Should Earthquakes Shake Our Faith in God? by Roger Ellis

Published: January 10th, 2005

GOD & NATURAL DISASTERS

Faith aftershocks in the wake of a Tsunami

"The recent Tsunami disaster in Asia has captivated the attention of the world," writes Roger Ellis, senior leader of Revelation Church in Chichester,

 England. "Amidst the terror, shock and horror the ‘God Question’ has been frequently asked both on TV and in the newspapers. There is no ‘answer’ which can calm the storms of emotion, uncertainty and questioning that an event of this scale provokes. However, this is a brief attempt to surface the issues and explore a biblical ‘faith lens’ through which we can view and begin to process these events.

God Thoughts

It has been said that ‘the first thing that comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you’. Our response to suffering and disaster is certainly a major test!
  • Do we respond in doubt, anger, fear or denial?
  • Are we able to stand before God and ask the tough questions without being distanced from him?
  • Who can we blame?

In these situations atheists are confirmed in their ‘faith’ that there is no God. Oliver Kamm writes: ‘the problem of immense and random suffering is indeed a huge (I would say insuperable) objection to religious faith’. Agnostics are further established in their uncertainty. Many believers waver amidst both the apparent contradictions and the overwhelming pain and suffering of others.

  • How can God allow this to happen?
  • How can we face up to the grief, brokenness and incredible evil in this world which seem to cohabit with so much beauty,

Reality check

All of us are awoken afresh to our vulnerability and mortality as human beings facing the certainty of death. We are confused by the random nature of the stories of both those who tragically died and those who miraculously survived. Death came and was no respecter of race, colour, class or creed. Survival often depended on something as trivial as the choice between a holiday in the Caribbean or Asia. People standing next to each other, one lives another dies. Thousands of anonymous apparently meaningless deaths, yet alongside these there are stories of individuals found miles out to sea, days later on a tree branch. Even the stories of great heroism by those involved in the aid effort are mixed with horrendous and traumatising tales of young disaster orphans being abducted for the sex trade. Wonder and awe?

 

A Search for answers

A BBC News report sought reflections from key leaders from each world religion. Sound bite responses yielded the following:
  • The Muslim leader stated that God is sovereign. As a result, only He can see the ‘big picture’ of eternity and therefore the rhyme and reason behind such events. God has predestined everything.
  • The Jewish Chief Rabbi commented: ‘The simplest explanation is that of the 12th-century sage, Moses Maimonides. Natural disasters, he said, have no explanation other than that God, by placing us in a physical world, set life within the parameters of the physical. Planets are formed, tectonic plates shift, earthquakes occur, and sometimes innocent people die. To wish it were otherwise is in essence to wish that we were not physical beings at all. Then we would not know pleasure, desire, achievement, freedom, virtue, creativity, vulnerability and love. We would be angels — God’s computers, programmed to sing His praise.' 
  • A Hindu leader related the aim to progress through death into ‘realisation’. Events and experiences are part of the cycle of reincarnation towards this aim. Human beings are just a miniscule part of the ‘all that is’. The earth is faulted and full of suffering. Events like this are all part of the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
  • The Buddhist related this event to all ‘existence’ which itself is suffering responding in a similar manner to the Hindu.
The Christian leader, on the other hand, gave a political reply and was so delightfully vague, making it difficult to discern tangible response to the situation! In summary the news commentator observed that in the UK the Aid response was almost ‘religious’, similar to that which accompanied the death of Lady Diana. People were not railing against God, but responding to him through an almost religious act of giving.

Some biblical reflections

How can any words shine light into the current situation? I don’t know. I do know however that it is vitally important for us to reflect and understand what the bible teaches about the nature of God, humanity and indeed the creation. This may help us relate to our world, to know what to expect and to not expect. We can live ‘on message’, knowing where our hope is founded, understanding better, therefore coping more effectively with the dangers of this world and the trials of mortality.
 
Christians have ‘different takes’ on these difficult issues. Some have been tempted to see God’s judgement at work in these events. A perspective I cannot agree with. Dr Elaine Storkey deals with this view very effectively.
Elaine Storkey
‘Even insurance companies used to call [natural disasters] ‘acts of God.’ Some people rush to interpret them as signs of God’s disapproval and judgement on sin: God intervening in human affairs, sending earthquakes, storms and floods to punish wrongdoers and wipe them off the face of the earth. The problem with the logic of this idea is that the innocent also perish. Any aid worker can tell you that the people damaged most by natural disasters are those struggling with poverty and
hardship in the first place. That’s probably partly why in the Gospels, Jesus dismissed the idea that a man suffering a tragic condition was being punished by God. The Creator does not use the creation against us, least of all against the vulnerable. Instead, Jesus points out that God makes the sun shine on evil and good people alike, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. A loving God seeks human repentance, not human suffering.’
 
Other Christian thinkers like John Polkinghorn offer perspectives that resonate with those offered by The Chief Rabbi that we noted earlier. They feel we should differentiate between ‘creational happenings’ and the concept of human suffering caused by sin which goes beyond the simple concept of pain. Suffering, as we will see, is a ‘post fall phenomena’ and therefore is separate from God’s will for our lives. Perhaps the movement of tectonic plates is part of the dynamic nature of creation? Again Elaine Storkey offers some possibilities.
 
‘But then the question still remains...
 
Why would a God who is all-powerful and all-loving create a world in which so much suffering is possible? Is it simply related to the freedom God gives creation? Forces that are powerful enough to create and sustain life will inevitably be powerful enough also to destroy it. The same Bible that speaks of God’s love and power, also tells us that tempests and earthquakes are inevitable. We can expect movements of tectonic plates, or a devastating earthquake along the San Andreas Fault.’
 
‘This is not a limitation on God’s power or love but a description of the world we live in: a world not yet fully delivered and longing for cosmic redemption.’
 
In any case the bible teaches that God is the creator. All things came from him and in their original created form as they came from him were wholly good.

The fall and its consequences

The Genesis account (Chapters 1-3) is there to show us the ‘why and not the how’. Not particularly useful as a scientific document, its intention is to explain our origins and also to describe how the initial harmonious (1v31, 2v15-17) universe was tragically and disastrously faulted by our fall away from God as human beings.
 
God in his love gave humanity freewill and with it the ability to make choices with consequences. Our choice toward independence caused evil to enter the whole of creation with cataclysmic results.
Both humanity and the created realm relied on complete harmony with God for its life source, health and happiness. With this harmony destroyed, the effects of sin polluted the whole created realm bringing:
  • Spiritual battle against the evil forces now loosed in the creation (3v14-15).
  • Alienation in relationships, particularly amongst men and women (3v16-17).
  • The earth itself is cursed and is now ‘in reaction’ (v17-19).
  • Death has entered creation (v19).
From the fall onwards the entire creation carries two fingerprints. One, the image and refection of God’s glory, uniqueness, love and beauty, the other, the perversion, destruction and tendency to malfunction brought into the world by sin. Added to this is now the loosing and continuous influence of a malevolent evil force which is anti God, humanity, creation and all things good (the Devil). This makes our world both a wonderful but also a dangerous place.

From then on

The Old Testament presents creation as declaring forth the glory and awesome nature of the creator. The earth is the Lords in the sense that he has the rights to it as creator. There is no power compared to him in the entire universe. At rare moments in his plans to save humanity and creation from the effects of sin and the fall God intervenes directly. However, creation fell with humanity and can now only be restored to harmony after humanity. The future and redemption of the physical creation is totally tied up with that of humanity.

The Cross
The price of the fall was to require the ultimate: the death of God’s son on the cross at Calvary. The death and resurrection of Jesus was the centre of God’s plan to bring reconciliation and healing to all creation. It was about humanity being reconciled to God, to each other and also to the creation.
This redemption comes in two phases. Firstly the cross and resurrection of Jesus followed by the age of grace and the Church and with it the opportunity for salvation to be communicated into every nation, tribe and people group. This time of grace gives the opportunity for the redemption to be tasted in every part of the earth and amongst every people group.
Gods Kingdom has come in part, yet is still to come in fullness. God still intervenes through prayer and the supernatural in some supernatural events.
Prayer, spiritual warfare and acts of mercy bring experiences of the future wholeness of Gods Kingdom to earth now. Yet, these interventions cannot solve things completely.
Prayer, spiritual warfare and acts of mercy bring experiences of the future wholeness of Gods Kingdom to earth now. Yet, these interventions cannot solve things completely until redemption has run its full course. Then sin and evil are destroyed and a new heaven and earth appears. These being created by God for a ‘new humanity’ who have become ‘new creations’ in Jesus Christ.

Frustration

We live now in an in-between phase. Salvation can be experienced, yet its fruit only partially tasted. Yet justice and all the manifestations of Gods Kingdom need to be fought for by the Church in this world that is still subject to the fall and is permeated by evil forces. Gods Kingdom can only come in part now. Nevertheless we are called to seek, to serve and to give, being agents of Gods Kingdom whilst we are upon this earth. Christians, above all people should be loving, generous fighters for justice and carers for the weak and suffering. We should be ‘like God’ and Jesus himself has shown us the way.
 
Revelation 20v7-21v8
11Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13The Sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
 
The Apostle Paul observes (Romans 8) that the creation is ‘subjected to frustration’, ‘in bondage to decay’, ‘is groaning with the pains of childbirth’ and awaits liberation ‘from its bondage to decay’ when it will be ‘brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God’. This frustration, labour and tendency to malfunction (tsunamis and the like) are due to the fact that creation itself is subject to death and decay.
 
The creation is beautiful; it still has the maker’s fingerprints. Yet, it is like a runaway train and will only be controlled at the end of the age ‘when the lion will lie down with the lamb’.
As Christians suffering and disaster should not be a threat to our faith. We believe not just in God, but in evil and the fallen nature of creation. We have a solid hope. A hope that relies not just in ‘today’ but a hope that ultimately guarantees an eternal destiny for individuals and also a future for this earth.
 
We stand in confidence in the character and purposes of our God – his intention is always for good and never for evil, suffering and evil does not come from him but from the fallen nature of evil at work in our world. He is at work to bring good and continues to do this in the darkest of places. He calls us to be active with him in this pursuit and to be his hands and feet, responding in whatever ways we can to the effects of evil in this world. We are called to fight, be active and respond. Our religion is not passive or privatised, it goes beyond internalised grief to live life making our contribution to this fallen world and bring touches of our future hope of heaven wherever we can.
 
We stand neither aloof nor apart from these situations. The sun (and rain) shines on both the righteous and unrighteous alike. We mourn with those who mourn, we suffer loss all
Revelation 21
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
 5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
 6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death”.
the time knowing that our compassion and care is nothing compared to God’s own love already powerfully demonstrated to us in Christ.
 
We stand awestruck, dumbstruck and humbled. Perhaps this is a time to commit to use whatever we have whilst we have it in service of God and his Kingdom.
 
Roger Ellis (left) is National Director of Fusion, a student network with hundreds of cells. He is also the Leader of Revelation Church, Chichester, UK where the 24-7Prayer movement began in 1999.

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