ABC Asks Tornado-Struck Pastor: 'How Do You Reconcile Your Faith With This Tragedy?'

For the MSM, there's nothing like the occasion of a natural disaster to challenge the faith of religious believers.

On today's Good Morning America, Kate Snow interviewed the Rev. Larry Lynn, Pastor of the Lady Lake Church of God, whose buildings were totally levelled by the tornadoes that recently struck central Florida.

A minute or so into the interview, Snow asked a question that challenged the core of the pastor's religious belief: "How do you reconcile your faith with the enormity of this tragedy?"

Pastor Lynn answered in a manner consistent with the most basic Christian principles: "This is just a temporal thing. We deal in the eternal. Temporal things change on a daily basis. I don't know what today might bring, but I'm prepared for it. I don't know what tomorrow might bring, but I'm prepared for it, because I know who holds tomorrow. My confidence is not in the things of this world, but in He who sits on the throne and in his son, Jesus Christ."

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

Job 1:18 While he (Job) was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 19 "and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" 20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.
21 And he said:

"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the LORD."

Job 2:7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
8 And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.
9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!"
10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"

I don't think most thinking Christians would deny any
of the items in your posting regarding the existence of creation as existing for the purposes of the spiritual. Take a look sometime at "Mere Christianity" and "Miracles" by CS Lewis who lays out the case for Christianity, written for those who might consider the claims of Christ but find their intellectualism getting in the way.

And despite the fact of a few famous or "infamous" sorts who hypocritically "talk the talk" but don't "walk the walk", millions of believers do attempt do good works and lead moral lives...not to "collect" salvation points to be tallied on a spiritual atta boy chart but rather as a way of allowing an outward expression of Christ into a darkened world. Anotherwords, most believers understand
that what is done here counts for here as well as for eternity.

Multiple passages in both Old and new testaments speak of this temporal reality we live in as soon passing away, at least in what God counts as time as he dwells both past, present and future. We are to do good and live charitably but not be so attached to things that "rust or are eaten of moths". We are to practise a Godly consciousness, to live with a sense of God's "eternal Now".

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:1)

Now in all honesty there isn't all that much that would separate piously worshiping Christians and Jews in terms of morality and ethics. Both groups accept the stories of Noah, Moses and the prophets as true with relevant truths to be derived and applied to our lives.

No, this "break" you talk about concerns the person of Jesus Christ. Unfortuanately, church history was negative at times in its relations to Jews as well as to Christians, who worshiping God "in spirit and in truth" rose to stand against Catholicism's murderous excesses. That is where the break occured. Christians forgot what Paul declared that those who were gentiles who converted to Christ became "children of Abraham via the spirit of adoption". Various elements of the church forgot that by treating Jewry the way they did, they were really mistreating their spiritual brothers!

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