Over the past few weeks
Oklahoma has been a true “tornado alley.” Wildfires are ravaging Colorado. Floods
have inundated homes and businesses. Multiple storms have buffeted various areas
causing loss of life and unimaginable destruction. One reporting service counts
seventy five natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires,
sinkholes, avalanches, landslides, drought, floods, etc.) in our country in the
first five months of the year, not including those this month or the many which
have occurred around the world.
How are we to reconcile
such disasters with God? One’s theology shapes his understanding of natural
disasters. Some believe that God in His sovereignty causes everything that
happens. God is in control of everything and sends disasters. Others believe
that God in His sovereignty is in control of everything but allows or permits
things to happen that He does not approve. He uses such events in ways that add
to His glory. He blesses some within the storm. But He does not cause the
storm.
Before any creation, God
had complete foreknowledge of all things that would happen in human history.
Yet he gave Adam and Eve free will, knowing they would use it to sin. And
knowing that through them sin would enter all mankind and even infect the
natural order of things. But He also foreknew that he would redeem mankind and
the whole natural order. Paul summarizes this expectation in Romans 8:21-22;
“the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into
the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole
creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”
We certainly need to pray
that God will end the drought or divert the storm. He can certainly do so. But
He did not cause them.
Grace and peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment