Posted on 09/02/2017 6:59:35 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Louisiana began evacuations for Hurricane Harvey this week, on the twelfth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane has dumped a record 51 inches of rain as of Wednesday morning, the equivalent of four typical hurricanes.
Why has God allowed such devastation? Here are the logical options as I see them.
One: We didn't pray enough.
Scripture teaches that "you do not have, because you do not ask" (James 4:2). Did this storm strike because we did not pray enough for God to stop it?
If so, what about those who prayed fervently but still lost their homes to this storm? Is a lack of intercession to blame for every natural disaster and disease? Can intercession prevent all natural calamity?
Two: We're being punished for sin.
God brought the plagues against Egypt in response to Pharaoh's "hardened heart." The book of Revelation is replete with natural disasters sent by God to punish those who reject him. Is Hurricane Harvey an instrument of his wrath against our sinfulness?
If so, does this mean that people living on the Gulf Coast are worse sinners than those living in Los Angeles or New York City? I've lived in Houston and Dallas and cannot say that the former is more sinful than the latter. Clearly, God can use disasters to bring us to repentance, but is this always the explanation for such calamity?
Three: Fairness demands that he not intervene.
If God stopped Hurricane Harvey, wouldn't he have to do the same with the next storm, and the next? However, this logic would mean that he cannot cure anyone of cancer unless he cures everyone of cancer. He cannot protect one person unless he protects us all. Since I've witnessed his miraculous healing and protection, I know that such logic is flawed.
Four: He doesn't know, or doesn't care, or can't help.
Skeptics might claim that if God saw the devastation of this hurricane, or cared for those in its path, or had the power to prevent their suffering, surely he would have intervened. Since he hasn't, he can't. But his word teaches that he is "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). And his omniscience, compassion, and omnipotence are on display regularly in our broken world.
Here's the bottom line: it's a mystery.
I don't know why God sometimes intervenes in natural disasters and sometimes doesn't. I don't know why he sometimes heals and sometimes doesn't. He tells us that "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD" (Isaiah 55:8).
But I know that our Father redeems all he allows (Romans 8:28). I know that he suffers with us and loves us unconditionally (Romans 8:35–39). And I know that one day this broken world will be gone and we will live in "a new heaven and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1).
Until that day, I choose to trust what I don't understand to the God who does. Will you join me?
NOTE: Ryan Denison has written a fascinating article on the priority of serving those in need. I invite you to read it here.
Originally posted at denisonforum.org
Start with the Holocaust.
They wanted to allow trannies in the Ladies Room.
It is possible that God created the universe and life forms and then just lets it all run on its own based on the laws he created. At least that is what it looks like but who knows? It is above our understanding.
Trannies were unheard of during the black plague in Europe. So it is difficult to correlate the two.
God is not our celestial butler.
It makes you wonder about the efficacy of prayer.
Who are we to ask God to change his plan? If everything
that happens is part of his plan, then asking for something different implies there are better ways than his perfect plan. Basically, we’re saying, “Hey, you screwed up here.”
Why do people think God sits around watching weather patterns like some child with a “make your own planet” with the weather system add-on module?
These things are simply ridiculous.
....It is possible that God created the universe and life forms and then just lets it all run on its own based on the laws he created...
That’s why it’s called weather.
God didn’t decide to make Harvey occur....God is letting us find our way on this earth, and by our responses to challenges like Harvey, and I think HE has seen a lot...
And if people build cities in flood plains in hurricane tracks, that's God's fault?
Hurricanes are part of God's creation and if you happen to be in the path of one, it's not going to end well.
Start with Adam and Eve and the tree........
I don’t pray much for myself, but do pray a lot for others.
Here we were (are), a very divided country, at each other’s throats politically, religiously, socially. Then Harvey came along.
Now, I’m not going to argue that Harvey was a blessing or a good thing — but as the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining.
The silver lining in this crowd is the heroic efforts of all kinds of people to help neighbors, friends, family, strangers, whomever they could help, however they could help — and the generosity of those who cannot be present to help personally, in order to support those who are.
This is inspiring, and this is who we are. This terrible disaster has made us pull together and show the magnificence in our character. For a little while, most of us have forgotten our differences.
This is a good thing.
Great list! I would add that He shined a light of contrast between people working together to recover from a disaster and those wicked in our country (Antifa, BLM, Democrat Party, etc.) who are busy trying to CREATE disasters for others.
That is why we have the OT book of Job. There is a time when it is okay to get angry at God. He has big shoulders.
No, it's not hard to understand.
Amo 4:7 "I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
Amo 4:8 so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.
Amo 4:9 "I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.
Amo 4:10 "I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.
Amo 4:11 "I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.
Gee, and all this time I thought that verse in scriptures that said in John 10:10 that the thief (satan) The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy...
The truth is that we don’t know. If Isaiah were here speaking what he had heard from God, then we would know.
But we don’t.
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