|
January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel
Is God to Blame?
by John W. Ritenbaugh
|
Many have noted that the September 11 bombing of the World Trade
Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.,
has forever changed the way Americans live their lives. Gone is
the foolish reliance on the supposed invulnerability and
impregnability of fortress America. "Normalcy" now includes
within it a measure of apprehension.
For almost two hundred years, our shores remained uninvaded from
east or west because America lies so far removed from where the
wars of the past raged. We felt that the spans of two great
oceans were so great that any plan of invasion would prove
impossible. Any enemy would easily be revealed and
countermeasures taken long before it could mount an effective
attack. However, events of September 11 exposed the reality that
the enemy is already within, having invaded us through deceitful
impressions of peaceful intentions.
The sudden and mysterious mailings of anthrax to media and
political figures seem to be following up the terrorists' first
strike. At the time of this writing, no one has directly tied
these mailings to the bombers or their cohorts, but the packages
that have been positively identified originated from within the
United States. In addition, federal investigators recently
disclosed that credit cards used by some of the terrorists on
board the hijacked planes were used after the bombings to
purchase items within the U.S. Again, the enemies of our
security are already among us.
Flag-waving patriotism has reached a highpoint unseen for many
decades, but these circumstances are undoubtedly affecting the
American's sense of well-being. Political and media figures are
talking confidently of victory over the forces of terror, but
the sudden and devastating effectiveness of the attacks has
unquestionably struck a blow at our freedom of movement and
created suspicion of those of Arabic ancestry and Islamic
faith. Some Americans now admit they catch themselves "looking
over their shoulder."
The economy, already in decline before the attack, has worsened
significantly. Air travel has lessened to such an extent it has
motivated the layoffs of some 80,000 Americans. Those in the
hotel business are also expressing financial concerns. Today,
one cannot even receive mail without thoughtfully and carefully
examining the outside of the package or envelope before opening
it.
Where Was God?
The attacks have also stirred a revival of interest
in God. A minority of Americans had nearly succeeded in running God
out of schools and public life in general, yet now Americans in
highly visible and public positions are invoking God in virtually
every appearance. God has become very popular once again. Popular,
yes, but understood? Hardly!
A recent USA Today article reports
that President George W. Bush is an openly religious man who
mentions God frequently in his speeches, prays on his knees, and
reads the Bible every morning before beginning his workday. The
article adds that he frequently prays in the Oval Office and
often asks a Cabinet secretary to lead a prayer at the beginning
of Cabinet meetings. Following a recent meeting with Macedonian
President Boris Trajkovski, a fellow Methodist who is also a lay
minister, he invited his guest into his private study, and there
the two men knelt side-by-side in silent prayer. Overt
expressions of faith by elected leaders, however, make some
Americans quite uncomfortable because they fear it is the
beginning of state-imposed religion.
For some, not only the success of the attacks but that they
happened at all is a deep and solemn mystery. They apparently
believed that the United States existed under automatic and
eternal divine protection, so that tragedies like this were just
not supposed to happen here. In Europe, Africa, Russia or
Southeast Asia, yes, but not here.
Front-page newspaper articles report Americans asking, "Where
was God?" as they struggle to understand how something of this
magnitude could possibly have happened here. Syndicated
columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., writing in the
Charlotte Observer, tells of a minister
at the church he attends opining in a sermon, "that God allowed
the planes to be stolen, and the people to die, because He was
helpless to stop it. Maybe He didn't have the power." At first,
Pitts reports, he thought this might be a clever speaker using a
daring rhetorical device to make a positive statement later, yet
as the preacher continued, Pitts was disappointed to find it was
not. He writes, "This was just what it seemed to be: a man of
God publicly struggling with a crisis of conviction. Of all I've
seen in the wake of September 11, this was, in some ways, the
most dismaying."
Another article by David Von Drehle of the
Washington Post posits the familiar
question, "What would Jesus do?" and applies it to President
Bush's responsibility as the leader of this nation. Though he
quotes one scripture that has little bearing on the truth, he
reaches this conclusion:
Nowhere are God's intentions more obscure than in
war, which consumes lives and destroys hopes even in a good cause.
The United States rightly respects conscientious objections. But
not in a president. If he is fortunate, his duty during war will
not be the occasion for too many sins. But that's not his primary
concern until after it's all over. He can worry over that in
retirement and plead his case come Judgment Day.
Some religious figures touched on some of the truths of God's
Word in an effort to help Americans think that perhaps the
attacks were not completely undeserved. All this accomplished
was to raise the ire of many in the media, who turned their
verbal guns against them, pillorying them as unscriptural,
narrow, deluded, and destructive to the confidence of the
American people.
Despite the horrific results caused by the terrorists, who
succeeded in ramming three hijacked planes into buildings, is it
possible that God may have actually stopped far worse from
occurring? We know that a fourth plane commandeered by
terrorists apparently crashed after a struggle between the
terrorists and passengers who mutinied to attempt to retake
control of the plane. That plane was almost certainly headed for
either the White House or Capitol building.
In a WorldNet Daily commentary of September 20, 2001, Craige
McMillan writes:
A fifth plane that took off from Newark, New Jersey, near the
time of the attacks was grounded when U.S. airspace was
closed. The next day Ayub Khan, 51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath,
47, who had been on the Newark flight, were removed from an
Amtrak train during a routine drug search, when police
discovered box-cutting knives and $5,000 in cash. Their
associates in New Jersey are now being questioned by
investigators. Was that fifth plane intended for the
U.S. Capitol building? It seems likely. We know that the White
House was a target, because shortly after the first airliner
crashed into the World Trade Center, the Secret Service received
an anonymous call using the agency's code words relating to Air
Force One procedures and whereabouts. We don't know if the
Capitol building was a target--but the assumption seems
reasonable.
This suggests that whoever masterminded these attacks
intended not to "send a message" or cripple--but to entirely
destroy the United States government. We need to think long and
hard about what that means as we head into war. To me it suggests
more than a terrorist attack, even one as well-planned and
coordinated as this. It suggests a terrorist attack executed in
conjunction with as yet unknown actions by one or more hostile
nation states. I would suggest that under those circumstances, we
would have been vulnerable to anyone strong enough to step forward
and offer "leadership."
Was God Involved?
Is it possible for us to know the mind of God? The
apostle Paul asks this question in Romans 11:33-36:
"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past
finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has
become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall
be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all
things, to whom be glory forever. Amen."
To know the fullness of God's thoughts on any subject or any
event is, of course, so far beyond us to be unimaginable. To
this end, we truly do look through a glass darkly. However, He
has revealed certain things about Himself, His way and His plan
sufficiently enough that we may seek Him, come to conversion,
and grow thereby. He has also revealed much to us about His
attributes and Himself and His activities as Creator, Sovereign
Ruler, Provider, Lawgiver, Judge, Savior and Father so that we
are not completely without some knowledge and understanding of
how He functions within His creation.
Deuteronomy 29:29 confirms God's revelation by saying, "The
secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which
are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we
may do all the words of this law." I Corinthians 2:10 provides a
New Testament confirmation of this: "But God has revealed them
to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yes, the deep things of God." We can understand a great deal
about God.
The "catch" in all this, though, is whether we choose to believe
Him and thus choose to conduct ourselves within the parameters
of what He reveals in His Word. Far more, it seems, choose not
to believe. Some say they believe, but carelessly continue
living their lives as though they, and not He, are all that
matters--until some crisis occurs and He suddenly becomes very
important to them.
Was God aware of what was transpiring? Did God see what was
happening from the attack's conception, through its planning and
development, to the systematic execution of each step? Of
course He did! God is omniscient; nothing escapes His attention
in His creation.
-
Psalm 33:13-15: "The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all
the sons of men. From the place of His habitation He looks on
all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts
individually; He considers all their works."
-
Psalm 66:7: "He rules by His power forever; His eyes
observe the nations; do not let the rebellious exalt
themselves. Selah."
-
Psalm 121:4: "Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither
slumber nor sleep."
-
Proverbs 5:21: "For the ways of man are before the eyes
of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths."
-
Proverbs 15:3: "The eyes of the Lord are in every
place, keeping watch on the evil and the good."
-
Jeremiah 32:19: "You are great in counsel and mighty in
work, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of
men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to
the fruit of his doings."
-
Matthew 10:29: "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper
coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your
Father's will."
Even to begin to consider that God was unaware or that He
somehow lacked the power to intervene suggests unfamiliarity
with the God of the Bible. But to do so is neither a frailty
limited to modern man nor unusual. Many who go to church
apparently do not spend much time meditating on the intellectual
immensity, purity of character and almighty power of Yahweh, the
Lord the Bible presents. The apostle Paul puts it this way in I
Corinthians 1:25, "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than
men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
Just mere months after God liberated the slave-nation Israel
from centuries of bondage to Egypt through awesome and
terrifying displays of power, capping their redemption by
dividing the Red Sea and drowning their captors in its waters,
they reconfigured the nature of Almighty God into the form of a
bull (Exodus 32)! One has to ask, what in the world were they
thinking as they cried, "This is your god, O Israel, that
brought you out of the land of Egypt!" (verse 8).
Is this not similar to what one may discover on the world scene
today? People have created gods in their own image. They
interpret God according to their own cultural biases, as well as
what family, educational, and business associations have
predisposed them to believe. They then attribute His favor to
their political parties, athletic teams, motivations, and
prejudices. All this is done with precious little careful study
into, meditation upon, and especially wholeheartedly believing
His inspired revelation of Himself in the Bible.
At the worship service held in the National Cathedral in
Washington, D.C., a few days following the attack, clergy from
Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faiths
participated. Which clergyman represented God? Which did God
hear? Can they all be His representatives, even though they all
believe differently? Do these differences not matter to Him?
They must matter to those men; otherwise, they would not
advocate their brand of faith. Certainly, God hears just as
surely as He sees what is going on. He makes very clear that no
one comes to Him except through Jesus Christ, eliminating two of
those faiths immediately.
He also makes clear that those who approach Him with favor must
be subject to His government. In others words, they must keep
His commandments. The remaining two faiths keep none of His
Sabbaths, and in fact, they tell people they do not have to keep
the commandments--in other words, they need not be subject to
His government in daily life--because His law is "done away."
Might God, as an act of mercy, nonetheless hear and respond by
delivering us from future destructions planned for us? He
might. It has happened before, for instance, when God mercifully
forgave Nineveh after it repented at the preaching of Jonah, and
He delivered Israel a number of times. Yet when that happened,
it was accompanied by a wholehearted repentance that God was
willing to accept. Have we as a nation repented? How deep must
the repentance be? How many must repent before it tips the
balance of God's judgment so that He moves in our behalf? In
Genesis 18:32, God tells Abraham He will spare Sodom if He finds
ten righteous people in it. Is God using the same standard of
measurement for America today?
Terrorism, a Sign of God's Judgment?
Much negative, indeed inflammatory commentary, arose in
America's newspapers and radio and television programs when some
suggested that we are not as innocent as we like to think we are
and that we must consider this attack to be a judgment from God
and repent. The fact remains that, long before the attacks
occurred, critics of American morality--Americans
themselves--have been calling upon their fellow citizens to
change their immoral ways. The attacks and a wave of sympathy
for the grief of those directly impacted by them, as well as a
sudden spurt of patriotism, changed the way people heard these
messages. Before, they just tuned them out. After all, the
messages were not for them but for others because they
considered themselves to be okay. Afterward, however, the sense
of being innocent victims of a sneaky and undeserved attack made
the hearers feel that the messages were demeaning and
insulting. But were they true?
If a person believes the Bible, he is forced to conclude that
God is in control of all things, whether good or evil. Consider
such scriptures as:
-
Daniel 4:35: "All the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can
restrain His hand or say to Him, What have You done?"
-
Daniel 4:17: "This decision is by the decree of the
watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in
order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the
kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it
the lowest of men."
-
Isaiah 45:6-7: "I am the Lord, and there is no other; I
form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create
calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things."
-
Exodus 9:29: "And Moses said to him, As soon as I have
gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord;
the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, that
you may know that the earth is the Lord's."
-
Deuteronomy 4:39: "Therefore know this day, and consider
it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above
and on the earth beneath; there is no other."
-
Psalm 99:1: "The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!
He dwells between the cherubim; let the earth be
moved!"
-
Isaiah 33:22: "For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is
our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us.
-
Jeremiah 18:6: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you
as this potter? says the Lord. Look, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of
Israel!"
The Bible declares quite clearly that God is not only
well aware of what is taking place, but He also has the power,
wisdom, and love to either stop it at any time or let it run its
course. In fact, Scripture plainly shows God actively--indeed
proactively,not merely permissively--involved in earthly matters.
God has not gone "way off somewhere," letting things simply proceed
naturally. Note that Isaiah 45:7, quoted above, records God
proclaiming that He "creates calamity."
Judges 2:11-15 provides a unmistakable record:
"Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their
fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they
followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were
all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked
the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the
Ashtoreths. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So
He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled
them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all
around, so that they could no longer stand before their
enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was
against them for calamity, as the Lord has said, and as the Lord
had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed."
Forms of the situation described here appear frequently in the
history of Israel's relationship with God. Several hundred
years after this, God inspired Isaiah to write, "Woe to Assyria,
the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My
indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation, and
against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, to seize
the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the
mire of the streets" (Isaiah 10:5-6). This can only mean that
God inspires and empowers the Assyrian nation to punish the
nations of Israel for their flagrant disobediences.
Such punishment precipitated Israel being scattered, taken into
captivity into foreign lands, and losing their homeland, to
which they have never returned. God remarks in II Kings 17:18,
after providing a long list of Israel's sins, "Therefore the
Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His
sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone."
However, the tribe of Judah was hardly better than Israel, as II
Kings 17:19 states: "Also Judah did not keep the commandments of
the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which
they made." The result was similar to Israel's, for in II Kings
24:2-4 God carried out His threats of punishment against Judah
too:
"And the Lord sent against [Jehoiakim] raiding bands of
Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the
people of Ammon; He sent them against Judah to destroy it,
according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His
servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of the Lord
this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of
the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and
because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had
filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the Lord would not
pardon."
Is God Responsible?
In addition to this brief summary of God's sovereignty over
Israel, ample additional evidence exists to show that He
exercises equal dominion over the other nations of the world. He
determines their rise and fall and the times of dominance of
every nation. Clearly, God judges the inhabitants of His
creation, and His judgments are not limited to Israel or to
"biblical times." God lives and He always rules and judges--just
as surely today as He did thousands of years ago. Since the One
who judged during Old Testament times is the same One who judges
today, we can be certain that He uses the same standards now
that He did then. His laws, which define His standards of
morality, have not changed one iota. Jesus emphatically asserts
in the Sermon on the Mount that we should not think that He came
to destroy the law or the prophets (Matthew 5:17). Indeed,
Malachi 3:6 proclaims, "I am the Lord, I do not change," while
Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus "is the same yesterday, today, and
forever."
Is God to blame because He exercises His authority, punishing to
maintain order and to continue the advancement of His purpose in
His creation? Who sins and brings upon themselves the necessity
of punishment? God does not sin, men do. If God does not punish
for sin, then righteousness loses all meaning. Life will soon
become a violent free-for-all (Ecclesiastes 8:11). The Bible
makes it clear that human nature is violently evil, and when
left unchecked as it was before the Flood, it will reproduce
similar conditions (Genesis 6:5). Indeed, God forecasts that
exactly those conditions will face those living just before
Christ's return (Matthew 24:37). Every indication is that we
live during that time now.
The Bible prophesies scores of horrific punishments: epidemics
of incurable diseases; wars; fires burning fields, forests and
homes; earthquakes; famines; floods from raging seas; violent
weather patterns; and infestations of insects and wild
animals. All of these occur as punishments for sin as God exacts
His vengeance on "those who destroy the earth" (Revelation
11:18). "Earth" here represents all aspects of His
creation--including man--which He created for man.
God is most certainly not to blame if He reacts in accordance
with what He has told man He will do. Leviticus 26 and
Deuteronomy 28 establish that, if one does well, God will bless
him. Conversely, God strongly warns that, if one does not do
well, He will surely punish him. Though not to blame because His
sins did not cause these tragedies, He is responsible for them
because He at least allowed them to occur. He may even have
inspired them to occur and oversaw events so that they would.
The Curse Causeless?
Proverbs 26:2 says, "Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying
swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight." We can
understand "curse" in several ways: as the invoking of evil or
misfortune upon another, or as the evil or scourge itself. The
proverb primarily deals with invoking a curse against another
when no justification for doing so exists. Such a curse is akin
to the aimless flitting of birds, suggesting that it will have
no effect. It will not "hit" its intended target.
We can definitely consider the tragedies of September 11 as a
curse. However, God undoubtedly approved of it, or it never
would have happened. This curse hit, and it hit hard. Therefore,
we must conclude that there was more than ample justification
for it falling upon this nation. Currently, the death toll
stands somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 people, a horrendous
figure to be sure, but it pales when compared to just one other
death-toll figure: Every day in the United States over 4,000
human lives are snuffed out of existence by abortion. In the 30
days following September 11, 120,000 lives ceased to exist. Of
those 120,000 abortions, 95% of them--114,000--occurred solely
for the mother's convenience!
Is it any wonder that God cries out in Ezekiel 7:23, "Make a
chain, for the land is filled with crimes of blood, and the city
is full of violence." George Mason, whose great influence can be
seen in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, wrote
that sin, "brings the judgment of heaven upon a
country. . . . By an inevitable chain of causes and effects,
Providence [God] punishes national sin by national calamities."
George Washington declared in his First Inaugural Address, "We
ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of
Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the
eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has
ordained."
The apostle Paul states in Romans 9:14. "What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!" As a people,
we are guilty and fully deserve anything He in His loving wisdom
decides to inflict upon us. Most assuredly, we are not innocent
victims. Individually, few of us have sinned against any of the
people, groups, or nations that may have done this, but as
citizens, we are part of this nation, and our well-being rises
and falls with it. We have eagerly accepted God's overflowing
abundance of material blessings with which He showered this
nation. So when He judges that we need to be brought down a
peg--or many pegs-- we would do well to consider deeply the many
ways we may have offended the great God who created us and gives
us every breath of air we breathe.
This article has not even considered the many other commandments
that Americans are breaking in a multitude of ways, but one must
be mentioned because it is the most important of all, the first
commandment. As a nation, we Americans are not worshipping the
God of the Bible. If we were, we would not be having the problem
that faces this nation. We worship a multitude of gods created
in our own imaginations. Many people in self-indulgent
America--people who seemingly cannot delay gratification,
sadly--worship a god tantamount to a nicey-nicey Santa Claus who
gives good things whether one is "naughty or nice."
As a nation, we urgently need to wholeheartedly turn from
breaking God's Ten Commandments, the very ones we have removed
from our schools and courts of law. We "in the church" easily
see these September 11 incidents as a wakeup call to America and
the Western world. A couple of symbolic beasts are arising that
will drag this world into horrific warfare. Yet should it not be
even more of a wakeup call for us? We have so much more at stake
in our lives because the true God has revealed Himself and His
way to us. Our Savior says, "For everyone to whom much is
given, from him much will be required" (Luke 12:48).
There is no doubt that the Laodicean era is underway. At this
time, it is especially easy to become attracted by and dragged
into the course of this world. We cannot afford to allow such
great salvation to slip from our grasp due to inattention. Paul
writes about this time:
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake
out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first
believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore
let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the
armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in
revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not
in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make
no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. (Romans
13:11-14)
In this way, the September 11 events should change the way we
live our lives.
Reprinted with permission from Forerunner magazine, November
2001. (http://www.cgg.org/)
John W. Ritenbaugh is founding pastor of:
Church of the Great God
PO Box 471846
Charlotte, NC 28247-1846
(800) 878-8220 / (803) 802-7075
TSS
January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel
|