Biblical Perspectives on the Twin Towers

Driving home: In the midst of the shock, the rubble, the human carnage, the incalculable devastation, many are asking, where was God in all of these things? We ask ourselves and one another, is there any word from God as we seek to fi…

The collapsing Twin Towers are compared to castles in the sand dashed by a breaking wave, emphasizing their sudden and complete destruction.

Airplanes slamming into massive structures of steel and glass. Huge fireballs leaping upward to the sky. Buildings collapsing. Buildings collapsing.

1:55 - 2:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In the midst of the shock, the rubble, the human carnage, the incalculable devastation, many are asking, where was God in all of these things? We ask ourselves and one another, is there any word from God as we seek to fi…

The horrifying scenes of the tragedy are contrasted with Hollywood's clever use of special effects, highlighting the real-time, real-people, and eternal consequences of the actual events.

Buildings collapsing. Like castles in the sand when dashed by a breaking wave. Screaming masses of humanity running for safety amidst choking billows of smoke and clouds of pulverized debris. Such scenes witnessed before in Hollywood's clever use of special effects film technology.

2:05 - 2:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Hear carefully the biblical perspectives concerning the tragedy of the Twin Towers.

The hymn is quoted to introduce the fundamental questions of human existence ('whence I came' and 'what I am'), which the Bible answers and the tragedy validates.

Children love to sing the children's hymn in our hymn book, entitled Holy Bible, Book Divine. It goes like this. Holy Bible, Book Divine, precious treasure thou art mine, mine to tell me whence I came, mine to teach me what I am. Two of the most fundamental questions that any human being can ask of himself.

4:28 - 4:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Man made in the image of God, Genesis 1 and 2, is man who fell from God, Genesis chapter 3. And he can be in one sense so God-like as to take our breath away, and so devil-like as to make us one.

A story of a man who used to admire the Twin Towers from a park bench, asking 'What has man wrought?' and then asked the same question amidst their ruin, illustrating the dual nature of man.

And this came through the announcement... One of the announcements yesterday used to come and before he went into work, sit on a bench and look at the Twin Towers and say, What has man wrought?

8:25 - 8:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The murder of the Son of God was foreordained by the living God, and without in any way being tainted as the cause of sin. Almighty God governs sin, and all of its actions by His own sovereign will and decree.

Martin recounts asking students what the most unjust deed ever was, leading to the answer 'The murdering of the Son of God,' which then sets up the discussion of God's sovereignty over even this evil act.

And in the book of Acts, we have one of the most marvelous statements of this truth, that God is the absolute sovereign, governing all men and all their actions. In the chapel period yesterday at Trinity Christian School, I asked the kids, I said, What was the most unjust, cruel, heartless, murderous deed ever perpetrated on the face of the earth? And one of the young women answered correctly, The murdering of the Son of God. Nothing was more cruel, more undeserved, more unjust.

10:43 - 11:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If this is not true, no Christian has any right to take comfort from Romans 8.28. And we know that all, all things are working together for good to those that love God, to those who are the called according to His purpos…

Examples of people who, by human reasoning, should have died in the tragedy but were providentially delayed (flat tire, sick relative, long discussion), illustrating God's sovereign control over life and death.

And we know that all, all things are working together for good to those that love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. If God does not control every single thing, how can we be assured that all things are working together in any way, let alone working together for our good? And in days to come, if the Lord spares us, we will read and we will hear reports of people, of people who will mark this tragedy as the open door to their coming into a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. We will hear of those who, by all human reasoning, ought to have been in one of those buildings o...

13:36 - 15:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: They will see an angry God whose person in law they've despised and a glorified Christ who is coming in judgment, and they realize this is no mass of rubble that can merely crush my physical frame. This is the living God…

The image of masses running from the smoke and destruction is used to ask what it would mean if they turned back, illustrating the greater terror of facing God's wrath on the Day of the Lord.

in His hands and governs the actions of all His creatures. Thirdly, the tragedy of the Twin Towers, not only validates the biblical doctrine of man, not only is it a manifestation of the absolute sovereignty of God, but thirdly, the tragedy of the Twin Towers is an adumbration, that is, a prefiguration of the coming of the day of the Lord. In 1 Thessalonians 1, the apostle says to believers, chapter 1, verse 7, You that are afflicted, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His holy angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the...

15:03 - 16:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be deluded by the hypocrisy of selective morality, especially regarding abortion.

A hypothetical scenario where someone defends the terrorists' 'right' to express political views amidst a pile of victims' bodies, illustrating the outrage such selective morality would provoke.

And I've been sickened as I've seen the unfolding of the hypocrisy of selective morality. And let me explain what I mean. What would you think of a man if he were able to engineer, and I trust this does not open up unnecessary wounds in anyone hearing my voice, but I believe we need to think in this biblical category. If all those who will eventually be discovered dead as a result of these tragedies were all gathered and their bodies heaped in one place there in southern Manhattan, what would happen to the man who would dare to stand in the midst with a bullhorn and say, take no real concern a...

19:42 - 20:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be deluded by the hypocrisy of selective morality, especially regarding abortion.

A gruesome hypothetical scene of 40 million aborted fetuses piled up, challenging the nation to defend a 'woman's right to kill her baby' with the same fervor as condemning terrorism, exposing the hypocrisy.

But I want to take you to a more gruesome scene. All the bodies have been removed and buried. And we are able to gather in one place every bloody fetus ripped from the womb of a mother. Pile up 40 million of them since Roe v. Wade.

20:54 - 21:18 Read in full sermon