Dec 7, 2025
Spiritually Speaking at the Movies for Pearl Harbor Day:Pearl Harbor 2001, PG 13, 3 hrs. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Today is Pearl Harbor Day, 2025. Exactly 84 years ago today, a huge shift in the direction of the nation occurred in one sweeping moment. The bombing of Pearl Harbor signaled the re-emergence of a country beat down in economic depression and a spiritual malaise, the U.S.A.
It was in this vulnerable spiritual atmosphere, the enemies of America made their move. They thought with one, large knock-out blow, the heart of the country would be crushed and not have the spiritual resolve to resist.
They were wrong.
It is one of the most enduring stories in our history of how we overcame darkness of domination and betrayal of trust, stood and fought, coming out victorious when the outcome seemed impossible.
On December 7, pick a movie — any movie — about the attack (such as Tora Tora Tora or Pearl Harbor) with this historical context in mind. Today is a good day to remember the Pearl Harbor disaster and what it signified spiritually for the nation; on paper, it didn’t look good for the us.
Stories abound about the “unexplainable good luck” our forces encountered in WWII; how unlikely timing or weather issues delivered the enemy into the hands of U.S. forces, when the outcome seemed improbable.We should not have been able to do what we did during those four years. Certainly, defeat took Japan and Germany by surprise.
Many have studied these moments in retrospect, shook their heads and came to the conclusion, “Only God could have made this happen.” If we could ask General Patton what role God played in the critical, crucial and Important “relief of Bastogne ” on Christmas Day, 1944, he would tell you, “We prayed, and God answered.” It does not get more succinctly and spiritually significant than that (See this moment in the movie “Patton”).
For the present generation, are deep spiritual lessons and questions about Pearl Harbor to ponder. One — relevant for today — is the nature of a persistent, intransigent enemy bent on destruction and domination. Many people do not realize Japan occupied a conquered territory so vast it actually became the world’s largest physical empire in history. And the Japanese were intent on keeping that empire by terrorizing, beating down or killing whomever got in their way.
“For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, the peoples shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” Isaiah 60:2-3
Letting evil run rampant on your watch always comes with a price, and any victory is colored by the ensuing sacrifice it takes to obtain it and experience restoration. That was the shift on Dec. 7, 1941, and it’s the shift already here on Dec. 7, 2025.
It’s better to pray now, spiritually contending with vigor, the darkness behind the scenes than to erupt in physical warfare and do it later. We may win that physical contest, but at such a cost.
There is still time. We SHOULD spiritually contend with darkness rather than try to claim peace and rest, as much of America was doing on Dec. 7, 1941, hoping that conflict would just go away.
The result of that erroneous perspective was Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, “a date that will live in infamy,” said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Let us be vigilant and not go there again.