Sep
01
2008
Was 9/11 God's Judgment Upon America?
“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.”
- Jesus to the people (Luke 13:4-5)
As Christians, we can be very quick to interpret others’ circumstances as either the blessing or judgment of God. We tend to equate earthly success to heavenly blessing and earthly tragedy to heavenly punishment.
Jesus’ comment about the tower in Siloam falling and killing 18 people in Jerusalem has eerie parallels to the two New York towers falling at the hands of terrorists on September 11, 2001. After the attacks, some pastors and preachers rushed to judgment, claiming that the terrorism represented God’s judgment against us for sins like homosexuality. (If that is the case, why didn’t San Francisco or Hollywood get hit?) Others categorically denied any link between God’s judgment and the terrorist attacks.
It would be unwise to ignore the fact that our nation was struck in two places that symbolize what often represents a source of American idolatry. We are a people who trust in our economic power (symbolized by the World Trade Center towers) and our military might (symbolized by the Pentagon fortress). Could it be that the terrorist attacks did in some way represent the judgment of God against our nationalistic idolatries?
Jesus gives us no answer to such questions. When talking about the tower in Siloam, the one person who could have definitively given the rationale for such senseless disaster chose not to. Instead, he shifted the focus back to his listeners and called them to repentance.
If we were to ask Jesus today about the reason for September 11, I suspect he would ask the same question and give the same response for us today: “Or those 3000 on whom the towers in New York fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in New York?” Were those that died in New York any worse than us? Aren’t we just as bad? Why did it happen only to them?
Once the focus is back on us and not on those who lost their lives in the tragedy, we are ready to soak in the next and more important statement. “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Christ’s call to repentance is not based on tragedy, on human judgment, or on avoidance of an earthly misfortune. He centers his call of repentance against the backdrop of the coming judgment in which all who have not repented will perish.
In a time when people are searching for answers and wanting to know why God allowed the tragedy to take place in New York, we should respond like Jesus. This means we will transform the national issue into a personal one and hold these two strands together - pressing home Christ’s call to repentance on the national and personal scale.
The question should no longer be “Why did God allow this to happen?” but “What is God calling me to do in response?”