In one life-extinguishing flash our priorities and pursuits were suddenly put to the test. Did they assume greater or less importance by the crisis that caught us so stunningly offguard? That question is left for each person to answer individually. In the fiery explosions that transfixed the world with horror our souls sought a refuge that cannot be brought down by forces from any quarter. To what haven could we flee, not only for protection, but for answers to questions that seldom receive due attention?
Just such a refuge appeared one morning 2,000 years ago. It was on that morning that a cross was erected on Calvary, to all appearances the site of ultimate weakness and final defeat. It was at 9:00 in the morning that Christ was nailed there, approximately the same hour the Trade Center was pierced with speeding death. But the comparison between the trade Center towers and Calvary goes deeper than the element of time or even the terror inflicted at both places.
Let's take a closer look.
Twin Pillars of Law and Grace
The World Trade Center was the chief emblem of capitalism's relentless dominance and drive, the nerve center of commercial enterprise. Its twin towers of profit and pride collapsed under an attack diabolically conceived and executed, when two fuel-laden passenger planes were turned into destructive missiles. Thousands perished, and hundreds of thousands of lives were wrenched and battered with grief not easily assuaged. And beyond that inner circle of the bereaved stood a world at first dazed with horror, but soon to rally with all possible relief, even while feeling the insufficiency of its best efforts to repair the damage to human lives.
But now we shift our gaze to the chief emblem of the gospel, the cross of Jesus. Christ on Calvary represented the twin pillars of heaven's government: law and grace, integrated and embodied in a single God-man-not seated on a throne of worship but stretched out on a symbol of shame, derision, and rejection. While Christ was thus cruelly suspended, Satan hurled all the massive weapons of His brutal warfare. This archterrorist came at Him with all his firepower, all his malice and unrighteous wrath against heaven's government.
Simultaneously, the Father Himself rained His righteous wrath on His own Son, because by long-prior arrangement rooted in self-sacrificing love, Jesus on the cross vicariously had become sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.1 The Father made the iniquity of us all to meet upon His Son, to converge in one teeming abyss of moral dereliction and doom upon Jesus so that He could truly die in the place of every guilty sinner and bear fully and distinctly the punishment of us all. This is love beyond degree, beyond human comprehension.
All this wrenching, agonizing force was brought against the twin towers of law and grace personified in that innocent Sacrifice. But did those towers collapse? Were they destroyed or dislodged? No, they stood firm-unshaken, undamaged. They shone with a richer radiance than ever before, casting their glow of invincibility not only over earth and sky, but throughout the vaulted cosmos to its remotest bounds. For the sacrificed Redeemer who hung on the cross in our place died with words of triumph on His lips, words of perfect trust and submission. "It is finished." "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."2
And thus He abolished death and "brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."3 Which leads to our final thought in the analogy between the events of September 11, 2001, and Passover eve, A.D. 31.
Twin Pillars of Sin and Death
Christ's atoning sacrifice brought down the twin pillars of Satan's kingdom-sin and death. For by His sacrifice Jesus made it possible for us to have eternal victory over sin, and He guaranteed the eventual destruction of death, rendering it impotent meanwhile to debar humanity from having eternal life even in the days of our mortality.4
While certain terrorists, driven by satanic hatred of their fellow humans, were willing to destroy as many lives as possible in one assault, Christ on Calvary, inspired by divine love for humanity, bore all the destructive force that could be hurled against Him to save as many lives as possible through His one sacrifice. That message beams forth from Golgotha with heightened intensity, heraldic grace, and impelling power. All the wealth, wisdom, and benevolence of heaven were concentrated in the cross, and not a single portion of these blessings has been lost or diminished with travails of time.5 Jesus' all-sufficient sacrifice needs no repetition, but simply a deep personal application and appropriation by each individual heart. We all need His offered redemption.
Coming Calamities
Unfortunately, however, other acts of destruction similar to those inflicted on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center may be in the offing. "Light has been given me that the cities will be filled with confusion, violence, and crime, and that these things will increase till the end of earth's history."6 "The end is near and every city is to be turned upside down in every way. There will be confusion in every city."7 "The flattering monuments of men's greatness will be crumbled in the dust even before the last great destruction comes upon the world."8
Scripture alerts us to the reality that before the close of time everything will be shaken that can be shaken in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.9 Clearly the one unshakable foundation available for us is Christ and His kingdom revealed in His eternal word.10 He invites us to build an indestructible character and experience on that foundation. We are thus placed on vantage ground to help rescue the perishing in these times of mounting storm, stress, and calamity that are wrenching multitudes loose from their shaky moorings and thrusting them into the valley of decision. Carnal weapons are of no avail here, and worldly wisdom sinks into shamefaced silence. "Your heart will meditate on terror: 'Where is the scribe? Where is he who weighs? Where is the counter of towers?'"11 We may direct the questioning eyes of the fearful to the one hope that awaits all who will open their hearts to the glorious answer set before us-Christ our King.
"The name of the Lord is a strong tower."12 Repentant sinners find
righteousness and shelter by running into that tower, where they are eternally safe, even if they should physically perish in some human-made tragedy. If we haven't done it yet, let's find our unfailing salvation, comfort, and safety in the cross. And if we have, let us guide others to that refuge without delay.
"In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
"Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,
By the cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure,
Joys that through all time abide."13
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1 Isa. 53; Dan. 9:26, 27; Zech. 6:12, 13; John 10:18; Rom. 5:20, 21; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24, 25.
2 John 19:30; Luke 23:46.
3 2 Tim. 1:10, NIV.
4 1 John 5:1-5, 11-13.
5 1 Cor. 1:17-30.
6 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, p. 84.
7 White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 1, p. 248.
8 White, Selected Messages, book 3, p. 418.
9 Heb. 12:27.
10 Matt. 7:24-27; 1 Cor. 3:11.
11 Isa. 33:18, NKJV.
12 Prov. 18:10.
13 John Bowring, 1825 (see The Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, no. 237).
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Brian D. Jones is a pastor and coordinator of Bibleinfo.com for the Upper Columbia Conference.
EW WILL FORGET WHERE THEY WERE WHEN THEY first heard about the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Time froze in the wake of that event-so apocalyptically surreal, so inconceivably brutal and diabolic in purpose and effect. As we watched the towers, filled with precious lives, crumble before our eyes, our routine pursuits (which had seemed so pressing moments before) instantly crumbled into the dust of irrelevance. From that instant and in the hope-filled days beyond, the supreme objects of concern became the prevention of further attacks and the rescue of survivors in the rubble, both in New York and outside Washington, D.C.
