THE EDITOR Sir
Where was God on September 11, 2001? If God is all love, compassion, mercy and kindness, and if He is all-powerful and all-knowing, then for heaven's sake (and especially for those of us on earth), where was He on September 11, 2001?
To begin to answer this question, we need to go back in time to our first parents. God gave mankind a choice, to choose the right way and enjoy peace and security or to choose the wrong way and face the consequences of their decision. God did not create robots or automatons; he created mankind as free moral agents, with the capacity and freedom of choice. That same freedom is available to you and me today. We have to make choices on a daily, hourly and minutely basis, whether we will follow the path of right or wrong.
Let's get this point straight to begin with, God is no cosmic Santa Claus running himself ragged patrolling all corners of the Universe trying to patch up our mess each time we make them, otherwise we would all be like spoilt brats. No well- thinking parent would operate in this way, so why do we expect God to be like this? In order to fulfil what seems to be His overall purpose of reproducing himself in mankind, He has to allow for free moral agency, which includes the ability to choose.
So when bin Laden, Mohammed Atta et al; decided to follow the path of terrorism, did you expect God to intervene and tie their hands and feet and send them off to the other end of the Universe? He would then have had to violate His own principle of free moral agency in His created beings.
Once again I ask the question, Where was God on September 11, 2001 when over two hundred passengers boarded four ill-fated airline flights to their tragic deaths? Recently in a telephone conversation with my brother Paul and my sister Karlene, they both answered that question in part: He was busy convincing the other seven hundred would-be passengers not to board those flights. As a result these American and United Airline flights were only half as full as they could have been at that time of year.
Once again, Where was God on September 11, 2001 when over five thousand people perished in the two World Trade Centre towers? My good friend Theresa from Trinidad who is spending time with my sister Flo in Miami related that her brother Roderick who lives in New York worked on the top floor of the WTC. Roderick having not taken a day off in months got up that morning and obeyed that still small voice within and stayed home to paint his house. That morning all his working colleagues perished.
Once again I ask, Where was God on September 11, 2001 when the armies of evil conspired against all peace-loving freedom-loving peoples of this world? He was busy marshalling his troupes and warriors placing them in strategic places to intercede in warfare prayers well in advance of this date. As a matter of fact as early as Friday, September 7, God started to speak to our good friend Pam in dreams. Pam who lives in Jamaica got an opportunity to spend some time in Texas. Pam, a front-line intercessor and prayer warrior, was moved strategically into the USA adjacent one of its largest military bases to begin interceding against this same event.
She relayed to me recently in a telephone conversation that only after two weeks from her arrival in the States she began having some traumatic, nightmarish dreams of a terrible earthquake to strike causing many thousands of lives to be lost. The three phrases that were given to her in the vision were: -1) An earthquake, 2) Pearl Harbor and 3) It happened here before.
She told her hostess of the disturbing series of dreams and began interceding from that hour. The following Tuesday morning, September 11, Pam was downstairs when her hostess called out Donna!! Donna!! Come and see the fulfilment of the vision. Pam hurried upstairs and watched the CNN report. The three main points made about the incident by the reporter were: - 1) The impact shook the tower like an earthquake, 2) It brought back memories of Pearl Harbor, and 3) There was an attempt here before in 1993.
God in his wisdom would not have given Pam any clearer details. Can you imagine what the FBI and CIA would have thought had she told them four days in advance what was about to take place? She probably would have been suspected and arrested.
Once again I ask, Where was God on September 11, 10, 9, 8, 7? Well within the bounds of his own principle of free moral agency, he was busy warning those who had an ear to hear. As a result rather than fifty thousand people (WTC capacity) just over five thousand perished. Once again, Where was God on September 11, 2001 when the WTC towers collapsed? Well, when the impact of hundreds of tons of metal and fuel crashed into the towers, the blistering heat accompanied by thousands of degrees of temperature that these steel I beam columns absorbed could have caused them to buckle under their own self-weight (approx. forty floors) within minutes of collision. The majestic God of the Universe stood aloft space and time and bore the crushing weight of the collapsing towers long enough to allow over forty thousand people below to escape.
Why do we congratulate ourselves for our successes and blame God for failures and catastrophes. As a matter of fact a significant percentage of you reading this article do not even believe in God, so why blame Him? Why ask questions in the first place? In the aftermath of that terrible disaster there remains an unanswered question, and it's not about where God was, we have already comprehensively answered that. The question is Where will you be on September 11, 2101?
I am etc
MICHAEL CASE
case@eng.fsu.edu
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Tallahassee, Florida
Via Go-Jamaica
