This morning I couldn't sleep and rose early. After my Bible time, I turned on the TV. The scene was one of the twin towers burning in New York City. Soon I realized the network I was watching was presenting a replay of the tragic events of five years ago today. The strange thing was, the same thing happened to me then. On September 11, 2001, I accidentally rose early California time to watch the news about the terrible attack on America's East Coast.

As my wife and I began watching together, the memories began coming back. My wife reminded me about my friend calling and saying, "Buddy, we're at war." And, it certainly turned out that my friend was right.

Later former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger appeared on Fox News. The basic question that Fox wanted answered was, since America's war against terror began, has the U.S. won any credibility from the muslim world? But, it was Kissinger's answer to another question that I found most interesting. He was asked if he thought America's new war would be long. Kissinger answered that it would. He said it would be a long battle, "because the battle has a religious element -- not on our side, but on theirs." 

If you live in a fire area, you know you fight fire with fire. When the World Trade Center was attacked, the world's financial and political centers realized that they were attacked by religion. And, they also realized that it would take religion to fight religion. Thus, the UN's Alliance of Civilizations (AOC) was born.

Besides waking early -- as I did this day in 2001, there was something else about this morning that was strange. As I said before, I started my day with my Bible. For some reason, I read in Genesis about the city and tower of Babel. Let's take a look at the account.

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:1-4 New American Standard Bible).

As I read this account, I couldn't help but think about the UN's AOC. If you recall, yesterday I pointed out how the AOC recognized the importance of symbols -- of the things that could unite them in their global alliance. And, what is it the AOC seeks to do? The AOC's founders want to build for themselves a global city (civilizations) and tower (religions) by which nothing will be impossible for them. But, before these builders get too excited about their project, they should read the rest of the account in Genesis. It continues:

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech." So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city (Genesis 11: 5-8).

You see, there is a fatal flaw in the logic of the AOC's founders. Although it's true that you fight fire with fire, it can't be just any fire. It has to be the right fire in the right place. Otherwise, adding more fire will only make things worse. The truth is, it wasn't just religion that attacked the World Trade Center -- it was false religion. So, spreading more false religion -- as the AOC intends to do -- isn't going to be the solution. It will only make things worse. The events of 9/11 will be just the beginning of the world's sorrows.

But, besides the city and tower of Babel, do you know of what else the AOC reminds me? It reminds me of the time two thousand years ago that God sent His Only Son down to Earth. And, instead of the Earth welcoming Him, the Earth killed Him.

It won't happen again.