9/11 - A FADING MEMORY?

The anniversary of 9/11 has just gone by this week-end with very little mention – at least in Britain! The U.S.A.’s most famous opera singer made mention of it publically in between her songs at the last night of the Proms (which was the actual anniversary date) but it received a muted response.

Of course, in life we need to move on and get over things, bad things especially. But there are some things that really need to be remembered, and 9/11 is one of them. The primary reason for that is that it came with a massive prophetic edge (whatever your definition of the prophetic may be). Right at the beginning of the new century it seemed like a great sign post, a great pointer to the future, a warning sign.

Thinking of the event in retrospect, and retrospective thinking is generally more valuable than immediate response thinking, a particular pattern or interpretation has been in my mind. It comes from the fact that in what was a three-pronged attack the twin towers were completely destroyed, the Pentagon was partially destroyed and the White House escaped.
The twin towers were the epitome of the financial/business world; floor after floor was involved in wheeling and dealing. It was a world in which greed and profit were the motivators. Then the unthinkable, the unimaginable happened – both towers completely collapsed. Such a total catastrophe beggared belief. It is the totality of the collapse that needs to be remembered. When we see what has happened to the financial world in the nine years that have elapsed since 9/11 the startling prophetic nature of the event itself becomes starker than ever. For the financial world has almost hit ground zero; one more collapse and it will. It’s as though the towers symbolised the reality, and the reality itself has now virtually collapsed, propped up in a very shaky and uncertain manner. Many fear a ground zero scenario.

On 9/11 the Pentagon, the symbol and seat of U.S. military power, took a severe knock. Once again the last nine years have seen a further playing out of that event; the American military has taken a severe and very expensive knock in its exploits in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was 9/11 that drew the might of the U.S. unwisely into those wars, exposed the severe limitations of “overwhelming power”, and gave a severe dent to overweening pride.

But the White House escaped. I am not sure what that really points to. However, I must admit that it makes me breathe a sigh of relief; some real political horror was not permitted to happen. I can only hope that if the White House is the symbol of a political system based on freedom and the rule of law then somehow in the years that lie ahead this huge (if imperfect) blessing we have of a free society may be allowed to continue.
We remain totally at the mercy of God. He is knocking very severely at the doors of our western society.

Bob

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"GOD GAVE THEM OVER"

These four words, “He gave them over” are repeated three times in the opening chapter of Romans. They refer to God’s action toward human beings when they deliberately turn their backs on a Creator God whom they instinctively know to be righteous.

What does he give them over to? First, “He gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another" 1:24; second, “He gave them over to shameful lusts. Even the women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones" 1:26; third, “He gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done … filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity”1:28-29.

The consequences outlined so clearly by Paul are the result of a basic denial of God and his restraints in favour of an unfettered pursuit of personal desires. In allowing such consequences God also allows man’s own choices to be his judgement.

Perhaps the most astonishing feature about this analysis of Paul is the marked emphasis of being “given over” to sexual depravity. When humanity turns its back on God there is an explosion of sexual chaos. It is not the only consequence, as verses 29ff make plain, but it is a first and very pronounced consequence. It is an explosion which goes beyond loose and indiscriminate sexual relations and goes into “unnatural relations”. Once the sexual urge is off the lease it goes deeper and deeper into all kinds of aberrations.

Nationally (and generally in the West), since the 1960s we have been witnessing a profound and agonising vindication of this analysis of Paul. Over those last 50 years (a half-century!) we have seen an ever increasing rejection of the Righteous God, an increasing pursuit of personal pleasure, and an ever increasing explosion of sexual chaos (the limits of which, one suspects, have not yet been reached!). If, as the secularists are always reminding us, we need evidence to support Christian analysis, then here is very hard evidence.

For us the challenge is clear – “You are light in the Lord. Live as children of light” Eph 5:8. God in Christ is alone able to keep us from corruption.


Bob

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JUDGEMENT AND JOY

I will not be posting a column during August, and the next column will be on Tuesday 7th September. It seems good to end the current series on a positive note, despite the seriousness of things happening around us. I am prompted to this by Habakkuk who struggled and grappled with the decadent state of his nation, and quivered at the threats God was making to it, and yet whose collected prophecies end on a note of joy. His words have resounded over many centuries now: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine(marks of devastation and destruction)yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour....He enables me to go on the heights”. It’s much more than a “grin and bear it” attitude to trouble; it’s an embracing of the antidote of joy.

Habakkuk had come to a point where the sources of human joy had dried up. Humanly there was very little to look forward to in the nation; quite the contrary. Pessimism and depression seemed the inevitable response to the natural situation. But there in front of him was the “joy of the Lord”. Like Nehemiah he found that the joy of the Lord was his strength.

What is the joy of the Lord? It is joy that springs from that assured knowledge that God is a living God, and that despite difficult present circumstances he offers a future, a hope and a present strength. It is a joy that comes from knowing that nothing can separate us from the love of God. There is a great deal of this sentiment in the prophetic writings: God’s love for his people, God’s love for the nations, God’s purposes of redemption, God’s present help and care.

It’s a joy, therefore, that is anchored in our faith in the love of God.
Perhaps one of the greatest expressions of this is to be found in another prophet, Zephaniah: “The lord your God is with you; he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing”. Zeph. 3:17

May God fill you with such joy! Refresh yourself in Him!


Bob

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