A Biblical Perspective of Tuesday's Terrorist Attacks
by
John MacArthur
 

The following is a transcription of a special "Grace to You" broadcast that aired on Wednesday, September 12,
the day after the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C.

We've all seen the graphic news footage of the areas of these horrible disasters on the East Coast, and it's really still hard to grasp exactly what has happened. I'm sure the details will be coming in for many weeks and even many months as the story grows and becomes more dramatic and more complex with each passing moment.

So what do we have to add to the flood of information you've already received? Well, I hope, as always, we can add something that will give you God's perspective, the biblical perspective, the Christian worldview on things like this. Let me encourage you to take the next 20 minutes or so and focus your attention on some very specific biblical truths that I think will help hold you up during the days to come, give you some guidance, and provide some help for your family through this very, very difficult event. Hopefully, you can capitalize on the obvious opportunities to represent Christ during these dark and spiritually needy days.

I asked our executive director, Phil Johnson, if he would jump into the studio with me. We're making this broadcast on Tuesday, just after this series of disasters has taken place. Phil is a fellow preacher. He preaches often at Grace Church and is a fellow elder at Grace Church as well as executive director of "Grace to You," and more than that, a very dear treasured friend and personal confidant and advisor. So I just asked him if he'd come in the studio and pose the questions. He's got the ability to analyze what's going on and frame up the questions, and I'm just going to ask him to sort of put himself in the position of a listener.

Phil, thanks for being with me and for helping us represent our listening family to see if we can give them some help. Phil Johnson: Thank you, John. I'm filled with questions. I woke up this morning and turned on the television and was confronted with this thing, and not realizing what was going on I saw those buildings burning and immediately grasped some sense of the magnitude of this disaster and my mind was just saying, "No, no." Then I came to grips with the shock of it, and you mentioned emotions that we all feel. Let's talk about those emotions, if we can. In many cases the emotion we feel is a raw, just intense anger. Is there a place for anger among Christians?

John MacArthur: Yes, I think you would have to say that God, in creating man in His own image, gave him the capacity to be angry. The Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day. We know that God is a God of anger. We see the wrath of God poured out throughout redemptive history. We are told in Romans chapter one that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness. We see Jesus make a whip and cleanse the temple. We see Jesus presented to us in John 5 as the One to whom God Himself will pass all judgment, and in the end Jesus Himself will be the executioner of the wicked. But all of that frames up a kind of anger that is, I guess, what we could call "holy anger" or "righteous indignation," as it's been called.

I think we have to be angry at what sin has done to this world. I think we have a right to be angry at the wretchedness of sinful people. I think we have to be angry when life is taken because that's murder-all of these are acts of mass murder. We certainly have a right to be angry with a mass murderer. We have every right to be angry with a man who shoots up and kills his family, as we've seen in the last few days out here on the West Coast in a couple of places-one in our own area. We have every right to be angry with a man who walks laden down with bombs into a pizza parlor in Jerusalem and blows up 21 people. It isn't that our anger is reserved just for the man himself, although it is certainly right to have a righteous anger against one who violates the command of God not to kill-one who is so wicked and so wretched to take life. It's a bigger anger than that. It's anger with the whole of the unrighteous reality that exists in our fallen world.

But I think at the same time we don't necessarily want to be filled with personal vengeance, because the Bible says, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." The suicide bomber has received his just reward already. We believe the Bible is very clear that those who are without Christ are plunged into an eternity of torment. No one needs to be concerned about that retribution. That's a sealed matter. There's no need for us to wreak havoc-even as a nation-in the world as an act of vengeance, but, while I'm not the kind of a person who thinks we ought to retaliate and go somewhere and massacre a bunch of people to offset this, I do think we need to put into force as a nation whatever it takes to protect innocent people anywhere and everywhere from evil aggressors. If there are people behind this, they need to pay in the way that the Bible has prescribed them to pay. I think there is a place for righteous indignation. At the same time, we are righteous as God is righteous against sin, and we allow the vengeance to belong to Christ.

Phil Johnson: Let's talk about another emotion, a common one-fear. There are probably people listening to us right now who are trying to go about their normal routine and may be finding themselves in the grip of fear-fear for their lives, fear for their safety, for their families, their loved ones. What can people do with the fear?

John MacArthur: I don't think there's probably anybody working in a high-rise building in a major city right now, and that's all fear. I think people just flooded out of those kinds of places that are the bull's-eye. If you're like we are, we're in a two-story building on the fringe of Los Angeles, and nobody's going to fly a plane into this thing. But I think people in urban areas, in big cities-people working in government buildings, people in military places like that-they're going to feel that personal fear. There's that immediate terror that somebody's going to fly into my building and I think that gets mitigated as things calm down and people flow out. They may not be real eager to go back again. But I think there's a larger fear than that. There's a deep-seated fear, and I heard it out of the mouth of a lady when I was walking by an office in the hall. She was being interviewed on the radio and she said, "I'm holding my baby and I'm wondering whether there's a future for my child." Now this is that enormous sweeping fear that takes this one incident, and somehow the incident transcends itself and creates an aura of terror that exists just as a general reality.

If you don't know the Lord, if you do not have the hope of eternal life, if you don't believe in a sovereign God who controls everything, if you don't believe your life's beginning and end is in His care, if you don't believe that, you should fear because there are no guarantees. I can't say to people, "Don't worry; it's not going to happen again." Frankly, this was so successful that there's every human reason to believe they're going to do it again. There's never in the history of humanity been this kind of consequence to any single military action, with the exception of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But this is a huge thing, and given the fact that today we aren't dealing with nations any more, we're dealing with individuals now. We're dealing with fanatical individual people who can literally command an airplane and massacre huge amounts of people. You can't even focus your fears anymore.

We're all just sort of recovering from the cold war. At the end of the cold war-perestroika, glasnost, Russia falls apart, Eastern Europe falls apart-there's no longer a threat and we're all just getting a deep breath. And at the same time, the Islamic world is marching to a huge force, and we already know that many of the bombers that have been imploding themselves in suicide bombs have been these radical Muslims who are doing this because they think it's going to catapult them right into heaven. Of course, Muslim theology teaches that you can't know whether you're going to heaven. When you get to the end of your life and you die, you come before God and He decides purely on His own deterministic basis, which is somehow swayed to some degree-but not finally-by whether you've done good works. You get into heaven or you don't, but you can never know unless you're a martyr, and then you can go right to paradise. We've already seen that and we don't know whether it was radical Muslims that did this. That information hasn't been given to us. But our national security people tell us that it looks like that kind of thing. Now, we realize these people could be anywhere and everywhere in the world so there's this pervasive fear-germ warfare, chemical warfare, all these kinds of things. It's not really a very good time-in fact it's the worst time in the history of the world to not know what your future is.

Phil Johnson: One of the questions I was going to ask you was, What could twist a mind so much to cause someone to commit an act like this knowing it's going to cost him his own life?

John MacArthur: The Kamikaze bombers in World War II did the same thing in Japan.. Some of these suicide bombers are begun in this process when they're five years old. Others are taken at the age of 12 and they're programmed through this. We do know that the radical Islamic fundamentalists are training pilots as well. It would take a pilot to crash a plane like that. So this is a jihad for them, if indeed-and we don't know for sure yet who the ones are that did the damage today-but if it is that's a religious way to catapult yourself into heaven.

Apart from that however, there's nothing man won't do. Romans 3 says, "His feet are swift to shed blood." The first crime in the Bible, Cain kills Abel. Ask yourself how could Hitler do what he did? How could Stalin massacre 50 million people? Fifty million people is way beyond what this thing is. Hitler: the genocide of the Jewish people was his goal-six million Jews. How could he do that? But then, how can a mother drown five of her kids? You're talking about the wretchedness of the human heart. It isn't postpartum anything. It isn't attention-deficit syndrome that causes a mass murder. It's the wickedness of the human heart. The heart of man is desperate. God had to create government and He had to create the fear of death to keep man from killing each other. So I think this is man at his worst. And then when you get him under satanic influence where he thinks it isn't an evil act at all-it's a way to get to heaven-you really heighten the motivation.

Phil Johnson: So this is proof of the depravity of man.

John MacArthur: Proof of the depravity of man, and proof of the wretchedness of satanically inspired religion.

Phil Johnson: Let me ask you a hard question then. We are actually preempting our broadcast on the doctrine of election and you have always taught that God is sovereign over everything that happens. How could such a horrific thing happen if God is in control?

John MacArthur: It happens because everybody dies. Nothing happened to those people, Phil, that wasn't going to happen to them, right? Nothing happened to those people that isn't going to happen to you or me. It might be a car accident. I might get hit by a truck or die in a plane crash going somewhere to preach. My boat might sink when I'm fishing. I might get cancer or have a heart attack. Wasn't it Sunday we had an earthquake here? A 4.2 earthquake-people die in those. It happens. Everybody dies. "It's appointed unto man once to die." I think the big lesson here is not some big prophetic thing. I don't even think this is apocalyptic. I don't think this is the end of the earth. You know 20,000 people died in an earthquake in Mexico City. We read about tens of thousands of people dying in floods in Bangladesh in India and places like that. This is life. Everybody is going there. We don't know when we are going to die. There are people in that building who already had cancer and the clock was ticking. There are people who, had they lived, would have died in other ways. The big question is not, "Am I going to die?" That is already answered. That isn't a hard question because sin produces death. So the answer to your question, "How can God allow this?," is that "the wages of sin is death," so death exists. And God says, "Look, you don't have to die and go to hell-here's the gospel. Here's the salvation that I offer you in Jesus Christ." So Jesus says, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and tell them there is a heaven and that they are sinners but there is forgiveness and there is hope."

I think the only thing that can take out the fear is personal faith in Jesus Christ. That is the only thing that can take out the fear. If you have hope only in this world, Paul said you're of all men most miserable. What are you going to look to? People were dying under all kinds of natural disasters throughout all of human history. Look at the flood. The whole world died, but everybody's going there. Nothing happened that wasn't going to happen.

Phil Johnson: You're speaking though from the perspective of those who died. What about their loved ones who are struggling with the grief and intense pain of this?

John MacArthur: I would say for those without Christ, equally there's no comfort because the parting is permanent. There's no comfort. Comfort is only in our hope in Christ. Let's say there's a Christian lady in New York and her unbelieving husband died in the building. How do I comfort her? Her husband is in eternal punishment. How do I comfort her? There is only one way to comfort her and that's to tell her that God has promised to her eternal life in Christ, in His presence, in heaven, where there's no more sorrow, no more tears, no more crying, no more death, and the former things are forgotten. There is a heaven for her and forever she will never remember the pain of this life. That's the only comfort I have for her. If, on the other hand, her husband who died is a Christian, then she's comforted in a reunion. If neither of them are Christians there's no comfort.

Phil Johnson: So one of the great lessons in all this about the nature of life and humanity would be what James said in James 4.

John MacArthur: Right. Your life is a vapor that appears for a little time and vanishes away. Don't say, "Tomorrow we're going to do this and tomorrow we're going to do that," because you don't know-you don't know what tomorrow brings. The one great lesson is that everybody is going to die and some people are going to know they're going to die and they're going to be able to plan for it and go through a process of illness or aging. But there's also the very real possibility that you're going to die when you least expect it, but die you will. "It's appointed unto men once to die," Hebrews 9:27, "and after this the judgment." God has sent a huge wake-up call to the world about the sudden reality of death on a large scale.

This is somewhat like previews of coming attractions, because there's going to be massive judgment and death during the great time of the tribulation yet to come. This is a foretaste of what horrors the world is going to experience. If you read Revelation, when the tribulation comes and, first of all, one-fourth of the world dies, in that brief period of time, at the same time there will be an unprecedented preaching of the gospel. One hundred and forty-four thousand from all twelve tribes of Israel preaching the gospel; two witnesses with miraculous power preaching gospel obviously over media; an angel flying through heaven preaching the gospel. I really think that it is always in the great times of judgment that God cranks up the preaching of the gospel. And I will say this to all of those unfaithful pastors and all of those unfaithful churches and all of those people fooling around out there with these shallow, trivial services on Sunday, and trying to entertain people: If you've been doing that you need to repent and get serious about preaching a serious message in a serious day. If anybody thinks seriously, they're going to run from places like that and they're going to find places where God is speaking out of His Word the truth about life and death and time in eternity. This should be serious enough to shut down the trivia going on in the name of Christianity.

Phil Johnson: So, John, your remarks remind me of an incident in the New Testament when a tower fell and killed some people and people came and asked Jesus, "What happened here? Were these people worse sinners than the rest of the people?" And your answer is very much like His.

John MacArthur: Yes, Luke 13. The tower fell and the people said, "Were they worse than everybody else? Why did the tower fall on them?"

Phil Johnson: And His answer was?

John MacArthur: "You better be careful, you might die too. It could happen to you." The point is, no, they're not any worse than you. It just happened as a warning to you. It happened, and it could happen to you. Nobody's exempt. It could happen to me. I'm prepared. A tower could fall on me and I'm prepared. It could fall on you. You're prepared. And most of the people that are probably listening to this program today-maybe you're "Grace to You" people-you're ready. The tower falls on you and you just go right into the presence of the Lord. Far better to depart and be with Christ. But there's no guarantee. Those people that die under a natural disaster or a construction disaster or something like that, they're not any worse than anybody else. Nothing happened to them that isn't going to happen to everybody.

Phil Johnson: So what would your appeal be to those who are without Christ who might be listening to us?

John MacArthur: All I can say to you, dear, dear friend, is if you want to eliminate fear then you have to know your future is secure. You have to know that you have an invisible means of support. You have to know that God is caring for you and that you're not going to die until it's His time, and when you do you're going immediately into His eternal presence where there is rejoicing forevermore. You have to prefer heaven over hell, and whatever sacrifices you think you have to make-"Oh well, I can't commit adultery," and, "I can't be a homosexual," and "I can't lie and cheat and steal," and "I have to give up all the fun things in life; I'm not willing to do that,"-that persons is like the fool who gains the world and loses his eternal soul.

All I can say is you better run to Christ who will forgive your sin and who will embrace you if you'll embrace Him by faith as Lord and Savior, and He will grant you eternal life. Then death for you is not an ending, it's a beginning. It's not a disaster, it's the greatest benediction that life can offer because it takes you into the glories of eternal heaven.

Phil Johnson: John, without a doubt there were people directly impacted by this that are members of the Grace to You family-people listening to us today. Would you have any special words of counsel or comfort for them?

John MacArthur: What we need to do is to come together in prayer. If you're able, let me ask you to set aside what you're doing for a moment and join me as we bring these many needs before the throne of God. Let's pray.

Father, as we watch what has been going on, as we contemplate the horrible events, the death of perhaps thousands and thousands of people, we're all experiencing all kinds of emotions-anger and fear and anxiety and shock and disbelief and pain. There are many who are afraid they're losing the future and asking, "Is this some kind of poor tend of a horrible world to come?" Father, we pray that we might know the comfort with which only You can comfort our hearts-the comfort that comes from the affirmation that you are our great God, You are our sovereign God, and You're still sitting on the throne. You're still ruling and Your purpose is yet being fulfilled.

We also need to pray for the people who have been affected by this. Those who have been killed certainly have loved ones, family, friends that are going to be devastated by the loss of life. Some of those people, no doubt, who have died were listeners to this radio program. Some of them have entered into your presence. Some have gone out of your presence forever. We pray for the families of those people. We pray too for those that are injured, some perhaps still languishing somewhere in the dark recesses of the rubble of these places not even yet found. We pray for those who are in that condition, that they might have the time and the opportunity to draw to mind the gospel and to embrace Christ. We pray for those who risked their lives to help-those rescue workers, authorities, police, military, fire people, all of those who work in the medical services who are so engaged now in caring for people, finding and rescuing them and trying to meet their devastating physical needs. Particularly, Lord, we come back to those who've lost their friends and their family members and their co-workers and their lives have been shattered by this. We pray a special benediction of grace upon them. We pray for our listeners in the WMCA New York City area, our listeners in the WABA Washington D.C. area who will particularly be affected. And because we know that several of the flights were coming to Los Angeles, we know that there are people in our own city-probably people in our own church-who are affected by these deaths.

And then, Lord, we want to pray for our leaders. We pray especially for our president. We know his efforts have been directed at the typical political banter that goes on between the Republicans and the Democrats, and all of a sudden that seems so unimportant and the bar has been raised so high. We pray that you'll give him, and those around him, the strength and the wisdom and the insight and fortitude to take the leadership and to do what needs to be done for the security of our nation and the well-being of people around the world. We pray also that the church will mobilize as a body of believers and engage itself in prayer and any other way that can help meet needs. And may the church do what it really does best-love people and show them Jesus Christ in practical ways, as well as bring the perspective of God's Word to bear on what ultimately is a spiritual crisis.

Father, we thank you that you are the God of this world, and you are in control of everything. Nothing happens outside your purpose. Everything is in the framework of your plan. We pray, Lord, that you would grant us the wisdom to see all of that as it unfolds before us, and may we be used in ways that can bring you glory even in this terrible crisis. May, somehow, it turn the hearts of the people of this country to eternity, and in taking a look at eternity, may they be drawn to you and to our Christ, the One who has conquered death for us through His own resurrection. We pray in His name. Amen.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Collection" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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