In the past week (the last week of April, 2011), parts of our nation have been devastated by storms and tornadoes, and many lives have been lost.These storms have been especially strong and frequent this year, but every spring similar events tend to happen, such as the 1,000-year flood that ravaged middle Tennessee exactly one year ago. Of course, our nation has suffered more devastating natural disasters the past, the most recent being hurricane Katrina in 2005. Around the world, even greater natural disasters have happened recently, such as the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan and the earthquakes in Haiti last year.
Whenever such natural disasters occur, it causes us to wonder why these things happen.Questions abound in our minds.Why would God create a world that is so violent and hostile at times?If these natural disasters are "acts of God,” then why did He cause them to happen?Are these events punishment from God for sinful people?If so, then why are innocent children harmed, and why are Christians affected?
The Bible has answers for these questions.The first answer is found in the fact that God did not create the world with the violence and hostility that we see today.It is a mistake to assume that everything has always been as it is now.The apostle Peter addressed this mistake in 2Peter 3:4-6 for those who say, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”In reply to this false assumption, Peter wrote, "For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.”
Indeed, many of the answers are found in the Bible’s account of the global flood of Noah’s time.Before the flood, the Bible tells us that "God had not sent rain upon the earth…but a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground” (Gen. 2:4-6).However, when man became so sinful that God was grieved for making him (Gen. 6:5-6), He announced to Noah, "I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made” (Gen 7:4).When Noah, his family, and the animals appointed by God were safely in the ark that Noah built, "all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened,” and "the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights” (Gen. 7:11-12).
After the flood, the climate of the world was permanently changed.Although God swore never to destroy the world again by water (Gen. 8:21-22), He did not restore the world to its previous state.Ever since the flood, God has sent the rains upon the earth.The Bible describes the water cycle that God devised in passages such as Job 36:27-28 ("For He draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from the mist, which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly”) and Ecclesiastes 1:7 ("All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again”), as well as Job 26:8, Ecclesiastes 11:3, and Amos 9:6.Mostly, the rains are very good for the earth and for man, just as the sun is very good.Jesus said that God "causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45), and the apostle Paul said that God "did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17).However, the combination of water in the earth’s atmosphere and the heat energy of the sun also leads to destructive storms, just as Jesus acknowledged in Matthew 7:27 – "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall.”
Therefore, the answers to our questions about natural disasters can be found in a single word – sin.When God made the world, everything was very good (Gen. 1:31), but then man sinned and the world was changed.Adam’s sin brought sin and death into the world (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 5:12; 6:23a) along with all of death’s causes (suffering, disease, injuries, etc.).Because of Adam’s sin, the ground was cursed (Gen. 3:17).Likewise, because of the sins of Noah’s generation, the earth’s climate was changed.Today, both the righteous and the unrighteous have inherited the natural consequences of these events, for the whole world of men, animals, plants, and all things has been altered from God’s original design.Notice Romans 8:20-22:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
These are hard answers to hard questions.Yet these answers are good, for they lead us back to God.If we know that sin brought these hardships on the earth, then we see that sin is harmful to us all.Likewise, if sin has turned this earth into such a hostile place, then we will seek "new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2Pet. 3:11-13).God doesn’t want anyone to die in a tornado or earthquake, but He wants all men to understand the truth and return to Him (1Tim. 2:3-4).He "is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2Pet. 3:9).Therefore, let us trust in God and seek salvation from sin and all of its consequences through Jesus Christ.
