Remembering 9/11
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.’”
Luke 13:1-5
It has been over 20 years since the events of 9/11 and much has been written and discussed surrounding those events and the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our government recently pulled out of Afghanistan and time will tell if this if this proves to be a wise decision or if it reignites the terrorists training camps and there is another inevitable war.
In the days following 9/11 many Christians tried to give the reason why God permitted the terrorist attacks. God is sovereign over the affairs of men, and nothing happens apart from his permissive will. Some were quick to say that it was God’s judgment upon the sins of our country. Others went further to articulate the particular sin that God was judging. Others tried to absolve God from responsibility for the terrorist attacks arguing that it was outside of God’s will and it happened apart from his will. There is a problem saying it was against God’s will. That means either God wanted to stop it but just was not powerful enough to do so or else He wanted something but his will was overruled by the will of man. It seems to give man freedom, but it is at the expense of God’s sovereignty. If anything happens apart from his will then God is not God because he is not all powerful and he is not in control of his creation.
This does not mean that we can plumb the depths of God’s wisdom to understand all the multitude of reasons why God allowed this to happen under his sovereign, mysterious, hidden will. ““The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29) There is a danger in saying we know the definitive reason why God did this or allowed that. Having said that, just because we don’t know every reason that does not mean we cannot find some application.
Notice what Jesus says in the passage quoted above, a tower fell and there were 18 people who were going about their day unaware that this was to be the last moments of their lives. Jesus does not say that the tower fell because the people who it fell upon were exceptional sinners nor does he say that it is God’s divine judgment on Israel for a particular sin or list of sins. Rather, he uses the event to remind them of the brevity and uncertainty of life. No one has tomorrow guaranteed. At any time, God could require a person’s life. This should cause us to not be arrogant about our lives and it should cause us to turn from the temporal and think about the eternal. Even now I cannot say why 9/11 happened, but I can say that God is calling each of us to consider our lives and turn back to God while we have a chance.
