Friday, January 28, 2005

The War Against Terrorism - Revenge? Justice? Or Protection?

What happened on September 11th was a terrible tragedy. The loss of life in the wars in Afganistan and Iraq is an ongoing terrible tragedy. The war against terrorism, as important as this is, must seem like small compensation to the ones who have lost their loved ones. After all, nothing will bring back the family members and friends that are no longer living, not even the deaths of the terrorists. It all feels so unfair and unjust; we are all powerless and helpless before death.
So it seems natural to ask where is God in all this? Why did He permit it to happen? I can understand how God might permit me the daily troubles and annoyances of life, but this? This kind of terrorism was not supposed to happen to us; such things never entered our minds; they were beyond the realm of possibility. For myself the myth of American invulnerability was shattered by 9-11, not only because we are the most militarily powerful nation on earth, but simply because such things don't happen to us – we're America! But of course such things do happen to us and have. So again, I ask: where is God in all this?
The simplest answer is that God is where He has always been: right in the thick of things and at the heart of every circumstance. It is not as though things happen while God is off napping somewhere or visiting some distant galaxy and He has to rush back as soon as He hears that some terrible event has happened because He wasn't paying attention. No. God has a purpose in what happens before the event ever occurs, though of course He doesn't cause the terrorists to do what they do. God doesn't merely respond to events in the world and turn them to the good – He is in control from the very beginning and nothing escapes His careful planning.
You might ask how God could have a purpose in such an utterly evil thing such as terrorism. Isn't He a God of love? Of course He is – God is not evil but completely good, loving and just. But whatever evil motivates the terrorists, God was ultimately in control of what happened on September 11th and is in control of the ongoing war on terrorism. God could act to prevent the terrorists from doing what they do, but He doesn't. Why? Because He wants us to get the consequences of our free choices. Since we are persons who are made in the image of God, He has given us freedom, the free choice to be vessels of wrath or of mercy. But our choice not only has consequences for ourselves but consequences for others. Since Adam and Eve we have been getting the consequences of our own evil choices and the consequences of the evil choices of others, and God allows these consequences in order that we might turn back to Him.
Some may have trouble believing that a God of love could have a purpose in such terrorism. But God predetermined that Jesus would be murdered at the hands of evil men, as Peter says: "this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law" (Acts 2:23). In fact, "both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:27-28). It hardly needs to be said that the most evil act in all of history was the unjust murder of Jesus on the cross. He alone is absolutely sinless (2 Cor. 5:21), and therefore the only one completely undeserving of His fate. We are all born as sinners and therefore deserve to die (Rom. 3:23, 6:23), and so if we die in some tragedy, we are after all only getting what we deserve. But Jesus didn't deserve death, and so His death was a crime of unimaginable magnitude, and yet Scripture says that it happened according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. God's purpose in Christ's death was for our salvation, despite the intentions of evil men. In fact God used their evil intentions and actions to accomplish His purpose. God didn't make these men evil; we are evil by our own choice. But given the fact that without Christ we are vessels of Satan, God simply uses us and Satan through us as His convenient agents to accomplish His plan.
If it is true that God predetermined and intended Christ's death, how much more it is true in our case. If it was "the Lord's will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer" (Isa. 53:10), how much more that must be the case when we suffer. But God's purpose is not to cause us pain as if He were some kind of cosmic sadist, but always and only for our ultimate good. As Joseph said: what human beings meant for evil, God meant for good (Gen. 50:20). The evil his brothers had intended was the convenient means by which God fulfilled His purposes. In the same way, the evil the terrorists intended was merely the convenient means by which God fulfilled His plan.
It is impossible to know all that God intends through terrorism, since for each of us God might have a different purpose through it. For unbelievers, terrorism is a warning of coming judgment and the inevitability of death for us all. Terrorism is not simply an unjust evil, but God's call to repent of their wicked, unbelieving life. As I said, death is not an undeserved event. That the means of that death is unjust and wicked makes no difference, since it is God who decides in every single case the exact time when we will die – it is not chance or luck, it is not decided by terrorists or criminals, nor by diseases or accidents. God alone is the one who decides. He is absolutely sovereign over all that occurs and over the times of our deaths, including the deaths of every single person who died in the 9-11 evil or the wars that have followed. This is a hard truth, but the people who died did so because it was their time to die. For Christians, death was an invitation to come home to be with Christ in heaven. Death is not the final word for us; we will be raised from the dead to enjoy eternal life in God's presence. For unbelievers, it was time to face God in judgment. For us who are still alive, their deaths are a warning: death comes to us all, so we need to be right with God in the present (by trusting in Christ). For believers, this tragedy of terrorism ought to spur us on to share the gospel with our unbelieving loved ones and friends, so that they don't have to face the condemnation of God.
For myself, what happens in a war against terrorism is a warning not to trust in the American myth of invulnerability, that is, in our own strength as the most powerful nation in the world. It is a powerful reminder to trust in God alone and not in our strength to protect ourselves, since ultimately our safety is in the hands of God no matter what we do to protect ourselves. This does not mean we don't take adequate steps to ensure our safety, both as individuals and as a nation, but ultimately our safety is in God's hands, as are all the events of our lives and the time of our death. God's command is that we trust His sovereign love, no matter how events appear to contradict it.
Trusting in God's sovereign love does not mean, however, that our country should be passive in the face of what has happened. Our government was given the power of the sword in order to protect its citizens (Rom. 13:4). But should we not "turn the other cheek" as Jesus commands us? First of all, this command applies to individuals, not governments. Secondly, this command simply means not to seek revenge for harm done to one's person, which God forbids. The Command not to seek revenge, however, doesn't relieve us or our government from the responsibility of protecting others from evil when we have the ability to do so. This is especially true of a government which has the God given responsibility to protect its citizens. Not to respond to and deal with the terrorists would be disobedience to God's mandate to the government – to bear the sword for the protection of the people. The failure to deal with the terrorists would mean that they would be free to continue terrorizing anyone who opposed them, and this would represent a real lack of love. Passivity and inaction in the face of evil is not love, but indifference and apathy towards our own people, and we can be grateful that our government has not chosen this sinful course of action.
Thus America's response to the terrorists would not be justifiable as mere revenge or retaliation for what was done to us, for God forbids the taking of revenge (Rom. 12:19).
Nor, despite the comments of our president and officials, should our purpose be one of justice, for how will death of the terrorists bring back our loved ones? We will have to wait until the final judgment and the resurrection from the dead for final justice.
Ultimately, our purpose in Afghanistan and Iraq should not be revenge, nor even justice, but the government legitimately acting to PROTECT its people and prevent further attacks.
But even if our government's acts to protect us are justified, this should not prevent us from looking within ourselves and asking what is it that God wishes me to see through what has happened?
Is God warning me to repent?
Is He shattering the myth of American invulnerability?
Is He reminding me of my own powerlessness before death?
God has many purposes in what happened, and probably as many purposes as there are people on earth. But each of us must ask ourselves: What does God want ME to learn from the war on terrorism?


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