Volume 39 Number 19 November 7, 2001

Terrorism! How Should We Feel About It?

Arden Thiessen

MANY PEOPLE have said that after September 11, the world will never be the same. They mean that after the horror of the New York bombings, life cannot return to the innocence of the previous days. A new era has begun. It will be a new era, they say, ushered in not by new technological marvels, new trade agreements, or new political alliances, but by the most blatant act of hate and contempt North America has ever seen. The new millennium, we are shocked to realize, could easily become a new age of crime, conflict, violence, and suffering.

Repeatedly, in those first days, as the terrible events were described and analyzed, I heard amazement at how simple and how easy it had been for the terrorists to accomplish their plan. Often one could then sense the unspoken anxiety: if this could happen, what else? Could this be the end of peace as we have known it? Will this be the pattern for the future? What is God’s will for the world in such times?

We should not have been surprised
How should Christians feel about the carnage we have witnessed? In the first place, I suggest, we should not have been surprised. Violent and intimidating acts are being used around the world to destabilize and destroy the established order. When gentler methods of persuasion fail, then angry people will resort to violence. We have heard about Hitler, Stalin, Amin, Pol Pot, and Milosevic. Bin Laden has now been added to that list. We have always preached that the human heart "is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9). Why are we surprised to see this wickedness now manifested against us here in North America?

Terrorism has been used throughout history. The Old Testament has many stories of terror. In the process of glorifying the heroics of Israel, we have often lost sight of the absolute cruelties which have been recorded. The attack and destroy tactics of Joshua’s troops must have seemed like terrorism to the Canaanites. They had nothing against these invaders from the desert; they had not even known of them until they swarmed through the Jordan and devastated their land.

The malevolence of Samson against the Philistines was expressed in a crusade of pure terror. He could not have expected to change the balance of power in Palestine by his lone hit and run tactics. His aim was to embarrass, to unsettle, to harass, and to be a pain in the neck to his Philistine neighbours. His was a campaign of vengeance, a jihad. Terrorism!

Jay Smith, a Brethren In Christ missionary to Muslim people in London, told his Steinbach audience on October 22 that when the media broadcast those pictures of the trade towers in New York collapsing, Muslim people around the world rejoiced. Even moderate Muslims, he explained, saw that as symbolic of the downfall of Western civilization. It was to them evidence that Allah was alive and that he had the power to eliminate the great Satan. That is the Muslim perspective.

I have followed with fascination the discussion in the media about the reasons for the New York attacks. The answers usually center around two contrasting views. There are those who see the carnage as an act of reprisal for American foreign policies. They say America has been making enemies around the world and this is the inevitable consequence, retaliation.

The other side says this had nothing to do with what the U.S. has done or has not done. They say this is simply how the fanatical devotees of an ideology of hate and violence express themselves. They explain that these extremists have been taught to despise Western materialism, to see Christianity as their enemy, and to scorn peace and tolerance.

I will let others analyze and expound on these opinions. The question before me is, "How should a believer view such terrorism?" First of all I will comment on three different opinions I have heard from Christians in recent weeks. I do not do this with a judgmental spirit. Each of these viewpoints is one I might have entertained at one time and have expressed in unguarded moments of thoughtlessness.

Responding to views
First, I respond to the view that all this was in God’s plan. When I hear this statement my first reaction is that this seems like a confusion between good and evil, of mistaking the devil for God. I can imagine the devil planning those bombings, but God? Further, I wonder, what is the difference between a God who would plan such evil and the people who would carry out that plan? I think such an interpretation of terror is an attempt to reduce the pain and horrible ugliness of it. We don’t like being hated and attacked.

Attributing such evil to God’s will or God’s planning is an attempt to give meaning to something that is otherwise inexplicable to us. I have noticed that Christian people who have suffered some personal tragedy often have the same need to convince themselves that, in some way, God was behind the evil they have experienced. It is easier then to hope that some good will come out of it. I think such an interpretation confuses the issue. There is good and there is evil; the two are not the same. This was an evil, and God is not the evil one.

Then there is the opinion that America got what it deserved for turning away from God. Some American evangelicals, who seem to be overly fascinated with the idea of judgment, immediately pronounced this view. Jerry Falwell was quoted as saying that God is mad at the U.S. Pat Robertson agreed; God had withdrawn His protection because of the sins of his fellow Americans. Billy Graham, who always expresses such views more gently and with more grace, has basically agreed. I remember that years ago Mr. Graham already said that if God doesn’t soon punish America He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.

These pronouncements raise many questions in my mind. Does any one of us have the inspiration, as Jeremiah had, to interpret God’s mind on such matters with any degree of infallibility? I don’t think so. Further, what would be the point of creating intense grief for six thousand families in New York, if the backsliding of an entire nation is to be addressed? Even human judges can devise more equitable forms of judgment. Surely, God could have done something that would reflect a closer correspondence between the transgressions and His wrath. There is also the question then, does God see the sins of America as more serious than the sins of Sweden, North Korea, China or all the other countries that were not bombed?

The definitive New Testament discussion of the wrath of God in Romans 1:18-32 makes no mention of national disasters. It speaks of wrath as being manifested in the degeneration and corruption of those who ignore God. Because they will not honor God He gives them up to the consequences of their ungodliness. People who will not have God will experience in their own lives the results of their wicked choices.

Pursuing the position of these evangelical spokesmen further, it seems to assume that God’s business is to protect good people from the designs of evil people. It seems to say that those who obey God will enjoy God’s protection. However, Jesus and His apostles consistently expound a different view. "In the world you shall have tribulation," said Jesus. "All who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," writes Paul (1 Tim. 3:12). Why then don’t evangelical preachers suggest this may have happened because there are more Christians in the U.S. than in most other world countries?

Thirdly, I have heard the declaration that all this is none of our business. Driving across the prairies recently, I tuned in to a well-known radio speaker who said we should not be anxious about the bombings. I concurred with that. Then he went on to preach that we are not of the world and that what happens here is none of our concern. We have fixed our eyes on heaven and the world is now behind us, he said. He cried out to his radio audience—with unwarranted passion, I thought—that we are not here to make this world a better place. My first response was, Has he not read the prophets? And doesn’t he know about Jesus, who preached that He had come to establish here the kingdom of God? Has he forgotten the Lord’s Prayer? Jesus taught us to pray "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." With that prayer entrenched in our hearts, how can we not be concerned for justice and rightness to prevail on earth?

Too early for specific meaning
What then should we say about this terrorism? I suggest it is much too early to give it any kind of specific meaning. The meaning of historical events can only be understood in their context. We don’t know the whole context here. History is ongoing. The last page has not yet been written. The significance of what has happened now will only be understood in the future.

These events have given us a new revelation of the monstrous horror of evil. As evangelicals we have always spoken about the fallenness and depravity of human nature. Now we are face-to-face with a new vision of how terribly misguided evil can actually be. With this I am not trying to set up an us-versus-them polarity.

These acts were committed by pleasant young men who normally behaved much as I do. They thought they were serving their god with this terror. Moral philosophers have pointed out that people don’t normally choose evil in order to be evil, but that they merely mistake it for the happiness and the good that they seek. That has now been demonstrated before our eyes. Evil can be so deceptive that it looks to its perpetrators as an act of highest service to that which is good.

This is a time for praying and hoping. I suggest that we honor God when, in times like this, we can expect Him to bring some great good out of the unmitigated evil which people continue to commit against each other. Could we not dare to pray that through this terror revival would come to Christian people around the world?

Could we not expect God would somehow use these events to draw pre-Christians around the world to Jesus Christ? Could we not even visualize, and pray, that this would lead many Muslim people to appreciate the compassion of Jesus Christ and open their hearts to the gospel of love? Certainly, such praying would agree with God’s will, as seen in the New Testament revelation.

Praying for good in terrible times does not require that we must be able to explain how good could come out of this. I don’t recall that anybody, twenty years ago, anticipated or tried to explain how world Communism would collapse and disintegrate within a few years. Our task is to pray, and to be a witness. We are to open our eyes to the possibilities of God. We need to remember that God has often done the unexpected and the unthinkable. He is the God of the new thing (Is. 43:19).

Christian faith is the religion of hope. God is not limited by that which He has done in the past and He is not restricted to that which may seem possible or probable to us. The history of the past does not determine what will be in the future. Consequently, we can pray in hope.

Arden Thiessen, D.Min., is senior pastor at Steinbach EMC. He has served as EMC moderator, as a Bible college professor, and as pastor also in Saskatchewan and B.C.