He Gave the Sea His Decree
"When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:" - Proverbs 8:29
Whenever there is a great catastrophe that takes place, such as the one we have recently witnessed in Japan, there are inevitable questions that arise in relation to God's attributes. In their quest to make sense of the world around them, people ask why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? Why does God allow suffering? If God is all knowing and all powerful, then why doesn't He intervene? Surely God could have prevented the tsunami from hitting Japan, why didn't He do it?
God is holy and He is righteous so how do we reconcile the bad things that happen in the world when they appear to be at odds with God's attributes? Exploring this issue can be examined through the theological branch of Theodicy. Apologetically speaking, perhaps one of the strongest objections that we have towards God in regards to the problem with evil comes to us from, the the Greek Stoic Philosopher, Epicurus. He asks us in a paradoxical fashion;
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"
Given that Epicurus is an atheist, he may not have had the purest motives in the world when he constructed his paradox of doubt. Atheists love and embrace this piece of work that they have inherited from their brother in the Atheist faith and often hit Christians with it as a means to put them on the defense. As Christians, however, we are supposed to have a reason for the hope that we have in Him and be prepared to give an answer. Some responses to the problem of evil in the past, unfortunately, have not always yielded the most appropriate response.
Hurricane Katrina, for example, has been attributed to abortion. In the aftermath of the 2005 Huricane, Pat Robertson said;
"We have killed over 40 million unborn babies in America. … Some of the attacks that are coming against us either by terrorists or now by natural disaster, could they be connected in some way?"
In 2007, Robertson continues to offer his apologetic pertaining to the problem of evil. Robertson and Jerry Falwel, for example, claimed that the attacks on 9/11 were a result of God's wrath on America per loose morals. This was not a popular apologetic and in spite of the criticisms that Robertson receives from his explanations, it wouldn't be his last response pertaining to the problem with evil.
Robertson's latest controversial apologetic came to us in response to the 2010 hurricane that devasted Haiti. Robertson said that the Haitians "made a pact with the devil" and explained;
"They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.' True story. And so the devil said, 'Ok it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another,"
Robertson's controversial apologetic is offensive and does not bode well with the world. This, however, is not enough reason to abandon his apologetic. The God of the Bible is offensive to carnal man. The world hates God and is at enmity with Him. The Bible does speak of God's wrath and He has in the past issued it against the world/nations in accordance to His will. He did, after all, flood the world and kill all but eight people. God in His wrath, rained fire out of the sky and destroyed Sodam and Gomorrah. It is well within God's ability to not only control nature but to use it as a means to devastate men.
Should employing a Robertsonian (yes, I made that word up) apologetic be our template when others ask us about the problem with evil the next time the world witnesses a major catastrophe? I would hope not! Robertson's apologetic lacks the whole Biblical truth as it relates to the problem with evil. It is true that we live in a fallen world that is worthy of God's wrath. It is true that God would be justified in delivering any kind of devastation that He so chooses to deliver for He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy on and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion on.
God's ways, however, are a mystery to us. His wisdom is foolishness to us. We don't always know why God does the things that He does. Just because God can wreak havoc on mankind at any time of His choosing per delivering His wrath on a fallen world, it doesn't necessarily mean that He is punishing specific people for their specific sins when we witness a national catastrophe. Please consider what Albert Mohler has to say;
"Nevertheless, Jesus warned his disciples about drawing the conclusion that a natural disaster can be traced to the sins of those who directly suffer its effects (Luke 13:1-5). God causes the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). We must remember that when we read the headlines and see the images of a disaster wherever it may happen."
In reality, every nation deserves a devastating catastrophe so we shouldn't be so quick to condemn when it happens to others. Although, we should avoid condemning nations when they undergo a natural disaster, we should also avoid the error of pacification. Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” - for example, offers a fallacious hermeneutic as a way of providing comfort;
"Whenever a disaster like this occurs, I go back to the Bible, to the First Book of Kings. Elijah, in despair over the situation in Israel, runs to the desert, back to Mt. Sinai to find the God of the Revelation to Moses.
"And lo, the Lord God passed by. There was a mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind. There was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake."
To me, that is the key: the Lord was not in the earthquake.
Natural disasters are acts of nature, not acts of God. God cares about the well-being of good people; Nature is blind, an equal-opportunity destroyer."
Rabbi Kushner should have read John Piper's "Japan: After Empathy and Aid, People Want Answers" that he posted recently in response to the events that are transpiring in Japan. In it, Piper tells us:
"No earthquakes in the Bible are attributed to Satan. Many are attributed to God.1 This is because God is Lord of heaven and earth:
He commands even winds and water, and they obey him (Luke 8:25);
He sends forth His command to the earth. . . . He gives snow like wool; He scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before His cold? . . . He makes his wind blow and the waters flow (Psalm 147:15-18);
He looks on the earth and it trembles . . . touches the mountains and they smoke! (Psalm 104:32);
[He] shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble (Job 9:6).
Earthquakes are ultimately from God. Nature does not have a will of its own. And God owes Satan no freedom. What havoc demons wreak, they wreak with God’s permission. And God has reasons for what he permits. His permissions are purposes. That's the point of Job 1-2 and Luke 22:31-32."
Unlike Kushner, Piper does not ascribe personification to nature and rightly acknowledges God as being sovereign over His creation. Kushner wrongly assumes that only an un-loving God would deliver natural disaster. It is quite to the contrary, it is in the natural disasters of the world that God reminds us to repent or we too will perish(Luke 13:1-5). It is in the natural disasters in the world that we are given opportunities to love our neighbor as ourself. In the empathy that we show and the aid that we deliver, we act as a light to the world and give glory to God through our ministry.
We should all continue to remember Japan as well as any neighbor that we have that is in need. Let us pray for God to deliver His gospel throughout the world so that lost men may be saved and not perish the same as those that have fallen prey to the tsunamis of the world. May God continue to be glorified in all things.
May it all be for His glory,
W.
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