrified passengers the ability to stay calm. Not one of the family members who was called by a loved one on one of the high-jacked planes said that passengers were screaming in the background. On one of the flights he was giving strength to passengers to try to overtake the highjackers. He was busy trying to create obstacles for employees at the World Trade Center. After all only around 20,000 were at the towers when the first jet hit. Since the buildings hold over 50,000 workers, this was a miracle in itself. How many of the people who were employed at the WTC told the media that they were late for work or they had traffic delays. He was holding up 2-110 story buildings so that 2/3 of the workers could get out. I was so amazed that the top of the towers didn't topple when the jets impacted.
Although this is without a doubt the worst thing I have seen in my life, I can see God's miracles in every bit of it. I keep thinking about my friend and praying for her every chance I have. I can't imagine going through such a difficult time and not believing in God. Life would be hopeless.
Thanks for the post & the flag!!!
"But we're foolish to think that there's no correlation between this attack and the many ways that our nation has acted with complete disregard to what God has taught in the Bible."
Why, oh why, do you people insist on slandering God this way?!?!?
No flames here!
I think you're dead on!
EVERYTHING goes through God's hands FIRST !
The problem is you have to have a change of heart to repent..I do not believe there is a true change of heart here..
I do not think it helps non-believers to a conversion with this type of article, nor the attendant comments. To me, the focus must be on the fact that there is a better, more joyful way to live, and Christ is the answer to this. President Bush is an excellent example of this type of Christian.
While I do not believe in abortion and in fact am strongly pro-life, I do not believe that the repeal of Roe vs. Wade by the Supreme Court would have stopped these terrorist from striking. In fact, I believe that they hate us BECAUSE we are Christians.
At any rate, I do not agree with the premise of the author. It is also offensive to those who lost relatives in the attack.
Even when the Lord allows us to suffer from our own foolishness, yet he still comforts and assists us. I am SO GLAD you put this up. I have been so consumed with anger that I haven't taken time to see how His mighty hand has been at work: surely, you have illuminated a portion of his efforts.
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