September 19, 2004

Mural Worthey

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia 23860

Introduction

This time last year, September 17-18, I presented a message titled "What Storms Teach Us," after the remnants of Hurricane Isabel hit our area. I hesitated doing another lesson on natural disasters because I knew that you would remember every single point that I made last year! But with hurricane Ivan causing massive destruction and death in the Caribbean and now the USA, I wanted to ask and answer several questions about natural disasters.

Question #1: Do NDs argue more against the existence of God than for it?

There are two broad categories of evil in our world, moral and natural. See Luke 13:1-5. Moral evil, or sinfulness, is more easily explained by placing the fault at the feet of men choosing to do evil. But natural disaster is more difficult to explain in that it happens outside the actions of men. We are not responsible, at least directly, for the weather. Why do violent things rage that kill so many? Are the existence of God and the obvious existence of natural disasters compatible?

The power of this question is evident when we consider the argument for the existence of God based upon the beauty of our world, obvious design and meaning in life. But what is the purpose and design for hurricanes, tornadoes, wild fires, floods, earthquakes, etc., which kill thousands every year? To counter the design argument, non-believers present their suboptimality argument or dysteleology. Richard Dawkins wrote his The Blind Watchmaker, 1986, to counter Paley’s design argument based upon the design of a watch. If a watch breaks down occasionally or no longer works, does that argue against a watchmaker? When a car breaks down, does that argue against a car-maker? No. Paul argued that seen things are temporary, by their very nature. But unseen things are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:18.) God could have made the world to last only for a short time. He could have created man to live only a short time. It is not a fault of imperfect design, but purposeful choice.

Do NDs argue more for the non-existence of God? There may be other reasons for storms and other natural disasters, rather than under-design. In what possible way could storms argue for the theory of evolution, or for the theory of natural selection? In fact, storms argue more strongly against natural selection. Are only the weak in society destroyed by natural disasters? Of course not. Do storms explain origins?

Question #2: Does every drop of rain fall at the command of God?

This question is at the heart of our discussion. Does the existence of God mean that his sovereignty controls everything that happens in our world? This is the great fork in the road for interpreting both the Bible and events in nature. If one believes that every drop of rain falls at the command of God, then the storm not only exists by the decree of God but its path and destruction.

Why did great religious thinkers come to the conclusion that God is in command of every deed and event in our world? For several reasons: a) to maintain a position of strong faith in God, b) to object to the concept of God winding up the world like a clock and letting it run down, c) to destroy any notion of dualism—two equal and opposite gods.

But it is not true that one believes less in God if one believes in time and chance happening to every creature. Solomon used those very words. See Ecclesiastes 9:11. Jesus said that the tower of Siloam killed eighteen people in Jerusalem not because those eighteen were especially more evil than others in the city. (Luke 13:4-5.) Why did it fall? Faulty workmanship? Earthquakes weakened the structure? Time and chance caught those eighteen in its path? The wind blew it over? If it happened by a decree from God, then there had to be a moral reason why those eighteen were killed. But Jesus said that this idea is false. Sometimes, God does send punishments in various ways against sinners. But every natural disaster cannot be so interpreted. We cannot know if it is so, unless God sent a prophet and told us about a specific event.

Question #3: Are storms controlled or caused by Satan to harm human beings because of his hatred for God?

Satan was involved in the suffering of Job. He tempted Adam and Eve causing untold suffering to the human race. He was involved in the suffering of Jesus on the cross in that he tempted man to sin and Jesus died for our sins. However, it is wrong to think that Satan has charge of part of the world and he can do things against the will of God. We should say that Satan causes suffering only in an indirect way. He is not an equal and opposite god. He is not omniscient, omnipresent or omnipotent.

Storms are not instruments of Satan, as if God cannot control them. When storms threaten, we should not pray to Satan, but rather to God. It is good and right to pray to God because He is our Father and He cares for us. Even death cannot separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38.)

Question #4: Did God create NDs during the creation week? If not, when did they originate and why?

At the end of each day, God looked at what he had created and declared it good. He said at the end of the creation week that it was very good. Are natural disasters good? It is true that some good things can come from storms and disasters of various kinds. Dry areas can get needed rain fall. Intense fires can pop open pine cones so a new crop can emerge. Undergrowth is burned off. Good deeds and benevolence are encouraged by the suffering of fellow humans. While all these things are true, it is a weak and hollow argument to justify natural disasters on the basis of good that results. The families of those who lost loved ones in the fall of the twin towers in New York City would not be convinced by this argument. Why must we suffer the loss of children in order to teach us a lesson? Is not that an extreme form of instruction?

I am convinced that natural disasters did not originate during the creation week, but rather during the disobedience week. Earthquakes, droughts, storms, etc. cannot be described as good to man. The best explanation is that all these adverse things begin to occur after man disobeyed God and a marked changed occurred in our world. God cursed everyone and everything that day. He cursed the serpent, man, woman and the earth. He said, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken. For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." (Gen. 3:17-19.)

Some years later, during another disobedience week, God said, "I will destroy them with the earth." (Gen. 6:13.) Several conservative scholars argue for drastic changes during the flood of Noah’s day. There is no question that many atmospheric changes did occur. Jesus used the word cataclysm to describe it. (Luke 17:27, Gr.) It was more than a catastrophe; it was a cataclysm. The earth axis now rotates 23 and ½ degrees off center. This causes frozen areas around the north and south poles. This tilt also causes the changes of seasons. Winter occurs when we are tilted away from the sun; summer when we are nearer to the sun.

In search for a reason for the adverse things that occur on earth, one needs to look no further than the curse of Noah’s day and the fall of Adam’s day. God cursed the earth when those things happened. Man’s life became limited to a few short years. Those years would be and are difficult. Man and the creation need reconciliation to God. We have that reconciliation in Jesus Christ. The curse will one day be over. Near the end of Scripture, in the last chapter of Revelation, John wrote, "And there was no more curse." (Rev. 22:3.)

Question #5: Why does God not intervene and stop storms?

God does have the power to stop powerful storms. Jesus demonstrated divine power over storms on the Sea of Galilee. We should always pray and depend upon God even though that does not mean that we will be spared every sickness, disease, or disaster. If God intervened every time, we would be, in effect, asking God to end the curse now. But the curse will end after this world is brought to an end and heaven begins. And not until then. Prayer should not be seen as a shield against the curse. It should be seen as our trust in God even when we do not fully under-stand why we suffer so in this life. The prophet Habakkuk was confused about why God would use the Chaldeans to punish the Israelites, God’s own people. God did not explain it fully to him, but the reply from God to the prophet in the watchtower was, "The just shall live by faith." (Hab. 2:4.) That means that we trust God even when intellectually we cannot fully understand why.

The prophet, Habakkuk, at the end expressed one of the greatest statements of faith ever recorded. He wrote, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places." (Habukkuk 3:17-19.)

If God intervened and stopped storms every time someone was in danger, we could not depend upon natural laws. Intervention would destroy man’s confidence in natural laws. It would cause more problems than it would solve. If we had our way, there would be no physical death. Yet, death is appointed unto man. This death is because of the curse of Genesis 3. It seems to me that we constantly go back to the Fall event and Flood event to explain our present world.

Man does not have the ability or capacity to redesign the world. When we ask, Is the best possible world that God could have created, we do not know whereof we speak. Think for a moment. What if we decided that water is a bad thing because innocent people drown in it? But we need water to drink, to wash clothes and ourselves. What would we put in its place? Our bodies, the bodies of animals and plants would need to be redesigned. Just changing one thing like water involves us with difficulties beyond our imagination. We do not know what the best possible world would look like. Best possible world for what? The world that we are thinking about is the one described in the Bible as heaven. This is the world where there is no death, suffering, crying or curse.