Four Years Later –A Look Back To The Day of Terror
(preached on 9/11/05)
Revelation 18:8-20
“Literally, as I type this sermon, I am listening over my shoulder to Jane Pauley reporting on two school children who were aboard the flight which slammed into the Pentagon.
Her question is everyone’s question: Why did these children have to die? Why did any of this happen?
“Recent events in our country have changed the way we look at things”…a commercial roars.
September 11, 2001 is the new “day that will live in infamy”. “Where were you when it all came down?” is new question that will live for the next couple of generations.
Reality has set in…things are different. We will never go back to the America of September 10, 2001.
Many of us are just now being able to assimilate these events.”
The above was an introduction to a Wednesday evening sermon that I delivered on September 19, 2001. It was one week following the tragic day that lives in our hearts and in our national memory, and it was four years ago, today.
The America of today is far different than the country we knew and lived in four years ago. This Friday Angie and I will tackle the airport for the first time since that day when transportation changed forever.
Today, when you ride through downtown Atlanta, one of the police cruisers you will likely see is marked “Department of Homeland Security.” We’ve become quite accustomed to color-coded alerts, and our men are still fighting in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
We were so sure that within days of 9/11 Bin Laden would be in custody and awaiting a certain death for the atrocities. Yet, the mastermind of the plot is still at large.
Four years later we pay three dollars a gallon for gas for our ten miles to the gallon SUV’s, we vacation in the Caribbean and we are more prosperous than we were four years ago. Things have actually gotten better, it would seem.
I remember reading of the “surge” in church attendance and people all over seeking answers following 9-11-01. Yet, as a nation are we any closer to God and turning back to Him than we were then?
It was one of those events that you will always remember where you were, when you heard the news.
I was running late for work that day, and I was walking up through Five Points in Atlanta hurrying to my office after running some errands before work. It happened as I shuffled up the street, surely muttering under my breath and anticipating that steaming cup of Starbucks that lay in my immediate future.
I decided to pop in the office and get my messages and put my brief case down before going for my Starbucks. I never made it to the coffee. One of my employees came quickly to the office and told me “Mark, a plane has just hit the World Trade Center.”
Immediate denial: “Must have been a tiny Cessna off course and confused. Tragic, very tragic. The pilot is surely dead, but maybe the people at the Center weren’t at work yet on the floor where he hit. I hope no one was killed by the falling debris.”
“Lord please touch the people who have been hurt there…and may the damage and pain be minimal, Amen. Ok, could you bring me that folder-I have to make some calls after I check my email.”
That coffee was sounding better and better and I was almost sure I could smell it. Maybe it was that empty Starbucks cup sitting on the desk from yesterday.
Then we heard on another of my employee’s desk radio-it was a 747 that had hit the World Trade Center. I ran to retrieve a small television we kept in a closet. By the time we could get it set up in the common area, and the rabbit ears adjusted to bring in a signal…we heard the news…a second jet airliner has slammed into Tower Two-and the thick, black smoke that we all can see in our minds was now billowing into the New York sky. The networks were now replaying the video over, and over. By now, no one believed this was random or accidental.
A small crowd had gathered outside my office, as it became very clear that work had taken a back seat. No supervisors were hollering “get back to work.” We all gathered around in surreal silence, which was broken by an occasional gasp and some muffled discussion. One lady was crying because one of her best friends worked at the World Trade Center.
I’ll never in my life forget the feeling, the sheer horror that shot through my soul as my co-workers and I watched the North tower crumble to the ground. This is a modern, STEEL building…it can’t fall like that! That’s an impossibility! That building is designed to withstand anything! Sure, you can take out a couple of floors, or even lop off the entire top with the right force…but the thing CANNOT FALL!
Something unmovable, unshakeable, a marvel of modern engineering-and possibly THE monument, the icon of American Prosperity-a major nerve center of financial America-has fallen!
No one had thought of a Boeing 747 with a suicide bomber on jihad being used as a live guided missile. No one had banked upon high grade jet fuel streaming down elevator shafts like blood through veins and sending astronomical temperature, steel melting heat throughout the infrastructure of a building that wasn’t supposed to fall.
Every time I read through the book of Revelation, I picture the burning World Trade Center in my minds eye as I read the apocalyptic vision which is sure to happen at a later date-
Revelation 18:8-20
(8) Therefore her plagues will come in one day--death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.
(9) "The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning,
(10) standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ’Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
(11) And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore:
(12) merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble;
(13) and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men.
(14) The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all.
(15) The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
(16) and saying, ’Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!
(17) For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance
(18) and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ’What is like this great city?’
(19) They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ’Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’
(20) Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles [99] and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!"
Notice that judgment will come suddenly.
It will be noticed by the entire world-system, they will weep for her! She was fun!
It will be executed against the economic system-godless Mammon which will drive that Anti-Christ government and society. It’s where the world’s trust is.
It will be consumed in one hour!
All the “fruit” that Babylon produced will be consumed.
The smoke will rise and people will cry out.
Certainly the World Trade Center attacks of 9-11 were not an immediate fulfillment of this prophecy which will be literally fulfilled in the future as the earth groans under the wrath of God in the Great Tribulation. They were unjust and perpetrated by men motivated from hell itself.
Yet, I believe that we can see an object lesson towards the future; a possible pre-cursor of the wrath of God that is to come upon this earth.
What do you trust? What do you consider unshakeable, unmovable?
Is your family unshakable? Is your bank account, however large or small it may be, unmovable?
Are you trusting in temporal things? In your security, your job, your equity? Perhaps you are trusting in a relationship with a fallible human.
Perhaps ultimately you place your trust in the hands of your government. Surely your government will protect you? We are watching a living drama play before our eyes even now as raging barbarians demand that their government deliver them to “peace and safety” in the aftermath of Katrina. President Bush is taking much unfounded and unfair criticism for the Federal Government’s reaction to Katrina.
While we love our country and honor those who fight for freedom on a daily basis, and we support and thank God for a Christian President-we would be remiss if we did not preach and teach that ultimately-government will fail you.
Revelation 18 is a prophetic picture of the absolute certain end of human governments and systems…the World System, the Great Whore of Babylon will destruct in a single day as God allows it to consume itself.
And something that is unshakeable, unmovable, something that cannot fall, something that will always protect and keep the citizenry safe and at peace…
Will fall, in a New York minute!
Even in tragedy, even in a demonic attack motivated by Satan himself, the Sovereign Lord of the Universe has His will and His way-and He speaks to us four years later…
What are you trusting in? What is unshakable?
A simple Psalm of David says:
Psalm 20:5-9
(5) We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
(6) Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand.
(7) Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
(8) They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright.
(9) Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call.
Exodus 17:15
(15) And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-Lord-Is-My-Banner; (Jehovah Nissi)
Isaiah 11:9-10
(9) They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.
(10) "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."
Conclusion:
As we look to the future, what do we see?
Today is the day we must decide, where will our trust be placed?
Will we trust in the Name of the Lord our God-to be our banner?
Will we turn as a people to Him, trusting only in Him?
What will we do and how will react when the next “unmovable” object falls like a house of straw?
Where will you turn when your world is turning and burning and smoke billows towards the air?
