Being present at the bedside of a dying person has a deep impact on those witnesses. Often they are spurred to a deeper appreciation of life and making each day count. They often feel a strong bond to the dying person, made stronger by being there at the pivotal life-and-death moment. Some of those same effects occur in those who witness a sudden death, even that of a stranger.

These witnesses must come to grips in a new way with the uncertainty (from our side of things) of death’s timing. Since we tend to veil life’s brevity with our occupation with the temporal, it is a shock to have that veil dropped at an unexpected time. And we remember anew the value of life, including of the life that was lost.

Given all this, it can be nearly impossible to fathom why some people are zealous to cut short innocent lives. How, even, could they rejoice over such murder? Terroristic mass murder is even less comprehensible. Of course, we have Romans 1 and other Bible passages that help us know that the moral compass in each of us is affected by sin, and can, if ignored enough, be damaged to the point where it no longer guides a person at all.

Seeing the world biblically helps in many ways as we consider terrorism in our world. We’re not left to hasty generalizations, such as religion being the problem. We’re not left to despair, feeling that our lives are meaningless and at the mercy of a godless universe or a capricious Creator. We’re not frozen with fear, since we are confident in a personal Savior who bridged the gap of death before our journey there.

Alot of the above statements about death and murder would find agreement among many people in North America. But that does not mean that God’s Word precisely matches America’s ideals. There is a temptation to accept U.S. ideals, even constitutional ideals, as being identical to godly ideals. While there is a lot of overlap, truly, that does not rule out our being vigilant in analyzing current events and policies. Which current wars in the world are just wars? Is a war on terrorism a just war? Does the U.S. government’s policy on prisoners and torture match the Bible’s teaching? How does the constitutional right to privacy, to bear arms, etc., compare to the Bible’s teaching?

I’m not going to presume to answer those questions for you. Our Reformed Presbyterian Constitution, quoted in this issue, says that you have a personal responsibility to come to answers on these questions, as godly citizens. You are to receive wise counsel on these matters and make choices. You have no excuse for leaving the decisions on major issues to someone else. Perhaps this issue will provide some food for your thought about these things.

One way our convictions differ from present-day ideals is that we know not to expect the kind of world peace that humans try to bring. We also know not to fear those whom others fear. Our help is in the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, the Prince of peace and the Lord of the heavenly armies. We need not worry about another Tower of Siloam (Luke 13:4) or Twin Tower, because God is the fortress that will never be shaken.