It's Monday, October 7, 2024.

I'm Albert Mueller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Well, there are certain dates that are simply etched as if in stone.

December 7, 1941, that would be the Japanese attack upon U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor.

September 11, 2001, that would be the attack of Al Qaeda upon the United States,

primarily in New York City and in Washington DC.

And of course October 7, 2023.

And that is the deadly attack by Hamas upon Israel, the first major and deadly invasion of Israel as a nation state since the

1948 War of Independence and one of the deadliest in terms of all of Israel's history. And every one of these events, every one of these

dates etched into memory brings up an entire system of worldview

issues an entire historical context and a moment of decision.

December 7, 1941 was as President Franklin D Roosevelt said a day that will live in

infamy. That is to say it will be remembered in human history, particularly the history of the

United States of America as a day of infamy. A surprise attack upon U.S. forces

there at Pearl Harbor, but it invokes an entire memory of the most significant

war thus far at all of human history, what we know is World War II.

All you have to say is Pearl Harbor Day or December 7, 1941, and that

entire system and network of memory is invoked. Similarly, all you have to say now is

September 11. You don't even have to say 2001. It's because September 11 or as it became

even more widely known 9-11 in the United States and beyond was a wake-up call of the fact that we do live in a war, in this case a war against terrorism,

a war against anarchy, a war against forces of evil.

And in this case, it was President George W Bush who spoke most eloquently at

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