Defining Moments, 9/11

9/11/16

History is filled with defining moments that influenced the course of nations and world events. These defining events have often produced battle cries that have inspired patriots to action. “Remember” has become a common battle cry in American history. Remember the Alamo, remember the Maine, remember Pearl Harbor, remember 9/11. It’s sad how in only fifteen years so many American’s have forgotten the significance of 9/11. But these remember moments lead to the inevitable question, “Where were you when?” Key events are so important in our lives that people tend to remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they happened.

I was on the playground at Asbury Elementary School at noon time when one of my classmates came back from lunch at home and said with a big grin on his face, “The president’s been shot.” He was kind of an ornery kid and nobody believed him until the bell rang and we went back to class. Our teacher, Miss Mundy, who was an exchange teacher from England, was almost in tears at her desk and very softly told us what happened and that we all needed to go home.

I was at my grandmother’s watching on TV when Neil Armstrong said the immortal words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” I was in college working at Wendy’s when we heard that Reagan had been shot and my heart sank. All afternoon we asked for updates from people ordering at the drive through window.

And then there is 9/11. I was in Kenya at a village called New Wood putting up a church building with another missionary, Ole Konnerup. Late in the afternoon one of our colleagues, Richard Edwards, called on the cell phone to tell us planes had flown into the World Trade Center. I immediately called my wife and told her to turn on the TV.

Many of these defining events have led to wars, the toppling of dictators, and the rescue and freeing of enslaved people, and we might say the restoration of the normal way of life. But on 9/11 the world changed. When the Muslim driven Al Qaeda terrorists flew the planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon the world entered a phase it has never seen before. There have been tyrants and conquering armies since Nimrod 4500 years ago. There have been holy wars and crusades against infidels infused with religious fanaticism. There have been terrorist acts and suicidal maniacs, but on 9/11 a new kind of conflict emerged, the War on Terror, against a new kind of enemy.

This enemy could not be identified by uniforms, flags, marching formations or battlefield tactics. It could not be defined by borders or nationalistic spirit. This enemy is defined by the ideology of Islamic Jihad. In spite of the blind American leadership that has refused to see the obvious, this is a holy war like none other before it. It is Islamic idealism trying to take down the “Great Satan,” the United States, and destroy the Jewish nation of Israel, as only a precursor to conquering the world.

This war through subtlety and infiltration has affected every nation of Christian background, and the west in general. Look what has happened in France, Germany, Demark, Sweden and England in just the last year. Look at what happened in Davao City in the Philippines just last week. The Muslim terrorist group, Abu Sayyaf, has declared war on the Philippines. And because of a poorly thought out overall strategy during the Bush administration, and an inept lack of leadership over the last eight years this war has drawn out for fifteen years with no real end in sight. The world is drowning in fear and the prophetic words of Jeremiah in chapter 6:14 have never been more true. People are crying out saying “Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”

The history of the world is mainly the story of monarchs, kings and empires, and power mad tyrants. There have been attempts at republicanism and democracy since Plato and the ancient Greeks in Greece, Rome and various western nations, but in the last 2300 years the average democratic government has only lasted less than 200 years.

Think about it. The French Revolution that was supposedly an attempt at democracy was a power mad disaster that lasted seven years and led to the rise of Napoleon. In the Philippines, the Second Republic, established in 1946, lasted forty years, the last twenty ruled by Ferdinand Marcos who became a dictator and was overthrown by the People’s Power Revolution in 1986. The resulting Third Republic has already been marred by a second People’s Power movement that ignored the constitution and overthrew another president.

The United States of America holds the distinction of being the longest surviving republican or democratic government in history at 240 years. The question is, how much longer will it last?

Former congresswoman, Michelle, Bachman, recently said that if hillary is elected it will be the last free election in American history. In other words, it will be the end of America as we have known it. Not that I’m a prophet, but I actually predicted six or more years ago that if obama were to win a second term he would manufacture a crisis to prevent this coming election and stay in office. I think, however, that enough Americans are waking up to the corruption of the obama administration, and Trump has so much support that obama would not be able to pull that off. But if hillary wins it will change everything. Many are predicting the judgment of God and the total destruction of our once great Christian nation.
Is there still hope for America? Could a Trump victory hold back the hand of God’s judgment and open the door for a new religious awakening in America, or is it already too late for that? The never Trump crowd believes he would bring God’s judgment. Are any of them right? Is God’s judgment about to fall on America?

In Jeremiah 11:11, the prophet writes: “Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.”

Now I’m not one to take prophetic utterances out of the Old Testament that were specifically written to a specific people at a particular time and try to make them apply to America. That’s bad hermeneutics. But there are principles involved that even in this Age of Grace could apply to us today.

Jeremiah 11:9-10 indicts the Jews for turning to the iniquities of their fathers and worshiping false gods. These were God’s people chosen by covenant, which they had broken and because of that He brought disaster upon them, which they could not escape. Neither would He hear their prayers. Can we make this application to America?

The United States of America is the first government in the history of the world to be built on the principle of government by the people whereby the people are free and they control the government. The idea of representative government, of personal ownership of land and free market enterprise all came from the Scripture and were incorporated into our government by godly, honest men who were devoutly Christian. America’s founders created for us a Christian nation that has been blessed by God like no other nation since Israel in the days of David and Solomon.

What happened? In 1962 the U.S. Supreme Court banned the Bible in public schools and in 1963 prohibited prayer, thus kicking God out of public education. Those rulings have since been expanded to include the entire public arena and in the last fifty years America has sunk to the lowest possible moral degeneracy. We have turned from the worship of the Creator to the worship of the creature (Romans 1:24). The human body has become the false humanist god of our generation and nakedness the form of worship.

So is God’s judgment about to fall and grind us to powder?

It is often said that people get the kind of leaders they deserve. Since we are a government of the people and elect our own leaders this is especially true. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787 when the delegates reached a impasse, Benjamin Franklin rose to suggest that a great nation could not rise without God’s aid. The convention adjourned and met in a church for three days listening to preaching and then calling out to God for His divine assistance. The result was the building of the greatest nation on earth.

After a decade and a half without God in the public square and the late 1960s cultural revolution that threw godliness and decency to the wind in favor of free love and open immorality, a counter movement led by Jerry Falwell called the Moral Majority helped sweep Ronald Reagan into the presidency and a brief period of restoring America’s greatness and returning to godly Christian values. By 1991 the Cold War had ended. America was on top of the world as the only major super power left.
The problem was it was a hollow victory. Prison evangelist Charles Colson once said that the Moral Majority won the elections but failed to win people’s hearts. Under Ronald Reagan America became affluent and comfortable, but without his leadership Americans became lax and their comfort led to moral apathy. The result was eight years of a lying, philandering, depraved sex offender in the White House with the liberal news media bowing at his feet.

Clinton should have been a portend of what would follow if the country continued in his footsteps. It was only the wisdom of the founders in creating the Electoral College that brought George W. Bush into the White House in 2000 that held back the slide into depravity. But Bush and the Republican Party lost their way, and unable to uphold or even define traditional values lost the conservative vote and gave us eight years of a man who was not qualified for anything, much less a top secret security clearance as president of the United States.

In eight years obama has decimated our military, brought open disdain from foreign leaders, nearly destroyed our economy, and led the country to a moral debauchery not seen since Sodom and Gomorrah. If hillary is elected she will complete the destruction obama has begun and open the door for the Antichrist. God won’t have to do a thing. We may call it God’s judgment, but all God will have to do is sit back and watch as we destroy ourselves.

Is there a chance that we could have another Great Awakening and bring America, as well as the world, back from the brink? We are told in 2 Chronicle 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin, heal their land.” Yes this was a message to the Jews, but might the same principle apply to us? If we confess our sins to God and beg for His mercy for our country will He still hear and heal our sin sick land? We won’t know unless we all get on our knees and earnestly cry out to God.