*first posted on Garbage Truck in
October, 2001
All talking heads are saying how the country is changed now after
911--September 11, 2001. Have all things changed? Trust and confidence are
big losers in this fiasco. All the pitiful family and friends of the
murdered have lost and suffered immeasurably. However, firemen and
policemen and the military and patriotism win. At least for now. I argue
now that some things have remained the same because America had already
changed. It changed in a process of several generations and this terrorist
tragedy has simple highlighted the change.
In times past in the wake of national calamity, our leaders, both
political and religious called upon the nation to seek God. And not some
generic Wal-Mart god either, the genuine Jehovah God of the Authorized
Version of the Bible. If you think I am kidding consider these arresting
truth from the annals of US history:
In October of 1778, the Philadelphia Baptist Association, deeply
concerned about the direction of the Revolutionary War, passed the
following resolution:
The Association. deeply impressed with a sense of the calamities of the times, the prevalence of vice and profanity, and the declension of vital piety:
Resolved. To recommend to the churches to observe four days the ensuing
year--of humiliation, fasting and prayer and abstinence from labor and recreation: viz., the second Thursday in November, February, May and August: and they entreat the same.
The Philly Association was hoping that humiliation, fasting and prayer
would result in repentance in
the life of believers. Repentance is that work of grace that occurs
in the heart of man when he sees his utter helplessness and sinfulness and
he turns to God Almighty for his only hope. For the lost man, this happens
when he is convicted of his sins, gives up his plans to save himself and
turns to Christ for forgiveness and redemption--salvation. For the saved
man, repentance occurs when the Holy Spirit convicts him of his sins and
he abandons his thoughts about the sin and turns to agree with God that
they are wrong. Indeed, the literal meaning of "repent" (gr:
metenao) is "to change ones mind". Repentance for the saved man
has to do with "confession" (I John 1:9) which literally means
to "agree with God".
Where is the call to humiliation in our present calamity? We did not
hear it from our national religious leaders. Where is the call to fasting?
Where is the call to REPENTANCE?! In such a chaotic time as this our
forefathers would have chimed in with the voice of the Philadelphia
Baptist Association of 1778.
The historical record tells us that early in the Revolution, as early
as May 23, 1774, Jefferson, Henry, Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Francis
Lightfoot Lee gathered in the Council Chamber in Boston. In the night
Jefferson outlined a protest--a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer--against
the Port of Boston's closing.
The birth of our republic brought
hardship and terror on our fledgling country and humiliation and turning
to God was imperative to compatriots. On July 13, 1775, Governor Jonathan
Trumbull of Connecticut, wrote to General Washington:
The Honorable Congress have
proclaimed a Fast to be observed by the inhabitants of all the English
Colonies on this continent, to stand before the Lord in one day, with public
humiliation, fasting and prayer, to deplore our many sins, to offer
up our joint supplications to God, for forgiveness, and for his merciful
interposition for us in this day of unnatural darkness and distress...
They have, with one united voice, appointed you to the high station you
possess.
In March 1776, the Continental Congress agreed to the following
resolution for appointing a fast:
In times of impending calamity and distress; when
the liberties of America are imminently endangered by the secret
machinations and open assaults of an insidious and vindictive
administration, it becomes the indispensable duty of these hitherto free
and happy colonies, with true penitence of heart, and the most
reverent devotion, publickly to acknowledge the over ruling providence
of God; to confess and deplore our offences against him; and to
supplicate his interposition for averting the threatened danger, and
prospering our strenuous efforts in the cause of freedom, virtue, and
posterity. The Congress, therefore, . . . Do earnestly recommend,
that Friday, the Seventeenth day of May next, be observed by the said
colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that we may,
with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and
transgressions, and, by a sincere repentance and amendment of life,
appease his righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and
forgiveness;
Where is the call to humiliation in our present calamity? We did not
hear it from our national religious leaders. We did not hear it from our
national political leaders. Where is the call to fasting? Where is the
call to REPENTANCE?!
Eighty seven years after the declaration of independence, America was
again in the throes of calamity and distress. This calamity was brought on
by the brutal Civil War. After three years of unforgiving fighting,
President Lincoln called upon the nation to do its spiritual duty before
God. In proclaiming the Day of Thanksgiving in 1863 Lincoln wrote:
We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no
other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. Intoxicated with
unbroken successes, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity
of redeeming and preserving grace. It behooves us then to humble
ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins
and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Where is the call to humiliation in our present calamity? We did not
hear it from our national religious leaders. We did not hear it from our
national political leaders. Where is the call to fasting? Where is the
call to REPENTANCE?!
America, September 11 did not change your spiritually, it revealed you
were already in deep need of repentance.