Letters Received

about the Terrorist Attack

We’ve received a number of thoughtful letters from friends who have commented on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Since you may find this correspondence helpful and edifying, we include several below.

LETTERS RECEIVED

Richard,

At first I was shocked, and then indignant, over the terrorism. Then with all the patriotism stirring, and all the call-ins where people suggest we"bomb them into oblivion", I am glad that we have a president who has a level head, and who seeks "justice" rather than "revenge". Revenge will kill anything and anyone without regard to innocence. However, seeking justice is all part of the government's God-given responsibility—those who do wrong had better fear the sword of the God-ordained government!

All we have to do is look to perversion of justice, that the previous administration was known for, to realize that a government that does not seek justice against the ungodly is a stench in the nose of God and of godly men. Proverbs speaks much of this. So yes, while it is the Christian duty to love all men, I won't voice any objection (nor will I feel any joy) when criminals meet their just end in this life at the hands of government which God ordained. Like an 8-year-old boy who soberly observes a peer (who did something wrong) receive his just punishment, I too will quietly observe the end that these people meet. Still, I will cringe at the thought of the many innocent people who will be swept away with them. (Look at the exile of Judah to realize that when God administers His justice, the innocent likewise suffer to some degree along with the guilty. The rain falls on the just and the unjust.) The torturous concern which lays heavy on the heart of anyone in the position of authority is "how do I administer justice against the guilty in a 'surgical' enough manner that few innocent people are taken?" I do not desire to be in such a position of authority, though I can appreciate the struggle of those who are. Nor, as a Christian, do I want to be in the position of "pulling the trigger," so to speak. God makes provisions to have appropriate people (who administer the justice) to be in that position.

When God judges America, you and I, if we are still alive, will likewise suffer to some extent. That is the nature of judgment. Lot's family was an exception to the general way things happen. Those of us with "a spiritual ear to the ground" see what is happening—we realize that America is doing things as a nation that infuriate God. As we observe these things, we
quietly take measures in our lives to protect ourselves (i.e., learn to be self-sufficient, home-school, abstain from ungodly use of the media, remain somewhat aloof to the trappings of the world, etc), with the hopes that we will be spared in sharing in the wrath that Americans are heaping against themselves. Still, judgment will come, either in this life or the next.
And if it happens in this life first, the innocent will suffer along with the wicked. Don't forget—this ain't heaven we're living in!

MCM

Dear Richard,

God may have had His hand in this situation. God does not do evil and cannot sin. However, we see in the Old Testament that God used wicked Assyria to punish Israel for its wrongdoings and then punished Assyria for what it did. We had told people for years that there are two things God does not tolerate in a nation: killing babies and homosexuality. Eventually, God brings another nation against the nation that allows such things. This is what God did to Israel. Could that be what God is doing to America?

EM

Dear Bro. Richard,

This is just a note to thank you for the thoughts you sent on Tuesday's tragedy. I am comforted that there are people that are not revengeful. I do realize that this evil has not touched me personally in that I have not lost loved ones, etc., but I feel very much for those who have. They will surely be left with the choice of loving and forgiving or hating and being bitter. I know how easily my feelings are aroused if I see injustice being done. I want to always have the perspective of which kingdom I serve. "This world is not my home." But while I'm here, may I be an ambassador of peace from the heavenly kingdom.

I thought of the scripture we read the other morning in our family worship: "Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Is this what God is telling us through this event?

God bless you richly...

EB

Richard,

One thing that bothers me is that the country seems utterly focused on the
radical extremists in the middle east as the enemy to destroy. It never enters people's minds that even if the US could wipe out the perpetrators of
this crime (unlikely), and return to some semblance of "normal" life, the"normal life" as an American involves activities that incense God (abortion, pornography, violence, carnal music, movies, promiscuity, atheism, etc.). Winning the war will be futile—this nation was going downhill morally prior to 11 SEP 01, and will resume its treck to hell after the war. That is, unless something MAJOR happens in the hearts of Americans to see the adulterous relationship it is having with Satan's ways.
Most people see this physical war with the middle east, and think that if we win this, all will be well. Poor souls! Little do they realize that the depravity of the past 30 years has murdered more human beings (abortion, TV-and-music-encouraged rape/murders, gang violence), destroyed more souls (moral destruction of worldly TV, movies, and music), and weakened this country IMMEASURABLY more than those three planes did on 11 SEP 01! But will anyone "get it"? Will the "Christians" of this country even get it? I doubt it—they’ll go back to their TVs, worldly music, immodesty, covetousness...

MCM

Dear Bro. Richard,

Greetings this morning in the name of Jesus..."Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."

We realize that those words are true all our lives, but when an incident like that of last week happens, we are impressed more acutely with the thought expressed above. People everywhere are discussing and analyzing Tuesday's event, and we here at . . . . are included, it seems.

Yesterday's hymns included this one:

"Oh, where are kings and empires now Of old that went and came?
But, Lord, Thy church is praying yet, A thousand years the same.
We mark her goodly battlements, And her foundations strong;
We hear within the solemn voice Of her unending song.
For not like kingdoms of the world Thy holy church, O God!
Tho' earth-quake shocks are threat'ning her, And tempests are abroad;
Unshaken as eternal hills, Immovable she stands,
A mountain that shall fill the earth, A house not made by hands."

It certainly is a comfort to know that Christ's kingdom is invincible. Though the U.S. is making bold, aggressive statements of their intentions, we know that the fate of our country could well be as was expressed in our opening devotional yesterday: Rev. l8:9-l0, "The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, 'Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.'"

EB