Where is God in natural disasters?

May has been a horrific month of cyclones (100,000 possibly dead in Myanmar), earthquakes (55,000 reported dead in China) and thousands left homeless by the most-active tornado season ever in the Midwest. So, where is God in all these natural disasters?

Rabbi Daniel Lapin wrote, following December 2004's tsunami, that when God commanded Adam and Eve to "subdue the earth" He was giving humans two commands:

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 knew we were pleasing God by making ourselves safer and more secure, and this knowledge lent added urgency and meaning to our efforts. Not by coincidence did the overwhelming majority of these scientific and technical developments take place in the West.

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.

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 always 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. Many of those fatalities are attributable to misguided cultures.

In Myanmar, the government actually prevented aid from reaching hurt and homeless; in China lax building codes assured destruction. In the Midwest, however, early warnings and storm shelters have prevented thousands of deaths.

While in Mozambique in February 2001, I was amazed that residents were rebuilding on the exact flood plane that had destroyed thousands of homes just one year earlier. Our missionary host explained that many Africans view life as cyclical ("The Circle of Life") and have no concept of changing the future through relocating or minimizing flood risks.

When God commanded that we "subdue" the earth, that may have included levies, strict building codes, Doppler radar and storm shelters. So, have a safe Memorial Day weekend—and put fresh batteries in your weather radio.

Login to comment

Comments (11)

God is in us...so I agree with the Rabbi. People will see God in how as His creation we assist each other. For example, create culture and help at the same time. www.fiftythousandshirts.com or the One campaign. Let's be the hands and feet of Jesus. These days are great opportunities to show where God really is!
Lapin says it well. My favorite short version is, when things go well, thank God. When things are not going so well, the world is obviously not yet in the condition God wants us to get the world into. He let the world evolve, and that wasn't a perfect process. And as someone once wrote about the prayer "God, how could you let all these horrible things happen, why don't you do something about it?" the divine answer might well be "I did. I created you." Just two more ways to say what Lapin said so well.
"God runs this world with as little supernatural interference as possible."
This makes it sound like God's just sitting up in heaven trying not to do anything until things get really out of hand. Is it not supernatural involvement when believers, moved with divine compassion, respond with love and bringing the gospel to such times as these? Could it be that, maybe, there is even a hint of God's judgment in the natural disasters? Job's children were killed when a wind brought the house down on them. Who sent that? Immediately Satan. But Who supernaturally allowed Satan to send a fatal wind their way? God did. To say that God is not in the disaster makes it sound like he's not in control. We need to see God's work - even in tragedy - and count it mercy when it's not us facing it.
Now bringing in Job raises all kinds of questions. There is nothing in the Biblical book of that name to indicate that Job's children had done anything to "deserve" a wind bringing the house down on them. They are treated, in this account, purely as Job's property, to be destroyed at will for the purpose of testing Job, just like destroying his crops and his wealth in general. Not a good example of God's judgment. I once recounted to a young woman how, many years ago, my aunt's house was in the path of a tornado. It happened to jump over her block, then went back to tearing up the next block. The woman said "That was God." Well, maybe. But what did God have against all the people on the blocks to either side? On the other hand, if more hurricanes of increased velocity ARE the result of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, it may indeed be God's judgment that we have not been very good stewards of his creation (replenish the earth, not just subdue it). The judgment is self-executing, but it is God's judgment. And the judgment, like the rain, falls alike on the just and the unjust. Like it or not, we are all in this world together, and if one falls, all will suffer for it. It's not fair, but it is just.
There are some important principles in that quote. Though I have the comfort of posting from a strong house on a hill that's not likely to flood, in an area where earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards are very unlikely so I haven't had to deal with contingency planning, emergency drills, making defences or building shelters. But no matter how much we defend ourselves, there's always something that will overcome man's best defences.

People rebuild on disaster sites for many reasons (New Orleans?). Sometimes people don't want to move because that's their home or even because they don't have anywhere else to go. Plus, flood plains and volcanoes have extremely fertile soil when they are not flooded or exploding. There was even a man who wouldn't move off Mt St Helens before it erupted. I don't think he was found.
Except for the mention of pesticides (as if they are such a great thing), I guess I agree with this--to a degree. The NY Times today had an article concerning the collapse of schools in the China earthquake and parents questioning the shoddy construction which led to their children's death. We have a responsibility to do our best to tame nature and provide safety and security for ourselves. But this is only a partial answer. Nature has a way of overcoming our best plans: fires, floods, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanos, famine and pestilence...we humans are pretty helpless in the face of nature no matter how well we prepare. Are all the hundreds of thousands of dead really responsible for the poor leadership in their societies? A non-believer would read into this that somehow these people are to blame for their own demise and that our so-called "loving" God has constructed these deadly scenarios. How would you answer them?
Why should there be any doubt that God causes storms, winds, lightning, floods, earthquakes? He has a purpose for everything He does which we are not wise enough to know, unless He reveals it to us. The old testament is very explicit and clear about this.

From Amos:
"When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?"

"(He who) who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the LORD is his name-"

"He flashes destruction on the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin"

"I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up."

From Job:
"He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.
At his direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he commands them. He brings the clouds to punish men, or to water his earth and show his love."

From Psalms
"lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding"

The scriptures are much to numerous to mention.

God presence was in the storm, cyclone wind and quake. And God was with every single person in that cyclone or earthquake - those that died, those that were trapped, those that were hurt. He is closer than our breath, he knows our every thought. The fact is that no one gets out of this life alive. Each one of us goes by disease, accident, drowning, fire, war, etc. The point is that God is intimately with every human being, holding our hand, suffering with us, ushering us all into the afterworld of eternal life.

If there was no life after death then all disaster would be senseless tragedy perpetrated by a cruel god. But we have a God who has purpose and mercy in everything He does, who suffers with us, cries with us and trys to bring each one of us to Himself by putting us in situations of need where we finally realize we need His hand. And, as some have said so well, putting us in a situations where we become his hands to the hungry and suffering.
Disaster happens. When an F5 hit Jarrell Texas in 1998 an entire neighborhood of well-built houses was destroyed. Some people walked away. Some didn't. That is the nature of disaster. It's always sort of difficult for me to hear the survivors thanking God for protecting them when their neighbors lost three children in the same disaster. I think we do thank God when we escape disaster but it's not our call to figure out why some people didn't. God does not aim tornadoes and tsunamis as people. They happen because we live in a fallen world. They happen to everyone in every culture. While I agree that we do what we can to be safe and we encourage valuing human life in every culture I think it's hubris to think we can subdue the earth. Perhaps, like the Old Testament Laws, God told us to subdue the earth so we would find out incapable we realy are and recognize how much we need him.
Do you think that God does not aim storms at people because it fits your image of God, it just feels right? Because that's not what the Bible says. That is a god you have imaged. I'm open to correction on this, but the overwhelming, very explicit teaching of the Bible is that God is very involved in wind, rain, quakes, drought, etc. We may not understand why, but He has his purposes. See the scriptures above.

Does anyone have a good scriptural evidence that God is not involved in the weather, that he wound up the clock and now it runs on its own? I'm really curious.
Q: Where is God in natural disasters?
A: Ruining the Whitehouse
Maybe its time we stopped trying to blame a devil (satan) when it is clear that there is no such thing. Christians made him up so that the disasters that take place in the world and all the hurt and pain can be blamed on someone else rather than God. If God does exist then these natural disasters clearly show the weakness in him and prove that he is not as mighty as he makes out to be. If anyone disagrees please do tell me why as i am very intrested in christian views on this matter, it is what i am studying.

See the latest in:

Promotion

promo 1 promo 2
promo 3 promo 4

Donate Now