Lux Lucet

“I don’t believe in instant Karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesnt (sic) care about them.” Thus tweeted sociology professor Ken Storey shortly after Hurricane Harvey had ravaged Texas. This raises the question, just what were the sins of Texas that called for such dreadful punishment? Apparently, it was the voters of Texas’ decision to support Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Shortly after his unfortunate tweet, Storey was fired from his teaching position at the University of Tampa.

As a Christian, I reject the mechanistic concept of Karma. But I do find it supremely ironic that, even as I write this post, Hurricane Irma is ravaging the gulf coast of Florida, the very region where the city of Tampa is located and, presumably, where Ken Storey makes his home. But unlike the good professor, I take no delight in his suffering or that of other people of Florida. May God grant them safety while the storm lasts and a quick recovery thereafter.

But professor Storey wasn’t alone in blaming hurricanes on the deplorables. Actress Jennifer Lawrence also got in on the act, opining that the storms were “Mother Nature’s rage and wrath,” in response to climate change deniers’ refusal to confess, as it were, their environmental sins. This led one person on Twitter to raise the question about the current wildfires raging in Los Angeles. If Mother Nature is angry with Texans and Floridians for dismissing the sacred doctrine of man-made climate change, why is she angry at reliably environmentalist LA? Or what about the terrible drought that California suffered for several years? Or the earthquakes? Maybe Mother Nature is confused. Maybe she has multiple personality disorder. Maybe the wrath of Mother Nature is a figment of Lawrence’s imagination.

Houston flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

In all fairness, it’s not just liberal professors and Hollywood types who make prophetic pronouncements without any sound basis. In the aftermath of 911, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson found themselves in hot water for suggesting that God permitted 911 to take place because of America’s support for abortion and homosexuality. Just how Falwell and Robertson knew American support for homosexuality caused God to strike the US, they did not say.

In the Bible we find examples of people making the same type of error as professor Storey, Jennifer Lawrence, Falwell and Robertson. For instance, In John chapter 9, the disciples, referring to a man who was blind from birth, asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” They assumed that the man’s blindness was the result of some specific sin, but their assumption was misguided. Jesus responded to their question by stating, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

Job’s friends made the same mistake, attributing Job sufferings, without warrant, to some secret sin on his part, which they demanded time and time again that he confess.

One important implication of the above examples, both those from recent history and those from the Bible, is that events do not explain themselves, but themselves must be explained. And the only way we can know for certain that a specific natural disaster is tied to a specific sin is for God to reveal this to us. In the Old Testament there are several such examples of this principle at work. Noah’s flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, and the seven year drought in Israel pronounced by Elijah are all examples of God brining punishment on specific people for specific reasons. And we know this is the case because God tells us this in his Word.

Another important lesson from Scripture is that, although we cannot know for certain why a specific natural disaster occurs, we can say on the authority of Scripture that disasters are not the result of God’s permission, but rather are actively brought about by him. “If there is calamity (evil) in a city, will not the LORD have done it?” (Amos 3:6) is the way one prophet expressed this notion.

A third lesson we can take from Scripture is that, although apart from God’s revelation we cannot say a specific natural disaster follows from a particular sin, we can say that events such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tornados are the result of sin in a general sense. As Paul tells us, the whole creation was subjected to futility as a result of the fall. The current state of the natural world is not natural. It is in a decayed and decaying state, and such will be the case until Christ comes again.

In the case of man-made disasters such as terrorist attacks we are in a better position to form an opinion as to their cause. Regarding 9/11, the terrorists themselves stated that the attacks were revenge for what they considered American occupation of Muslim holy land. This is not to justify the attacks, but it does give us a window into the thinking of the men who carried out the murders on that day. As such it seems that the federal government’s unchristian, interventionist foreign policy is a more likely explanation for 9/11 than what was put forth by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, both of whom, as good dispensationalists, favored an aggressive US presence in the middle east.

Storm surge from Hurricane Irma along North Fort Lauderdale beach. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Fourth, God is not responsible for natural disasters, neither does he sin in bringing them about. In saying this, it may appear that I’m contradicting what I said earlier about God causing disasters. If he caused a disaster, is he not responsible for it? The short answer is no, he is not. This answer turns on the meaning of the word “responsible.” Responsible means “required to give and answer.” If you’re a student, you’re responsible to your teacher. If your an employee, you’re responsible to your boss. That is to say, you are required to give an account of yourself to these people. But to whom must God answer? Exactly no one. “Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?,” was Paul’s way of making this point.

Gordon Clark argued the point this way,

God is neither responsible nor sinful, even though he is the only ultimate cause of everything. He is not sinful because in the first place whatever God does is just and right. It is just and right simply in virtue of the fact that he does it. Justice or righteousness is not a standard external to God to which God is obligated to submit. Righteousness is what God does. Since God caused Judas to betray Christ, this causal act is righteous and not sinful. By definition God cannot sin. At this point it must be particularly pointed out that God’s causing a man to sin is not sin. There is no law, superior to God, which forbids him to decree sinful acts. Sin presupposes a law, for sin is lawlessness. Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. But God is “Ex-lex” (God & Evil The Problem Solved, 40).

Fifth, in the providence of God all things work together for good to those who love him, to those who are called according to his purpose. It is the Christian alone who has a sound reason for hope, even in the midst of disaster. And this hope is not a vain hope. It is not a naive hope. It is not a foolish hope. But one founded upon the unshakable promises of God to his people, to do them good and not harm. This is not to discount that Christian can and do suffer real pain in this life. But for the believer, even his pain redound to his ultimate good, even if it can be difficult or impossible to see how this can be in the midst of difficulties.

Sixth, Christians are called to be salt and light in this world. To the degree that we are able, let us pray for, and offer material comfort to, those who are in need as a result of the hurricanes in Texas and Florida, especially to those who are of the household of faith. Nowhere does the Bible say that charity is the job of the civil government. As Jesus illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Christian charity is the giving of our own money and time, not using government force to take money from one person and give it to another. That’s theft, not charity.

In closing, the Bible has a great deal to say about natural disasters and the proper Christian response to them. Scripture thoroughly equips the man of God for every good work, including the good work of responding to the theological questions and physical needs that arise whenever such events take place. As Christians, let us prayerfully consider what we can do to be the salt and light God has called us to be.