Many view natural disasters as divine punishment. One columnist described a devastating hurricane as “the fist of God.” In the United States, some religious leaders described events like Hurricane Katrina as “God’s wrath” on “sin cities.” In Sri Lanka, militant Buddhists blamed Christians for the tsunami, deepening the religious divide. The trustee of a Hindu temple felt that the god Shiva was angry because people were not living the right way. A Buddhist religious leader in the United States said concerning natural disasters: “We don’t know why these things happen. We don’t even know why we’re here.”
When you see images of wrecked homes, lost lives, and broken hearts, do you sometimes wonder, ‘Why does God permit so much suffering?’ Or do you think, ‘God must have good reasons for allowing such things to happen but has not disclosed those reasons’? The following articles examine this issue. They also discuss some practical steps that people can take to reduce the risk of injury and death should a natural disaster threaten or occur. Is God Responsible? http://www.watchtower.org/e/200709/article_02.htm Disasters are Nearing Their End http://www.watchtower.org/e/200709/article_03.htm
Anonymous2011-03-16T18:21:27Z
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I feel compelled to write this in response to those proclaiming the earthquake in Japan as well as other “natural” disasters as God’s judgement on sin. I ask that you study scripture and our New Covenant with God through Jesus Christ to back these things up. Please open your heart, wipe out “tradition” and let the Holy Spirit Himself, operating from a position of Love guide your heart in these things.
First, I would like us to take a really good look at the New Covenant that God has made with mankind through Jesus Christ’s shed blood for ALL of mankind. Jesus forever changed the way God relates to us. Sure, there are scriptural examples of God’s catastrophic judgment on sin in the Old Covenant (Testament). But God’s greatest act of judgment was when He placed ALL of His wrath for our sins upon Jesus. This forever satisfied God’s wrath. Since that time, God hasn’t been judging our sins but is now in the business of reconciliation. ( 2 Cor. 5:19)
There is a “day of judgment” coming at the end of the age and His wrath is reserved for that time. (Matt 10:15, 11:22, 11:24, 12:36, Mark 6:22, 2Pet. 2:9, 3:7, 1John 4:17, Jude 1:6, 1:14-15) We also see reference to the Judgment Seat of Christ (Rom 14:10, 2Cor. 5:10) and, of course, all the end of the age references to the judgments of Revelation.
Jesus Himself said He was not sent to bring peace on the earth among people. The peace that the angels of Luke 2:13-14 were praising God for was peace BETWEEN God and man. They were announcing the end of God’s war on sin. Peace now reigns between God and man. Prior to Jesus’ coming, there was wrath from God against mankind for his sins. It wasn’t total wrath. Even in the Old Testament, we see God’s mercy and grace. Yet the Old Testament Law was a ministry of wrath (Rom. 4:15 with 2 Cor. 3:7 and 9), and people’s sins were held against them. But when Jesus came, God quit holding people’s sins against them. In John 12:47 He says “And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”
Rom 2:4 says “the GOODNESS of God leads you to repentance”. Its the goodness and the love of God that brings one to the place of wanting a true relationship with Him, not the fear of judgment or hell. As far as God’s correction to believers, 2Timothy 3:16 says that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2 Cor. 5:19 (AMP) “It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor).”
The word “reconciliation” is talking about making peace. God was no longer holding us accountable. Instead, He imputed our sins to Jesus, making Jesus accountable for our sins. Jesus became what we were so we could become what He was—the righteousness of God. Jesus was like a lightning rod that drew all the judgment of God unto Himself. He not only bore our sins; He actually became sin (2 Cor. 5:21 KJV) For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
God the Father forsook Jesus so you and I would never be forsaken. All that you and I would have suffered, through billions of years in eternity—the grief, the pain and, worst of all, the complete separation from the presence of God—Jesus experienced. And He experienced all of this for us. When we say God is judging our sins as individuals or corporately as a nation, we are voiding what Jesus did. That would be “double jeopardy.” I personally believe this doctrine to be an offense to the Cross of Christ.
We live in a corrupted world where bad things happen, but God isn’t the cause of them. If He were, why would He stop at New Orleans or Haiti or Japan? Natural disasters are just that. NATURAL. Don’t forget that natural disasters also occur on a regular basis in places of the world were there are no people. Surely all of us deserve the judgment of God. But, praise God, don’t get what we deserve because Jesus took it ALL on the Cross. It is FINISHED!
I’m sure some have heard the saying and I’ve even said it myself in the past, “If God doesn’t judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” Now I say, “If God judges America, He will have to apologize to Jesus.”
I was talking to a Christian friend, and he said that according to what he knows and believes of his god, the death of innocent people is something he cannot attribute to him.
Sooooo....I guess it determines on the individual person's interpretation of what they think their god is: someone who causes suffering, or not?
I asked him about then *what* caused it, and he said, "plate tectonics, duh". I asked him about his god creating the earth and stuff and he replied, "I believe god's a good guy. I don't think he would want bad things to happen to good, but they do anyway. I don't know who or what to blame, or if we even have the right to blame something. Personally, I think it was just random earth stuff, and they just lived there. People can live wherever they like and bad stuff still happens. So I dunno."
I'm not totally sure what he's trying to say, but it sounds awfully similar to what you quoted of the Buddhist leader. Or maybe my friend's just a very strange Christian. The only thing is that he won't blame his god for anything because he believes god's a 'good guy'.
...Gag me with a spoon. He might as well make his own religion. From the Christians I see here, what he believes is isn't remotely what Christians are.
God is not responsible for any of that simply because he doesn't exist. Even if he did exist and was ever so loving and powerful, then it does not fall in line with the disasters and suffering he allows to happen to the mankind.
In my opinion, no, because God does not exist. And if there was a God that would do such a terrible thing it would not be the omnibenevelent, omniscient and omnipotent God worshiped by the followers of many major religions. It was caused by tectonic plates colliding in the Earth's crust. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
Always find it interesting that people blame God for natural events. This is the God who apparently created something as complex as the universe. But to kill few thousand people on one of the planets he created, he needs to setup natural disasters???