Death, Disaster, And God
By Rev. Richard A. Bolland
as printed in the Pagosa Springs SUN Newspaper, Dec. 30, 2004
Christmas had hardly passed when the world began to receive the news about the terrible loss of life from the December 26th Tsunami generated by a 9.0 earthquake at the eastern end of the Indian Ocean. The images that have come to us over television have been stunning! One reporter on the Fox News channel mentioned several times that many of the bodies had their hands raised as if to stop the wave or as if to ask God “Why”? Isn’t God a God of love? Why does God permit such disasters to happen when it is obviously possible for Him to stop them? Doesn’t God care about human suffering?
There is little doubt that in the face of such horror, that God will wrongly be blamed for the tragedy, as He has for many other tragedies before this. This is because the world fails to understand the true nature and scope of what actually happened when man fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. Indeed, let us remember that the world and all who are in it are under the death-curse of Original Sin. As God spoke the curse of sin to Adam, He said, “Cursed is the ground because of you…” The creation itself has fallen under the sway of sin. This was echoed again in the New Testament when St. Paul wrote,
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:19-22)
Many times we do not like to hear about the full ramifications of sin. We don’t like to hear that we are sinners. We don’t like to hear about the gravity of sin in the eyes of God. We don’t like to hear that we are “…poor, miserable sinners…”, but then along comes a shattering disaster like the loss of 42,000 souls (the projection at the time of this writing), and we are stunned beyond belief! The culprit is sin! God had not created the world to know of natural disasters! God did not create the world to be a place of tsunami’s, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods and fires! In Genesis 1:31, we find the gracious intent of God in His creating, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”
Of course God is present, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) God is indeed love itself. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Of course God is with His people when tragedy strikes, “God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” (Psalm 46:1-3)
God permits the effects of sin to run their course on this weary globe so that we will understand our need for His grace given us through His Son Jesus the Christ of God. He uses the results of sin and evil to demonstrate our helplessness without Him and the salvation He brings. God’s first concern is the salvation of individual souls through faith in Christ Jesus and in Him alone.
“This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” (I Timothy 2:3-6)
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
Never do the Scriptures promise us an easy life! Never do the Scriptures tell us that we will not suffer hardship, death or disaster. Instead, God turns the tables on all such manifestations of sin in that He does promise us that He will use them for His good purposes. St. Paul writes in Romans 8:28-39 these words of comfort and assurance:
“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those who God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In this world, sin holds sway and the evidence of that deadly influence is all too apparent to anyone willing to see the truth of the matter. The incredible disaster we have witnessed in the Indian Ocean this past week is but one more horrific evidence of that fact.
[Jesus said,] “…or those eighteen who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:4-5)
Was God’s judgment falling on these people? Was He punishing them? No! However, we may be utterly certain that God will be at work in the way His people respond to this disaster and in the way that people may be searching for meaning in the midst of such a massive tragedy. What we do know is that God desires to draw all people closer to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. May we who bear His name be the hands of Christ to bring healing and help. May we be the lips of Christ to speak of hope and life to a sin-fallen world, and may we demonstrate the compassion and caring of Christ so that who receive it will know of the One we represent!
