Comments on: Stop Calling Natural Disasters God’s Judgment

By: Richard Vandagriff

Richard Vandagriff — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:23:56 +0000

Hello Jeremy,

Something for your consideration: in English, while the primary definition is as you state, all dictionaries do include other usages. It is also defined as “a lamentable, dreadful, or fatal event or affair; calamity; disaster: the tragedy of war; the tragedy of the President’s assasination”, (from Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language).

I might suggest, that you may concede that the events in Haiti do indeed qualify as a tragedy. However, definitions aside, Brent’s point is that the events were not necessarily God’s finger actively stirring things up in some sort of a reprisal for bad behavior.

Thank you for your interest, and in responding to the post.

Richard Vandagriff

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:37:50 +0000

In addition to your request to not call these events “God’s judgment,” I would also make a request to you to stop calling these unfortunate events “tragedies.” A tragedy is a very specific literary thing. “Acts of God,” or whatever you want to call them, are just simply bad events. There’s nothing tragic about them.

By: John Svensk

John Svensk — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:06:28 +0000

Amen to that!Â Thank you for saying what, unfortunately, needs to be said by those of us Christians who are at least trying to walk a little more humbly before our Lord.Â What’s happened to our call to help the poor and afflicted?Â I know we are supposed to stand firm in the truth (not that what was said was truth), but what about speaking with gentleness and respect?Â Comments like these that are made after such disasters make me wonder if they really know Jesus at all.Â Â From my own personal experience, they turn more people away from Christ than they convict people to repent and turn towards Him.

By: Jamey Hinds

Jamey Hinds — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:55:27 +0000

I thought of Luke 13 also (as did Gary above). Jesus’ statement is directly applicable to natural disasters. Also, consider James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” People, including professing Christians, too quickly give God credit for bad things; the Scripture here is clear: IF IT’S GOOD, IT’S FROM GOD.

By: Gary Zimmerli

Gary Zimmerli — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:03:21 +0000

Amen, Brent! Amen! 1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on themâ€”do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Luke 13:1-5 TNIV) We're all in the same boat, so to speak. None of us is good enough. We're all sinners. We are only saved by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus!