9/11 And The Culture of Death

Elijah's Mantle

In our self-absorbed, narcissistic Western culture there is a cardinal sin.  If any dare to transgress this One Great Commandment, he is instantly execrated and cast outside the city.  This OGC is the signature word of secular humanism: "Thou must never believe that God is judging us."   Sadly, oh so sadly, there are many in the Church today--weak and poorly taught believers--who subscribe to this OGC above all else.

We recall how the OGC suddenly burst forth from the hearts of the people with incandescent indignation when the earthquakes hit Christchurch, New Zealand.  Amidst all the mourning, weeping, and anger there was one proposition that was instantly condemned--even by churchmen.  The very idea that God might be judging New Zealand was shouted down in a chorus of horror.  At the time it took an Unbelieving left-wing public commentator, Chris Trotter to point out that whatever god people were appealing to when they said such things and intoned the OGC, it was not the God of the Scriptures, nor of the historical Christian faith.

That God is a holy, an awful (that is, awe inspiring) God, Who in His own words declares:  "You shall not bow down to them or serve [idols]; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." (Deuteronomy 5:9)  and "The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.' ” (Exodus 34:6,7) [Emphasis, ours]

But the OGC declaims this God to be non-existent.  The god of the people and of the state is a god who is little more than a simpering cheerleader for the vainglory of his makers--modern, secular men.  Funny, that.

Every so often a man of God stands forth to reflect the actual, biblical truth.
  So strange is the message to our modern ears, that such a person immediately is bestowed with the mantle of a true prophet, like Elijah--the "troubler of Israel".  Take, for example, Dr R. C. Sproul reflecting on the tragedy of 9/1:

Ten years ago, I repeatedly heard the question raised: "Where was God in all of this?" Where was God on 9/11 when the planes crashed into the twin towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania?  My answer then was the same as it is now: God was in the precise place on 9/11 that He was on the day before and the day after.  He was on His throne then and continues to be on His thrown now because He is the Lord God omnipotent who reigns. . . .

The American psyche has no place for a God who judges peoples or nations.  God can bless us, but God forbid He ever judges us. 

When we look at the casualties on 9/11, we see that they were light compared with the casualties suffered in bloody battles during previous times of war. . . . But the emotional scars have been enormous in our culture. . . . In the days, weeks, and months immediately following 9/11, appealing to God to intervene for the welfare  of our country became very common.  Suddenly, calls for the separation of church and state, particularly the separation of state from God, were set aside as we looked to the Creator to help bail us out of the consequences of the terrorist attack on our homeland.  Bumper stickers with the request "God bless America" seemed to be ubiquitous.

When two evangelical leaders, Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell, suggested that 9/11 may have been a divine judgement upon our sinful culture, they were hissed, booed, and shouted down to the point that they issued public recantations.  The American psyche has no place for a God who judges peoples or nations.  God can bless us, but God forbid He ever judges us.

We are like Habakkuk, who, in his consternation over the fact that God used a foreign power to chasten His own people, stationed himself in a watchtower, demanding an answer from God as to how He could allow such wickedness to prevail.  Unlike Habakkuk's reaction when God answer that question in His holy Word, our lips do not quiver, our legs do not shake, our bellies do not tremble, nor does rottenness enter our bones (Hab. 3:16).  Rather than repent in dust and ashes before a holy God, we continue to shake our fists in His face, demanding a more benevolent providence from His hand. 

But God does not say to us as Americans, "My country right or wrong."  God requires nations as well as individuals to repent of their attempts to be autonomous, sovereign rulers, trying to displace Him.  Any nation that seeks to supplant God's sovereignty with its own is doomed.  It is doomed to failure, it is doomed to destruction, and it is doomed to insignificance. 

God will not continue to tolerate any nation that practices that culture of death and barbarism.

Many things have changed in the last ten years, but some have not. . . . (T)errorism is still here. . . . (T)here is still no peace in the Middle East.  Islam has grown exponentially in the West, but it has demonstrated again and again that it is, in fact, not  a religion of peace.  Its symbol today is the symbol it has had from its beginning--the scimitar or sword.  This symbol stands in vivid contrast to the cross, the symbol of the Christian faith. . . . In Islam, it is still a virtue to slay an infidel, and this virtue is sought by suicide bombers around the world.  But in God's sight, it is still a virtue to love our enemies and to pray for those who deceitfully use us.

My fear is that we haven't learned very much from 9/11.  On 9/11, ten years ago, more babies were destroyed in the wombs of their mothers than people were killed in the terrorist attack in New York.  That destruction continues to this day.  The greatest attacks on the sanctity of life come from not al-Qaeda but from those who destroy their own young.  God will  not continue to tolerate any nation that practices that culture of death and barbarism. [ R. C. Sproul, "9/11--Ten Years Later", Tabletalk, September 2011, p.6f.]