Rev. David Holwick ZB "Questions People Ask" topical series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 15, 2002
Habakkuk 1:2-4; 3:17-19
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I. We live in a world of senseless atrocities.
A. Wedgwood Baptist Church massacre.
1) September 15, 1999 - three years ago to the day.
2) The youth group was doing skit about Columbine High School.
3) Gunman chose church randomly, fired a gun and threw a bomb,
and ended up killing 7 and wounding 7.
B. Destruction of World Trade towers and Pentagon one year ago.
1) Solemn memorial services this week.
2) It has raised many spiritual questions.
The president of American Atheists, the country's oldest
organization for nonbelievers in God, said to reporters
last year:
"If [September 11] wasn't a wake up call to a religious
nation, I don't know what is.
That said to me, 'There is no God.'
Where was he, on a coffee break?"
[1]
II. "Where was God?"
A. Hard question, but common and even ancient one.
1) Psalm 42:10 -
My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
2) It was the first question reporters fired at the pastor of
Wedgwood Baptist's pastor, Al Meredith.
Where was the God of heaven while all hell was breaking
loose within the walls of the Lord's church?
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3) It has been asked many times since September 11.
B. The co-existence of God and tragedy has perplexed many.
1) How could a good God have allowed such massive evil?
2) Albert Einstein asked this question of every minister and
rabbi he met.
He and other famous scientists rejected the Biblical view
of God because of this question.
A good God could not allow such evils to exist in the
world.
[2]
C. Four possible worlds.
1) The first is that there be no creation at all.
a) Would it not have been better for God to have not
created a world than to have created ours - where
good and evil are both possibilities?
2) The second is a world where only good is permitted.
a) Apparently we don't live there.
b) Besides, if there was only good, how would you know
what good is?
3) The third option is a world where there is no such thing as
good or evil, an amoral world.
a) In such a world, right and wrong would not even be
legitimate categories for consideration.
b) A purely scientific, materialistic viewpoint cannot
accept moral absolutes.
1> Human ethics are the result of evolutionary
impulses to preserve the human race.
2> It is not that our ethics are "true," but that we
find they work to our advantage.
c) Of course, if you take this approach you should not get
upset at Christians for all the evil in the world or
the powerlessness of God, because you are not
supposed to believe in either!
4) The fourth is the world that we live in, where good and
evil exist with the possibility of choosing either.
a) In the final analysis, our world is the only one where
love is genuinely possible.
b) This is because freedom is a precondition for authentic
love.
c) Where freedom is real, so is the possibility of
suffering.
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D. We can't let God off the hook.
1) It is popular to says God didn't cause these tragedies and
was as surprised as us when they happened.
2) Others say God is unable to control evil.
a) He reacts as we do -- with shock and disbelief.
3) A God who shares power with evil is no God at all.
a) To be God, he must be over and above evil.
b) If he is not, he is not worthy of worship.
III. Did God do all he could do?
A. Wedgwood's silver lining.
1) Students ducked under pews rather than rushing against the
doors where they would have been easy targets.
2) Pipe bomb blasted upwards rather than against people.
3) A girl with severe scoliosis was struck by a bullet which
was deflected away from vital organs due to the weird
angle of her backbone.
B. September 11 email was widely circulated.
1) The author sees God's hand in many aspects of the crisis.
2) God was discouraging people from flying.
a) Planes could hold 1000, had only 266 passengers.
3) Hundreds were late for work.
4) World Trade Towers were at less than half-capacity.
a) At least two-thirds of those there got out alive.
5) The towers could have toppled immediately, but didn't.
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C. It can always be worse.
1) My curse in life is being a skeptical grump.
a) Recent example:
Celeste and I are taking a walk through the woods
behind the Osbornes' house.
Horses are running in the meadow, a gentle breeze
waffs through the trees.
Celeste turns to me and says, "Isn't it beautiful
here?"
I respond, "Yeah, but can you believe all that noise
from the highway?"
b) I can find the dark lining in every silver cloud.
2) The dark lining of September 11's cloud.
a) Rather than 266 passengers, why not 10?
b) Why not all 10 be terrorists, and pilots bail out
safely?
c) At Wedgwood, why did only the bomb hit the empty
balcony?
Couldn't the bullets have hit there too?
Or couldn't his weapons have jammed so no one,
including the madman, would be hurt?
d) In every tragedy, things could have been much worse.
They also could have been much better.
3) Blame the victims mentality?
a) If God warned victims to stay home, were they sinning
by going to work?
b) For every person who missed the attack by being late,
there was another who got there a little early and
experienced it in full.
4) We are talking God here.
a) He can do anything - stop airplanes, stop bullets.
b) Often he doesn't. Why?
IV. Trying to make sense out of disaster.
A. We want to think every event has a reason we can figure out.
1) Especially events that happen to us.
2) "Unknowns" bother us a great deal.
3) We feel we have to know the "why"s.
Rev. Al Meredith, Wedgwood's preacher:
"[People] are desperate to know where God is when they
hurt.
They have to know.
Beware of appearing to have all the answers.
There are mysteries here we step into where the infinite
God comes in contact with finite man."
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B. A prophet's quiet trust in God.
1) Habakkuk lived in a society that was violent, materialistic
and only superficially religious.
He would have felt right at home here!
The prophet was upset with God because he tolerated it.
2) God's answer was that he had a solution - Assyria's military
machine would punish Israel.
The prophet was aghast - Israel was bad, but Assyria was
much worse.
Where was the justice in this?
3) God then gives him a vision of that enemy's destruction,
in images of a final judgment.
Habakkuk's anguish was transformed into one of the greatest
statements of faith in the Bible. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
4) Ergun Caner, a Kurdish Muslim who converted to Christianity,
finds great hope in the third chapter of Habakkuk.
Habakkuk says that even if every material support he has in
life ends up failing, he will still rejoice in God.
[3]
C. Where God was on September 11, and September 15.
God was exactly where he was when his own dear Son was
stripped and beaten and nailed to a cross 2,000 years ago.
Rev. Tim Keller says the Cross of Jesus Christ is the main
reason he can trust God after a terrible tragedy.
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1) First, the Cross is the best proof that God is not
remote from us in our suffering.
2) Second, the Cross and its aftermath shows us how
dangerous it is to judge God on surface appearances.
a) His way is to work strength through weakness and
bring resurrection and new power through death.
b) I have been most impressed by the stories of quiet
faith and impact of ordinary people following 9-11.
One widow raised money so a poor foreign child could
have heart surgery.
c) Another example of strength through weakness - it was
revealed that paralyzed "Superman" Christopher Reeve
is able to move his little finger now.
Would anyone write about you moving your little finger?
Of course not.
But his accomplishment is on a completely different
level.
Small, insignificant things can mean a great deal.
V. God is still in charge.
A. There are often signs of grace in the midst of tragedy.
1) A cross of burned steel beams was found at Ground Zero.
a) It is now an honored shrine at the site.
2) A shattered hymn book at Wedgwood Baptist Church.
It reminded the congregation of God's sovereignty.
The hymn book was pierced by a bullet which lodged on
page 35, at "The Hallelujah Chorus."
It came to rest under the words, "King of Kings, Lord of
Lords; He shall reign forever and ever."
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B. God's location, and ours.
Where was God on September 11?
A more applicable question might be, where are you right now?
Former Muslim Ergun Caner has a challenge for us:
"Christianity is not just getting your soul into heaven.
It is getting heaven into you to become salt and light to a
world that is putrefying and dark.
Why do you think God has left you on this earth?
Why do you think that you have breath and nigh unto 3,000
do not?" [3]
1) We do not have to figure out why these specific people died.
We can figure out why we are alive.
2) Your duty is to bring love, forgiveness and healing to
others.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] "Atheists Decry Post-Attack Focus on God", Los Angeles Times,
October 12, 2001.
[2] "The Fingerprint of God," by Hugh Ross; Promise Publishing Co.,
1989, page 172.
[3] I failed to note the source of this illustration. I believe it
came from the Baptist Press from September 2001. I updated
the casualty figure of 3,000 (original had 6,000).
#16592 "At Wedgwood, God Was 'Exactly Where He Was' When Jesus Died On
the Cross," by Jeff Robinson, Baptist Press (Crosswalk.com);
http://www.baptistpress.org, July 26, 2000. September 11
email is posted at the end of the illustration.
#17321 "Four Possible Worlds," Ravi Zacharias, A Slice Of Infinity: Ravi
Zacharias International Min.; http://www.gospelcom.net/slice/,
June 19, 2002.
#17726 "Questions on Everyone's Mind," Rev. Tim Keller, Redeemer
Presbyterian Church, September 14, 2001;
http://www.redeemer2.com/news/wtc/index.cfm?fuseaction=sermons
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