Morning Moments

JUST SOME THOUGHTS

TSUNAMIS AND SUCH CATASTROPHES

MATTHEW 24:6. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8. All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. 10. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Today I want to try and deal with some real problems in a practical and Biblical way which may not be consistent with what many of us are led to believe or understand. I am doing this because whenever there is such a tragedy as there is in Japan or there was for us at 9/11 or with Katrina and a hundred other such moments in time, there are always the "preachers" who say, "This is the judgment of God!" To which I say bologna!

There are several points I wish to make that I think will provoke honest thought about these matters, and if we will be honest and not so quick to "condemn" and "consign" all such natural events to the judgment of God upon people, we can help eliminate the "blame game" against Christianity and begin to see things with clearer perspective.

CONSIDER:

God, as revealed in the Bible is omniscient, which is to say "all knowing". That being the case, He knows that there are faults in the earth that shift, quakes that come, oceans that are affected, etc. HE KNOWS THAT AND ALWAYS HAS because He created it all. He knows when atmospheric conditions are such that hurricanes, tornados, storms, etc are created. HE KNOW THAT AND ALWAYS HAS, again because He is all knowing. The question then is: Does the knowledge of these things make Him responsible for them?

If we answer "yes", then we must believe that He punishes the righteous along with the wicked through causing such conditions as to bring about catastrophic tragedy.

If we answer "no" which I do, by the mere fact that knowledge alone does not make Him responsible the action. I will explain:
Did God know that Adam and Eve would sin? Sure He did! Then does that make God who created them responsible for the sin? Of course not! Why not? Because they had a choice, a free will, just as all the rest of us do. So knowledge alone does not make one responsible.
But we as Christians also believe, as the Bible teaches that God is omnipotent or all powerful, so if He is all powerful, could He not have prevented Adam and Even from sinning? Yes! But then He would have negated one of the main characteristics of personality which enables us to be in His likeness - that of will or freedom of choice. SO, when it comes to man, God desires but does not dictate. In other words, God commands man but cannot chose for man.

2. BUT what about nature? We understand the choice man has but does nature too have choices? NO! But again, God's knowledge of what will happen does not make Him responsible for it happening...or does it?

If we say "yes", then every natural catastrophe including flood, fire, lightning strike, fault shift, earthquake, tsunami, tornado, hurricane, avalanche, and anything else nature has ever experienced is God's fault.

If we say "no" as I do, then we must understand a couple of basic principles:
The elements of nature are in an aging process. "The earth is waxing old as a garment".
With that aging process catastrophes increased as in shifts in faults, etc. that have affects upon other things as the earthquake under the water then the tsunami. Just as with the aging of man aches and pains come so with the aging of material matter, which generate other problems of what we might call "mother nature". It is not a matter of God punishing everybody but His foreknowledge that these things will happen in due process.

I am NOT saying that God cannot intervene but as a general rule, He does not. It is not that He does not care, love, desire to save, help, whatever, but the elements - rotation of the earth, seasons, day and night, have all been set in motion and God PROVIDENTIALLY superintends but does not normally INTERVENE in their movement and workings.

Another thing that is a contributing factor is the environmental influence of man about which we really know very little. For example:

~ How does all the sea activity of man (dumping, movement, fuel, oil spills, etc affect the sea? Thousands of years of it!

~ How does all the stuff we put in the air affect the atmosphere? Do we really know? The Jets, missiles, rocket fuel, smoke, and many other such things must have some effect.

For the sake of time and space, I simply wish to say that I'm not sure most of us give much thought to these things. We just either want to blame God or simply say "stuff just happens" or let things go without answers.

I realize that some will disagree with what I am saying and use Scripture to support their argument, but for some TV preacher to say that Katrina was God's judgment on New Orleans, where Christians were killed too and churches were wiped out too and not to say the same thing about tsunamis, earthquakes, etc is not only inconsistent but awfully unwise. Jesus said these things MUST be and that these things are merely the beginning of sorrows. In other words, more is to come because God KNOWS, not because He did it. BUT let me hasten to say that HE WILL DO IT in the future. After the Church is gone and man is left to himself, and then given over to the devil, THEN you will see GOD SEND STUFF LIKE YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN! But until then, as New Testament believers, let us use every opportunity of the proof of this aging and worn out earth by tsunami or whatever else "nature" experiences to reach out with love and compassion to bring the needy to shelter and to salvation in Jesus Christ. AMEN!

BLESSINGS!