WWUTT 775 God Causes Natural Disasters?

Natural Disasters, Providence, and Repentance

Is God really the author of all natural disasters? Or can we say that Satan causes some of them? And how can we tell if a certain disaster happens in response to sin? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, www .tt .com.

Here's our host, Hester Gabe.

Thank you, Becky, who's not in studio with me again this week. As we talked about last week, we're kind of in a really busy season right now, which will hopefully relax for us after we get through next weekend.

Part of the reason why she's not on this episode, though, is because she also wasn't feeling well. So please say a prayer for Becky. We got a couple of questions that really included both of us, one of which was related to homeschool.

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It was a video that I did a year ago after the hurricanes that hit Texas and Florida, the last hurricane season. But since we've got Florence bearing down on North Carolina, and I've got relatives in Wilmington, North Carolina, where the eye of the storm is going to pass over, so pray for them.

As we've got this hurricane that is coming down on North Carolina, I decided to post that video to help to encourage folks again and also lead people to repentance. If there's anybody who is fearful of this storm, is looking for meaning or intention behind it, know that God is still in control and that his judgment is coming.

And even things like severe weather such as this reminds us of the wrath of God that is coming against all ungodliness, the fallenness of this world, and that God has subjected it to futility because of our sin.

Storms such as this remind us of that. So may it be, may it strike fear in our hearts that we would repent of sin and that we would worship God. And that's what things like this that happen remind us to do.

Also becoming opportunities to share the gospel with somebody that they might know a day of judgment is coming. And the only way to know that you will survive that day of judgment is to believe in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

So I want to play that video here and then read the couple of questions that came to me following up this particular video on God causing hurricanes. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Southeast Texas and with Hurricane Irma bearing down on the state of Florida, Kurt Cameron came under fire when he said that hurricanes are sent by God.

Weather is sent to cause us to respond to God in humility, awe, and repentance. So how about it? Is Cameron correct?

Yes. And Cameron wasn't merely sharing his opinion. He taught from the Bible, reading from Job 37, which says, He loads the thick cloud with moisture. The clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world, whether for correction or for his land or for love.

He causes it to happen. Psalm 107 says that God commanded and raised the stormy wind on the sea and men's courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He made the storm be still. Through the prophet Isaiah, God says, I am the Lord, and there is no other. I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me.

I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does these things. This is but a glimpse of the power of God who will destroy the wicked. But if you cry out to Jesus who calms the waves in the sea, you will be saved when we understand the text.

Job, Satan, and the Great Wind

This first email comes from Brittany in Washington. She says, Dear What, I have a question about your hurricane video. While I'm inclined to agree that God causes hurricanes, is it fair to say that he's not the author of all disastrous weather?

After all, in Job 1, Satan causes a whirlwind to destroy the house that Job's children were in, and they all died. Yeah, let's go to that passage and read it. So this is after Satan comes before God. God says, Hey, have you considered my servant Job?

Look how righteous he is. Satan says, Of course he's righteous. You've given him everything. Let me afflict him, and he'll curse you to your face. So God gives him permission to do that, but he cannot harm Job himself.

That of course would come later. So in chapter 1 verse 13, here's what we read. Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And there came a messenger to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them.

And the Sabians fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword. And I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them.

And I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was speaking, there came another and said, The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword.

And I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was speaking, there came another and said, Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young people and they are dead.

And I alone have escaped to tell you. Then Job arose, tore his robe and shaved his head and he fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all of this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. So there, because Satan had asked God's permission to afflict Job, God gave him permission to do so.

And we have this indication in verse 19 of a great wind that came across the wilderness and struck the house and it collapsed on his children. This great wind could be, I mean, like a straight line wind.

It could have been a huge sandstorm sort of a thing, since it says that it blew across the wilderness. Or it could have been a tornado, a massive dust devil or a land spout, as they're called. If you have a tornado without a storm, I chased tornadoes for a while, by the way, did that whole weather thing when I was in radio.

So that could have been the kind of weather that had struck this house and caused the house to collapse on his children. So there you might have an argument for didn't Satan cause this to happen instead of God causing it to happen.

But remember what it is that we read later on in Job 37, which was quoted in the video. The Lord loads the thick cloud with his moisture. The clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world, whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.

So though God may have not been the direct cause here in Job chapter one, it doesn't mean that God was out of control and he handed things over to Satan to then do with the weather whatever Satan wanted, it wanted to happen and it was outside of God's will.

It was still the Lord's will that these things would take place. Nothing was outside of his plan, nor did the weather cease to be God's and then became Satan's for a little while. So though the Lord brought these things about through a secondary cause, which would have been Satan instead of by his own hand, nonetheless, these things still belong to the Lord and he was still in control.

Notice Job's response to this. He says, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Satan was the secondary cause that was afflicting Job with these things. But the Lord is still ultimately the one who gives and the one who takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. And in all of this, Job did not sin or charge God with doing anything wrong. Though Job would have recognized God as the one who has given him the things that he enjoyed and was blessed with, and God is the one who has taken those things away from him, nevertheless, God has not done anything wrong.

He's God. He can do what he wants and he does as he pleases. So, yes, certainly in this particular case, you might be able to make an argument that Satan is the one that brought this whirlwind about. But God was still in control and he was never out of control of the situation, nor did the weather and those things that were created by him, nor did those things cease to be his.

I think I said that right without too many double negatives anyway. Now, how can we know that this hurricane, hurricane flow that is coming against the North Carolina coast, and it's actually if the the tracking map stays the way that they're predicting the storm is going to go, this hurricane is eventually going to make it all the way up to New England as a tropical depression by the time it gets up there.

But boy, it's really going to sweep the eastern portion of the United States. Expect a lot of rain, a lot of flooding, maybe even some tornadoes that we're a long way from this storm being over. So praying for the folks that are on the coast of North Carolina, but even people in South Carolina, Georgia on up through like West Virginia, Maryland and into Vermont and New Hampshire in the next several days as that tropical depression will kind of make its way up to New England.

So looking at a storm like this, how do we know that it's from God and not from Satan? Well, again, God is still ultimately the one who is in control. And none of these none of these things happen outside of his control.

When we read that the clouds turn around and around by his guidance and he's the one that causes it to happen, according to what is said in Job chapter 37, there is not a reason for us to try to discern otherwise, but that all of these things have come about by God's providential hand in Psalm 107 is where it talks about a big storm coming up upon the ships so that the people would cry out to God.

And then God is the one who relaxed the storm. He brought the storm upon them. They cried out to him for mercy. He's the one that brought stillness to the storm. And then we know that Jesus is God, because when you've got the story of Jesus and his disciples out on the lake and the big storm comes up, like in Luke chapter eight, verse twenty five, and he says, peace be still.

And his disciples say, who is this that he commands even winds and water that they obey him? Then we know that Jesus is the very one who's being talked about in Job chapter thirty seven as being able to control the weather because it all belongs to him.

Now, it would be impossible for us to discern whether or not God is the active cause behind the storm or Satan as a secondary cause would be the one that caused the storm. But the reason for it is still the same.

And it is to lead you to repentance. All things are ultimately in God's control. And it is to lead you to repent of your sin and believe in him. Whether you die in a storm or you survive the storm and you die another way later on, all of us are going to appear before God in judgment.

And when we look at a storm like a hurricane, we know that God's judgment is even greater than this. He's caused this storm to come upon the land that we might see a demonstration of his power and know that his power is still yet even greater than this.

None of us will survive judgment unless we believe in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and clothes us in his righteousness so that we might be received by our father on that day who receives us now.

But even more so on that day of judgment, we will not be cast out from his presence, but instead we will inherit his eternal kingdom. It's meant to lead us to repentance. And so that's what we must do.

Repent of our sin and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Next question still kind of still kind of goes with the whole storm theme here. And this is from Alvin in Minnesota.

He says, Pastor Gabe, thank you for your video about hurricanes. It was a gentle reminder to me that God is in control of all circumstances, even the weather. About 10 years ago, there was a tornado that hit downtown Minneapolis.

And John Piper wrote an article about how it was a warning to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, or also known as the ELCA, whose convention was meeting in Minneapolis that year. And they wanted to pass a statement that would include homosexual ministers into the ministry.

Rachel held Evans wrote a response to Piper's blog in which she asked six questions. And then he gives me a link to her blog. I know that Evans asked a bunch of loaded questions and she likely was just trying to entertain her readers with her wit.

But I'm still curious if there are answers to her questions. I know it's a chore to be asked to read Evans, but if you could reply, I would appreciate it. OK, so let's go to Piper's blog first so we can keep this in context of exactly what Evans is responding to.

This was something that he wrote on his Desiring God blog, August 19th of 2009. So this was just about nine years ago. The title of the article is The Tornado, the Lutherans and Homosexuality. And here's how the blog begins.

I saw the fast moving, misshapen, unusually wide funnel over downtown Minneapolis from seven corners. And I said to Kevin Dow, that looks serious. It was serious in more ways than one. A friend who drove down to see the damage wrote on a day when no severe weather was predicted or expected, a tornado forms baffling the weather experts, most saying they've never seen anything like it.

It happens right in the city, the city, Minneapolis. The tornado happens on a Wednesday during the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's national convention in the Minneapolis Convention Center. The convention is using central Lutheran across the street as its church.

The church has set up tents around its building for this purpose. Then Piper goes on, according to the ELCA's printed convention schedule at 2 p .m. on Wednesday, August 19th. The fifth session of the convention was to begin the main item of the session.

Consideration proposed social statement on human sexuality. The issue is whether practicing homosexuality is a behavior that should disqualify a person from the pastoral ministry. The eyewitness of the damage continues.

This curious tornado touches down just south of downtown and follows thirty five west straight towards the city center. It crosses I -94. It is now downtown. The time 2 p .m. The first buildings on the downtown side of I -94 are the Minneapolis Convention Center and Central Lutheran.

The tornado severely damages the convention center roof, shreds the tents, breaks off the steeple of Central Lutheran, splits what's left of the steeple in two and then lifts and disappears. And then Piper, breaking from the the witness account, says, let me venture an interpretation of this providence with some biblical warrant.

And then Piper goes on to present arguments for why this was by the providential hand of God as a warning against the Lutheran denomination not to be accepting of sins that God has said in his word he will judge and that if a person practices these sins, it will exclude them from the kingdom of God and namely the sin of homosexuality, because that's what it was they were considering at the exact same time that this tornado struck both the convention center and the Lutheran church across the street.

So in response to this particular article, Rachel held Evans wrote this on her blog and she presented six questions. I'm going to skip the introduction and just kind of get to the body where she is addressing John Piper.

And these really are loaded questions. She really doesn't want answers to these questions. She's trying to make an argument. And impress her readers. But but nonetheless, I'm going to do my best to respond.

I don't usually respond to these kinds of things because it's just a show. And the questions have been worded in such a way that she's being rhetorical. But but nonetheless, I'll offer what response I can here.

So she says, Dr. Piper, citing the apostle Paul, you argue that the unrepentant practice of homosexual behavior will exclude a person from the kingdom of God. First Corinthians six, nine through 10. Jesus said that greed will exclude a person from the kingdom of God.

Luke 14, 33 and Luke 18, 24 through 25 were inclement weather conditions to flood or destroy the Christian bookstore at the downtown campus of your megachurch. Should we interpret that to be an act of God in judgment of materialism?

Well, first of all, this is an extremely loaded question because that did not happen. So there's no reason for us to suspect why God would cause such a weather phenomenon to hit John Piper's church because such a thing did not take place.

So in that way, this is a very loaded scenario. But secondly, John Piper is arguing forwards, whereas Rachel held Evans is arguing backwards. What do I mean by that? Well, when Piper sees that a tornado has struck the convention center and a Lutheran church downtown, he's and then suddenly just lifts back up in the air.

First of all, this is an extremely rare weather phenomenon to happen in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This freak tornado that appears and hits those two locations, specifically the convention center and the church, whereas what Evans is describing that could potentially happen to Piper's church is actually a more likely scenario than this freak tornado that happened in Minneapolis.

But anyway, as this tornado has occurred, Piper is not looking at that going now. Why would that tornado happen? There must be some kind of sin going on that God would cause that tornado to happen and punish.

Oh, it just so happens that there was a measure regarding homosexuality that was being determined by the Lutheran church. So that must have been the reason for the tornado. That's not what Piper was rationalizing.

He actually knows exactly what the ELCA was voting on that day. And a freak weather phenomenon happened at the exact same time that they were voting on a clearly sinful measure. So he was arguing forwards regarding his interpretation of God's providence in that particular situation.

Evans, on the other hand, is arguing backwards. First of all, she's making up a scenario that has never actually happened. But then she's trying to determine that the reason why some sort of disaster would come upon Piper's church must be because of some kind of sin.

I'm going to pick greed because you're a megachurch, so you must be greedy. So she's making up a reason for some sort of disaster to come upon John Piper's church, whereas Piper is not making up a sin.

That's clearly what the Lutheran church was doing. They were voting on the acceptance of homosexual ministers within their denomination. They were clearly accepting something that God has said is sin and he will judge.

So her argument is very moot. Makes it makes no sense as a rebuttal against what Piper was presenting in his blog. So here's Evan's second question. She goes on to say, you say that the church has always embraced those who forsake sexual sin, but who still struggle with homosexual desires.

That was in his blog. Do you think that blaming a tornado on homosexuality is the best way to reach out to the gay community and show them the love of Jesus Christ? Why not? This is exactly the way that the Bible presents the love of God.

If you don't know your sin, you don't know the love of God because you don't realize that you deserve death. You deserve God's wrath. But God sent his son to be the propitiation for your sin. He died in your place.

He shed his blood for you so that all who put their faith in him will be forgiven their sins and they will receive a life like his. They will be resurrected from being dead men and women walking in sinfulness.

They will be resurrected to new life in Christ and they will receive his eternal life in heaven forever in glory. And this is the way that God's love is demonstrated to us. Romans 5 8 God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

If you don't know your sinfulness, you don't know God's love because you do not realize that though you deserved wrath, he showed you love instead and gave you mercy and grace through the cross of Jesus Christ.

It's not possible for you to talk about the love of God to another person and have them understand what that means if they do not have an awareness of their sin. And Jesus, from the Sermon on the Mount, was showing people their wicked sinfulness and sinful desires that were that were within their wicked hearts.

You know, talking about lust. Well, you can say I've never committed adultery, but I tell you that if you have lusted after a woman in your heart, you've committed adultery with her in your heart. Or somebody says, I've never murdered anyone before.

If you've hated your brother or you've even called him names, you are guilty of the hell of fire. So Jesus showing the sinfulness, the rebellion that was in our hearts against the perfect law of God, deciding to go our own way instead.

And for this, we deserve destruction. But it is only those who believe in Jesus Christ who are going to be saved. So, yes, you need to show a person their sinfulness in order to show them the gospel, because the gospel is not good news unless they know the bad news first.

You have sinned and you deserve the wrath of God. So ridiculous question on Evan's part to say, well, let's just not talk about sin and we can talk about the love of God can't be done. No one understands the love of God without knowing that they need mercy because what they what they deserve right now in this state that they're in is God's wrath.

That's what all of us deserve. We've been shown the love of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Number three, question three from Evans, you argue that and of course, he's talking to Piper. You argue that official church pronouncements that condone the very sins that keep people out of the kingdom of God are evil and then conclude that the tornado must have been God's response to such evil.

And yet Jesus said that God causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 545. Do you believe that homosexuality is so extraordinarily evil that it warrants special divine intervention while little children dying of famine and lack of water do not?

Children dying of famine and dying of lack of water is not sin. So I'm not sure what what Evans point and that was supposed to be, it is certainly a result of this fallen world that has been subjected to futility because of sin.

But if a child is dying of famine, it's not because that child is sinned or anybody else has sinned against that child and is causing them to die of famine. If a child is dying, lack of water. And of course, I'm talking about third world areas where they probably don't have a lot of food and do not have access to clean water.

These things that are happening aren't sin. They're extremely sad, but they're not sin. So Evans is trying to make a comparison with something that isn't sin. Are you really trying to say that homosexuality is worse than a child dying of famine?

Well, no. I mean, these apples and oranges that you're comparing here. Question number four. You claim that Jesus controls the wind, including all tornadoes. And we just read that out of Job 37. While the Bible includes stories in which God does alter weather conditions, such things are not always linked to divine intervention.

In fact, the book of Job indicates that Satan was behind the storm that killed Job's family. And the Gospel of Mark never states that God started the storm that Jesus calmed. Do you believe that God orchestrates every natural disaster and that the death and suffering that occurs is always a result of God's wrath upon the people involved?

My answer to that question is yes. And I don't even really need to give you a reason. But yes, God orchestrates every natural disaster. Remember that he is the one who cursed all of creation. So every natural disaster that happens occurs because God cursed all of creation as a result of our sin, our rebellion against God.

All of creation was cursed. So, yes, every natural disaster that happens was orchestrated by divine providence. Number five. Your example of Jesus perspective on the Tower of in Siloam is a curious one.

Seeing as Jesus was responding to the hypocrisy of those who assumed that disasters happen to people who are greater sinners than they, I'm reminded of the incident in which the disciples, having been rejected by the people of a Samaritan village, asked Jesus, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

Jesus rebuked them and said, you do not know what kind of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. Luke 9, 51 through 56. And so I will ask you the question that Jesus asked.

Do you suppose that the Lutherans meeting in that church were greater sinners than you? Perhaps the point of Jesus question was not to make a general statement about natural disasters, but rather to evoke a response similar to that of the Pharisees, who, after being asked a similar question, turned and dropped their stones.

And of course, that's a reference to John 8, the woman caught in adultery, Jesus asking them, let he who is without sin be the first to cast the stone. And then they all drop their rocks and split. So I'll respond to that here in just a moment.

But first, the initial question that she asks, do you suppose that the Lutherans meeting in that church were greater sinners than you? That is not at all what Piper was insinuating. He wasn't insinuating anything of the sort that the people who were in that building were greater sinners than he.

But Piper was not making a judgment hypocritically. He was not calling out a sinful acceptance that was going on in that convention center. And it is without question a sin that they were accepting as normal behavior within the Lutheran denomination.

That's exactly what they were talking about. No question about that. So this was not Piper looking at something that they were doing and calling them out on a sin that he himself was guilty of. That's that would have been hypocritical.

And that's not what Piper was doing. Jesus did not say that we weren't to judge at all. He said not to judge hypocritically. That's the whole point behind Matthew seven verses one through six. And so Piper in a in a spirit of discernment was making a particular judgment call that was absolutely accurate.

And it was loving of him to say to the Lutherans, repent of this, to that particular Lutheran denomination, repent of this sin, for this has served as a warning to you that some greater wrath will befall you if you do not repent.

And not to say that a bigger tornado will come next year. That wasn't the argument. But rather, if you die in this sin, having not repented of it, you will appear before God and he will judge you for it.

There is a judgment even greater than this tornado that came upon you. So Piper was very lovingly making a discernment regarding that particular situation. He was not at all saying that he was greater than anyone else.

Piper fully knows his own sin. I've heard him talk about it at length and his need for a savior, which he has in Christ and with a new heart desires to obey him. Whereas this Lutheran denomination was not obeying God's commands, they were actually straying far from them.

But after Evans asks this very loaded question, she goes on to say, perhaps the point of Jesus question was not to make a general statement about natural disasters, referring to the tower in Siloam, but rather to evoke a response similar to that of the Pharisees, who, after being asked a similar situation, turned and dropped their stones.

Well, let's look specifically at this account in Luke 13, in which Jesus says, repent or perish. He says, starting in verse one, there were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

And he answered them. Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them.

Do you think that they were worse offenders than all of the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. The point that Jesus was making here in Luke 13, verses one through five, is that disasters happen and things happen to people.

You might die of old age or you might die walking outside your house and getting struck by lightning. However you meet your end, you will stand before God in judgment. And if you do not repent of your sin now, who knows?

But your life might be taken from you in the next moment and you will have missed your chance to repent and believe on the name of Christ and so be forgiven your sins. So do that now before something worse happens to you.

And this is something Jesus did or he said several times in John, chapter five, after he healed the man at Bethesda, the lame man who was by the healing pool, Jesus said to him, look, you're well now go and don't sin anymore or something worse may happen to you.

So this call to repentance before a worse judgment befalls you in this case of the lame man, something worse than being lame will happen to you if you do not repent of your sins. So as Jesus has said this in other ways, so he's saying the same thing in Luke, chapter 13.

This is a sinful fallen world. And because of sin, disaster is going to happen, whether it's by an enemy that comes upon you and kills you or it's just some sort of accident like a tower or a house falling upon you.

But I tell you to repent or something worse may happen to you. And so that's the same angle that Piper is taking when it comes to what's going on with this Lutheran denomination and this decision that they were making nine years ago at their convention.

Repent or something worse than a tornado is going to come against you. So Evan's rebuttal there is just really kind of foolish. She's trying to read meaning into the text that simply isn't there. Final question that she asks in your last point, you speak on behalf of God confidently concluding that the tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and to all of us turn from the approval of sin.