The Absence of the “R”
Work in the Wake
of September 11, 2001
by James Beller
*first posted on Garbage Truck in October, 2001
All talking heads are saying how the country is changed now after 911–September 11, 2001. Have all things changed? Trust and confidence are big losers in this fiasco. All the pitiful family and friends of the murdered have lost and suffered immeasurably. However, firemen and policemen and the military and patriotism win. At least for now. I argue now that some things have remained the same because America had already changed. It changed in a process of several generations and this terrorist tragedy has simple highlighted the change.
In times past in the wake of national calamity, our leaders, both political and religious called upon the nation to seek God. And not some generic Wal-Mart god either, the genuine Jehovah God of the Authorized Version of the Bible. If you think I am kidding consider these arresting truth from the annals of US history:
In October of 1778, the Philadelphia Baptist Association, deeply concerned about the direction of the Revolutionary War, passed the following resolution:
The Association. deeply impressed with a sense of the calamities of the times, the prevalence of vice and profanity, and the declension of vital piety:
Resolved. To recommend to the churches to observe four days the ensuing year–of humiliation, fasting and prayer and abstinence from labor and recreation: viz., the second Thursday in November, February, May and August: and they entreat the same.The Philly Association was hoping that humiliation, fasting and prayer would result in repentance in the life of believers. Repentance is that work of grace that occurs in the heart of man when he sees his utter helplessness and sinfulness and he turns to God Almighty for his only hope. For the lost man, this happens when he is convicted of his sins, gives up his plans to save himself and turns to Christ for forgiveness and redemption–salvation. For the saved man, repentance occurs when the Holy Spirit convicts him of his sins and he abandons his thoughts about the sin and turns to agree with God that they are wrong. Indeed, the literal meaning of “repent” (gr: metenao) is “to change ones mind”. Repentance for the saved man has to do with “confession” (I John 1:9) which literally means to “agree with God”.
Where is the call to humiliation in our present calamity? We did not hear it from our national religious leaders. Where is the call to fasting? Where is the call to REPENTANCE?! In such a chaotic time as this our forefathers would have chimed in with the voice of the Philadelphia Baptist Association of 1778.
The historical record tells us that early in the Revolution, as early as May 23, 1774, Jefferson, Henry, Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Francis Lightfoot Lee gathered in the Council Chamber in Boston. In the night Jefferson outlined a protest–a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer–against the Port of Boston’s closing.
The birth of our republic brought hardship and terror on our fledgling country and humiliation and turning to God was imperative to compatriots. On July 13, 1775, Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut, wrote to General Washington:
The Honorable Congress have proclaimed a Fast to be observed by the inhabitants of all the English Colonies on this continent, to stand before the Lord in one day, with public humiliation, fasting and prayer, to deplore our many sins, to offer up our joint supplications to God, for forgiveness, and for his merciful interposition for us in this day of unnatural darkness and distress… They have, with one united voice, appointed you to the high station you possess.
In March 1776, the Continental Congress agreed to the following resolution for appointing a fast:
In times of impending calamity and distress; when the liberties of America are imminently endangered by the secret machinations and open assaults of an insidious and vindictive administration, it becomes the indispensable duty of these hitherto free and happy colonies, with true penitence of heart, and the most reverent devotion, publickly to acknowledge the over ruling providence of God; to confess and deplore our offences against him; and to supplicate his interposition for averting the threatened danger, and prospering our strenuous efforts in the cause of freedom, virtue, and posterity. The Congress, therefore, . . . Do earnestly recommend, that Friday, the Seventeenth day of May next, be observed by the said colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness;
Where is the call to humiliation in our present calamity? We did not hear it from our national religious leaders. We did not hear it from our national political leaders. Where is the call to fasting? Where is the call to REPENTANCE?!
Eighty seven years after the declaration of independence, America was again in the throes of calamity and distress. This calamity was brought on by the brutal Civil War. After three years of unforgiving fighting, President Lincoln called upon the nation to do its spiritual duty before God. In proclaiming the Day of Thanksgiving in 1863 Lincoln wrote:
We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. Intoxicated with unbroken successes, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Where is the call to humiliation in our present calamity? We did not hear it from our national religious leaders. We did not hear it from our national political leaders. Where is the call to fasting? Where is the call to REPENTANCE?!
America, September 11 did not change your spiritually, it revealed you were already in deep need of repentance.