What does the church and 9/11 have in common?

Have you seen some of these demolition companies that specialize in imploding towering structures like old buildings and giant smoke stacks? 
They use a strategy of calculated physics to bring these antiquated monstrosities to the ground by their own weight. 
 

 They do this by placing explosive charges at key load-bearing structural components so that when the charges are exploded, the building collapses on itself.

 
The most grotesque example of this type of demolition technology, I suppose, is the strategic plan the Muslim extremist of Al-Qaida used to implode the twin towers on 9/11. 

They calculated the amount of energy required by a forced explosion - in combination with the precise location - to cause an unthinkable and devastating collapse.  The terrorists knew they could not defeat America, but they could attack its institutions. 

I like to ask questions, especially those which are spiritual in nature.  So here is a whopper: If the “evil one,” Satan, were to create a strategic plan for the demise – the implosion of the church – what would the elements needed to create a collapse look like and where would they be placed? 

 

Satan can’t defeat Christ; Jesus has already won the victory, so the best he can do is attack Christ’s church on a main street level.  So, first, he would locate and target the load bearing supports.  Next, he would weakened them just enought to create the instability needed to bring the Church down upon itself.  But, what type of explosive material would he use? 

If he employed only the strategy that C.S. Lewis’s creatively describes in the Screwtape Letters - a one-by-one, individual assault by little devils - it may gain him a few souls, but it would be highly inefficient.  Going after every follower of Christ one at a time would be daunting and impossible. 

 

However, if he followed a similar strategy of implosion as the 9/11 designers, (or maybe they followed Satan’s design) he could bring down to the pit of ground zero, towering numbers in Christ and weaken the Church to the point of irrelevancy. 

What if Satan has indeed strategically targeted the twin towers of the Christian faith, the institution of the Church itself at a local, main street level!  If so, are we susceptible? 


And, are there any signs we can identify to guard against this strategy to implode the structure of the church?  And, if not, what would the effect be on us, the very ones who make up the church.  Could this be a reason the church seems to be weakening in America?

This Sunday in worship, we return to our series, “Where did we learn that?” as we seek to find some relevant biblically based answers to these questions I just posed.  We will do this by looking at some very powerful, yet misguided, lessons we’ve learned about the institution of the church. If you can't be with us, you can view this message through facebook and from our web site http://mwpcusa.org/