To help rebuild Haiti through Food for the Hungry: (800) 408-2206
There seem to be four positions on God's relationship to "acts of God":
1. God has nothing to do with these catastrophes.
2. God allows but does not desire these catastrophes.
3a. God wills and causes these catastrophes to punish evil.
3b. God wills and causes these catastrophes for a variety of reasons, including sometimes to punish evil.
Post-show thoughts: Though I was in the "2 or 3b" camp until today, after reading everything I could find in the Bible on this subject, I am now pretty firmly in the 3b camp. And when it comes specifically to earthquakes in the Bible, they always seem to indicate either the anger/judgment of God or else the presence of God. In any case, our response to such catastrophes is clear: to help those in need and to bring glory to God in so doing. But I am no longer comfortable saying that God merely allows natural disasters (as opposed to man-made disasters). His purpose in doing them is Biblically ambiguous, but His authorship of them is not Biblically ambiguous at all.
Bible References: Gen 2:4-6, Gen 7:1-5, Gen 9:8-17, Gen 12:15-20, Num 16:27-35, Deut 32:39, Job 1:8-20, Job 9:5-6, Psalm 18:6-9, Psalm 60:1-5, Isaiah 5:25-26, Isaiah 45:5-7, Isaiah 55:8-11, Isaiah 64:1-3, Jer 10:10, Jer 18:15-17, Jer 51:29, Amos 3:1-8, Amos 8, Matt 5:43-48, Matt 6:25-34, Matt 8:23-27, Matt 10:29-33, Matt 24:4-14, Matt 27:50-54, Luke 13:1-9, John 9:1-12Links:
God’s role in natural disasters
Natural disasters: a Biblical perspective
Who causes disasters: God or Satan?
6 comments:
I was able to hear most of the program yesterday. You are brave to take on that topic. You are probably correct in saying the most Biblical view is that God is the originator of mass destruction.
Some questions came to mind as I was listening:
If God intends for a certain person to be hurt by crushing, does He maneuver that person into moving to a part of the earth that is near an active fault line?
If God wants someone’s property to be damaged by wind, why does He prefer to do so mainly in the August – October time frame? (Hurricane season.) Are there not as many people worthy of doing that to in February?
If God wants to drown someone, does He tend to steer the person to a coastal site with a concave shoreline, such as Crescent City, California?
If God causes the destructive earthquakes, does He also cause the tremors that are so small that people don’t notice them, but seismographs show as small squiggles on the printout?
Huge sandstorms have been observed on Mars, where there probably are no sentient beings. Are those storms being caused by God, or are they naturalistic in origin?
Venus is likely too hot to have living creatures. If a seismometer-equipped spacecraft were to land on it, would no seismic waves be expected by a supernaturalist? Would God not bother to shake Venus if there is no use that He can put the shaking to?
Instead of (or in addition to) a Christian giving money to the relief effort, could she stand on John 14:14 (If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it) and pray that manna and first-aid kits will supernaturally rain down on Haiti?
Jupiter was struck by an asteroid on July 20, 2009. Was that asteroid placed in its orbit by God just so that it would strike that planet on that date?
If astronomers determine an asteroid is going to strike the earth in 2059 (or whenever), would it be sinful for NASA to try to deflect or shatter the asteroid to prevent destruction on the Earth?
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I should have mentioned that this is a reference to tsunamis, such as the one that killed people in Crescent City in 1964 as a result of the Alaska earthquake.
http://www.triplicate.com/20090328105481/Northcoast-Life/
Northcoast-Life/Why-are-we-tsunami-prone
Let me give a general answer before I try to deal with any specific questions, all of which are quite good, by the way. What was interesting in preparing for this show yesterday was that I thought the Bible would be less informative than it turned out to be about why disasters happen. So, I came with a view that it would be 80% ambiguous (let's say) and had to leave with the view that it was maybe 40% ambiguous (settling only that God does these things and often does them wrathfully). Thus, I have to say that the Bible had much to say but not as much as I would prefer it to say about the specifics for understanding catastrophes. And in a general sense, I have to say the same in answer to most of your questions. The detailed workings of God in human and natural affairs are unknown to me. I know in particular cases where He hardened someone's heart (Pharaoh) or kept people from hearing truth (Jesus's parables), but I don't see enough precedent for how He might or might not work in particular people's lives in principle to know whether He encourages or discourages people to live near fault lines, say. I do know that He rescued Lot's family from Sodom as He destroyed everyone else there. Is that normal? I just don't think there are enough similar data points to draw conclusions like this from the Bible. I'll deal with particular questions in the next post.
Manna: 1 John says that if we have the ability to help and don't, we don't have the love of God in us. The temptation of Jesus also reminds us not to test God, which such a prayer would look like to me. I don't mind someone praying it, but I also want him to give.
Minor earthquakes: I don't have an answer. I'm inclined to chalk that up to a groaning Earth which is the result of sin. I think it's interesting to wonder whether there will be seismic activity of that sort in the New Jerusalem and the New Earth.
Quakes on other planets and meteors: I have no particular thought about what is going on when human life is not involved. I'm not bothered by the idea of mere naturalism in such cases. If God is the weather God, as I have said, does that mean that every minor flood which displaces some local wildlife and kills insects is His active will? I don't feel I can confidently give an opinion about that.
Hurricane season: One of the patterns I see with God is that He deliberately refrains from too obviously revealing Himself to us. Very few people have Paul's Damascus Road type experience. I usually attribute this to a desire to preserve freedom for us. This means that when God acts (in catastrophes, e.g.) He might well do so in a way which can be interpreted naturalistically (as you do) or supernaturalistically (as I and the Bible do).
Again, I want to say how much I enjoy these questions, and I love the cleverness of your mind in raising them. As for my bravery in discussing this subject, I was certainly about as reluctant a convert to position 3b as one can be. So credit Him for persuading me rather than me for having some strange theological courage. I knew the topic needed discussing, and I tried to be honest about what I found in researching for it.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Andrew wrote: “…reminds us not to test God, which such a prayer would look like to me.”
I enjoy give-and-take with Bible believers, but there are some things that cause just a little frustration. A Bible believer such as my grandmother would say that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. But if I had challenged her to take John 14:14 seriously (which is not the sort of thing I ever actually did with her), she would have bowed out with some excuse on behalf of God that probably would have been similar to the one you give about not testing Him. Yet she would not have subsequently admitted that the excuse amounts to an admission that John 14:14 is in error.
Something has been bothering me recently about Christian discussions on why the Haiti earthquake occurred. Such discussions are generally of great interest to me, but for some reason I’ve been feeling unable to really engage in this one. I’ve wanted to, but it just hasn’t been working.
Then last night I realized something. Looking back on the tragedy of my mother-in-law's sudden death it seems to me that suffering, though it may occur to a large group of people at once, is ultimately felt by individuals. And unless we would-be commentators are either one of the suffering or a genuine prophet, our duties are to keep our mouths closed, help when possible and, if God grant us the grace to do so, simply weep with the wounded. To analyze the cause of others’ pain from the outside is to engage in an academic exercise that switches the focus from those in need to the curiosities of a comfortable outsider. It’s hard to think of anything more insensitive, self-serving, and utterly unchristian… Forgive me Lord for how I’ve mishandled these situations in the past!
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