Don't blame God for Asian casualties: Rabbi Daniel Lapin says deaths due to human decisions

With the final death toll in Asia yet unknown, analyzing the calamity can appear callous, especially in the light of ancient Jewish wisdom's advice to refrain from even comforting mourners whose dead still lie before them, let alone analyzing their loss. Still, once we have, in some human way, associated ourselves with the disaster by means of financial or other contribution, we surely are obliged to try and learn something from it.

Sometimes before the answers can be found, the right questions must be asked and there are certainly questions well worth asking. However, it is as well not to be distracted by the wrong questions.

"What sort of God would have let this happen?" is one example of the wrong question. First, it is a perfect example of narcissism. The questioners, including one columnist from the Guardian, convert an international human tragedy of mind-staggering proportions into a maudlin expression of their own spiritual angst. This question escalates self-indulgence to new heights of obnoxiousness.

It reminds me of the older man sitting in the next seat during a certain memorable flight I took back in 1980. As the flight attendants graciously served my special kosher meal, he began a conversation. "I am also Jewish" he unnecessarily informed me, as he tucked into his bacon omelet. I responded politely and he resumed. "I used to keep kosher, but after Hitler, I could no longer believe in God."

"And do you by any chance remember how old you were when you first abandoned Jewish religious observance?" I innocently asked. "Sure, I remember, it was my 18th birthday and I walked into a non-kosher restaurant for the first time."

Later, as our flight neared its destination, we exchanged further personal and family details. In response to another question of mine, he revealed that he was 65 years old. The arithmetic wasn't hard to do. As we touched down, I leaned over and gently said, "Look, I don't mean any offense, but you didn't abandon Judaism as a result of God allowing the Holocaust. You entered that restaurant in 1933, well before World War II began. Hitler and his Holocaust merely provided you with the excuse you needed to feel comfortable abandoning your faith."

To find the same comfort, those who shape their lives according to the doctrines of secular fundamentalism, take an evident delight in stating the usual "Where is God now?" questions after tragedies, especially those natural ones like earthquakes that can't be blamed on human actions.

However the horrifying consequences of these calamities can certainly be blamed on human inactions. Look, I know that it is nowadays considered distasteful to attribute any complicity in a problem to the victim. It is as if being a victim today automatically confers moral virtue, but being that delicate can cost us truth.

The simple truth is that American seismological specialists in Pasadena, Calif., and elsewhere were horrified that no warning systems are in place in these Asian countries by means of which residents can be alerted. Remember that there were several hours of warning available. "A warning centre such as those used around the Pacific could have saved most of the thousands of people who died in Asia's earthquake and tsunamis" said the U.S. Geological Survey.

Many lives could surely have been saved. Some countries have pleaded poverty, but that is not an adequate explanation. We are not talking rocket science here. We are talking about sirens on poles. Remember them from the cold war era? This is World War I technology and very inexpensive.

In 1953, nearly 2,000 Dutchmen drowned when the North Sea breached a dyke and flooded part of low-lying Holland. Within a few years, they had commenced the world's largest civil engineering project and Holland has never flooded significantly since. Sadly, this is far from the first time that some of these nations have faced natural disasters in which people died by the tens of thousands as the result of monsoons, typhoons, flooding and earthquakes. Yet, few warning systems exist, let alone seawalls and evacuation routes.

On Dec. 26, 2003, over 30,000 victims perished in the Iranian earthquake in the town of Bam. To explain the vast death toll inflicted by an earthquake no stronger than that which struck the Californian town of Paso Robles within a few days, Iranian authorities pleaded poverty. It costs considerably more to engineer large-scale nuclear capability as Iran has done, than it costs to retrofit buildings for safety in an earthquake-prone zone. The problem is not poverty, it is priority.

Here in the United States, the standard bearer of Western Civilization, we have two cultural imperatives imbedded deeply within our national DNA. Both flow from the Bible with which our founders were intimately familiar and by means of which they sculpted their worldviews.

Our first distinctive cultural imperative is to render ourselves less vulnerable to nature. We believed we were following Divine will when we developed medicine and medical technology to dominate disease. We found insecticides to protect our food supply, and we built dams to control rivers. We took seriously the commandment in the 28th verse of the Bible, "And God blessed them [Adam and Eve] saying 'Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.'"

We never understood "subdue the world" to mean obliterate nature, or otherwise despoil the environment. We knew it meant responsible stewardship and making ourselves less vulnerable to nature which is not always benign. We knew we were pleasing God by making ourselves safer and more secure and this knowledge lent added urgency and meaning to our efforts which then seemed to be blessed. Not by coincidence did the overwhelming majority of these scientific and technical developments take place in the West.

Western Civilization's second distinctive cultural imperative is the importance of preserving human life. This, too, derives directly from our biblical roots and distinguishes us from the peculiar fatalism toward death found in so many other cultures.

Together, these two values enshrined in the West, in general, and in America, in particular, are chiefly responsible for the vastly diminished impact that natural disasters inflict upon our society.

God runs this world with as little supernatural interference as possible. Earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and, yes, tsunamis happen. It is called nature, which is not benign. Fortunately, God also gave us intelligence and commanded us to make ourselves less vulnerable to nature. He also implanted in us a culture in which each and every life is really important. That is why Deuteronomy, chapter 30 states, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live."

God may have allowed the earthquake to happen, just as he has allowed germs to exist and just as he has allowed cold weather each winter. However, under the influence of biblical culture, people have defended themselves against germs and they have learned how to produce energy to defeat winter's frigid conditions.

A long time ago, in His book, God provided the incentive and encouragement to survive nature. He isn't to blame for the deaths in the Asian disaster. Many of the deaths are attributable to misguided cultures. Innocent people died because culpable governments reject American values instead of imitating them.

Another view of recent events, and the appropriate response to these, and similar, events. An interesting contrast to the doctrine which points to God's judgement of unbelievers as a prextext for indiscriminate slaughter of whoever one deems to be in that category.

Tsunami, Sovereignty, and Mercy
John Piper
http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2004/122904.html
December 29, 2004

“The waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me. . . This God—his way is perfect” (2 Samuel 22:5, 31).

After the loss of his ten children owing to a “natural disaster” (Job 1:19), Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). At the end of the book, the inspired writer confirms Job’s understanding of what happened. He says Job’s brothers and sisters “comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). This has several crucial implications for us as we think about the calamity in the Indian Ocean.

1. Satan is not ultimate, God is.

Satan had a hand in Job’s misery, but not the decisive hand. God gave Satan permission to afflict Job (Job 1:12; 2:10). But Job and the writer of this book treat God as the ultimate and decisive cause. When Satan afflicts Job with sores, Job says to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10), and the writer calls these satanic sores “the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). So Satan is real. Satan brings misery. But Satan is not ultimate or decisive. He is on a leash. He goes no farther than God decisively permits.

2. Even if Satan caused the earthquake in the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas, he is not the decisive cause of 100,000+ deaths, God is.

God claims power over tsunamis in Job 38:8 when he asks Job rhetorically, “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb . . . and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” Psalm 89:8-9 says, “O Lord . . . you rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.” And Jesus himself has the same control today as he once did over the deadly threats of waves: “He . . . rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm” (Luke 8:24). In other words, even if Satan caused the earthquake, God could have stopped the waves.

3. Destructive calamities in this world mingle judgment and mercy.

Their purposes are not simple. Job was a godly man and his miseries were not God’s punishment (Job 1:1, 8). Their design was purifying not punishment (Job 42:6). But we do not know the spiritual condition of Job’s children. Job was certainly concerned about them (Job 1:5). God may have taken their life in judgment. If that is true, then the same calamity proved in the end to be mercy for Job and judgment on his children. This is true of all calamities. They mingle judgment and mercy. They are both punishment and purification. Suffering, and even death, can be both judgment and mercy at the same time.

The clearest illustration of this is the death of Jesus. It was both judgment and mercy. It was judgment on Jesus because he bore our sins (not his own), and it was mercy toward us who trust him to bear our punishment (Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24) and be our righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Another example is the curse that lies on this fallen earth. Those who do not believe in Christ experience it as judgment, but believers experience it as, merciful, though painful, preparation for glory. “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope” (Romans 8:20). This is God’s subjection. This is why there are tsunamis.

Who suffers from this fallen world of natural disasters? All of us, Christians included: “Not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). For those who cast themselves on the mercy of Christ these afflictions are “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). And when death comes, it is a door to paradise. But for those who do not treasure Christ, suffering and death are God’s judgment. “It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).

For children, who are too young to process mentally the revelation of God in nature or Scripture, death is not the final word of judgment. God’s commitment to display his justice publicly means that he does not finally condemn sinful people who could not physically construe natural or special revelation (Romans 1:20). There is a difference between suppressing revelation that one can mentally comprehend (Romans 1:18), and not having a brain sufficient to comprehend it at all. Therefore, when small children suffer and die, we may not assume they are being punished or judged. No matter how horrible the suffering or death, God can turn it for their greater good.

4. The heart that Christ gives to his people feels compassion for those who suffer, no matter what their faith.

When the Bible says, “Weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), it does not add, “unless God caused the weeping.” Job’s comforters would have done better to weep with Job than talk so much. That does not change when we discover that Job’s suffering was ultimately from God. No, it is right to weep with those who suffer. Pain is pain, no matter who causes it. We are all sinners. Empathy flows not from the causes of pain, but the company of pain. And we are all in it together.

Finally, Christ calls us to show mercy to those who suffer, even if they do not deserve it.

That is the meaning of mercy—undeserved help. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). Therefore, pray earnestly for Scott Purser and his team as they investigate the best way that the Global Diaconate can mercifully respond with the love of Christ to the calamity around the Indian Ocean.

In the merciful hands of Almighty God,

Pastor John

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