A number of interesting natural and unnatural things have happened in the last few days.\u00a0 We have seen an amazing solar eclipse which happens only a couple times in most people\u2019s life time.\u00a0 Some people go too far on one side making such an eclipse a biblical sign from God, and others go too far the other way almost worshiping the sun itself.\u00a0 We\u2019ve also seen moral disasters involving riots over racism or supposed transgender issues.\u00a0 One person was actually threatened with jail time if a supposed transgender person was offended too much.\u00a0 We\u2019ve also been cautioned by a mad man in North Korea threatening the United States and other countries around him with his nuclear weapons which he treats as toys to be thrown around in his temper tantrums.<\/p>\n
The most notable occurrence, however, is the natural disaster known as hurricane Harvey.\u00a0 We all have been glued to television images of the worst flooding in our life time in an American city and the sickening scenes of people losing their homes and possessions.\u00a0 It is only by the quick response of authorities and neighbors that there has not been more loss of life.\u00a0 Our church has prayed for sister churches, extended family, and people who are suffering irreplaceable loss.\u00a0 Forty or fifty inches of rain is just incomprehensible to us until we actually see the result.\u00a0 The hurricane itself, with its destructive wind, doesn\u2019t seem nearly as tragic as the water brought on shore during and after the storm.\u00a0 It is not the first hurricane to bring tragic destruction, and it won\u2019t be the last.\u00a0 There are other places in the world which are hit more frequently than our shores and usually with greater damage.<\/p>\n
So what are we to think of such natural disasters?\u00a0 Like other phenomena, there seems to be as many opinions and responses as there are people involved.\u00a0 Christians have a truer perspective, however, and even though we may differ among ourselves as to what God is doing, we all agree that God is in control and these things are not a surprise to Him.\u00a0 It is good for us to think upon His works during times like this, and to be ready to give an answer of the hope that is in us to people who question why a good God would allow such a thing to happen.\u00a0 It is to that purpose that I attempt to answer a few questions.<\/p>\n
Providence<\/span><\/p>\n We speak of the providence of God as the outworking of His will throughout the ages.\u00a0 We may be speaking of human history and God\u2019s control over the affairs of men or we may be speaking of God\u2019s control over the creation itself.\u00a0 Daniel wrote, \u201cHe changeth the times and seasons: he removeth kings and he setteth up kings\u201d (Dan. 2:21).\u00a0 Asaph the psalmist wrote, \u201cFor promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.\u00a0 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another\u201d (Psa. 75:6-7).\u00a0 Of the elements of nature, God answered Job and said, \u201cWhere wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?\u00a0 Declare, if thou hast understanding. . . Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?\u00a0 When I made the cloud the ferment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?\u201d (Job 38:4-11).<\/p>\n The New Testament declares that Jesus Christ Himself upholds everything in the created world, \u201cWho being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power\u201d (Heb. 1:2); \u201cAnd he is before all things and by him all things consist\u201d (Col. 1:17).\u00a0 These statements coincide with the fact that Jesus Christ is the One who created all things in the beginning, \u201cAll things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made\u201d (John 1:3); \u201cFor by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him\u201d (Col. 1:16).<\/p>\n So when we talk of God\u2019s providence controlling all the actions and activities in the world, we realize that no storm nor flood, no hurricane nor tornado, no draught nor freeze, no birth nor death, happens without His full knowledge and control.\u00a0 The apostle Paul exclaimed, \u201cO the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!\u201d (Rom. 11:33).\u00a0 And Abraham, begging God to spare Sodom, acquiesced and said, \u201cShall not the Judge of all the earth do right?\u201d (Gen. 25:18).\u00a0 In a fallen, broken world only God can know which is the best way for all things to happen.\u00a0 Certainly, we cannot understand it nor comprehend the necessity for one thing or another, but we can be sure that God does.\u00a0 And since we know that in the end we will praise Him forever for what He has done, we should also praise Him now as those things are working out in our own time.<\/p>\n Judgment<\/span><\/p>\n There have been cataclysmic judgments of God throughout history.\u00a0 The dispensations are mostly divided by such judgments.\u00a0 The fall of man in the garden caused God\u2019s judgment to be placed on all of creation from man and beast to earth and soil.\u00a0 The flood of Noah\u2019s day was a judgment of God by water that destroyed the world so that God could start again, \u201cAnd the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them\u201d (Gen. 6:7).\u00a0 The tower of Babel, the Babylonian captivity, the tribulation period, are all judgments of God due to man\u2019s sin and rebellion against His will.<\/p>\n Yet the question remains as to whether something like hurricane Harvey is a judgment of God for some wickedness of man.\u00a0 Since nothing happens in this world without His knowledge and control, wouldn\u2019t we say that such is the case?\u00a0 This was the rhetorical question Jesus put to His listeners in Luke 13:1-5, \u201cOr those eighteen, upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?\u201d\u00a0 He asked the same concerning many Galileans whom Pilate slaughtered in the temple, were they \u201csinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?\u201d\u00a0 But the surprising answer of our Lord was, \u201cNay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.\u201d\u00a0 We are all sinners and we all deserve judgment from God, and in a far worse fashion than these.<\/p>\n In the days of prophets and miracles, God often did bring judgment immediately upon sinners.\u00a0 Korah and his followers perished when God opened up the earth and they all \u201cwent down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation\u201d (Num. 16:33).\u00a0 But the age of grace is a different age.\u00a0 God will judge its sin at the end of the age.\u00a0 If in this age God, in His sovereignty, chose to punish sin at a particular time and in a particular way, we would not know it because it would not be in a miraculous form but in a more natural way.\u00a0 We are better off to remember that all of human history is mixed with God\u2019s judgment on Adam and Eve\u2019s posterity as well as with God\u2019s goodness.\u00a0 There would be no storms nor sickness nor death if our Edenic parents had not disobeyed God.\u00a0 There would have been no hurricane Harvey, nor flood, nor personal loss.\u00a0 There would not have been a Holocaust, a Columbine, a 9-11, nor any other tragedy if sin had not entered the world in the garden.\u00a0 So we cannot pronounce any such tragedy as a particular judgment of God, but at the same time we can also pronounce all tragedies a result of man\u2019s sin and God\u2019s judgment.\u00a0 Just as God\u2019s rain falls on the just and the unjust, so does His curse.<\/p>\n Tragedy<\/span><\/p>\n Something further can be said about tragedies that come upon us all due to sin that entered our world.\u00a0 We all suffer them at one time or another.\u00a0 If one person dies in 9-11 or in hurricane Harvey, they may get more recognition than someone who dies in a car accident due to a drunk driver on a lonely country road.\u00a0 But the tragedy is no less for either grieving family.\u00a0 I have stood at the bedside of faithful saints who were stricken by sudden and terrible diseases, and I have held the hands of grief stricken parents at the grave side of a child who died prematurely.\u00a0 To the suffering ones, the size of the disaster or the notoriety which it brings matter little.<\/p>\n Yet remember this, that since we live in this broken world, and since evil comes upon us all, so does the constant opportunity to serve and help our fellow man and especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.\u00a0 It is precisely because of tragedy that we have reason and opportunity to serve.\u00a0 Consider how bitterness and differences are immediately put aside during tragedies such as hurricane Harvey.\u00a0 There is an imago dei <\/i>in each of us that causes us to help one another.\u00a0 It is the rainbow that appears during the storm.\u00a0 It is the testimony of God within His human creature that cries out\u00a0 to its Creator in praise and thankfulness at times of tragedy.\u00a0 This is the testimony of God within the sinner also that causes him to seek his Creator.\u00a0 Ironically, tragedies are also opportunities for witness.\u00a0 This is truly the silver lining to the cloud that covers us all.<\/p>\n Church<\/span><\/p>\n The church is the body of Christ.\u00a0 We usually recognize it in two forms.\u00a0 This age of grace has contained the universal church, i.e., all of those who have truly placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 They were placed into that body by the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the moment of their conversion and are kept there by the power of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We have an obligation to love a brother or sister \u201cin Christ.\u201d\u00a0 The other usage of the word describes the local church in a given locality.\u00a0 Of the 115 times that ekklesia <\/i>(\u201cchurch\u201d) appears in the New Testament, well over 100 of those refer to local churches.\u00a0 A believer\u2019s obligation is much more to the local church for serving, worshiping, praying, helping, than to the universal church.\u00a0 During tragedies we see all denominations, groups, fellowships, and missions, reaching out to their constituencies and trying to provide help in any way they can.<\/p>\n The New Testament does not give the local church a mandate for a social gospel to the world.\u00a0 That may sound harsh but it is not.\u00a0 The social or political gospel is not the Scriptural business of the local church.\u00a0 It is a difficult thing as a pastor to hold that distinction in a day when the world looks at the church as a service organization for the community.\u00a0 What do they know about the gospel?\u00a0 But knowing this does not prohibit a local church from doing what it wants to do to help its fellow man.\u00a0 As we have said, it is an opportunity for witness or service.\u00a0 Yet that is different than seeing it as a New Testament mandate.\u00a0 I often give the homeless man on the corner some change, but that does not mean that I must.<\/p>\n I believe it is a wonderful thing for a church to open its doors for victims during a tragedy.\u00a0 Many church buildings are designated centers for disaster relief.\u00a0 Many local churches are polling places for the communities.\u00a0 These things come from a love of our fellow man and from that innate desire to help anyone made in God\u2019s image.\u00a0 At the same time we should guard the integrity of the local church for the worship of the saints and for the preaching of the gospel, asking God to help us keep that balance that we see in His Word.<\/p>\n Prayer<\/span><\/p>\n There was a small plaque above my grandfather\u2019s rocking chair that read, \u201cPrayer Changes Things.\u201d\u00a0 James said it, \u201cThe effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much\u201d (Jas. 5:16).\u00a0 Peter quoted the Psalmist, \u201cFor the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers\u201d (1 Pet. 3:12).\u00a0 We never hear the word \u201cprayer\u201d spoken more than in times of tragedy.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that many people use the word but never practice it.\u00a0 But believers do and they know that God in heaven hears and answers prayers.<\/p>\n In Revelation chapter 8, in the middle of the tribulation period, prayers are being offered to God by those suffering on the earth.\u00a0 John sees an angel offer incense from that heavenly altar \u201cwith the prayers of all saints\u201d . . . And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel\u2019s hand.\u00a0 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thundering, and lightnings, and an earthquake\u201d (Rev. 8:3-5).\u00a0 This is a heavenly picture (similar to Psalm 18:6-10) that shows how our prayers from earth cause God to act from heaven.\u00a0 And things change!<\/p>\n Prayer is the one thing every believer can do during a tragedy and know that what he\/she is doing is making a real difference.\u00a0 Our church has mighty prayer warriors.\u00a0 Grandmas and grandpas may not be able to go to south Texas and help flood victims, but they cause mighty things to be done by their prayers.\u00a0 A blessing of this modern age is the ease and speed with which information can be shared and prayers can begin.\u00a0 We all can do better at organizing such prayers, and we all could do better at actually being doers of the Word and not hearers only.\u00a0 Somewhere and at sometime each of us should be in our \u201cprayer closet\u201d speaking to God.\u00a0 Though it is good to enlist as many prayers as possible, remember that it is the effectual fervent prayer of a (single) righteous man (or woman) that avails much.\u00a0 Give me one grandma who walks with God and actually prays, than a hundred who post it on their refrigerator.<\/p>\n My favorite John Bunyan book is titled, \u201cAdvice to Sufferers.\u201d\u00a0 Since Bunyan spent much time in and out of prison for his faith, he knew something of suffering.\u00a0 In this book he uses 1 Peter 4:19 as his key verse.\u00a0 \u201cWherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.\u201d\u00a0 Bunyan reminds the reader that Peter didn\u2019t use the description of God as loving, sympathetic, comforting, etc., and all of those are true of Him.\u00a0 But rather we go to a God Who is the Creator.\u00a0 He made heaven and earth and they are His to do with as He will.\u00a0 A Creator can make or destroy, He can begin a thing or end a thing, He can punish and bring judgment, and He can reward and bring blessing.\u00a0 Since He is ready to hear us and desires to answer our prayers that are asked in His will, why would we not go to such a Creator in times of need?<\/p>\n We can do it ourselves or we can ask God to do it.\u00a0 Which is more powerful?\u00a0 C.S. Lewis called this privilege the dignity of causality which God gave to man. However, man spends 90% of his time trying to do it himself, and 10% of his time asking God to do it.\u00a0 Sure, we should work as though it depends on us, and pray as though it depends on God.\u00a0 But given the two options, if I only had one to choose, I would choose to cast my cares upon Him because He cares for me, and to be still and know that He is God.<\/p>\n And so . . .<\/b><\/p>\n Natural disasters happen in a world of nature that God has created and maintains.\u00a0 We live in it until we go on to the next life.\u00a0 In the meantime the earth will groan under the curse and so will we.\u00a0 But let us not be weary in well doing for we will reap if we faint not.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A number of interesting natural and unnatural things have happened in the last few days.\u00a0 We have seen an amazing solar eclipse which happens only a couple times in most people\u2019s life time.\u00a0 Some people go too far on one side making such an eclipse a biblical sign from God, and others go too far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[135,178],"class_list":["post-7249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-culture-worldview","tag-sin-world-evil"],"yoast_head":"\n