Compare and Contrast Between Natural Disasters and the Bible
Natural Disasters and the Bible
Natural disasters are events which occur unexpectedly due to environmental factors and causes harm to people through deaths, injuries, and destruction of properties. Many natural disasters have been believed to have a biblical connection. For example, many people think it’s a punishment from God
Failure as Gods Judgment
There are disasters that force humans to battle with questions whether God had a hand in such disasters or not. For example, earthquakes, Killings in Afghanistan, HIV, and AIDS which have caused deaths of millions of people (Pfeifer, 2017). Christians raise a lot of questions like why a powerful God would allow such things to happen. The Great Lisbon earthquake, which occurred on 1st November 1755 accompanied by Tsunami, and fire killed thousands of people. The disaster left a significant impact on the people of Lisbon. A natural calamity creates a religious shock. Nonbelievers argue that it is Gods punishment due to turning to ungodly behaviors.
There are many disasters recorded in the Bible. Flood during Noah’s period, fire consuming Sodom, and Gomorrah, Egyptians attack by plagues during Moses’ era. God declared to have sent these events due to anger from continuous sinning by human beings. People got punished due to failure to live according to Gods’ expectation (White, 2016). The Bible also mentions disasters that were not related to any form of judgment. For example, famine during the period of Elijah, famine during the reign of Joseph, and starvation during the period of Naomi. There was no clarification that God had a hand in these disasters. The bible does not state that every disaster has to be a punishment from God.
The Bible accounts that, due to continuous wickedness from humans, God had to do some judgment that caused floods during the time of Noah (Genesis 6-9). God is the creator of the universe and has the right to punish any evil, or immoral act. Sinning has destroyed the proper relationship between humans and God (Gluchman, 2016). However God is merciful, there are records in the bible where God intervenes to save humankind from natural calamities, deaths, and illness. In Revelation 22 it states that “a time will come when the world will be restored after the Day of Judgment. Afterward, humans will live in a situation where pain and suffering will no longer exist, and creation will be rid of disasters.”
Human Influence on Disasters
Social factors cause some natural disasters. For example, a flood sometimes is viewed as a natural occurrence, but deep down it has been caused by human deforestation. God created the world balancing natural resources and humans such that none could affect the distinction of the other (White, 2016). Humans have grown to be irresponsible such they affect the natural resources by either cutting down of trees, or emitting explosives affecting the ecosystem, leading to cause of imbalance in the world.
Poor people are the ones affected by this calamities too much, and not the rich people (Gluchman, 2016). For examples, countries with a large gap between the poor, and the rich, where the wealthy owned land in the highland regions and the poor are unable to purchase highland due to high price leading to them being exposed to floods and Tsunamis.
The book of Ruth, in the Old Testament, a story of a rich man named Boaz is brought up. Boaz is not selfish with his land and allows homeless people to own a piece of land like Ruth. Boaz allows the poor to collect the leftovers on his farm after harvesting of wheat is done by his workers (Ruth 2:2-19). Helping the needy was a common practice to ensure the poor had something to store for future use.
Blaming Someone
Pat Robertson, a televangelist in the US, claimed that the Haiti earthquake in 2010 was linked to a covenant made by Haitians with the devil so that they could gain independence from the French colonizers (White, 2016). Some Christians claimed that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment from God due to high rates of abortion, and homosexuality. Such claims always add pain to the people affected by natural disasters. The Roman Catholic claimed that God was punishing Lisbon after the Great Lisbon Earthquake, protestant argued that God was punishing the Catholic Inquisition. Whenever a tragedy occurs, people tend to think that God always has a hand in such occurrences.
The Bible proves that some of these speculations are wrong. When Jesus was asked whether a group of people who died when a tower fell on them were more sinners than the survivors (Luke 13:1-6), Jesus said no, instead Jesus called his listeners to consider their stand before God. Jesus argues that people get injured in disasters because they are found in the wrong place at the wrong time (Pfeifer, 2017). (John 9:1-4) Jesus is asked whether a man born blind is because of the sins committed by his mother. Jesus denied the allegations and said that death, injury, disaster, or any other situation could not be termed as Gods judgment due to specific sins.
In the book of Job, God allows disasters to follow his life all through. His children and livestock die, he lost all his wealth, sickness was all over him such that he was ailing in agony. Jobs wife got angry with him and wanted Job to curse his God and die but the job denied (Gluchman, 2016). Jobs friends who come to comfort him argue that Job was suffering due to his sins. The friends supported more like how people say in the modern world. God was not judging Job because of any sins he had committed. The Bible tells us that Job was a righteous man before the eyes of the Lord. In the end, everything that job lost gets restored in multiples, and Job never got an explanation why all those bad things happened to him.
Call to Action
Christians are urged to help the poor, nurse the sick, provide a home to the homeless, and anyone who is in need. God is a defender to those oppressed, father to the fatherless, and husband to the widow (Psalms 68:5). People affected by disasters are motivated by both the religious, and the nonreligious. Christians should be motivated to help those in need (Fretheim, 2010). Joseph got beaten by his brothers and later sold to the Egyptians because he got a lot of favor from his father. Famine strikes Israel and Egypt. Joseph who is now a leader in Egypt helps his family out with food, and they reunite instead of seeking vengeance (Genesis 50: 20). God was not behind the suffering of Joseph or did not inspire his brothers to sell him to the Egyptians. Also in the New Testament Paul states that “in all things, including the evil, and disasters, God works for the good of those who love him,” (Romans 8:28).
Conclusion
We live in a beautiful world, and disasters come to show us that we are not living to the expectation of God. God created the world with love beauty inside it, but humans sinned against God, and through his judgment justice is attained. There are specific events confirmed in the Bible, where God punished the world through natural disasters, but the bible does not ascertain that every catastrophe is from God. From the book of revelation, the Bible claims that one day everything will end, and the world gets restored to its original form.
God is calling people to turn back from sins, and come back to worship Him as the one and only God through suffering, and disasters (Micah 6:8-10). Through disasters, God reminds us that we should help the needy. The Bible calls upon people to stop speculations whether disasters are a punishment from God, but reflect on your stand with God.
References
Fretheim, T. E. (2010). Creation Untamed (Theological Explorations for the Church Catholic): The Bible, God, and Natural Disasters. Baker Books.
Gluchman, V. (2016). Moral theory and natural, or social, disasters. Human Affairs, 26(1), 3-7.
Pfeifer, N. (2017). Cognition and natural disasters: Stimulating an environmental historical debate. In Environmental History in the Making (pp. 3-15). Springer, Cham.
White, R. S. (2016). Disasters, Nature, and Acts of God. The Nature of Things: Rediscovering the Spiritual in God’s Creation, 103.