I was working at home on September 11, 2001, and I hadn’t had the TV on that morning. Then a friend called, and she obviously assumed I knew what she was talking about.          

“Well,” she said when she discovered I had no clue, “you’d better get the TV on now.”         

The second tower of the World Trade Center was collapsing as the TV screen flickered to life. I didn’t know what I was viewing; it couldn’t possibly be what it seemed.         

Three years earlier, our family had ridden the high-speed elevators to the observation deck atop the World Trade Center’s south tower. My son and I had talked about the 1993 bombing that came perilously close to toppling the north tower.          

“Wouldn’t that have been amazing,” Joel said.

Now in 2006, five years after both towers came down, the world is still amazed, and we are beginning to understand that the entire planet is threatened by a clash of civilizations. Some say World War III has begun.  

Do you remember the euphoria felt by so many when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989? What an optimistic time it was.

Optimism still filled Berlin more than a decade later, when my wife and I visited the city in the summer of 2000. We walked beneath the Brandenburg Gate, where Ronald Reagan had given his famous speech about tearing down the wall. We ambled placidly through what had been the deadly border crossing, Checkpoint Charlie. We stood in hushed reverence in St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig—formerly in East Germany—where dozens, then hundreds, then thousands had amassed on Moday evenings during the autumn of 1989. They lit candles in silent “Prayers for Peace.” The non-violent movement lasted only a few weeks, but it is credited with a major role in the fall of the communist dictatorship.

Having lived most of our lives during the Cold War, Donna and I stood amazed at the complete collapse of what had seemed to be the only significant threat to the planet’s free democracies. It seemed almost too good to be true.

It turns out it was.

Now it is September 2006, and if Pakistani and British intelligence agencies had not been on high alert just a few weeks ago, this fifth anniversary of 9/11 would probably have been celebrated by al-Qaeda blasting 10 passenger airliners out of the sky over the Atlantic Ocean.

Will Western intelligence agencies always be so successful? Many believe it is only a matter of time until another cataclysmic attack strikes American soil. If that does happen, what will happen next?

Some look at Daniel 12:2 and wonder about its prediction of “a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.”

Are we there yet? many ask.

I don’t know. But I do know this: Christians should not be looking to the future with dread.

The apostle Peter, no stranger to trouble himself, counseled, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6,7).

Peter did not claim there would be no trouble. He does insist Jesus’ followers should not fear it.

Two days after Christ’s crucifixion, Peter and Christ’s other followers were in utter despair. Christ’s death had destroyed their hope. Then an angel appeared to the women at the empty tomb and said, “Fear not” (Mark 16:6). From that point on, the lives of Christ's followers did not become easier, but they were blessed beyond anything they could have imagined.

I think any lasting solution to the planet's current stress will require a miracle as powerful as Christ’s resurrection, and that is what we can expect. This is how Christ spoke about Daniel’s prediction:         

“There will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. . . . At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect” (Matthew 24:21-22, 30-31, NIV).

The later chapters of the book of Revelation also take up Daniel’s prediction. John describes a desperate time of trouble, but for followers of Christ it does not lead to total chaos and annihilation. Rather, it leads to this:

“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:2-4).

Is the ultimate solution to the planet’s distress coming soon? More than once Jesus insisted, “You do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42, NIV).

When it will come we cannot know. That it will come we can be sure. And while we wait, we may take courage from Jesus’ words found in John 16:33 (NIV): “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

B.W.