I was recently asked the question who is responsible for the earthquake in Haiti: God, Satan, or Nature. Since I was given those three options let me share with my answer as well as a Biblical response to making sense of the tragedy in Haiti, while I admit it will never fully make sense. After hearing Pat Robertson’s response, Whoopi’s famous rants on the subject and a few other self-proclaimed pop Christian writers my own heart was needing ‘Truth’ and seeking a Biblical response. So here is my two cents on a story that even today still breaks my heart.
Who is responsible for the earthquake in Haiti: God, Satan, or Nature? Nature does not have a will of its own, Satan nowhere in Scripture has authority over earthquakes. So I only have one option left.
I confess even in my own heart at times I struggle with God being responsible for an earthquake. In regards to Haiti I prayed, Why God that big of an earthquake and why take so many people at once? It does break my heart.
But at the same time why when faced with this question do believers struggle to answer the ‘obvious’ on this one.
It is my belief that God is responsible for earthquakes to remind myself of a few essential eternal and biblical truths:
1) To repent and at the same time reminding us that ‘our day is coming’ as well.(Rev. 6:16)
2)To remind us that return of Christ is even closer now than before. (Matt. 24:7-8)
3)To remind all of us that life is a precious gift from God.(Luke 12:20)
It is a precious gift but God has the right to take it back because God owes me nothing.
4)It stirs within me to be fearful of the Living God. God desires to bring me to this place because this is where ‘wisdom’ begins. (Psalm 111:10)
The truth is the answer is ‘completely obvious’ but it does not fit the world’s 21st century post-evangelical understanding of God. Through each new disaster the multitude of hearts are becoming more and more hardened like Pharaoh’s towards God. The contemporary mindset is that God has no right to tell me what to do and not even God has any right to judge me is the core issue at hand.
Those that hold the view that God’s ultimate desire is for us to be happy therefore God can only do and give us good and wonderful things turns Jesus Christ into a supernatural Santa Clause. In fact it says something deeper. When we hold the mindset that we expect God to only do happy and good things in our lives and anything outside that framework must not be from God it says this: That the love of God that was displayed for us on the Cross for the forgiveness for our sins through Jesus Christ is not sufficient. We are saying that God did not do enough for us on the cross.
When our theology says that God ‘must’ continue to only do good and wonderful things in our lives and that we live ‘expecting’ God to do more and more because God only wants us to be happy we are saying and living out a core belief that God did not love us enough through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
As Scripture reminds us in Romans that when God is good and loving may we rejoice with those who rejoice but when God acts otherwise we are called as well to weep with those who weep.
It is always my heart’s desire and prayer that God will bring me to places that continually allows me to learn that His grace is sufficient, that Jesus is all I need, and that while through this difficult tragedy the words of the prophet Zephaniah are true, “He is mighty to save.”
May the Christian’s response overwhelmingly continue to include the huge compassion and desire to help and minister to the people of Haiti and those serving there but also may it include understanding.
May we all keep praying for Haiti in the days ahead as well as actively supporting relief efforts.
Here is a list of a few Charities that are collecting donations for the Earthquake Relief effort now underway in Haiti. Please give if you have not already.
- Compassion International
- Feed My Starving Children
- Food for the Hungry
- World Vision
- World Relief
- Samaritan’s Purse
- Love a Child
- Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
- Compassion Weavers
- Mennonite Central Committee
- Water Missions International
Last 5 posts by Wade Lowrey
- Soldiers Surprsing Their Loved Ones - June 11th, 2010
- Happy Hour Vs. Oh Happy Day - June 8th, 2010
- Nick Vujicic Christian A Powerful Testimony - June 7th, 2010
- Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices - June 5th, 2010
- Contending With An Almighty God - May 13th, 2010
