Paul W. Manuel: Sermon: Response to September 11, 2001

Our Response to Terrorism

A sermon preached on September 15, 2001

A pdf of this sermon and its notes can be found here.

This week, Islamic terrorists launched an attack against America. With typical cowardice, as they have done repeatedly in Israel, they directed their violence against civilians: men, women, children. Thousands are feared dead or missing; many will never be accounted for. As we watched the horrific events unfold on Tuesday, our initial response was shock that such a thing could happen. What kind of people would perpetrate such acts? What kind of people would have such disdain for others' lives? What should be Our Response to Terrorism?

What has made us targets is largely our support of Israel. America has inclined toward the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel is not perfect, but it is a far more open and egalitarian society, with values closer to ours, than any of its Arab neighbors.

Why are radical Islamic elements opposed to the presence of Israel? Since Islam swept through the region in 750, their belief is that land which has at any point been under Muslim control must return to and remain under Muslim control. Following Nazism's attempt to exterminate Jews, the UN decision in 1948 to restore some of Israel's ancestral home met with stiff and violent opposition that has continued to this day. Vowing to push the Jews into the sea, neighboring Arab states have repeatedly attacked Israel. To keep the struggle alive, those same states have refused to accept their own brothers, the Palestinian Arabs displaced by the conflict. Instead, those states have kept Palestinians in squalid refugee camps, blaming Israel for their situation.

Adding religious motivation to this political turmoil removes all hope of a reasonable solution. Muslim extremists, encouraged by equally radical religious leaders, believe that dying in this struggle for Islam will guarantee immediate entrance to Paradise, where they shall dwell for ever by flowing rivers, praising God, reclining on silken couches, enjoying heavenly food and drink and the company of dark-eyed maidens and wives of perfect purity" (Gibb 1970:41-42).

That is why young men are so willing to sacrifice their lives in order to eradicate the enemies of Islam.

Perhaps the best solution is to give up our support for Israel and attempt to remain neutral. Alas, it is too late for that. We have exerted too great and too long an influence in the region, arousing other resentments in addition to our support for Israel. Besides, we would then have to face a far more dreadful prospect, for God has indicated His approval of those who help His people and His disapproval of those harm them.¹ So, there is good reason for our position, but as the events of this week have made painfully clear, we must be ready to defend our position. What should be Our Response to Terrorism?

In the days and weeks to come, we must do at least three things. First and foremost, we must...

I. Help the Living. (Luke 10:30-34)

Jesus addressed this countless times in his ministry to the needs of people, and he even told a parable to illustrate it.

Luke 10:30 . . . A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.... 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.

The Samaritan may have been outraged at the cruelty of the robbers, who would attack a man and beat him senseless. He might have wished he could find them and inflict a suitable punishment on them, but before him lay the victim of their violent assault in desperate need of care, and he knew that he must put aside other concerns in order to help the living.

The terrorist attack on Tuesday left scores of people wounded or missing, all in need of immediate care. Medical personnel mobilized quickly and have been working around the clock to find them and tend to their injuries. As of midnight, the number of those treated was 4300, which included rescuers, hurt in the performance of their duties. There will also be long-term affects, as of yet unknown: lung disorders from prolonged exposure to the dust and psychological trauma as the events of that fateful day begin to sink in. We must rebuild, as well, bringing order out of chaos and restoring some measure of normality.

So, what can you do to help the living? You can donate to the American Red Cross. You can give blood. Closer to home, you can contribute to the Emergency Medical Service right here in New Enterprise. Because our EMS is on the national registry, one of the ambulances and a crew may be called to relieve those already on site at what is left of the World Trade Center. This is our initial responsibility: to help the living.

II. Honor the Dead. (1 Sam 31:9-13)

After a particularly fierce battle with the Philistines, in which King Saul and his sons perished,

1 Sam 31:9a They cut off his head and.... 10b fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan [a Philistine stronghold]. 11 When the people of Jabesh Gilead heard of what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all their valiant men journeyed through the night to Beth Shan. They took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan and went to Jabesh, where they [cremated] them. 13 Then they took their bones and buried them... at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.

The Philistines exposed Saul's body as a gruesome symbol of their victory. With complete disregard for the dead, they would allow vultures to pick apart the corpse.² Recognizing the impropriety of this act, the men of a village Saul had defended from an earlier attack put themselves in harm's way to recover his body and accord it a proper burial in order to honor the dead.

The vast majority of those who bore the brunt of Tuesday's terrorist attack did not survive. Although rescue workers continue to search the wreckage, it becomes increasingly unlikely with each passing day that they will find any others still alive. The death toll from these incidents—

Those crushed in the collapse of the World Trade Center, including fire fighters and police who were attempting to help people escape after the first tower fell,
Those lost in the ruined section of the Pentagon, and
Those on the four hijacked flights

—the number of dead will likely top 5000, making it the most costly attack in US history, almost twice as many as perished in the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor (2395). Grief has touched countless others, who must now cope with the loss of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren, friends and coworkers, many whose remains will never be recovered or identified.

Somehow, we must come to terms with this great loss.

So, what can you do to honor the dead? You can remember those who perished by attending memorial services (such as the one at the fire hall in New Enterprise on Thursday evening) or by lowering the flag to half-mast or by wearing a ribbon to symbolize our national mourning. In ways such as these, we honor the dead, those for whom the terrorists showed complete disdain, whose lives they extinguished with no regard for the consequences.

This brings us to the third thing we must do, and that is to...

III. Hunt the Guilty. (1 Sam 15:3)

When the Israelites were traveling through the wilderness from Egypt to Canaan, Amalekite raiders attacked them. After a struggle that lasted all day, the Israelites managed to fend them off.

Exod 17:14 Then the LORD said to Moses... "I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."

Later, after Israel settled in Canaan, God said to Saul....³

1 Sam 15:3 . . . attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.

This may sound extreme, but it indicates God's disposition toward those who make unprovoked attacks on His people. He commanded decisive and drastic action against those who conducted terrorism as well as against those who supported them, even against their families and their livestock. The Israelites were to hunt the guilty and punish them. This was not for the squeamish. When Saul decided to spare the cattle, regarding their slaughter to be a waste of meat, God was displeased with Saul and rebuked him.

The terrorists who took over the four commercial airliners did not act alone. They had extensive support from others, both individuals and governments. Our own security agencies have made significant progress in identifying them, but much work remains. The task of locating them and then formulating an appropriate course of action will require considerable effort, resources, and wisdom. It will also likely require violent actions that some in this country find difficult to accept. Without decisive and forceful initiative, however, we invite further terrorism by those who view America as an easy target, one whose gradual destruction has no consequences for them. I will not mince words. However noble and justifiable terrorists claim their cause to be, they are evil people with evil purposes, and ignoring them will only embolden them. Our government has a responsibility to address this matter. As the apostle Paul states,⁴

Rom 13:4b it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. [NAS]

Admittedly, you may not be able to do much to hunt the guilty, but you can support our government and its officials charged with this task, remaining strong in your resolve to deal with this matter.

When Linda and I were in Israel, attending Jerusalem International University, we often rode a bus to school. (Israel has a very good public transportation system.) One day, Arab terrorists planted a bomb on the bus. The PLO press release claimed responsibility, stating that it was a military bus carrying army personnel. The BBC radio station in Lebanon ran the report without comment. We, of course, knew different. It was a civilian bus, carrying people on their way to work and shop, and carrying children to school. Providentially, we were not on it, but we saw the burned out hulk of Bus #18, the one we regularly rode, and we realized then the total disregard such terrorists have for life and truth.

God expects us to act appropriately and righteously in a variety of circumstances, some of which require love and restraint, others of which require justice and deliberation.⁵ This is a time for the latter.⁶ There is a clear and present danger, not merely to our way of life, but to life itself. If we do nothing or do too little, we encourage more terrorist acts such as we have seen this week. We must hunt the guilty and punish them.

Bear in mind that those responsible for this horror are not the whole of Islam. They represent an extreme faction, and we must be careful to avoid blanket judgments against all Muslims. The majority of those in this country are just as horrified as the rest of us, and they, too, grieve the loss of family and friends.

Let us continue to pray for the recovery of those who survived this dreadful ordeal, for the comfort of those who lost loved ones, and for wisdom and strength as our leaders make many difficult decisions in the days ahead.⁷ As Paul again says,

1 Tim 2:1 I urge.. .that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-2a [especially] for.. .those in authority.... 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior.

Through prayer, we put trust in the government and faith in the Lord. That, of course, is Our best Response to Terrorism.

Bibliography

Gibb, H.A.R., 1970, Mohammedism. Second revised edition. London: Oxford University Press.

Endnotes

(1) Relevant passage include:

Gen 12:3a I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse....

Zech 2:8c . . . whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye-

(2) Other examples of desecrating the dead include:

Amos 2:1 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not turn back [my wrath]. Because he burned, as if to lime, the bones of Edom's king,

2 Kgs 9:10a As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.

Jer 16:4 They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like refuse lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

Jer 22:19 He will have the burial of a donkey—dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

Rev 11:9 For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial.

(3) God pronounced a similar sentence on the Midianites.

Num 25:17 "Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them, 18 because they treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the affair of Peor and their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of Peor."

Num 31:2a "Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites...." 7 They fought against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every man. 9 The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. 10 They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps.

(4) Peter makes a similar statement.

1 Pet 2:14 ... governors.., are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

(5) God is not a pacifist, and those who think they can act with impunity against others do so to their peril. The NT passages to which those who condemn all violence appeal, such as Jesus' admonition to "turn. . . the other [cheek]" (Matt 5:39), pertain to personal insult not to physical injury. Jesus will certainly not be passive when He returns to seize control and reign.

Rev 19:15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.

Until that time, God often uses human agents to mete out His justice, sometimes even His own people.

Ps 149:6 May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, 7 to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, 8 to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, 9 to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the LORD.

In the absence of that, as in the case of those who die in the commission of their crime, the guilty still face the most terrifying fate, for...

Heb 10:31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

(6) As Solomon reminds us, there is "a time for war" (Eccl 3:8b).

(7) Our prayers can also include imprecations, as are common in scripture.

Deut 33:1 lb Smite the loins of those who rise up against him; strike his foes till they rise no more.

Neh 4:4b-c Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5a Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight....

Jer 11:20b let me see your vengeance upon them....

Jer 12:3b-c Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter! Jer 17:18 Let my persecutors be put to shame...; let them be terrified.... Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.

Jer 18:21 So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle. 22a Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them.... 23b-c Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.

Lam 3:64 Pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, for what their hands have done. 65 Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them! 66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.

Gal 1:9b If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Imprecations are especially common in the prayer book of Israel.

Ps 5: 10 Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.

Ps 9:20a Strike them with terror, O LORD...

Ps 10:15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; call him to account for his wickedness that would not be found out.

Ps 31:17b let the wicked be put to shame and lie silent in the grave. 18a Let their lying lips be silenced....

Ps 35:4 May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay.... 8 may ruin overtake them by surprise—may the net they hid entangle them, may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.... 26 May all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and confusion; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace.

Ps 40:14 May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. 15 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!" be appalled at their own shame.

Ps 54:5 Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.

Ps 55:9a Confuse the wicked, O Lord, confound their speech.... 15 Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave, for evil finds lodging among them.

Ps 56:7 On no account let them escape; in your anger, 0 God, bring down the nations.

Ps 58:7 Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows be blunted.

Ps 59:5 0 LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to wicked traitors.... 1 lb In your might make them wander about, and bring them down.

Ps 69:23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. 24 Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them.... 27 Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. 28 May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.

Ps 70:2 May those who seek my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. 3 May those who say to me, "Aha! Aha!" turn back because of their shame.

Ps 71:13 May my accusers perish in shame; may those who want to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace.

Ps 79:12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times the reproach they have hurled at you, O Lord.

Ps 83:13 Make them like tumbleweed, 0 my God, like chaff before the wind. 14 As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, 15 so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. 16 Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O LORD. 17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace.

Ps 109:7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him.... 9 May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. 10 May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. 11 May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. 12 May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children. 13 May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation. 14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out. 15 May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.... 17 He loved to pronounce a curse—may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing—may it be far from him.... 19 May [his own cursing] be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.

Ps 119:78a May the arrogant he put to shame for wronging me without cause....

Ps 129:5 May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame.

Ps 140:9 Let the heads of those who surround me be covered with the trouble their lips have caused. 10 Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise.