I confess that I personally have a problem hearing people say that Islam is a peaceful religion. Any religion that has a doctrine which states that if someone leaves that religion they should be killed cannot be considered peaceful. That is terrorism in its most basic, and oppressive, form. However, there is more than one face to Islam, just as there are presently many faces to Christianity. It is wrong for us to judge any person or group by their most extreme elements.

The real battle we are fighting is against fear. Evil people want to control the world through fear. As one of our great President of war once said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." To the degree that fear controls our actions, that is  the degree to which fear has become our lord.

America is now mobilizing for war. We are gathering the necessary resources, positioning them, and making what we believe will be effective plans against our enemy÷terrorism. As we have discussed, the civil government has a different mandate than the church. The church is also now mobilizing for war, but our war is different. Because it is quite obvious that this attack on America was diabolical in nature, this is a spiritual war as well. We must mobilize for the spiritual war. How do we do that? How do we train and prepare? What are our weapons, and how do we use them?

As covered in a previous bulletin, there is a different mandate given to the government than to the church.

The United States Army has a doctrine that has been called "The Three Critical Questions," which should be asked in any situation that requires action, and certainly in this present crisis. These questions are:

1) What is happening?
2) What is not happening?
3) What can we do about it?

Though some of the principles I am about to address can be applied on a wider basis, I am directing them to Christians as a spiritual perspective in relation to how the church should respond to them.

There are events in history that are defining moments by which we can judge the true nature of many people, organizations, and governments. The terrorists attacks last Tuesday were one of those events in which the true nature of many will be revealed.

Isaiah 30:25-33 seems to address directly the World Trade Center tragedy:

Over the next few years a fire is coming upon the body of Christ that will eventually touch every believer on earth. There will be no escape from it, but neither should we want one. It is the fulfillment of one of the great biblical prophecies, and will eventually bring light and warmth to the entire earth.

 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne (Revelation 4:1-2).

In the last Morning Star Journal, Rick shared that Bob Jones had given him a word several months ago saying that we were “returning to 1989.” The Lord told Bob that many things that had happened in 1989 would once again take place in 2001, and we would receive opportunities to pass many of the tests that we had failed in 1989.