On Saturday we will, as a nation, commemorate what might well be labeled the “2nd Day of Infamy,” September 11, 2001, when four hi-jacked jet passenger planes flying over eastern seaboard states, guided by Wahhabi Islamist terrorists who, as part of Al-Qaeda, commandeered the speeding guided missiles toward the New York City Twin Towers, each landmark building comprised of 110 floors, the first collision occurring at 8:46 a.m. and the second attack at 9:03, followed by a 9:37 attack on the western face of the Pentagon, killing 184 Americans and a failed 4thattack, which was aimed at the Capitol building, crashing into a field in Pennsylvania after an heroic effort by passengers on board thwarted the mission leaving 40 Americans dead in that failed attempt. 2,750 died in the Twin Towers attack, leaving the towers a collapsed heap of rubble and the city of New York wreathed in awful smoke from the burning skyscrapers. The Pearl Harbor Day of Infamy left 2300 Americans dead so this “2nd Day of Infamy” eclipsed that December 7, 1941 attack in the number of casualties. The day following the attack on the U.S. Naval base in Hawaii, President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress for and received a Declaration of War against Japan. The 9/11 attack set in motion unprecedented events that would take U.S. military personnel to the middle east, eventually to Afghanistan, to deal with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and others who were occupying that terrorist haven from which attacks were launched at the United States and its allies.
On August 30, 2021, under the direction of President Joe Biden, the last of the U.S. military aborted its mission in Afghanistan, leaving behind hundreds, maybe thousands, of American citizens and Afghani citizens who had served as interpreters and enablers for our U.S. forces in their 20-year stint in this mid-eastern cauldron of wars. It is said to have been the first time ever that American Armed forces left a warzone with Americans still in the country in harms way, as well as allies and friends who had assisted us in our effort to set a nation free from terrorism. In the minds of many, it was a day that might well qualify as the “3rd Day of Infamy” for America. The last chapter in this sad saga has not yet been completed, and it is hoped that the last American and Afghani who had befriended us in our war efforts there will be provided a way out of this terror-riddled nation; however, conventional wisdom dictates that with the Taliban in total control of the country, including the strategic airports, and with their celebrations in the streets and reported door to door searches for friends of America who were left behind, the outcome will not be good and will be in fact, for America, tragic.
My forte is surely not politics or wartime strategies, so I will spare you any judgments in those areas, but I have been involved in a greater conflict, a battle of the ages, between truth and error, light and darkness, God and Satan and it is the underlying cause of all wars here and the outcome was sealed at Calvary 2,000+ years ago, but the final battle will not take place until the end of Christ’s 1,000 year reign from Jerusalem (the millennial rule/reign of Christ) when Satan shall wage one last battle against the Son of God before he will meet his eternal damnation when Christ consigns him to the Lake of Fire, his final, eternal destination. All the skirmishes between right and wrong, justice and injustice, man against man, nation against nation are only preludes to these final conflagrations sometimes called Armageddon (which will be fought on Israel’s plains called Megiddo during the last days as unfolded in the book of the Revelation).
What are we, as a nation, learning from these battles such as the 20-year war just “concluded” in Afghanistan? Well, I would suggest what we have not learned speaks louder than what we have learned. For instance, with thousands of troops and maybe hundreds of thousands of civilians, some U.S. and some Afghani citizens whose lives have been on the line and 13 heroic soldiers whose lives were sacrificed, there has been on the part of both political and religious leaders a conspicuous absence of any mention of prayer. One nationally known evangelist did appeal to believers to pray on a certain day and for that I esteem him highly, but I listened in vain for our President, Governors, the Generals and leaders of our military and political arenas in America today to plead with our people to pray to God in heaven for His hand upon us so that we might realize in this effort to extract ourselves from this seemingly impossible place of terroristic horror a genuine victory, not one that in the face of contrary facts would be proclaimed an “extraordinary successful” mission when anyone with any discernment would more aptly judge it to be an unspeakably tragic outcome. We have forgotten God when we have forgotten to pray and “the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.” (Ps. 9:7).
We would do well, on this 20th anniversary of America’s worst attack by a foreign enemy on our own soil, to learn that our greatest need today is not:
- More financial power
- More military prowess
- Different politicians to lead us
- An overhaul of our educational system
- Or even an obliteration of Covid-19
But our greatest need is a revival of repentance through prayer like we had on the evening of that beautiful Tuesday morning, the second Tuesday of September, in 2001 when we were attacked by terrorists, the day that more than 3,000 people died horrific deaths. That Tuesday evening churches opened their doors for prayer and people did come, kneeling at altars in places of prayer, seeking God’s intervening deliverance and help. Partisan politics were laid aside for a brief day or so while representatives and senators from both sides of the aisle sang together from the steps of the Capitol the hymn “God Bless America.”
We did seek His help and we were guided by His unseen hand through the years ahead and by His grace we were able to put to chase those ruthless killers whose mission was to bring death to America. God did help us and our greatest need today is for His help again and for people all across our land, in hamlets and homes, in chapels and cathedrals, to fall upon our knees and seek God, repenting of our sins, thanking Him for His grace, acknowledging His sovereign purposes and power, and crying out to Him for His never-failing mercies.
“Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34)
YOU and GOD 