The damage from hurricane Sandy’s rampage up the Atlantic seaboard is still fresh and already some claim it’s part of God’s plan… or wrath… or vengeance against America [or insert a target group here] for its sins [or insert specific sin here]. Seriously. This post talks about those who claim that the storm (or other disaster) is a sign from God that we have strayed: Fake Picture, Real Prayer and God’s Wrath.
From my perspective, claims that God is using such-and-such a disaster to punish us for such-and-such a sin say more about the persons making the claims than about God. The reasons are often more political or ideological than theological. But people looking in on Christianity from the outside may get a distorted view of God when they hear these pronouncements.
When someone says that a natural disaster is a sign or message from God, my usual reaction is: What kind of sign do you think we need? Wasn’t the cross enough? What message do we need that goes beyond “For God so loved the world that he gave his son… not to condemn the world but to save it”? Seems to me the world needs God’s message of love more than it needs our words of condemnation.
There are people who genuinely wrestle with these questions because it gets at the heart of how much God controls events in the world. If we pray for God to spare someone from harm or to heal someone who is sick or dying, will God respond? That’s a question I ask every time I pray for someone. Then, if God seemingly answers one prayer, why wouldn’t God answer others? Is there a reason why God seems to heal or spare some but not others? Why are some people subjected to senseless tragedy? Those are harder questions to answer (at least for me).
Many ask “Did God cause this?” because we’re trying to make sense of something that seems senseless to us. There are whole books written about how much control and intervention God exerts on the world and it’s likely that, if you look long enough and hard enough, you’ll find one that provides an explanation you’ll feel comfortable embracing. That doesn’t mean God is like that. The best I’ve been able to wrap my mind around is that, no matter what I believe about how much God is active or intervenes in the world, from the personal to the global, God is more complex than that.
I opened Christian Piatt’s Banned Questions about the Bible, thinking surely there’s something on questions like this. Sure enough, there it is on p. 137: Is God in control? If so, does that mean God made (insert horrible thing here) happen to pull off a greater plan? Why doesn’t God intervene in a disaster? There are a number of thoughtful responses to that question in the book. I was particularly struck by Jim L. Robinson’s response:
“We can’t conceive of the totality of God’s universe. What we see and perceive is very limited, but we tend to universalize our own perceptions.
“…I believe God created the universe as a reality with which God could relate, not as a reality that God could control and toy around with like a child pulling the strings of a marionette.”
Robinson goes on to say that the thought of a universe in which God is not in control can be terrifying, but to say that God is in control can also be an excuse for us to deny our responsibility as free beings in God’s creation. What, then, is our responsibility? That’s probably a question all in itself. Robinson suggests that it is to seek God’s vision for creation:
“When we humans align ourselves with that vision we experience the consequences of living in synch with God. When we try to do it our own way, we experience the consequences of living out of our grossly limited perceptions.”
What do you think? How much do you think God exerts control over the events of the universe, the world, or our own lives? Do you agree with those who responded to the question in Banned Questions… who say God doesn’t create the catastrophic events but suffers along with us?
Do you agree with Jim Robinson’s comments? In what ways have you experienced the consequences of living in synch with God? How about of living out of synch with God?
Click on the comments below, offer your views, and join in the conversation!
This is so true...thanks for writing and reminding us.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don’t believe that God makes bad things happen, he certainly did create a universe where bad things inevitably do happen, and then man compounds it by making more bad things happen (because God created us too, with free will). There is the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, but they seemed to be very deliberately aimed at teaching a lesson. I don’t know how any modern day disaster would fit that bill or even how you could clearly identify it when it did. At any rate, I believe that the “rules”, aka the 10 Commandments, were handed down because God wants to help us live together happily. I don’t think that God to just trade with us: if we follow the rules, then God will make good things happen to us. What God wants is a relationship with us, however messy. He wants love, not a series of business transactions
ReplyDeleteI agree about the message thing. I am always led to the question, "If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why does He resort to such poor means of communication as natural disasters? It's a pretty crude form of communicating in my opinion. If He does indeed communicate in this way, maybe we need to revise what we attribute as His attributes!
ReplyDeleteYeah, but maybe God makes natural disasters because He’s angry. Does that then mean that God loses his temper?
DeleteThat's a good question. There are a number of passages in the OT that refer to God responding with anger. Does that refer to God's true feelings or to the impression/interpretation of those who recorded the event? The best I can think of is the analogy of God as parent. I get upset with my children from time to time. But I've learned that I'm more effective as a parent when my response is based on love and not anger (sometimes that means I need to go for a long walk first before reacting). Inflicting pain or punishing my children when they do wrong isn't as effective as working with them to help them learn to do things differently (and to understand why they should do things differently). Maybe it's my limited human scope, but everything I think I know about God tells me that God responds out of love and not out of anger.
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