The recent earthquakes and the resulting tidal waves (or tsunamais) in the Thailand the surrounding area, like all seemingly inexplicable disasters or acts of evil and capricious men, always seem to give rise to the skeptics about the existence of God in general and the concept of the love of God in particular. The common question, "If God exists, why does He allow such disasters that kill multiple thousands of people?" is one that thinking Christians cannot neither ignore or offer simplistic answers to.
In Today's UK Guardian Unlimited Online, Martin Kettle in his article, "How Can Religious People Explain This?" states in his conclusion:
From at least the time of Aristotle, intelligent people have struggled to make some sense of earthquakes. Earthquakes do not merely kill and destroy. They challenge human beings to explain the world order in which such apparently indiscriminate acts can occur. Europe in the 18th century had the intellectual curiosity and independence to ask and answer such questions. But can we say the same of 21st-century Europe? Or are we too cowed now to even ask if the God can exist that can do such things?
These are no easy answers to such things, although a variety have been offered in recent years. In his book,Why Bad Things Happen to Good People Rabbi Harold Kushner argued that essentially God would like good things to happen to good people all of the time, but He simply cannot pull it off. All of the complexities of life are just too much for God to contend with, events simply can simply overwhelm Him. For the Process Theologians, who apply the Darwinian Evolutionary theory to person of God; that is, God is in the process of becoming a better and better God; this event was simply too powerful for God to handle. In the current evangelical debate over Open Theism, those propounding the "open" view of God; that is God neither possesses exhaustive knowledge of the future nor does He have in place a particular overarching plan for the world and its events; the answer would be God simply didn't know it was going to happen and thus could do nothing to prevent it.
Of course all of these answers are inadequate theologically speaking. A God who cannot keep up with events, or is not powerful enough to handle crisis or simply is caught by surprise, is no God at all. If God, "can't pull it off" can He be relied to carry out and maintain our own salvation? If God is becoming "better and better" can we really be sure that the Gospel He has presented is really adequate to save, or will He have a "better idea" sometime in the future? If God does not really know what is going to happen in the future, who is to say that Satan will not ultimately be able to thwart Him?
However, God says of Himself in Isaiah 45:6-7 "I am the Lord, and there is no other. The forming Light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity, I am the Lord who does these things." Elsewhere in the same book God declares, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable" (Is 40:28. The entire 40th chapter of Isaiah is a great comfort when calamities occur).
Humanly speaking, we cannot possibly know the absolute answer to the "why" of disasters such as this. Our finite minds cannot possibly grasp the total complexity of it all because the "why" for such a disaster is unique for each effected individual, as God has decreed for their individual life (oft-times we cannot even know the "why" in our own life when disaster befalls us). What we can know for certain from the Scripture, is that God is not unable or unwilling to act nor is He ever caught by surprise by such events. These events are decreed, set in motion, and orchestrated by Him for His own purposes.
Naturally, the secular mind rebels at such a notion as it violates their sensibilities, and even Christians, if they have any normal human empathy for a lost and dying world, are often hard-pressed to make their Christian world view come to grips with the enormity of the devastation. There are, perhaps, three general perspectives that need to be remembered when such disasters occur.
First of all, it demonstrates the reality of the power of God. In Romans 1:18-23 we see that the "wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." The Apostle Paul further states that the creation itself and its ongoing operation is a testimony to the reality and power of God. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Unbelievers are all too anxious to attribute randomness to such events. They are unwilling to see God's hand in the affairs of life because they know that to acknowledge God in this manner ultimatley leads to a God who is sovereign over their lives.
In his magesterial work, No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God (Crossway, 2001), John Feinberg states, "We are happy for a God who cares, but our contemporaries reject a God who is king" (p. 799)
The power of the earthquake and resulting tsunamis is almost beyond comprehension. One report equated the power of the initial quake to 1 million Hiroshima size atomic bombs going of in one location. Some reports indicate that entire islands were moved up to 100 fet from their original locations. The sheer magnitude and force of the moving water is beyond belief. And all of that is controlled by the God "who created heaven and earth." Who spoke everything into existence (Gen 1-3).
Secondly, these disasters serve for Christians as an impetus of evangelism. In Luke 13:1-5 Jesus comments on two disasters (the seemingly capricious act of a wicked man, Pontius Pilate and his murder of some Galileans who were at the temple for one of the feasts; and the seemingly random act of a natural disaster of a tower falling and killing 18 people in Jerusalem). Jesus tells His disciples not to look for simplistic answers to such events ("Do you think that these Galileans were greater sinners that all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?" and in relation to those on whom the tower fell He said, "were [they] the worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?") In both cases Jesus makes it clear, "I tell you no." The simplistic answer is often erroneous. Without explaining the "why" for each one of the victims of these disasters, He points to the more urgent issue, to which the disaster lends illustration, "unless, you repent, you will all likewise perish." The end of all may not be a dramatic and tragic disaster, but the end will come and no one can count on another day in this world. Your world and life may quickly and suddenly and without warning come to a disaster or even an end. And then there is no place for repentance and acceptance of the Gospel for eternal life for, "it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment" (Heb 9:27). Click on my links to the right of this article on "Are You a Christian?" for further details.
Finally, such disasters serve as opportunities to fulfill the New Testament imperatives, to "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt 5:16). Paul in the Book of Titus especially repeats this theme. Christians are to be "an example of good deeds" (2:7), "zealous for good deeds" (2:14, because in the context of the believers redemption by Christ); "ready for every good deed (3:1, in relation to the Christian's interaction with civil government); Christians are to "engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men" (3:8); and finally, "and let out people also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, that they may not be unfruitful" (3:14).
Life is not random and disasters are not haphazard events beyond the purview and power of an omnipotent, omnisciencent, and omnipresent God. It has not been granted to us, as creatures to know all of the ways of God (Deut 29:29), but we can take comfort in what the Bible does declare to us about the person, nature and power of God. Current events and circumstances cannot be allowed to override the inspired and inerrant Scripture in our formulations of the person, nature and power of God. These disasters are humanly inexplicable; but we haven't been called to "explain" the "why" of such things. We have been called, in the face of disasters, to declare the power of God, remember the urgency of proclaiming the Gospel, and the necessity of being ready to participate in doing good works, and especially the preaching of the Gospel, for these are really the things that are beneficial to all men.
In understanding God in the face of these disasters (and the multiple ones that will come in future days) we must determine our view of God from Scripture, not current events. As Feinberg states,
What I have been urging is that we allow ourselves to see the full biblical portrait of our God. When we do so we find a God who is the caring king. Let this picture be seen in all of its grandeur and majesty! Let God be God as he presents himself in the pages of his Word. Only when we let God be himself can we even hope to allow ourselves to be what God intended us to be. Let God be God! There is no one like him! (p. 802).Posted by Narnia3 at December 29, 2004 4:38 PM | TrackBack
Here is an interesting observation on the process of assigning "blame" when it comes to natural disasters from Gerald Baker and The Australian, "Tsunami Must be the Fault of the US". His introduction goes like this:
INEVITABLY, confronted with a tragedy of unimaginable scale, the human mind looks for someone to blame. In the Dark Ages, disasters were ascribed to the wrath of God. Now, in an odd inversion that we like to think of as progress, they are adduced as evidence of no God.
In the absence of a deity to decry or appease when the earth moves in such devastating fashion, humankind reaches for the next best thing - worldly authority. Authority should have known it was coming. Authority didn't do enough to prevent it. Authority was too preoccupied with its own nefarious priorities to care.
His comments that there are "wackos" that are willing to "blame America" or President Bush for the disaster is interesting enough to read, but I thought his introductory paragraph was equally insightful.
There are two issues of primary portent relating to the tremendous presence of natural evil:
Thank you for a fine article. I thought about the Pastors sermons on how the whole world travales even nature as sin has entered into the whole world corrupting everything.
Love Dad