911 AND A WORLD AT WAR

By James Wilson, Coordinator

PrayNorthstate

A friend recently asked me if I believed we would have a third world war. I replied that we already have one. We have one for the third time in the last hundred years – and I believe this world war is the last that will ever be fought.

World War I raged from 1914 to 1918. It was a war of imperialism – a conflict in which competing empires contended for territory. Although the war ended in 1918 its conclusion was not conclusive. The Treaty of Versailles – it is generally agreed – set the stage for a longer and more deadly conflict that broke out less than a quarter century later.

World War II was a war of ideology – a conflict to determine whether men and women serve the state or are served by the state’s governing structure. Historians generally hold that this war was fought from 1939 through 1945, but in fact it ended only with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Only then was it finally determined that the democratic republican ideal would prevail as a concept of government. Yet even this conclusion was less than ultimate – because politics are less than ultimate.

World War III is a war of idolatry. In America we mark its advent on September 11, 2001 – just as we mark the American entry into World War II on December 7, 1941. This war is about whether mankind will serve the Lord our God – who has already served us even to the giving up of His life for us – or whether we seek independence from God and fall unwittingly into the service of demons. It is about our answer – as American Christians – to God’s call to take Him seriously and exclusively as the Way and the Truth and the Life – embodied in the Son – or continue the historic pattern made famous by the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day that picks and chooses which passages of scripture will be accepted while rejecting the Person of God. The Body of Christ is both prize and protagonist in this war. And, inasmuch as a conflict between idol and Incarnation in the hearts of all mankind is ultimate, this war must be the last one whether it lasts five or five hundred years.

There are two prime reasons for believing that we are embroiled in a world war and that it is a war of the spirit.

The first is supplied by our antagonists. Never have we seen our own nation so politically polarized into camps for and against Christian influence on the culture than in the wake of the last two presidential elections. Voices on the left are more and more scornful, hysterical, and hate-filled as they denounce people who seek to end abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and alternatives to marriage enshrined in law as totalitarian religious bigots – and assume that all of their enemies are under the influence of evangelical Christians. Indeed, anyone who favors a tax cut or a strong military is derided as being under this “negative” influence. And no one needs to prove that the national and paramilitary forces ranged against our nation define themselves in terms of jihad – holy war – against the infidels of the Christian nations. But David Horowitz – in his well documented book titled Unholy Alliance – makes a strong case for the linkage of militant Islam and the American Left – in vision if not in direct relation.

The second is supplied by the very success of the Church in our time. In the last thirty-five years there has been a tremendous and worldwide evangelistic surge. More than thirty thousand people a day receive Christ in Latin and South America alone. Similar numbers come to know Him each day in Africa, and the story repeats itself in China. By the most conservative estimate more than half a billion souls have been added to the Body during this time. More than two hundred and fifty communities across the world have experienced such a thoroughgoing move of the Holy Spirit that we say they are in transformation – and this move is beginning to be felt in whole nations. Is it any wonder that the forces of evil in our world would be fighting back with a ferocity that would make Nazis blush?

It is of crucial importance that we fight this war with the weapons God supplies – weapons that are not of this world – as God tells us in 2 Corinthians 10. Of course we need to support American troops – and claim them as our own – as they meet challenges on the battlefields of this world. But their fight is meant for the protection of the real troops in this conflict – those who pray and minister blessing, forgiveness, and worship as they witness for the faith that is in them.

In this country abortions have been reduced by 20% in the past fifteen years – by people who pray and minister and witness the love of Jesus for those who consider or have abortions. (In the city of Chico alone the annual numbers have been reduced by more than 60% and no pickets are out – only compassion patrols.) Divorce is going down after decades of steady rise. And the most effective warriors against the homosexual addiction are the same types of folks who are so potent against chemical addictions – those who have been healed of the bondage by the love of God ministered by patient and caring people.

To this end PrayNorthstate joins with the Shasta County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the Jail Chaplaincy, and Regent Broadcasting each year to commemorate September 11 from the steps of the Shasta County Courthouse. We do this with full respect for protocol, obtaining a permit from county authorities. We offer prayer, music that is both patriotic and loving toward God, and featured speakers who are elected officials willing to share their faith alongside their patriotism in a public place. This year the observance will be held on Thursday, September 8, from Noon to 1:00 PM. Lunch will be furnished to the first three hundred people who arrive, and portions of the event will be broadcast on secular news outlets.

The 911 Commemoration is one event – a punctuation mark – in the ongoing battle in which we who call ourselves Christians are both protagonist and prize. The temptation is to settle for a quick fix – a short-cut – in which we continue to be the people we have always been and depend on others to rid the world of terror. That is the very essence of idolatry. The challenge is to become new wineskins – fit vessels for the fullness of the Holy Spirit that God deeply desires to pour out on our nation – and for which our military people are making tremendous sacrifices that the rest of us might have opportunity to become the city on the hill that God called us to be when the first colonists landed in Massachusetts Bay and began to form the political and social institutions we hold dear from the pattern of scripture.

Am I calling for the formation of some sort of theocracy in the United States? God forbid! The Pharisees and Sadducees had one and all it ever got them was the destruction of their temple and nation. But I am calling us to remember God’s promise that, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face – and turn from their wicked ways – then I will hear from heaven and will heal their land.” Throughout the scriptures God never destroys a city because of its wickedness – but only when a lack of righteousness makes it a lifeless hulk already. Yet when the people answer His call He cannot resist coming to live among them.

The 911 commemoration is a wonderful way to enter in to this process. It is an even better way to continue in it. The first September 11 manifested our vulnerability to the secrets of hateful hearts. Let this and subsequent anniversaries show forth our strength in hearts that love the Lord and the people – all of them – for whom He gave His life. His outbursts of grace are always triggered by our gift of availability.

PrayNorthstate can be reached at 530-941-3470, or at praynorthstate@charter.net