"Why would God allow something like this to happen?"

I heard this question last night coming from the mouth of Tom Brokaw, NBC News anchor.  Undoubtedly, as Brokaw stated, the question had come across the minds of many, many people in light of all of the events of Sept. 11.

The NBC anchorman presented this question to Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Dr. Billy Graham.  The younger Graham admitted that he did not have an answer to the popular question, and he recognized that many people - Christians included - struggle with God's apparent allowance of evil.

Clearly, God would never cause something so disastrous and malicious as the World Trace Center attacks.  Few would argue that.  So, why then would He permit such atrocities - to Americans no less?

From here, we could digress into a discussion about free choice and the origins of sin, beginning with a look at the mistakes in the Garden.  These are certainly interesting studies to undertake, but they may miss a simple and profound perspective.  Certainly, the devil was directly involved with the unthinkable acts committed in New York and Washington.  Only the wicked one could convince someone to take the lives of thousands of innocent people.  Didn't God know this was going to happen?  Why didn't He just intervene and prevent these things from taking place?

The thing that amazed me most is that Reverend Graham seemed to unknowingly answer his own question.  After Brokaw brought up the issue, Graham began to speak of how important it was for people to recognize Jesus Christ as their Savior.  He shared of how Jesus had given Himself to pay for our sins.  This was Friday night at 9 p.m., mind you.  Put another way, the Gospel of Christ was being presented on one of the largest television networks in the world, at one of the prime viewing times of the week!

Would this kind of thing happen on a normal Friday night?  Hardly!  Possibly millions of people heard the plan of salvation Friday night, without the least bit of cynicism or remorse on the part of the television crew.  Luis Palau, of ChristianStudents.com, says this: "A stubborn, secular, and even blasphemous society sometimes will be stopped short only when a tragedy of national proportions takes place.  In the flood of the media reports, sometimes redemptive truth gets out."

Whether this "Attack on America" will produce any kind of long term revival or awakening remains to be seen.  What can be seen, though, is that God can use even the worst of men's actions to reveal His power.

We mustn't forget that these attacks are against God too.  Many Christians were killed by the terrorists on Sept. 11, and many others were made fatherless or widows.  God hates evil to a degree we can't even comprehend.  But He also loves people to an extent that is inconceivable to us.

If God hates evil so much, then why doesn't He put an end to it?

The truth is that God will put an end to all evil, and in the not-to-distant future it would seem.  Peter reminds us of God's great desire: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

Perhaps the population of Heaven will be increased with sinners who repent after of the evil demonstrated on Sept. 11.  Perhaps the tragedies in our country will cause us to step back and examine the evil that had already resided within our boundaries in the forms of sexual sin, stealing, murder, cheating, lying, and so on.  Perhaps we will once again unite under the Stars and Stripes and come together as "one nation under God."

Does any of that justify the actions of the hijackers or of their leaders, who planned the attack?  Of course not.  And it certainly gives no right for Americans to retaliate by killing innocent Arab civilians, in the US or abroad.

But it should prove that God is in control, and that we can live by the motto "In God We Trust."