Are Natural Disasters “Acts of God?”
I enjoy music. I have a rather eclectic leaning, enjoying quite a variety of musical genres. Still, because of my roots and faith I enjoy church music most. I listen to both contemporary Christian music and hymns. Each has a way of moving and inspiring me. At times, however, I do get distracted by the words. Part of this is due to my educational background; I spent ten years in graduate school studying theology. For that reason I listen carefully to the words and sometimes find myself refuting them. This happened recently when I was singing with a group at church Chris Tomlin’s song Indescribable. I like Chris Tomlin and also this particular song. I’ve even used it for one of my multi-media presentations. But there is one line in the song that really bothers me. It says God is the one “who has told every lightning bolt where it should go.” When I sang those words the other night I couldn’t help but cringe for not all that long ago a beautiful and historic church in a nearby town was destroyed by lightning. I asked the lady sitting next to me if she could imagine how the folks at that church might feel singing those words. Does God actually aim lightning bolts at certain objects intentionally. I prefer to think not.
Even in the wonderful hymn I wrote about in my last blog, Isaac Watts’ We Sing Your Mighty Power, O God, we read the words “clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from your throne.” Are we to read into these words that when a huge arctic blast covers half of America that this storm was ordered from God’s throne? Once again, I prefer to think not.
I remember even when I was young having problems with the idea that earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and hurricanes could be considered “acts of God” by insurance agents. If something bad happened from one of these natural disasters to a person’s home or to a community God got the blame. It was almost like we all needed insurance just in case God got mad at us and ordered a natural catastrophe. Is God that fickle and ill-tempered that we must buy insurance to protect ourselves from His fury? One more time, I prefer to think not.
Actually, in the end it isn’t that I prefer not to think any of these things, I refuse to. It is in the Scriptures that we come to understand who God is and nowhere is this revelation clearer than when we focus on Jesus. Jesus once said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” (John 14:9) implying that we are to understand who God is by looking at him. Now according to the New Testament it was Christ who created the world (John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:15-16) and he is also the one who sustains it (Colossians 1:17). If that is indeed true then we can also see that it is highly unlikely that God intentionally sends earthquakes, hurricanes or other natural disasters on innocent, or even not so innocent, people. That is not something we see Jesus doing during his time on earth.
When we do look at Jesus’ actions we see that his intentions were always to help people, not hurt them. Everything that Jesus did was based on love. At one point he was asked by a pair of his disciples if he wanted them to send fire down on a village that had not welcomed him. Luke tells us that Jesus rebuked them for even asking. (9:56) That was not his style then. It is not his style today.
Some have claimed that the various natural disasters I’ve mentioned are the result of evil and not God. Personally, I have no problem affirming that even things like tornadoes and earthquakes were part of God’s original plan. All of the “natural disasters” I wrote of earlier have helped form and shape Creation one way or another. They are “natural wonders” that have served useful and good purposes throughout the ages. It is just when they affect human life that we tend to see them as disasters.
Hopefully in our conversations and in our songs we can come to affirm both the goodness of God and His Creation while at the same time refraining from the implication that God is behind every lightning bolt that strikes and every storm that rages. God does in fact rule the universe but it is a rule based first and foremost on love. If it isn’t an act of love it is not an “act of God.”
–Chuck
(I took the top image near Page, AZ, the middle one in Paducah, KY, and the bottom on in the Bisti Wilderness of N.M.)