Age-Old Paradox

[kweschnz]

At another thread, this appeared:

I believe and there is scientific evidence that these movements of the earth’s surface, volcanic explosions, and weather phenomena such as tornadoes and hurricanes, are RANDOM, not caused by God’s direct hand. Weather is especially capricious. Do we really believe God does this to us? That to me would be discounting Jesus’ life and mission completely, for that would be the Old Testament God, Yahweh, who punished his people Israel when they were stubborn and stiff-necked.

The whole issue of God’s sovereignty has caused me no end of head-scratching. On the one hand, I figure, all the natural calamities are simply part of the fallenness of our world, ever since A & E decided to do their own thing, but on the other hand, the Scripture says, “All things are Thy servants,” nothing happens that’s outside of His will (even the sparrow doesn’t fall w/o His control over it), and He does use nature in the O.T. as an instrument to accomplish His chastisements. To complicate things even more, His Word says that He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” Yahweh’s the same God who sent Jesus.

So how do we reconcile all these facts?

 

[vera_dicere]

I’m not inclined to beleive that God is directly responsible for such disasters. I mean, really, if he was, why did He knock down the majority of Churches, including the Catholic and Anglican cathedrals in Christchurch and leave the damn abortion clinic standing - and back in operation a week after?

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I’m not inclined to beleive that God is directly responsible for such disasters. I mean, really, if he was, why did He knock down the majority of Churches, including the Catholic and Anglican cathedrals in Christchurch and leave the damn abortion clinic standing - and back in operation a week after?

I don’t want to sound smug, but judgement starts with the House of God. God’s been using the Jews as an example for millenia. When the Bolsheviks came to power, those who suffered the most were often Christians.

And with my faith in the approved Marian apparitions, I think God was emphasising the statement at Akita which included the term “It will not spare either priests or faithful”.

On a purely physical note, it’s a lot easier to rebuild an abortion clinic, which isn’t much more than a few rooms with some medical equipment, than to rebuild historic cathedrals. Even if the abortion clinic had been knocked down, they could have restarted within a few weeks in another building somewhere else.

God does have control. But we can’t see what He’s up to.

I’ve said before though that on the night my father died, he appeared in my room, started with an apology, we argued and conversed, and he disappeared. But he disappeared with one almighty terrifying scream.

I’m quite sure he’s in hell. So in the final analysis, regardless of how we die, we are all judged very specifically, regardless of the seemingly pernicious nature of some disasters.

As for the 10,000 or so possible deaths in the earthquake and tsunami, the reality is that on average a million people die every week around the world. So even such a terrible tragedy as this only increases the week’s death statistic by an outlier of about one percent.

 

[RSD]

At another thread, this appeared:

The whole issue of God’s sovereignty has caused me no end of head-scratching. On the one hand, I figure, all the natural calamities are simply part of the fallenness of our world, ever since A & E decided to do their own thing, but on the other hand, the Scripture says, “All things are Thy servants,” nothing happens that’s outside of His will (even the sparrow doesn’t fall w/o His control over it), and He does use nature in the O.T. as an instrument to accomplish His chastisements. To complicate things even more, His Word says that He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” Yahweh’s the same God who sent Jesus.

So how do we reconcile all these facts?

I think that the best we can do is to start with a constant acceptance of God’s will in our own lives. The more that we trust God to be present in our own life at this moment in this way, whatever it is, the better we can understand how God can be present and lovingly active in all of His creation. I think that if we try to define what God should do in particular circumstances we will limit our own ability to accept what He does do.

 

[firstmode]

At another thread, this appeared:

The whole issue of God’s sovereignty has caused me no end of head-scratching. On the one hand, I figure, all the natural calamities are simply part of the fallenness of our world, ever since A & E decided to do their own thing, but on the other hand, the Scripture says, “All things are Thy servants,” nothing happens that’s outside of His will (even the sparrow doesn’t fall w/o His control over it), and He does use nature in the O.T. as an instrument to accomplish His chastisements. To complicate things even more, His Word says that He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” Yahweh’s the same God who sent Jesus.

So how do we reconcile all these facts?

Genesis 3:17

17 And to the man he said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.

The entire Earth is cursed, down to the soil, not just the soils of men.

 

[nablaise]

Genesis 3:17

17 And to the man he said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.

The entire Earth is cursed, down to the soil, not just the soils of men.

Interesting observation.
I have been noting that most answers to common questions are right there in Genesis first pages.

Earthquakes, volcano, tsunamis, and all great forces are not bad in themselves. The history of the world show that God actually use them to bring about great and wonderful things. We creatures we are supposed to be accommodating, even appreciating of the will of God. However, sometimes we are in its way, and we force ourselves and others to see it as hostile to us. Few days ago, we heard the gospel when Jesus was recommending the lifestyle of flowers and birds, and not to worry.
Of all sensible living creatures, man is the one who is mostly and always victimized by natural disasters it seems.
birds, and fish, and other animals are always on the move toward safer places. We know of different types of migration. This is easy for them because they don’t have any material attachments that ground and lock them in one place. And they are not as hostile to each other as men are. So when these things happen, they seem to be almost warned beforehand. In fact, traditional societies often tell of coming environmental situation by the behavior of birds and other animals around them.
But man want to stand his ground and build protection against fellow man as well as against nature.

We are in Lent, and Egypt had come to my mind even before these things happened. God made judgment to false gods then, he is doing it now perhaps. Today, instead of putting our trust in God alone, we put it in technology, in money, in fame, even physical life, etc. It seems to me that God is pronouncing judgment on the false gods of our time.
Things that the average man put his trust and hope into are being knocked down one after an other.
The important thing is that whether we live or die, we remain always in truth. This is eternal life, and there is no earthquake that would shake us from the love of God. So this is the only place our hope should be. Else, we are not done with disappointments.

God bless