Initially, I put up some comments about September 11th and it's relationship to Biblical Prophecy. My conclusion was that there was nothing in prophecy concerning September 11th, and that it therefore was not mentioned in the Bible. Of course that is still true. However, after watching a new PBS program called Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero, there may be some significance after all.
Absolutism
In this program, the term Absolutism was mentioned numerous times
as being the real enemy, so to speak. The word Absolutism means "An
absolute standard or principle". In relation to religious beliefs in
general then, the enemy is the person that believes that their religion actually
teaches that something is absolutely true, to the exclusion of some other
religion that doesn't teach the same thing. Therefore, if a person's religion
teaches that the God they believe in is the true God, and that there are no
other Gods, that is absolutism, and unacceptable, or possibly even evil by
association. I think this is a mistake.
The Bible, the most read religious book in the world says in the Ten Commandments, You shall have no other gods before me. In the New Testament, in John 14:6, Jesus said I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus referred to God in heaven as The Father. He wasn't saying that there are many Gods in heaven, and that people only get to the Jewish or Christian God by believing in Jesus, as if all others could take their own route to their own God. The Bible teaches the opposite, that there is one true God, and that he created the universe and everything in it, and his son is called Jesus. Jesus was very exclusive, and that makes him an absolutist. There is no way around it. He believed that his message was unique, and that he himself was and is God. Today our culture would brand Jesus a short sighted absolutist.
As has been said before, he was either a raving lunatic, or he was and is God. He can't just be A great moral teacher, since great moral teachers aren't generally known to be liars and deceivers.
My fear then is over the conclusions that will be drawn from all of this. Namely, that Conservative Christians (to name one group) that believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, (since he actually said that), are potentially dangerous, as are any religious systems that would teach any absolutes. The solution of course being offered today is ecumenism. The handwriting is on the wall, and it fits perfectly into prophecy, that in the Endtimes there will be a one world apostate religion, something previously thought unbelievable.
On Understanding Evil
The spiritual leaders that were interviewed in this video came to some staggering conclusions. (from my point of view) They said that their images of God were shaken. They couldn't view God the same way ever again.
Gosh, where have these people been? Haven't they read any history at all, or maybe God didn't exist when Hitler was killing Jews, or during any war you'd like to mention. God is not only relevant to our own personal experience. Our faith shouldn't be shaken only when God allows evil to happen to us, or in our country. For anyone in ministry, Christian, Jew, that claims the Bible as their religious book, this is ignorance of basic biblical concepts at a degree that is hard to conceive.
Don't be deceived by the proposed ecumenical solution - The evil is the act of Murder, and not a person's beliefs that they have correctly identified the God of the Universe, and that this God operates in absolutes. If God exists, how can he not be absolutist? The laws of physics wouldn't be laws if they weren't absolute. The book of Hebrews has a verse that aptly applies to some of the religious voices of our modern era. Hebrews 5:12 says In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again..
Evil is one of the most basic truths in the Bible, starting in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis.
God created time and space, the Universe. God created man. Man chose evil instead of God. God left the planet, turning it over to the author of evil, the devil. But, God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.