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I THINK THE LORD MUST BE IN NEW YORK CITY

"Osama bin Laden thanked Almighty Allah and bowed before him when he heard the news," according to a Palestinian journalist. An American TV preacher suggested that God removed His hand of protection because of abortionists and homosexual activists. Where WAS God on the morning of September 11?

How many of you have been sitting on the edge of your bed, glued to your TV, and watching as a young bride shows the TV anchor a photo from her scrapbook? "This is my husband Jim. He was on the 83rd floor that morning. Here he is at Natalie's third birthday. He's a great dad. He plays ‘horsy' with all the neighborhood kids. And I'm three months pregnant." Since Tuesday morning, September 11, we've all had that indescribable ache, the tears, the realization that many friends will never come home, and the fear that things will never be like they were before.

And along with the sorrow – anger. A young man walked into a U.S. Marine recruiting station a few days after those attacks on the World Trade Center towers. "Where do I sign up?" he asked. And then he added this one-sentence explanation of his motivation. "I just want to kill someone."

And you know, if all of us who are surviving Americans let our emotions run free, there would very likely be 100 million new inductees in the armed services. It's a knee-jerk reaction to want to hit back when you've been hit.
This is a difficult, painful, agonizing time for citizens of this land, and really, for citizens of the world. Innocent people from 62 countries died in those attacks on September 11. And those of us who simply have thoughts of revenge, who struggle with spiritual questions, who are harboring nothing more devastating than moral confusion, need to remember those who have actually lost the very ones they love. In more than five thousand homes today, there is an empty bed and unused clothes hanging in the closet. A bare place at the supper table. Some of us ought to be profoundly and humbly grateful that all we're missing is a plank or two from our theological platform.

Standing in the shadow of such overwhelming destruction, and with so many emotions ripping at our souls, what can we possibly say in just a few minutes? Prayers, of course. Compassion. Tears. Bible promises. These we have in abundance, and thank God for them.

But you know, friend, really, the most important, the overriding, concern has to be this: What do we think about God during these days of doubt? Where is He? How does HE feel? How should we feel about Him?

Immediately following the events of Black Tuesday, we began to warn each other: Let's not strike back at the wrong party. Let's not hate the wrong enemy. People of Arabic descent are not to blame. Followers of Islam are not at fault. Men with certain types of names in their passport are not automatically guilty; women wearing headdresses who take their small children to an Islamic preschool are not presumed killers. President Bush and other responsible leaders have vowed to carefully and prudently and responsibly find the right people, the responsible parties, and move against them and only them.

And we need to do the same thing as we gaze up at the stars and beyond the stars to wonder what God is about these days. And since September 11, some have questioned whether this was possibly an act of God's vengeance. How should we view it?

It seems to me that A. W. Tozer's observations in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, can guide us.

"What comes into our minds," he writes, "when we think about God is the most important thing about US. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God." On the next page, he adds these telling words, so painful now as we think about the religious motives of those who may have done these unspeakable deeds of terror: "There is scarcely an error in doctrine OR A FAILURE IN APPLYING CHRISTIAN ETHICS that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God."

Right away you may observe that the men piloting those planes to their shameful rendezvous were not applying Christian ethics at all, but prostituted principles of a different religion. True enough. But in the Christian world, too, are we thinking accurately about God in the aftermath of September 11?
It made news when, right after this happened, a leading American evangelist appeared on Pat Robertson's 700 Club and said that this devastation was because of "pagans, abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, the ACLU, and the People for the American Way." Not only that, but God had actively moved to punish America as a nation because these evil elements had worked to secularize the country; He had "lifted the curtain of protection on our nation." To his credit, the minister involved apologized four days later for his unwise remarks.

And it falls to all of us, in these quiet moments of post-crisis reflection, to ask ourselves: Would the righteous God, who in II Peter 3:9 says He is unwilling for any to perish, who wants everyone to find their way to repentance and salvation, work through an Osama bin Laden to punish a secular America? If God, who knows all things, was trying to target abortion activists and feminists for punishment, then why did those toppling towers wipe out so many innocent children instead, like little Dana and Zoe Falkenberg? Why was Chaplain Mychal Judge, a devout Franciscan priest, killed as he delivered last rites to a fireman? Is heaven's justice system as flawed as the ones we bemoan down here below?

An Internet article was going around, giving voice to thoughts many of us have probably had, where New York City seemed to be the epicenter of sin and selfishness. X-rated theaters and a growing skyline of selfish skyscrapers. Proud owners and builders like the World Trade Center's Minoru Yamasaki were constructing these mighty edifices to bring glory to themselves. They were wasting millions of dollars that might have brought relief and comfort to the poor and homeless. And then it was suggested, in the next paragraph, that the Lord's hand had been moved to destroy the high towers.

Friend, I say it with great humility and with spiritual self-distrust: Let's be extremely cautious just now before we move to say what God will do beyond what His Word says He will do. The deaths of September 11 were not God's doing. Yes, in His undefeatable love, He now reacts powerfully through this tragedy to draw people to Himself. Yes, this dark moment can serve as a lesson to all of us — to treasure one another, to share His truth more diligently, to trust only in Him and not in our Wall Street portfolios. But friend, those suicide air flights were not ordained by God. He wept along with all of us as the innocent lives were abruptly snuffed out in those horrible fireballs.

It's clear and absolute truth that the Word of God promises destruction to the enemies of God in the last days. Revelation is filled with apocalyptic language that sounds eerily identical to the CNN reports of this momentous event. But when God moves to punish the rebels of this world in the final showdown, He won't miss. He won't indiscriminately bomb His children along with the wanton destroyers of His children.

Where was God on Tuesday, September 11? In the hands and hearts of the firemen who gave their lives. The volunteers who stood in line to give blood. The millions of good New Yorkers and Washingtonians who sacrificed and prayed and determined to renew their living for Him and for their fellow men. That's where God was — and where He will eternally be.