"Did God Spread His Protective Fingers Just a Little on 9/11?"

by  Carl F. Worden

      Christian icons Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson
are in a lot of hot water from FOX's Bill O'Reilly and Linda Vester,
both of which scolded them both seethingly when Falwell
appeared on Robertson's show and opined that God
had withheld His protective hand from America
during the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York
and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

Robertson lent his agreement to Falwell's comments during the broadcast,
so they were both held in equal contempt by the FOX duo.

      O'Reilly, normally the best informed and balanced of interviewers,
insisted that no one could know the mind of God,
therefore delegating Falwell and Robertson to the realm
of extremist Christian bigots whose collective credibility
had been shattered in one fell swoop.

      Is this true?
Are we humans barred from knowing the mind of God?
Are we incapable of understanding the mind of our Creator?
Not if you read the Bible.

      Allow me to introduce you to the mind of God, Mr. O'Reilly, in His own words.
Here is true God describing His person in Exodus chapter 20, verses 3-6:

      In those verses,
God demands His children worship Him exclusively above all others.
Those who violate His commandments will not only suffer for their personal sin,
but God will pass the penalty of that sin on to the third and forth generations of their progeny that follow.
However, He also promises to show mercy
to the thousands of them that love Him IF they keep His commandments.

      And how do we prove our love for God our father?
Jesus said all in John Chapter 15, verse 14:
If ye love me, keep my commandments.

      Have we kept God's commandments as a nation?
No way, and we're getting worse at it every day.
I believe it was Billy Graham's wife who said something to the effect that
if God did not punish us for the ungodly condition we have delved down to,
He would have to apologize to the victims of Sodom and Gomorra.

      Here's another interesting passage, Bill.
We find God's own words spoken here in Exodus chapter 34, verses 10-11:

      Here we see that God is in absolute control of war's outcome.
He promises Moses that his rag-tag army of Israel
will defeat not only one superior force arrayed against them,
but six which stand in their way to the Promised Land of Israel.
God did and continues to do this only because He glorifies Himself
and His omnipotent power through and by His children who are obedient to Him.

      The opposite is also true.
Whenever the people of Israel rebelled against God,
He allowed their enemies to overthrow and defeat them.
God is far more concerned with our spiritual condition than our physical condition,
and He knows that it is the times of hardship and threat
that we suddenly drop all our horrid sinfulness and come scurrying back to Him.
After the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
thousands of absentees suddenly showed up at church, and it wasn't even Easter.
Go figure.

      Now, I don't pretend to know the entire mind of God.
His mysterious ways have always surprised and delighted me,
but when God Himself not only states His position in word,
but also in deed,
I think the average bear like O'Reilly ought to wake up and smell the toast.

      We have been amazingly lucky as a nation.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was intended to catch our entire Pacific Fleet at berth,
and those ships caught at anchor did indeed get shot up and sank,
but our aircraft carriers were safely at sea on maneuvers when the Japanese struck,
and many of those aircraft carriers played important parts in the eventual defeat of Japan.

      So did God withhold His protective hand from the United States
when the terrorists struck on 9/11,
or did He simply spread His fingers slightly to allow some of the evil ones through?
It could have been worse -- a whole lot worse.
One thing I do know:
God is in absolute control,
no matter how big and powerful and technologically advanced we think we are.
It is He who decides the outcome of human conflict.
It is He who decides whether we are worthy of protecting,
      and so we must do a great deal of soul-searching
to determine whether we are worthy of His protection or not,
and to make corrections if we find ourselves wanting in His sight.

This "American Wisdom Series" pamphlet

is

Published by:

Rhine Publishing Co.
E-mail address - americanwisdomseries@verizon.net

If you would like to have your essay published
as part of the American Wisdom Series
submit your manuscript to Rhine Publishing Co
at the address above for consideration, or e-mail us
at the address shown on our home page.

Click Here to Return to "The American Wisdom Series" home page.