The Spiritual Battle On 9/11

The battle that began on Sept. 11, 2001, as part of an already in place war, was (and remains) a spiritual conflict.

The architect of the World Trade Center, Minoru Yamasaki, designed buildings for Saudi Arabia and incorporated Islamic architecture into the arches the surrounded the bottom of the Twin Towers, a fact acknowledged even by CAIR.

Yet, the World Trade Center became a symbol of Western Civilization, Americanism, and by extension, the Judeo-Christian tradition. It became a place of beauty and even grace, conquered by a tight rope walker and a toy maker who climbed up its side.  People worked and even fell in love there. It was for the good The World Trade Center became that the Islamists targeted the World Trade Center.

The first building to be completely destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, albeit by a few seconds, was actually a church; St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was obliterated by a still collapsing South Tower of the World Trade Center. The church has since been rebuilt, and overlooks the 9/11 Memorial Site.

The very first person to die on 9/11 was most likely an American-Israeli Jew, Daniel Lewin. Lewin had served in a special IDF commando unit, knew Arabic, and likely tried to foil the hijackers plans as flight attendants spoke of a passenger stabbed in first class (where the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11 were), which could only have been Lewin.

Father Mychal Judge, Chaplain of the FDNY, was the first official casualty of the Sept. 11 attacks as he died in the North Tower during the collapse of the South Tower. Though obviously Daniel Lewin, everyone else on three of the four airplanes (Flight 93 would not crash for another four minutes), and had died first, as well as people in the buildings and Pentagon, Father Judge was marked as Victim 0001, as his was the first body taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York.

Father Judge was not the only Sept. 11 priest of note. One of them was Lyndon Harris.

Reverand Lyndon Harris was the priest in charge of St. Paul’s Chapel, a small church just down the street from its parent, Trinity Church. It is also across the street from the World Trade Center. St. Paul’s Chapel is where George Washington went to pray after being inaugurated as the first President at Federal Hall on April 30, 1789, in many ways a spiritual birthplace of America.

St. Paul’s had previously survived the Great New York Fire of Sept. 1776 and, when the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, not a single window pane was broken. Federal Hall, in many ways the political birth center of our nation, saw its foundations cracked.

St. Paul’s immediately, under the leadership of Lyndon Harris, became a refuge for rescue workers.  For over nine months, meals were provided as was preaching, counseling, classical concerts and even massage therapy for first responders. Firefighters and others slept in the historic pews, including Washington’s Pew.  However, Trinity Church asked “When will this place (St. Paul’s) become a church again?  Lyndon Harris answered, “We’ve never been more of a church.”

When asked to close down the St. Paul’s Chapel relief operation by Trinity Church in March 2002, often derided as “Trin Co.”, cops and firefighters threatened to picket Trinity on Easter Sunday 2002.  Trinity backed down until the cleanup of what was called Ground Zero was finished in late May 2002.  However, Lyndon Harris was pressured to resign from his role at St. Paul’s Chapel in October 2002.  The video made by Trinity Church of the St. Paul’s 9/11 mission did not feature Lyndon Harris.

Lyndon’s life spiraled due to health issues, the treatment by Trinity and how he chose to respond to the wrongs.  Quoting Nelson Mandela, he said “Not to forgive is like drinking a glass of poison and waiting for your enemies to die” and there was a part of him that enjoyed drinking the poison.  Eventually, Lyndon chose the radical forgiveness of Jesus and was invited back to St. Paul’s Chapel for the 20^th Anniversary of Sept. 11 in 2021.

Lyndon’s forgiveness, represented a Christian response to wrongs in turning the other cheek.  The passengers on Flight 93 practiced another form of Christian love; sacrificing themselves by taking up their literal arms against Islamic terrorists.

Theirs was the first noted victory for freedom on Sept. 11. Flight 93 which, due to the bravery of its passengers and crew, never reached its intended target in Washington, D.C.  They also chose the love of Jesus, by laying down their lives for people they did not know, with Todd Beamer (and surely others) praying before charging the terrorists. Beamer said over the phone to a 911 operator named Lisa (the same name as his wife, “God help me. Jesus help me. Let’s roll!

It was in this atmosphere, at the National Prayer Service on Sept. 14, that we even heard the long dormant, Battle Hymn of the Republic.

While our national spiritual battles are important, and Scripture frequently invokes spiritual warfare in terms of government, our personal integrity before the Lord and our salvation through Christ, is the largest battle to be fought.  In our victories, some of which have been and need to be obtained by tough means, we cannot become what we despise in the fight against evil: whether it be terrorists, other demonic forces, religious leaders (other faiths or our own) and especially our own sin.

We all have our personal Ground Zeros but, like the Cross that was formed by the destruction at the World Trade Center, we can gain the ultimate victory amongst the carnage, salvation for our sins and souls, by responding to Jesus’ message of repentance and love.

Larry Provost worked the search and rescue at the World Trade Center with the U.S. Army and later served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Views expressed in this article are those of the author and not any government agency.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.