Thoughts in Light of 9/11
I have just taken a few more moments to reflect upon the atrocity of 9/11. I heard a text that really makes me think back upon what happened and what to think in light of it. The text is Luke 13:1-8
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There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Many people ask where was God when 9/11 occured? Why did this happened? Why didn’t God stop it from happening? Those are tough questions to ponder and quite frankly, I don’t know. But upon reading this text, something struck me. We are appalled when innocent people die. In something that atrocious, we are disgusted and upset. I’ll never forget the look of my high school business teacher and super intendent when I saw for the first time the TV that morning. My class could barely take the quiz we had planned that day. I asked those very same questions.
But are we focusing upon the right thing? Are we supposed to become awestruck by the death of the innocent? I don’t know if that is the reason why these things happen. Look at the text above. There are two tragic events that occurred in Jewish history. Pilate was cruel to the Jewish people. He was noted for his multiple attacks upon the Jewish people. It was so bad that he was warned by the emperor under pain of death to stop. The people want to know from Jesus what he thought about those tragic events. Jesus answer was, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” He said yes they are dead, but unless you repent, you will too! In other words, your alive! Be thankful that your not and turn to God in repentance. Turn to God in grace and live!
He even goes one step farther in v. 4-5, “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” We are all sinners. We should have all been in the tower of Siloam. We should have all been in the World Trade Center that day. We should have all perished with those who died. Not only so, we should have received a thousand times worse! But we didn’t! God was gracious to us who did not die! We lived! Why? Not because we were better but so that we might repent!
Our focus now needs to be on the fact that we are alive and not dwell upon the dead. This does not mean that we cannot morn our dead. That needs to happen. They were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, and cousins. They were loved deeply and should be missed deeply. But you are alive that you might repent and trust in God this day. This thought wieghs heavily upon me as I think over the last five years and what has happened to the world.
Where was God? He was in control the whole time. Could he have stopped it? Yes, but he had a reason for it. Is he less loving? No he isn’t. You and I are still alive to repent and turn to him before we suffer our just punishment. Turn and trust him now.
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Why I am a Calvinist, pt. 2
Well, about March of 2005, I decided to put all of my questions about Calvinism to rest and to prove that it was false. How was I going to do this? I was going to study the “prooftexts” (ie Romans 9:1-23; Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:4-6, 11-12) and show how they don’t teach Calvinism. I was raised not to believe it and so I set out to show why I was right. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought myself a composition notebook, which I still have to this day, grabbed my NRSV, NASB, and NIV Bibles and my Strong’s Concordance to look into the Greek language. I even went to Study Light.org to get help with verb tenses.
So I dedicated the next month to just studying my Bible and to see what the text says. I started with the prayer, “Lord, teach me the truth of these passages that I may know you more fully and worship you deeper than I ever had.” So from March 26 through April 26, I spent four hours of every day studying these passages. I was not preaching every Sunday so I could take this time to write down my thoughts. Every night I prayed the same prayer. I turned off all radio sermons, for I love to listen to Bott Radio because of all of the preachers, for that whole month to make sure that it was just God and myself and his word. I stopped reading any book that wasn’t required. I just studied my Bible for hours. I tried to through in the curve ball of why pray. I threw inthe knuckle ball of why witness. I thought up of every question that I could to refute the doctrines. I even studied texts that were to refute Calvinism, such as Ezekiel 33:18 and John 3:16. All so I could vindicate my beliefs. This was dangerous to do because I was in risk of reading my own non-calvinistic assumptions into the texts. I knew that and that’s why I prayed. I believe that God guarded my heart against those assumptions.
But God would not have it that way. He answered all of my questions from the text. Prayer isn’t so much about changing God as it is me. God answers prayer not because I convinced him to but because he promised. I witness because I don’t know who God has chosen. I witness because Christ told me. Romans 9 teaches unconditional election. Romans 8 only works if the chain is secure with the full force of meaning for each word, not numbing them down to just a plan. I came away with these convictions.
Romans 9 and Ephesians 1 were pretty cut and dry. But Romans 8 I almost got away with. The link between calling and justification threw me. If justification is by faith in Romans 5:1 and 10:10, then why is it here that those who get called are being justified. I thought that God called all to repentance. John Piper calls the calling in Rom. 8:29 “the watershed” of the whole theology in those three verses. In my concordance I saw 1 Corinthians 1:23-24. There the word was preached and the Jews and Greeks did not believe. But in v. 24, the Jews and Greeks who were called believed. I saw for the first time two different calls in Scripture. That the “drawing” in John 6:44 and the “granting” in 6:65 might mean more than just wooing. After all, the word for draw in John 6:44 is used by James 2:6 to “drag” people to court. My eyes were opened by all of this new revelation. I finally saw Acts 13:48 for what it really said, those appointed to eternal life were the ones who believed. I finally was able to stop avoiding all of these verses because they taught Calvinistic doctrine and embraced them.
I didn’t refute anything. I was rebuked. I avoided parts of the Bible because they taught something in my 21st century world that I didn’t believe. I was taught something that my word pictures didn’t agree with. I was not reading all of God’s words but only that which I selected. My love for the Bible has increased since then. I prayed to God thanking him for the revelation he had given me.
But I didn’t know just what to do with it. I didn’t know how to proceed. I was greatful for the insight, but I will admit, I was scared by this. What should I do? That’s when I had a car wreck and I was given ten questions to answer. But more on that tomorrow.
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