9-11 Interpreted

By David Hobbs

The most eye-opening book I have read in a long time is The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. Reading that book is to see current events from God’s perspective (and aren’t we all praying for that?). The whole book is a prophetic explanation of 9-11. If you accept it as true (and I could find no way to refute it), then on this its 11th anniversary, it is tragic that nearly everyone--whether commentators, talk show hosts, Democrats, Republicans, or average Americans--is missing the point.

I heard a caller on a national talk show say that he was going to remember 9-11 by “working hard at my 9-5 job, coming home, getting a beer, putting my feet up on the recliner, and watching my favorite sports team on TV.” That, he averred, would be an “in-your-face” to our Jihadi tormentors. That’s because we are seeing 9-11 as a declaration of war from the Jihadists against us and our way of life. And so we respond by fighting back to defeat them and hold onto our way of life.

In doing so we are missing the real message! It was not about a sneak attack from people who hate and want to destroy us. Rather it was a “shot across the bow” from the God we claim as our God. (Remember Him? The One we have left out of our American Way of Life!) Patriotism is fine, but in this case it is the totally wrong response. God is not an American; nor is He a patriot. In this the Republicans are just as off as the Democrats. Replacing the twin towers with buildings even taller and grander as an “in-your-face” to the jihadists is 180 degrees the wrong response! It only guarantees that severer judgments will come. Read The Harbinger. It’s explained there better than I could hope to in this post.

Then what is the right response? The only right response is national repentance and returning to God. We got it almost right briefly after 9-11: churches filled, prayer meetings sprang up everywhere, even in “prohibited” places like schools and governmental meetings. The ACLU was baffled and powerless. But they needn’t have worried. We soon fell back to our old, backslidden ways.

But if national repentance is the only right response, where is that message being declared? Not by the Democrats; not by the Republicans (even by national profile, Christian Republicans [when was the last time you heard Rick Santorum or Mike Huckabee call for national repentance?]), not by Christian organizations like Focus on the Family; I don’t even hear it from preachers with national preaching platforms. Rick Perry (governor of Texas) came the closest (bravo!), calling a year ago for a statewide prayer meeting to address America’s problems and inviting the other governors to attend. Of course he was savagely attacked in the press. (The American Family Assoc. sponsored it, so bravo for them too!)

To Christians it’s become all about issues: abortion, same-sex marriage, morality in the media, prayer in schools, etc. But these issues (all of which feature us as the good guys and others as the villains) are also warnings from God like 9-11 was. They are the pain that warns us something is wrong with the body. But we’re spending our time trying to alleviate the pain, rather than healing the sickness the pain is warning about.

The issue is not defending America from fundamentalist Muslims; it’s not about outlawing abortion or bringing prayer back to the schools. We could do all those things and still be in just as much danger of divine judgment as we are now. We have to address the core issue: America has gone its own way from God. America is backslidden. That’s the issue we need to face. If we want to address other issues, let’s deal with ones where the church is failing: e.g., Christians’ divorce rate being equal to the world’s, or Christians’ “holier than thou” attitude toward unbelievers that is a stench in God’s nostrils.

The Democrat rank and file was happy to kick God completely off their platform (though their leadership “restored” Him). But what is worse: the Democrat desire to be done with God completely, or the Republican’s giving Him lip service while ignoring His demands? In Luke 6:46 Jesus asked a question which still stands today, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” And in Matt.15:8-9 Jesus quoted a prophecy from Isaiah--“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”

Christians have so totally bought into the notion that America must stay secular for the sake of “tolerance and diversity” that we have abdicated our prophetic role of calling the people (including our own!) back to God and warning of impending judgments. But we have the example of the Southern Kingdom of Israel, as The Harbinger makes clear. She resisted all God’s efforts to call her back until His judgment fell and she was carried into captivity by Assyria (never to return!). The one thing we don’t know is if Israel had people running around preaching that Israel must remain a secular nation in the years preceding her national destruction.

America, like Israel, was not founded as a secular nation. She was founded dedicated to God as a “city on a hill”--a witness to the nations! But like Israel, she has reneged on her heavenly calling and sought to become  like the other nations. God will not allow that! If we don’t return to our heavenly calling, we face losing our cherished nation and the American Way of Life.

The Southern kingdom of Israel vanished from history. What will be America’s fate if she refuses God’s warnings as well?