Thousands are presumed dead in the Gulf Coast area.
Hundreds of thousands are stranded in New Orleans.
Millions, if not billions, of damage wrought in one storm.
And people are asking, “Where is God?”
Anger bubbles from deep within the souls of thousands of angry people: “What kind of God allows this!”
They are blaming God for the disaster.
And they should. He did it. He controls all things in creation.
But why?
Some talk show hosts try to calm people down by reversing the question: “Why has God blessed America all these years?” Or they wish not to speculate at all, glibly replying, “We need to help one another and bring the best out of the American people.”
However, Christians know that all things work for their good and for God’s glory (Rom. 8:32; Rom. 11:36). Furthermore, we know that since there are no longer prophets today, we must be careful in our evaluations.
But this is not all: Christ informs us of at least one reason why bad things happen:
“Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:4, 5).
When such disaster strikes—contrary to some misguided caller to the Medved show—its not because New Orleans was more wicked than San Francisco; one reason for disasters is to bring a wake up call to mankind: the world is full of sin and sinners; we no longer live in paradise.
Americans like to think that God is far away and irrelevant in life. Any prosperity gained is credited to ourselves; any advancements in life is honored to lady luck. Yet when things go bad and calamity knocks on our door—suddenly, it’s God’s fault.
In reality, as Jesus points out, everyone sins—all rebel and hate God, seeking their own desires and following their own lusts (Roms. 1:24ff.). The tower did not fall on some because they were more sinful—it fell because they were sinful. Period.
This is a wake up call. Americans better repent or they will perish.
And they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.
4 comments:
Great--I just got "comment spammed". Well, it's delete time!
Now that is more like it! Excellent post from the polymathis that I know and love.
Perhaps we need to frame the question a bit more broadly. We need to say, "Why do people die?" The answer, "The wages of sin is death." The reason people don't ask that question is because everybody does die. They think it's normal, but it's not.
Consequently, God sometimes shakes us out of our lethargy and sticks in our faces the unnaturalness of death. This brings us back to your point. We all need to see the sin within ourselves that deserves death--and repent!
shawn
How do I get my blog added to the league of reformed bloggers?
Thanks
Greetings! The league is not set up for a quick sign-in. Goto: http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2004/09/league_of_refor.html
And scroll down and add a comment asking to join, with blog title, url and atom/rss feed info.
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