Why?

One of mankind’s most vocal and persistent questions is, “Why?” We hear it from our children and, because we are His children, God hears it from us. Oddly enough, as I’ve grown older, the question has become less important to me. But I know that for many, and young people especially who are living in the wake of this tragic attack on America, the “why” is not going to go away. I will try to answer.

The short answer is that “God permitted it.” We live in a sinful and fallen world, and God does not shield us from the effects of our choices and actions. If He did, how should we ever come to our senses? Sadly, this is as true for nations as it is for individuals. It was Benjamin Franklin, present at the birth of our nation, who observed near the end of his long life, “I have lived, Sirs, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men.”

But before we address the “why” of what God did permit on Tuesday, I’d like us to take a look at what He did not permit. Two airliners struck and subsequently destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York City. A third crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. But as an army of investigators unravels events leading up to this horrific destruction, we learn that this is not the whole story.

We now know that certainly a fourth plane, probably a fifth (and, near deadline, possibly a sixth), did not reach their destination targets. United Airlines flight 93 crashed into a field outside of Pittsburgh, following intervention by the passengers on board. Todd Beamer, in a sky phone call to his wife, Lisa, related that their plane had been hijacked, and the passengers herded to the rear of the plane. As the couple spoke, Lisa confirmed that an earlier plane had been flown into the World Trade Center. Todd and several other passengers understood the implications: Their plane was going to be used as a weapon, too. Armed with nothing but their bare hands, they attacked the hijackers, and the plane crashed into a field. That plane was almost certainly intended for the White House. Given the damage to the Pentagon from the strike it endured, the smaller White House would have been obliterated. Can you imagine the symbolism of that destruction, broadcast around the nation and the world?

A fifth plane that took off from Newark, New Jersey, near the time of the attacks was grounded when U.S. airspace was closed. The next day Ayub Ali Khan, 51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, 47, who had been on the Newark flight, were removed from an Amtrak train during a routine drug search, when police discovered box-cutting knives and $5,000 in cash. Their associates in New Jersey are now being questioned by investigators. Was that fifth plane intended for the U.S. Capitol building? It seems likely. We know that the White House was a target, because shortly after the first airliner crashed into the World Trade Center, the Secret Service received an anonymous call using the agency’s code words relating to Air Force One procedures and whereabouts. We don’t know if the Capitol building was a target – but the assumption seems reasonable.

This suggests that whoever masterminded these attacks intended not to “send a message” or cripple – but to entirely destroy the United States government. We need to think long and hard about what that means as we head into war. To me it suggests more than a terrorist attack, even one as well-planned and coordinated as this. It suggests a terrorist attack executed in conjunction with as yet unknown actions by one or more hostile nation states. I would suggest that under those circumstances, we would have been vulnerable to anyone strong enough to step forward and offer “leadership.”

As I finish this column near deadline, a very nasty worm virus, W32/Nimda.A-mm, is at work infecting the Internet. It was released one week to the minute after the World Trade Center bombing. Initial reports indicate it originated in Asia. The CIA, German and Japanese authorities are now investigating massive short-selling that took place in world financial markets on the eve of the disaster. Those who did so will have made millions, and perhaps billions of dollars in the subsequent crash. The FBI is tracking down passengers of a sixth plane which they believe was an intended hijack target, but which did not leave the ground because of maintenance problems. And September 22nd has been identified as a day when a follow up attack of some kind had been – and may still be – scheduled.

I think back now to the long election cycle from last year, when we lived for so many weeks not knowing who would be our next president. A number of you wrote to me, expressing a sense that God was somehow in the process of making a decision about America. I had the same sense.

Which brings us back to the question, “Why?” I know that in my own life, it’s a lot easier to understand events when I see the big picture. What I’ve tried to accomplish in this column is to sketch in broad strokes a larger picture than is commonly being presented in the media. By looking at the big picture, we can measure what God did permit against what He did not. God did permit a terrible tragedy – but it was one born of our own reckless national behavior. What God did not permit – and what I believe the evidence strongly indicates was intended – was the complete destruction of the United States government, the near total ruination of our financial system, with these events creating a vacuum that someone or something could have stepped into.

Thus, as we ponder the “why?” of the World Trade Center’s destruction, and the attack on the Pentagon, let’s do it with the larger picture in full view. As a nation, we had not one “jot or tittle” of a claim on God’s grace during this event, yet somehow we experienced exactly that in what we were spared. And we can experience the same grace in our personal lives. God allows us as individuals to come before him looking as pure as the wind-driven snow, not because of the way we’ve lived our lives, but because of business transacted between Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ, some 2,000 years ago on the Cross. God has absolutely guaranteed each person who has ever lived justice. But for those willing to trust in what Jesus did on that cross so long ago, God guarantees grace. The choice is entirely ours.