September 11, 2001 Plus Ten

[0:00] For our scripture reading, if you would turn, please, to Genesis chapter 3. While you're turning there, you may be wondering, as we arrive at the text, what in the world does this have to do with a 9-11 message?

[0:21] And my answer is, everything. Everything. And we will see how this develops.

[0:32] Genesis chapter 3, and we will read selected verses from the chapter beginning with verse 1. And a couple of words that I just want to implant in your thinking at the beginning, because it not only pertains to the passage that we'll be reading, but it pertains to all of human history.

[0:51] And it is absolutely key to what happened 10 years ago on 9-11. And two words that I want to implant in your thinking.

[1:05] Domination and control. Very, very big items. Domination and control.

[1:16] And we read about the premier dominator. As the chapter opens. Genesis 3. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

[1:34] And he said to the woman, Indeed, as God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. And the woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat.

[1:50] But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, You surely shall not die.

[2:05] For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate.

[2:28] And she gave also to her husband with her and he ate. Now, if you'll skip down to verse 13, Consequences of their eating.

[2:42] Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

[2:56] And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life.

[3:11] And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.

[3:26] To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you shall bring forth children.

[3:37] Yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

[3:49] We'll return to this shortly. But by way of introduction, and to get some things up for your consideration, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[4:18] Immortal words, penned by Thomas Jefferson, and they provide the rationale behind our decision to seek our independence from Great Britain.

[4:32] The Revolutionary War was a result of this declaration, and as Americans, we have cherished and held fast these words.

[4:45] Jefferson and our founding fathers were thoroughly committed to the idea that we were created by God and that we were created equal.

[4:56] This doesn't mean that we have equal abilities, talents, or opportunities, or anything like that, but it means that in humanity, all human beings are created of equal value, that life is precious, and it deserves to be protected.

[5:18] Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are considered to be unalienable rights as a created human being. A human being has the right to live, to survive in this world.

[5:36] A human being has the right to liberty or freedom, and a human being has the right to pursue happiness. Not necessarily entitled to happiness doesn't mean that we have a right to happiness, but it means we have a right to pursue happiness.

[5:58] happiness. And you'll note that each of these rights are linked to the one that goes before it, because if you do not have the right to life itself, then you can forget about liberty, and if you do not have life and liberty, you can forget about pursuing happiness.

[6:22] And do you realize, as Americans, and I hope you do, that in a great many countries throughout the world, this value system is not shared at all.

[6:35] It is true there are other countries on the planet that place a great deal of premium upon liberty and freedom, but there are also many that do not. Another reason why we certainly should not take ours for granted.

[6:49] Much, if not all, human conflict and discord stems from one person or a nation setting this concept aside of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and deciding to alienate another person or another nation from this trio of inalienable rights.

[7:21] This is at the base of most and perhaps all human conflict that occurs from the earliest time on the school playground with ever-present bullies to entire nations ruled by the ever-present despots.

[7:41] The name of the game is often reduced to maintaining one's own freedom and liberties while denying another their freedom and liberty.

[7:59] Playground bullies, if allowed to continue unrestrained, can morph into international tyrants like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi's and Adolf Hitler's, Idi Amin's, Ayatollah Khomeini, and lessers like Mohammed Atta.

[8:20] Anybody know that name? Mohammed Atta. He was the lead instigator in flying those planes that crashed in to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

[8:36] and the other that was brought down by heroic efforts in a farm field in Pennsylvania when they discovered what was happening and they decided they were going to deny the terrorist hijackers their goal and they fought for control of the plane and brought it to a premature end.

[9:00] No doubt it was to have been directed to the White House or to the Capitol building and it was heroic efforts of passengers who were the Americans that thwarted that.

[9:17] Believe it or not, these are all directly related to the alienating of other human beings from their God-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[9:32] Where and how did these terrible negative mindsets originate? Where does all these hurtful things begin?

[9:43] And the answer is right here in Genesis 3. it is the seedbed for all human pain, hurt, violence, negative activity, adversarial relationships, and everything.

[10:02] It all begins right here. And for anyone who says, well, Marv, you seem to blame everything that goes wrong on Genesis 3. You're right. I hope you've got the picture.

[10:15] That is precisely what we are saying. Matter of fact, there is no other answer that so capably and consistently explains why the world is the way it is today than this passage right here in Genesis 3.

[10:34] This is where it all began. And everything that is negative has stemmed from it, including death itself. So if you will look at Genesis 3, and you probably have it here before you, in verse 16, we read, to the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

[11:11] remember the two words I gave you earlier? Domination and control. Here's where it starts.

[11:24] Between a man and a woman. And it expands out, and it eventually involves entire nations, but with still the same objective of dominating and controlling.

[11:40] do you know of any marriages that are characterized by a perpetual power struggle?

[11:55] Someone has said that when a couple gets married, the two become one, and then the big fight begins as to which one they are going to be.

[12:07] What do you call that? human nature? It is the curse of humanity, and it was brought about by this original violation of what God provided.

[12:21] So, I want to share with you a few paragraphs from this passage, from the pen of Dr. James Montgomery Boyce, excellent commentary on Genesis.

[12:39] He's with the Lord now. He passed away several years ago, I think, with cancer, but he left a wonderful legacy behind in some of the things that he wrote. wrote. And what I hope to do is enable you to see that there is a very solid, valid connection between what we have here in Genesis 3 and the planes that crashed into our country and brought so much grief and heartache to so many people ten years ago.

[13:14] At first glance, you might say, well, what in the world does one have to do with the other? And my answer, again, is everything. Everything. Follow me now.

[13:24] Because it all begins with the individual. Dr. Boyce says, regarding this male- female- husband- wife- power struggle and the difficulty in interpreting, and really, do you see the word, yet your desire, shall be for your husband.

[13:52] What does that mean? There are different possibilities, and let me just toss out a couple of them. One of them conveys the idea that femininity is hooked on masculinity.

[14:11] femininity. Now, I don't know about that, ladies. I cannot address that. But I can tell you one thing. Masculinity is hooked on femininity. That I do know.

[14:24] There is a male- female attraction that exists there, and I am convinced that it's God given. And if we're not for that, we might be in difficulty of the species dying out.

[14:34] but there is a very definite man-boy or man-woman attraction, boy-meets-girl type thing.

[14:46] Nobody denies that. It's been that way from time immemorial, and it's that way in every culture. There is a compulsion within the male to attach to a female, and likewise for the female.

[15:02] And this is all part of the way God has wired us and the way God has made us. So, whether this desire is for the completion aspect, because femininity in the main is incomplete without masculinity, and vice versa, there are valid exceptions, but they are rare, usually.

[15:27] These two pair off, and the two reproduce themselves. So, the desire could very well be just a simple romantic sexual desire, like the man has for the woman, the woman has for the man.

[15:45] It could also mean this, and I think this is probably more correct, that the woman has a desire to control, to dominate, to wear the pants.

[16:03] Now, I'd be the first to admit that temperament plays into this, so it might not be so strong in some women as it is in others. There is our temperament and a personality thing, but if I understand human nature at all, it is this.

[16:21] essentially, basically, we want our own way about everything, and that tends to extend into marriage.

[16:35] It does not end with the taking of the vows and the I do's at the wedding altar. In fact, it often begins there and intensifies.

[16:46] Now, it doesn't have to be that way, and it's not supposed to be that way, for two people who claim to know and love the Lord, because there is a wonderful solution in Christ that God has provided for marital happiness and marital fulfillment.

[17:06] Unfortunately, not everybody realizes that, but it is available. So, a great deal is writing on this, your desire shall be for your husband.

[17:17] Now, if you will look over, because there is some scholarly difficulty in interpreting that word desire, but if you look over at chapter four, just turn the page, and God is speaking to Cain, and the Lord says to Cain in chapter four, and verse six, then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?

[17:45] If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? and if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

[17:57] God is here characterizing sin like an animal that is ready to leap, ready to spring, and grab its prey, and of course the prey in this case would be Cain, and that's how God is characterizing sin.

[18:13] It's like a wild animal that is crouching at the door, and sin's desire is for you, but you must conquer.

[18:31] What is he saying? He's saying this, he's saying, sin wants to dominate you, and control you, and this is the same word in the Hebrew for desire that is used here as it is in chapter three, when it says that Eve's desire is for her husband, and I think what the text is saying is as a result of our first parents disobedience, a relational conflict is set in mode for them, and they are going to have to struggle with that and work through that, because there is a natural opposition between the two, a supernatural provision can overcome that, but only as both are committed to Christ.

[19:29] Then it can be a beautiful thing, and it doesn't have to be the power struggle. I think what it is saying is the natural way for man and woman to live out their life is in a perpetual power struggle.

[19:45] Now, I'm sure there are non-Christian marriages that aren't like that, but in the main, that's pretty much the way it is. And, sad to say, in all too many Christian marriages, there is a power struggle.

[20:01] Each one is always vying for ascendancy, not supposed to be that way. But let me share this with you from the pen of Dr. Boyce. And he talks about a woman who has dealt with this passage and she has written the book.

[20:18] And, well, Dr. Boyce says, one person who has felt the full weight of these problems and who has tried to find the solution to them in scripture is Season T. Foe, who writes on the subject, what is the woman's desire?

[20:34] In a recent issue of the Westminster Theological Journal, she outlines the problems I have cited, but then finds a possible solution in the use of the word desire in the next chapter of Genesis.

[20:47] We've already looked at that, but let me reiterate it, and repetition is good. This verse is part of God's warning to Cain on the occasion of his anger about God's acceptance of his brother Abel's sacrifice and the rejection of his own.

[21:02] It says, if you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.

[21:15] You see what he's saying? There's a struggle here. There's a war, conflict going on between Cain and sin that wants to dominate or master him. According to the traditional interpretations of Genesis 3.15, the use of the word desire would be entirely different from its use just 15 verses later.

[21:36] a desire to submit in chapter 3 versus a desire to rule in chapter 4. But Sooth and Foe suggests that the use is actually the same and that the verses are strikingly parallel, and I couldn't agree more.

[21:49] She views it like this. The woman has the same sort of desire for her husband that sin has for Cain, a desire to possess or control him.

[22:04] I wonder how many women could add to this. Yes, I suppose I do, but it's for his own good. That'd send you through the wall, wouldn't it?

[22:17] This desire disputes the headship of the husband. As the Lord tells Cain what he should do, that is master or rule sin, the Lord also states what the husband should do, rule over his wife.

[22:30] Don't you just love that word rule over his wife? That makes some sparks too. The words of the Lord in Genesis 3.16 as in the case of the battle between sin and Cain do not determine the victor of the conflict between husband and wife.

[22:48] These words mark the beginning of the battle of the sexes. As a result of the fall, man no longer rules easily.

[23:00] He must fight for his headship. Sin has corrupted both the willing submission of the wife and the loving headship of the husband.

[23:13] The woman's desire is to control her husband, to usurp his divinely appointed headship, and he must master her if he can.

[23:25] man. So the rule of love founded in paradise is replaced by struggle, tyranny, and domination.

[23:39] Support for this view is in the fact that not all husbands rule their wives, and that a woman's desire does not generally contribute to that headship.

[23:50] what is the solution? Well, it is not the abolishing of the man's place as head of the home, as some women's liberation spokespersons suggest.

[24:04] It is rather the transformation of the attitudes and aspirations of both the man and woman through the indwelling spirit of Christ, so that, as Paul clearly writes, wives will be able to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and husbands will be able to love their wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

[24:31] Ephesians 5, 22, 25, in this life each of these will always be done imperfectly, but they are better accomplished imperfectly than not at all.

[24:47] So, Genesis 3, 16, which creates a problem and a dilemma, will find a solution in a later 3, 16, namely John's, in the gospel that bears his name.

[25:04] So, I think the overall tenor of scripture is saying, yes, it is recognized that there is a power struggle between the wife and the husband, and each wants to dominate the other.

[25:19] Each wants to control the situation, and that's a perfectly human, natural response as a result of the fall. However, God has provided a wonderful spiritual dynamic that can overcome that, in the case of two who are committed to Christ.

[25:37] And as the wife learns her loving role of being submissive to her husband, not as a second class citizen, not as someone who is inferior in any way, but in recognizing his God-given headship, and he responds to that by loving her sacrificially, and he does that by putting her needs and her interests ahead of his own, then you have a wonderful connection there that breaks the sin syndrome that was established in Genesis 3.

[26:09] Now, what does this all have to do with 9-11? Again, I say everything, because what we're talking about is the intrinsic desire and nature of people to dominate and control other people.

[26:30] we are endowed with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as unalienable rights.

[26:43] That means rights from which we should not be alienated or separated. And we went to war with Great Britain because they insisted on alienating us from those rights.

[27:00] if you want to come out of a slave state, and what are you if you are a slave?

[27:11] If you are a slave, and I'm thinking in terms of slavery here in the United States in the 1800s, particularly in the South, if you were a slave, you had no rights.

[27:23] You had life only if the master wanted to continue your life. You had no liberty and you had no real freedom except what he was willing to give you, and he could withdraw it at any time.

[27:36] That's a terrible way for a human being to live. Some people feel that they are slaves where they work. Well, I can assure you that you are not, because your employer is obligated to remunerate you financially for your time and your effort, and you can walk away and quit anytime you want.

[27:57] So, he does actually control or dominate you in the workplace. It is your employer who determines what you are to do and what your productivity is supposed to be and what your schedule is going to be and all of that, but he has to pay you for it.

[28:15] He has to compensate you. And you can remove yourself from that situation any way you want. It isn't a forced kind of thing. But when we are talking about taking liberty and freedom from people, it usually has to do with people that don't want to give it up.

[28:34] So, what do you have? You have war. And as a result of the war, somebody is going to be dominated and somebody is going to be ruled over.

[28:46] We were attacked on December 7, 1941, by the Empire of Japan when they bombed Pearl Harbor. And they were trying to alienate us from our liberty and our freedom.

[28:58] They wanted to conquer the United States of America. And they ended up being conquered by the United States of America. And do you know what we did?

[29:09] We took away, we alienated from them their freedom and their liberty. And after the atomic bomb was dropped, we went into Japan and we occupied them and we told them what they could and could not do.

[29:24] We took their liberty and freedom away from them. And General MacArthur met with Emperor Hirohito and said your first order of business is to get on your national Japanese radio and tell all of your Japanese countrymen that you are not a god.

[29:44] Now that's domination. That's control. That's what war is all about. that's what 9-11 is all about. It is an effort to dominate and control people against whom you have an occasion.

[29:59] A gripe, a grievance, an injustice, or whatever. The name of the game is to make them pay, to take from them their liberty and their freedom.

[30:11] But if they don't want to give it up, then you've got a conflict. And this is where we're at. this is where we've always been. And let me say this, and I trust I will not just sound pessimistic or negative, and I am not a prophet, but I am on safe ground saying this, there are going to be other 9-11s.

[30:38] 9-11s. They may not take the same form, and they may not even be in this country. They may be abroad. They may be before the day is over.

[30:51] A 9-11 type incident is when someone goes in with a truck packed with explosive materials and blows up several hundred innocent people who had no suspicion that they were in danger at all.

[31:06] And it is all with promoting an agenda that is seeking to dominate and control other people. And why do you want to dominate and control other people?

[31:16] The answer is simple. Because you know they are wrong in who and what they are and what they're pursuing and you are right. This is always the motivation.

[31:28] It is always a persuasion that one is correct in their position and those that you are seeking to dominate are wrong. And they deserve to die, to be extinguished, or to be subjugated to your authority.

[31:44] This is as old as Genesis 3. It has been the history and the story of nations from time immemorial. There are scars of battlefields all over the globe.

[31:57] It's hard to find a square foot of ground in the nation of Europe that hasn't been saturated with somebody's blood. all because of the desire to dominate and control.

[32:14] There is a regarding Islam, and I'm not really singling this out because it isn't limited to Islam or to the terrorists.

[32:26] It is pervasive to the whole human culture, terror. But it's just that the terrorist Islamic thing is that that is foremost in our minds because of what happened 10 years ago and what we are commemorating today.

[32:39] So let's think about this. The acts of extreme aggression that we call terrorism, the perpetrators likely call a deserved punishment or view as somewhat protective of what they perceive to be a threat to their way of life, standards, values, and security.

[33:05] Note, I said perceived. Now, think of this. What in the world is it about the United States of America or the rest of the Western world that could possibly cause any of these Muslim radicals to think that we are somehow a threat to them and their way of life?

[33:36] What? What have we done to get labeled as a threat to them? Well, I am not at all trying to excuse their behavior or the disastrous thing they did in 9-11, but I am trying to help you understand it.

[33:57] I've read a great deal about this. I've read articles and books like Getting Into the Mind of a Terrorist and find out what motivates these people.

[34:09] These are not crazy people. They're not insane. They are very much in tune with reality. but they are coming from an entirely different mindset than what we know anything about.

[34:22] And it's easy to just dismiss them as just a bunch of murderous kooks. things. First of all, they look at themselves in a defensive kind of posture, and they are defending against Western culture, morals, and values from infiltrating the Muslim world.

[34:50] world. This is seen as a special threat due to a shrinking globe, the internet, and modern satellite communications.

[35:02] They view the West, the United States in particular, but all of the West, which would incorporate Europe as well, they view us as a corrupting influence, particularly in areas of morality and sexuality.

[35:19] sexuality. This is borne out in their view and treatment and placement of women in Muslim society. I don't know how much you know about women who live in Muslim societies, especially where they are governed by Sharia law, but the rules and regulations for femininity in these countries is radically different.

[35:42] The wearing of the garb is not a choice, it is a necessity. The woman's body needs to be clothed and covered in its entirety. She is not allowed to have arms showing, legs showing, anything showing.

[35:57] Why is that? They consider that to be immodest and they also consider it to be providing a temptation for males who see the exposed female form and they do not have the ability to resist.

[36:14] Now we see that as extreme. they see that as very factual. They believe that no man is a match for any woman who is exposed.

[36:27] And that's why they cover their women entirely. That's why it is illegal for a woman to go out in public by herself unless she is accompanied by a male member of the household or another woman.

[36:40] woman. Now we look upon these things as really weird but I'm trying to help you understand what is in their mind. I'm not suggesting right or wrong.

[36:51] I'm saying this is the way it is. This is the way these people think. And when they see coming through satellite television into their living rooms bikini babes on a beach someplace frolicking around with their large breasts and all of the rest of it they are concerned about the impact that has on 14 year old young Arab boys.

[37:16] They see that as a corrupting influence. I don't know how many of you remember the Shah of Iran but he was responsible for westernizing a great deal of Iran in the 1950s and 60s and 70s and this was a result of American interests going to Iran and literally conducting the kind of geological surveys and investigation and involvement that resulted in Iran being an oil rich nation.

[37:52] And the Shah of Iran was very grateful. And he began adopting all kinds of western things and the women in Iran were wearing Levi jeans and loving it.

[38:07] And the young people were listening to western music and loving it. But not everybody was loving it. Who wasn't loving it?

[38:18] the Islamic religious establishment that was steeped in hundreds and hundreds of years of tradition and Sharia law and a strict interpretation of the Koran.

[38:32] And they started making noise. They started preaching. They started protesting. They started demonstrating. One of the chief antagonists of the Shah of Iran was a man by the name of Ayatollah Khomeini.

[38:50] And the Shah of Iran chased him out of the country, drove him into exile, and he went to France and took up residency in Paris, France. And do you remember when the regime in Iran fell, it was in connection with the takeover of the students of the American embassy in Tehran.

[39:10] Jimmy Carter was president and a hundred and some were held hostage, and there was a failed attempt to get them out, and it was a disaster and didn't come off.

[39:22] And eventually, when Reagan became president, the hostages were released.

[39:33] The Shah of Iran contracted a serious disease. He came to the United States for treatment. Subsequently, he died, and when he died, guess who came home?

[39:47] Ayatollah Khomeini. He came from France in a helicopter and was put down in the center of the square of Tehran, and there were a million people there to welcome him.

[40:05] And the Shah was gone, and the clerics were back in power and control again, and everything changed. And one of the first things that went was the ladies Levi jeans, and they went back to the burkas, and everything that went.

[40:23] It set the nation back hundreds of years back to where they were. That's where the religious establishment wanted them. Now, can you understand, then, how the western world is viewed as a threat to their way of life?

[40:37] They have a particular way of relating to and controlling the women. They do not have equal rights.

[40:48] In Saudi Arabia, in Saudi Arabia, which is considered one of the more moderate Muslim countries, a woman is not even permitted to drive an automobile. He is just not allowed, period.

[41:00] And there are a host of other things, too. All of this way of life that we enjoy and take for granted here in the western world, through the media, through satellite, television, communication, a shrinking world, we export all of this.

[41:18] We send what we are and what we are about all over the world. Some places it's gratefully received and welcomed. Other places, like those I've just mentioned, see it as a real threat.

[41:30] And this is part of what is involved. I know that every American considers radical Islam as a threat to us, our peace, security, life, liberty, etc.

[41:45] And it is. It's a very legitimate threat. But I wonder how many Americans consider the western way of life as being a threat to them.

[41:58] We would dismiss that and say there's no validity to that at all. But you see, threats come in different ways. It is a threat to their way of life.

[42:10] And they are as intent on trying to protect and preserve their way of life as we are ours. So you've got a conflict. That's the defensive posture.

[42:27] Offensive, on the offense to the radical Muslim, is the carrying out of the mandate they believe they have from Allah as stipulated in the Quran.

[42:40] Is this true? No, of course not. It isn't true at all. But, they believe it. And that's what makes the difference.

[42:52] They don't act on what we believe, they act on what they believe. And it doesn't make any difference whether it's true or not. if you believe it to be true and you act on it, the consequences are the same.

[43:03] This mandate, which they believe they have, which they take very seriously, is generally ignored by mainstream Muslims in the same way that Christians tend to ignore our biblical mandate to evangelize the lost.

[43:20] In other words, there are Muslims that are hardcore, extreme right, extreme radical, and they take everything that the Quran has to say quite literally.

[43:37] Do you realize that the Quran provides them with a mandate to Islamicize the entire world by whatever means possible?

[43:50] By means of friendly persuasion, whereby they try to convince people that Islam is the way, and that Allah is the only God and Muhammad is his prophet, and they try to preach that and proclaim that and persuade people that it's true, but if they will not be persuaded that it is true, then you are under a divine mandate, an obligation to either enslave them and make them pay tribute to Islam, or eliminate them.

[44:22] And by eliminating them, I'm talking about exterminating them, killing them. You are doing Allah a service when you slit the throat of an infidel.

[44:39] Allah is pleased. And again, I emphasize, it doesn't make any difference whether that is true or not. What matters is they believe it, and they act on it.

[44:52] And when they took those planes into the Twin Towers, the last words those men were saying was Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, God is great, God is great, and they fully expected to wake up in paradise being served by their 70 black-eyed virgins.

[45:13] That's what they believe. We say, well that's crazy, that's nonsense. Not to them it isn't, and they acted upon it. the Muslim mandate to Islamicize the world is by any and every means possible.

[45:29] And you know, we have the same mandate. We have a mandate to proclaim the gospel everywhere in the world, to seek to win the world to Christ, that's our mandate, and we've got biblical reference for it.

[45:46] However, ours is limited to evangelism by friendly persuasion. We are not given permission to threaten, to intimidate, to coerce, to bribe, or anything else.

[46:04] All we have at our disposal is the power of reasoning as we implore men and women to put their faith and trust in a loving God and a Savior that he sent.

[46:18] And all the while we do that, we have to respect and acknowledge their volition and their ability to say no to our message.

[46:30] And we do not have the right to punish them for doing that, to take their life from them, or to threaten them, or to persecute them in any way.

[46:41] Islam does. and Islam does. The sword of Islam has conquered more people than has the persuasion of Islam.

[46:53] It is that way to this day. Dominate.

[47:05] control. Because when you can dominate and control, you set the agenda.

[47:18] You determine who is going to do what. You are in charge. You are in control. And very often, not very often, but it always results in denying somebody their life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness.

[47:41] In order to dominate and control them, you have to take those things from them. There are those who want to take them from us. That's what this whole 9-11 thing is all about.

[47:53] It is the intent to take one small step toward the subjugation of the United States of America. Usually, this begins with a very minority of people.

[48:11] Nazism began with Adolf Hitler. You can read all about it in Mein Kampf, a book he wrote telling his story, My Struggle.

[48:22] And the man had an absolutely insane idea. Do you remember what it was? It was Nordic supremacy. It was a super Aryan race, whereby he believed that the German Aryan race was superior to all other races in the world, and that the Jewish race did not qualify for being human.

[48:49] Therefore, they could be eliminated and should be eliminated at will as a cancer growing on humanity. And can you believe that he not only believed that, but he sold it to a nation that implemented it?

[49:13] And I've heard Germans testify since that time that it remains one of their greatest shames that they fell for that. It's all about domination and control.

[49:27] When he moved into Poland on September 1, 1939, the Polish people lost their liberty, their lives, and the pursuit of happiness.

[49:41] And so did six million Jews who were put into slave labor camps. So did much of Europe that was reduced to rubble. all because of the desire to dominate.

[49:53] And you know, this desire to dominate and control others is always born out of two things. Always out of two things. The first is ignorance. Number one, you're not as smart as you think you are.

[50:08] Ignorance. And ignorance is followed up by arrogance. And all arrogance is, is ignorance on steroids. that's all it is.

[50:22] It starts with a delusion of grandeur that causes this person to think he is the greatest thing that ever happened, and I'm going to impose this plan upon these people, and they don't want it, and they don't like it, but it is better because I'm the smartest guy in the room, and I'm going to convince these people, and I'm going to push this thing, and in the end, you just watch.

[50:46] In the end, they'll thank me for it. Adolf Hitler actually believed that. So did Joseph Stalin. Can you see how anyone could eliminate 50 million of his own countrymen?

[51:04] Now, that is arrogance. And it was all done out of what was a supposed grand scheme, grand idea.

[51:16] we are today engaged in an ongoing struggle that is all about this very thing, dominance and control.

[51:26] Keep these words in mind the next time you read about a terrorist attack, the next time you read about conflict, it's always about somebody is trying to control or dominate somebody else, and it started all the way back in Genesis 3, and it extends to nations trying to dominate other nations.

[51:44] The beat goes on. So, as we look at this situation with 9-1-1, please be reminded that it is just one of probably hundreds of thousands of incidents down through the ages that has always had the same motivation behind it.

[52:07] Nothing has changed. It's always control, dominate. In a marriage, it is the same way if Christ does not short circuit that through what he has provided.

[52:25] I hate to say, kind of hate to leave it with, you can expect more, but you can. You can.

[52:38] It doesn't do any good to put your head in the sand and say, well, maybe this 9-11 is the last bad thing we'll ever have to, oh, come on, you don't believe that. You know there's going to be more. What we need to understand is the rationale behind it, the basic nature of man that promotes this kind of thing, and above all, remember this, there is a divine solution to man's desire to dominate and control, and that is that each of us be dominated and controlled by our loving God.

[53:15] That's the only real solution for any people. Pray with me. Father, seeing this age-old principle worked out so many ways, and every time it's worked out, wherever it's worked out, it always brings untold suffering and pain and misery and heartache, because that's what happens when we infringe upon the rights of others, we deprive, we deny, we retaliate, all of these things are the result of that sinful behavior that was first exhibited way back in Genesis 3, and we are now suffering the consequences, but we are so grateful that as individual believers, we don't have to succumb to this.

[54:08] We've got wonderful provision made for us that enables us to actually live above that fray, and how we rejoice and thank you for it in Christ Jesus, in his name.

[54:19] Amen.