I have wondered about the wrath of God theory myself. Pat may not be far off the mark. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah.
Some more recent examples:
Thailand - a den of prostitution and fornication (hit by a major earthquake
New Orleans - a city of debauchery and revery (hit by a massive hurricane)
San Francisco - a port of abomination and unnatural affections (hit by a massive earthquake in 1990)
Haiti - known for voodoo.
My friends, I think God is trying to tell us something and I for one am listening.
Don’t forget:
California - 40,000 lightening strikes setting hugh forest fires across California , 1 week after gays started to run to civil offices to get marry.
Iran - When Iamanutjob stated that he could drive Israel off the map, 1 week later a big earthquake rocked Iran killing about 40,000 and a small meteorite fell on a small town.
All of these are not just purely coincidence, but I do believe in the Wrath of God.
Thank you.
I'm not so sure that God's wrath works in the way that some people on this thread describe. The downside of stating that every natural disaster that occurs is a result of the iniquity of a person, or a community, or even a nation, is that by implication every misfortune that afflicts you must therefore be a result of God's wrath against your sinful life. This is the dark side of the "prosperity gospel" idea. By this theory, Sarah Palin gave birth to a disabled child, that must be because God's judgement of some sin in her life. Palpable nonsense of course. In fact, Jesus condemns such attitudes when he healed the blind man, and the leper. God may very well punish the wicked in this way, but it's not for us to assume that He has.
The Bible passages that best apply here are "Everything is permissable, but not everything is beneficial" (1 Cor 10:23) which is a poetic way of saying that God, in His wisdom, lets us do anything we want, even that which is not good for us. And freedom, after all, is what we all want, not so?
The other passage is "A man reaps what he sows" (Galatians 6:7), which is a very poetic way of saying there are consequences to our actions. If we, as a society, choose to allow (or even revere) adultery, promiscuity and homosexuality, then we can do that. God will allow it. But the consequences will be a decrease in the birth rate, an increase in the frequency of STD's, an increasing number of marriage breakdowns, an increasing number of unhappy children drifting between isolated parents and not getting the instruction they need, and so on. All of which will cause even more problems for the next generation.
Can you see what I am getting at? I think God does not so much punish us directly, but instead lets us "punish" ourselves, both as individuals and as a collective body, by allowing us to experience the consequences of our behaviour. And after all, if we refuse to do what He reccomends, and follow our own imperfect desires and ambitions, we can hardly complain when we get very imperfect results.
I have to humbly disagree with that theory. My main reasons why it cannot be legit is that it would make God very callous, and not only that but also very capricious. The latter is the main issue, because if He wants to punish the evil then he would have a very scatter-gun way of doing so.
For instance, look at the disasters you have listed. Thailand is indeed a den of fornication, but that is in the main city. The people affected by the earthquake (and its various effects) were not there (most couldn't even afford to go there), and many were children. Going down your list ...e.g. to use San Francisco ...if it was the gays who were hit then I'd have to say you were up to something. But a minivan getting crushed with kids inside who probably thought 'gay' still means happy? Or in Haiti ...sure, it is one of the places where voudoun is a literal religion ....but most people are Christian. Thus, if God was not willing to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there were a few righteous people in it, why would He decide to kill tens of thousands (including I am certain a number of born again Haitians)? After all, He Himself said He is not a respecter of persons ...thus a born again Haitian and a born again American are EXACTLY the same in His eyes ...His children, born and redeemed by the Blood of Christ.
Thus, that schtick of 'God smote em' is just pure cr@p!
What happened is that Haiti was hit by an earthquake caused by tectonic events. In much the same way that car crashes in Oklahoma right now are due to black ice and snow conditions ...not because some angel or demon decided to reduce the friction coefficient of tires in Edmond Oklahoma to zero!
The people who say 'God punished them' after a disaster remind me of Global warmers who claim 'the dust storm in the Kalahari is due to the polar icecaps melting' etc. Maybe the dust storm in the Kalahari desert was due to wind conditions in the Kalahari desert and not to do with polar icecaps, and maybe the earthquake in Haiti is due to tectonic dislocation and not because God thought of killing tens of thousands of Haitians because a pig was sacrificed to the devil ages back!
The sad thing about those who say 'God did it' is because their theory can be applied to anything. Every single city, town and nation in the WORLD has a section that is not holy enough for them, thus any disaster ANYWHERE in the world can also be attributed to God smiting them. If New York is destroyed tomorrow it will be because they were too liberal and sin loving. Utah because they are Mormons. Vatican city because the Pope is Catholic. Billy Graham because his son (who is now a preacher after his father's - both Billy and our Heavenly Father - heart) once used to be a sinner who disobeyed some decades ago. Every single disaster can be attributed to God's punishment.
I am not saying God cannot punish ...he can and does. However, God is also love, and to me even an event like the Sodom and Gomorrah story shows God's love (how he was willing to let the towns survive even if there were as few as ten people there who were holy).
BTW ...wasn't there a hurricane once in Florida that hit some property belonging to Pat Robertson? I remember that quite well. I guess that means Pat is being 'punished' as well, and thus should not be making any comments. Also, his ministry does some work in Haiti, building some health centers ...which were invariably hit. I guess that is 'punishment' as well, isn't it?
May God help the people of Haiti, and keep all the rest of us safe.