BETWEEN THE LINES

The newscasts of bloated bodies in Burma and mothers crying over their crushed child in China have been disturbing and heartbreaking. The confirmed death tolls of the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China altogether already exceeds 100,000.  The numbers are overwhelming. The suffering is immeasurable. How can God allow, or even cause, such monstrous calamities and inflict such suffering on millions of people?

In these moments it may be hard for many to believe that God is almighty, all loving, and all good. Many would say he does not exist. Even faithful Christians wonder what good could come out of such terrible disasters, and if there will be good that comes out, was it worth the price?

These are hard questions, and finding satisfactory answers may not be easy or possible.  Heb. 11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” In times of unexplainable disasters it ultimately comes down to faith that God is always righteous and good. This kind of faith is likened to knowing someone’s character so well, that when he or she does something that seems totally out of character, we conclude, “There must be something else going on,” rather than believe that his or her character has changed.   When we know God well enough, nothing can shake our confidence in his righteous and merciful character.  When we don’t know God well enough or not at all, disasters and suffering shake our confidence in him.

What is the “something else going on” that may explain why God allows mankind to suffer catastrophic disasters?  The Bible gives us several likely reasons ….

1.     1.       All of creation has been terribly corrupted because of sin (Rom. 8:19-21). There would be no natural or man-made disasters if mankind did not sin. Once sin entered into the world it was like a poison that cursed  all of creation, not just man.  Not only does mankind not work properly as a result, nature does not work right any more. God may use disasters as a powerful sign that we are sinners living in a sin-broken world.

2.     2.       Man’s sins bears a great part of the responsibility.  Burma’s government took no action to warn its citizens of the impending cyclone and is inhibiting relief efforts. Many of the collapsed buildings, even the new ones, in China are being found to have been of substandard quality. Builders took short-cuts and the residents paid the ultimate price for their failures. God may be using disasters to convict the world of sin and the need for repentance.

3.     3.       Natural disasters are signs that Christ is returning at any time (Matt. 24:7). The message is that we as a human race needs to repent and be prepared to meet our maker.

4.     4.       Natural disasters and other kinds of suffering are meant to humble us and help us realize that we are not the powerful creatures we think we are (Consider the 10 plagues on Egypt). We are mortal and our lives are unpredictable. Therefore we must worship and obey Christ and not the things of this world.

You may still wonder, “I understand that mankind’s suffering is directly or indirectly man-made, but if God is merciful, why doesn’t he intervene to prevent such disasters.”  This is a valid question which we may again never have a definitive or acceptable answer.  The Bible, however, reveals at least these three relevant truths:

1.     1.       Things would be a lot worse in this world were it not for God restraining the flow of evil in this world (Rev. 7:1).  So God is intervening. We just don’t realize it because we don’t know the calamities that He has already prevented.

2.     2.       God loves us too much to treat make us his robots (Josh. 24:15). He has given mankind freewill because he loves humanity. None of us would enjoy a God who give us no freedom. Freewill, however, is a two- edged sword because it allows man to either do good or do evil.  As a result in times of natural disasters we humans can either cause great suffering to each other, or do great good.

3.     3.     Without suffering we may never realize the need to change, repent, and put our faith in Christ.

Given that God is merciful and has acted mercifully throughout human history, it is nonetheless a reality that God has not applied his mercy universally. As we see in the earthquake and cyclone, some were spared. Some were not. We are drawn to ask, “Why?”  The biblical answer is not very humanly satisfying. God said, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” (Rom. 9:15) In other words, He is saying, “It’s my choice.”  This makes God seem inherently unfair or capricious. The apostle Paul’s answer to that in Romans 9 is basically that we have no right to judge God. In the same chapter the apostle Paul suggests in Rom. 9:23 that God may even deny mercy to some so that those who receive mercy will realize how glorious God is.  If you find these answers hard to accept, you are not alone 

In the end, it comes back to faith. Do you have the faith to still believe that God is good despite all the difficult things you see in the world and read in the Bible? Or do you put your faith in your own intellect and knowledge and believe that you are the fair judge of what is right, wrong, true, or false?  These are the ultimate questions.

Finally, disasters are opportunities for us to act mercifully and righteously.  Let us not get so caught up with pondering God’s responsibility that we neglect our own. Act now to give to the relief effort, pray for the victims, and empower Christians to share the love of God to the victims and survivors.  CBCSD will be giving donations to various relief efforts.  The church encourages you also to give directly to Chinese Christian Herald Crusade (CCHC) for China relief efforts and World Vision for Burma relief efforts.

Blessings, 

Pastor Luke