To the believers,
We all know God is all sovereign and all-powerful. Nothing in the world happens without is Him allowing it. So what can we say about the natural disasters that is hitting recently?
- Aug 21 - Eclipse - many people were joyously watching wherever they can. A minority of Christians have taken to YouTube to preach the eclipse Aug21 as a warning, followed by another sign in the constellations that is about to happen on Sep 23.
- Aug 26 - Hurricane Harvey - this started being noticed as a tropical storm on Aug17. Most people who were not in the meteorological circles were busy with the Eclipse news. On Aug23, it developed into a depression and warnings began to appear to the public. After various uncertainties of how intense it could be, it strengthen in Aug 24 and finally reached land on Texas on Aug26, causing devastating floods. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Harvey
- Sep 9 - as this is written - the state of Florida is awaiting landfall of Hurricane Irma on the morning of Sep 10. Irma has already devasted the islands of the Carribean. In addtion to Irma, there are two other Hurricanes happening - Katia and Jose.
- Sep 23 - alignment of constellation - possible fulfillment of Revelation 12.
- Jewish Calendar around Sep 2017
Sep 21-22 Rosh Hashana Jewish New Year
Sep 30 Yom Kippur Day of Atonement
Can we say the deaths from natural disasters are God's fault? This is very hard to accept even for Christians. What else can we say? God didn't do it, the weather did it? So that means God cannot control the weather. Or how about the evil did it. This implies the Evil One has influuence over the weather, but I don't recall an instance where the Evil One influence the natural world, like weather, being mentioned anywhere in the Bible. On the other hand, Jesus clearly controlled the storm, the waves, performed anti-gravitational exercise, etc.
So should the question be whether God caused the deaths of people at all? We know God is good. We know God is all-powerful. Should there be a contradiction in God is good AND He let people die? God is One, there is no other God and Jesus spoke to His Father as another person and Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as another person. Should there be a contradiction in God is One and God is Three persons. We cannot have answers to these questions because we cannot understand them, but we know each part mentioned above is true as fact.
Then if God is responsible, the question turn into a question of judgment. Is God judging the people?
Luke 13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
The best answer is of course given by Jesus Himself. The above questions ask if the people were worse sinners, and the answer is no. But yet, they were still sinners. The answer no given by Jesus, was not the focus. Instead, the focus is on us to Repent.
Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Those killed, who were believers, will be in the presence of the Lord. Those who were not believers, will not be in the presence of the Lord. In either case, their stories are completed. But we who are still on this earth, rather than questioning God, should take these disasters as a reminder to ourselves to Repent and look to the Lord.
