Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
It began with the attacks with passenger airplanes on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon. Now there are letters carrying anthrax-causing microbes that have, in a few causes, even caused death. One weapon was so big. The other is so small. We feel so helpless. What can be done?
Much information is being presented to us constantly on TV, radio, the internet, and in newspapers and magazines—but how can we make sense of it all? Many commentators are giving their own opinions—but what, if any, can God’s Word make to this discussion? How can average Christians, like you and me, inform themselves for an appropriate response?
First of all, it is important for us to realize that our country is not attacking people because their religion is different from ours—that would deny the very freedoms we want to fight for and protect! There are many who practice Islam in our own country, and there are many Muslims around the world who do not hate America. Also, as Christians, we seek to spread the kingdom of God not through violence but with the good news of salvation and the love of Christ for those around us, including our Muslim neighbors.
Nor should our country be attacking people out of a desire for revenge, although what they have done is an outrage! Even if the terrorists had some legitmate reasons for not liking our country, they were not right to attack us. They were not fighting to protect their land in peace, which would be the right of any good government. Instead, they have behaved more like murderers, theives and robbers, trying to pick a fight. They profess to serve Allah, but they have really served the devil with their evil and unjust acts of terror. What they have done is wrong—and two wrongs never made a right. Revenge can’t bring back the victims or ease the pain of those who loved them.
God says in Isaiah 10:5-7 “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations.” We can be sure that God is not pleased with the terrorists who have done such terrible things. But we must also ask ourselves a chilling question: is there a message in this for us? If even Israel was dealt with in such a way, could this be the way that God is also dealing with the United States of America? Is he allowing these things to happen so that a godless nation might be brought back to its senses, brought back to its knees, and brought back to its God?
There are only two people who can and should fight against the terror that has invaded our land. These can only be the Christian on the one hand, and our government on the other! Only these two may fight the war on terror with the assurance that God blesses and approves of what they are doing.
Christians are so important in this battle because it is not just a war against Osama Bin Laden or the Taliban. It is a war against the devil—with all his evil plans and schemes. If we can’t first defeat the devil, how then can we hope to defeat those who serve him?
Now, the devil is not so easy to defeat. He can’t be beaten with airplanes, rockets, bombs, or machine guns. These things can’t hold back God’s anger, either! It says in Psalm 33:16-18, “No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.”
As Christians, our only hope for defeating the devil and turning back God’s wrath is God’s unfailing love—the love that took Jesus Christ to the cross for us, the love that raised him from the dead. In Jesus we are promised forgiveness. For that reason, the fight must be begun with repentance! God said in Jeremiah 18:7-11, “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’”
The Bible has many examples of what happened to nations that did not turn from their evil ways and return to the Lord: the flood of Noah’s day, the fall the tower of Babel, the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the exile of Israel. The Bible also has many examples of what happened when people did turn from their evil ways and turned to God for forgiveness. David repented and so spared his country from greater calamity. Nineveh repented in response to Jonah’s warning and was spared from destruction. What was left of Judah was brought back from exile.
In our repentance we can identify with people like Peter, who wept bitterly because he had denied the Lord three times (Mark 14:72) and was later restored (John 21:15-19), and the tax collector who dared not even lift his eyes to heaven and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:10-14) We are encouraged by the example of the thief on the cross who said to the other criminal who was mocking Jesus, “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:40-42) All these people did something wrong. But they were able to taste the sweetness of God’s forgiveness when they confessed their sins. God’s love then also enables us to want to change our sinful lives.
For that reason, for Christians in the fight against the forces of evil in the world, repentance must become a daily habit. The fight begins against the evil that is inside of each one of us, in our sinful nature! In this life we can never reach such an advanced state of Christian maturity that we have moved beyond the need for repentance. We sin each day—more than we can ever know. But when we repent and confess our sins to God, we know that he will forgive for Jesus’ sake: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18) “For I will forgive their wickedenss and remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34) If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Another thing Christians can do is pray—pray like never before. Have we let down our guard? Have we become casual and unconcerned in our prayer life? Did these things happen because America’s churches have fallen asleep at the switch?
God says in Ezekiel 13:5 “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.” God is calling us today to “stand in the gap” on behalf of our country and pray that God’s wrath would be turned aside, and that God’s good and gracious will would come to pass for us instead.
The Bible is full of the examples of individuals whose prayers made a difference: prophets like Elijah and Elisha; kings like David, Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, Ezekiah, and so on—not to mention the example of Jesus himself! “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16) Never doubt that your individual prayers can make a difference for our whole country.
This is a time for prayer—not necessarily elaborate, formal prayer. It is a time for diligent prayer. Fasting and falling on our knees may appropriate, as long as they are done sincerely. But what I am talking about is that we constantly raise to Christ the sighs of our hearts for grace to lead a better life and for help against the attacks of terrorists. Our prayer can be in the form of brief, simple cries: “O help us, dear God the Father,” or “have mercy on us, dear Lord Jesus Christ,” or something similar. As it says in Ephesians 6: 18, “…pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
Repentance and prayer sum up the work of a Christian in the fight against evil in the world, but there is another person who also must fight: our President, George W. Bush—or in other words our government. Authority has been established by God for the purpose of promoting good and hindering wickedness and evil, that we may be defended. Just as it is the responsibility of every Christian to repent and pray, it is the duty of every ruler to protect and defend the people under his care, and the duty of every citizen to obey the government. “For [the one in authority] is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:4)
Through Naaman, the captain of the king, God gave victory to Syria (or Aram). Through Joseph, second-in-command to Pharoah, God provided for Egypt and the surrounding countries. In 2 Kings 3:14, Elisha said to Jehoram (otherwise known as Joram) “As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you or even notice you.” Finally, in the book of Judges, we can see the good that God did through Ehud, Gideon, Deborah, Samson, and other individuals. Just because the government is secular in nature and concerns itself with worldly matters doesn’t mean that godly men and women in positions of authority aren’t important. We should always keep our leaders in our prayers and do what we can to help them be as effective as possible in their leadership—for this, too, is a blessing from God.
Now, there is something you need to know—many of the Scripture references and ideas used in this sermon came from a book. It was written in 1529. The situation: for more than ¾ of a century the Ottoman Turks had cast a menacing shadow over Europe. Constantinople had fallen to them in 1453, and by the end of the 15th century they had consolidated their power up to the Danube River. To the east and south, Persia, Syria, and Egypt fell under Turkish sway. Under the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Turks turned their attention once more to Christian Europe. In 1520 they captured Belgrade. The following year Rhodes fell to the Muslims. Then in 1526 King Louis II of Hungary was killed and his troops were beaten in a decisive battle. This defeat sent a tidal wave of fear and terror over Europe. In fact, it was only by the grace of God that all of Europe wasn’t eventually overcome placed under Islamic leadership. By the way, this little book, called On the War Against the Turk, was written by Martin Luther!
Now, the purpose of including this information is not to glorify Martin Luther himself. He was human, and he certainly made mistakes! But to the best of his ability, he tried to apply God’s Word to the situations of his own day and time, and to do it as honestly as possible. He did so with a keen insight into the Gospel. This led him to a direct confrontation with the Roman Catholic Church of his day. The fact that Emperor Charles called the Diet of Worms, where Luther took his stand and refused to take back the things he had written, was at least in part due to the Turkish threat.
There is a lesson for us in this: the Reformation is not just history. Some of what happened back then is as current and up-to-date as today’s newspaper! We’re facing the same fears, and struggling with some of the same temptations. Thank God that we still share the same comfort and help of the Gospel, and can learn from some of the lessons of the past.
