I don’t think it’s God punishing - He’s just letting ‘man’s sin’ run it’s course.
We also cannot see the whole picture or into the future. There may be reasons behind what’s happening. God said not to worry about politics, pay your taxes and live a righteous life. He also said to rejoice when you’re persecuted. We do neither. I have faith that even what looks terrible is for a higher purpose. I try to ‘fear not’
Perhaps we are being tested?
Fulfillment of end times prophecies.
Scripture has a lot to say about what is going to happen during the Tribulation period, but in order for it to happen, it must be being put in place before then. Things like digital currency and the technology to monitor virtually everyone, and to implement the Mark of the beast.
Also, the moral collapse that set up ‘as in the days of Noah’, when violence filled the earth and the thoughts of
men were only evil continually.
We’re getting there at breakneck speed.
I wish I had a better memory. My Protestant pastor gave a class on the various bad things that happen to people. IIRC their were 4(?) basic reasons.
1)Original sin which caused the entire earth to be not what it was supposed to be (so natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, and illness like cancer, etc.)
2) Our own sin (driving drunk and hurting someone, ending up in jail).
3) Other people’s sin and evil intentions (killing, etc.)
4) God’s actual punishment of us so that we might learn. He said that last one is fairly rare. And while we can learn of God’s grace and love for us from the first three, we shouldn’t be too quick to claim all of our misfortune on God’s punishment.
It seems to make sense to me. Of course in the end people will receive the full extent of God’s punishment, but for the time-being he uses it more as discipline and a correction.
The Church age dispensation is approaching its end. Apostasy and false doctrine are predicted at the closing of the Church age.