It is one of mankind’s oldest and most challenging questions: How can God allow one of the worst tornadoes in Tennessee’s long history on Tuesday to shatter the lives of our mid-state neighbors? It is unconscionable for me to witness a seemingly endless line of world-wide natural disasters that seem to be occurring more often and, if I ever get to heaven, “Why?” will be at the top of my list. I want to know ‘why’ I must have three prayer lists – one when I plead for grace to those whose time I tearfully suspect will soon be nigh, another where I beg “for just a nudge, Lord” to those sufferers who have a chance, and the last when I ask for petty things, like a kid getting into her favorite college or that I won’t bang my rump learning to use my new prosthetic leg, yet aren’t petty to my Jesus at all.
As I have watched life’s pages turn, I will glory in the response of mankind to our new tornado catastrophe. I watched Katrina, the Smokey Mountain firestorm, several years ago, and just yesterday was moved to tears at the Siskin Hospital “Possibilities Luncheon.” If I am so bold that I see God-given miracles almost every day, why is it yesterday I was consumed in despair when 24 dead have now been identified, including the children in Putnam County? Our Blood Assurance raced over 200 units of blood Tuesday morning to Cookeville, this as a line of State Trooper-led ambulances raced Nashville victims to Erlanger for our town’s legendary cadre of physicians and nurses to greet with open arms. My God was very much involved in the response, no question about it.
I am mightily assured the world’s greatest scientists are constantly sending email notes and ideas and shared formulas for the coronavirus. Word has it the Israelis are at the forefront – surely a God thing since He is a Jew – but where was my God during Holocaust for His chosen people? I don’t understand but praise Him just the same.
Some years ago, Erwin Lutzer, a nationally-known pastor, wrote an international best-seller entitled “Where Was God” (2006). He has been interviewed hundreds of time, this on the very words we heard in pleas from Nashville and Cookeville yesterday. There is a question-and-answer story that is constantly being accessed from the Billy Graham Evangelical Association I have read many times. Dr. Lutzer, the Minister Emeritus of the Wheaton Bible Church in Chicago, has attempted to answer, and many believe this question-answer what is most likely the best reply.
In candor, Dr. Lutzer’s replies fall short of what my emotions need, yet I can see his are the words of a follower of Christ, and with the limited factual information I possess, I will readily defer to the noted theologian. In the wake of incredible loss and disaster, we struggle to understand how a God who is all-powerful and all-knowing can also be considered good and loving – this as people die, and are torn apart, and many family groups will never recover, and frightened school children for miles around weep, and you and I are glued to weather channels and fretfully study the sky.
Where was God, Dr. Lutzer?
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HOW DO WE RESPOND TO QUESTIONS OF GOD’S JUDGEMENT AFTER A NATURAL DISASTER?
In a sense all death is the judgment of God because the soul that sins, it will die. All of death is really a judgment of God. What happens in natural disasters happens every day throughout the world. Tens of thousands of people die – often times in very drastic situations. The reason that we hear about natural disasters is because so many people die all at the same time. It is an intense occasion of what really is happening all the time.
But are they judgments of God? Yes, in the sense that all death is the judgment of God, and in the sense that the earth is cursed. But what we need to understand about these judgments is that the righteous die along with the unrighteous.
Some people who knew Christ as Savior died in Haiti and in Katrina. We must be very clear that natural disasters do not distinguish between the righteous and those who do not know God.
Secondly, it’s not possible for us—we’re in no position—to look at one area of the world and say the reason it gets a natural disaster is because it is more wicked than some other area. For example, we’re not able to say that New Orleans is a more evil city than Las Vegas. That’s not within our ability to determine. It’s not for us to judge one area from another.
WHAT CAN CHRISTIANS SAY WHEN ASKED, ‘HOW CAN GOD BE MERCIFUL AND LOVING WHEN FATAL DISASTERS OCCUR?
One of the greatest challenges we have as Christians is to somehow continue to believe God and to trust Him in the midst of horrendous devastation. When you see children being separated from their fathers and mothers, when you see lives being torn and hundreds of people dead, it is very natural to ask the question, “Where is God?”
What we need to realize is that God can be trusted, even when it seems as if He is not on our side. We have to point people to the fact that God has intervened in our planet by sending Jesus Christ. There we see the love of God most clearly.
It was Martin Luther who said, “When you look around and wonder whether God cares, you must always hurry to the cross and you must see Him there.”
The other thing you need to realize is that time is short and eternity is long. Sometimes we reverse that. The values that we have here on this earth, although life is precious, the fact is that earthquakes (or 150-miles per hour tornadoes) do not increase death. Everybody is going to die someday. It’s the way they die that causes us so much grief.
When we hear about a natural disaster, we should grieve with those who grieve. And we should ask what we can do to alleviate their suffering.
Finally, I think this is the best illustration. All of (the Biblical) Job’s 10 children died in a natural disaster. There was a windstorm that blew down the house. Job was confronted with the fact that because of a natural disaster, there are 10 fresh graves on the hilltop. So now what is he going to do?
His wife says to curse God and die. But Job said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job shows us it is possible to worship God even without explanations, even when we don’t know all the reasons. Those who worship God under those conditions are especially blessed.
WHAT SHOULD BE OUR STANCE IN SUCH DEATH, HORROR AND DESTRUCTION?
I would say to all who read my book and all who hear of natural disasters, we need a firm place to stand. Someday the ground underneath us will shake, either literally or metaphorically. The question is, “Will we be on solid ground? Will you build your house on the sand or on the rock?”
At the end of day, whether we die in a natural disaster or by other causes, what is most important is that we are based on the rock of Jesus, because He is the one who is able to take us through life and death and whatever storms we may encounter. And then we get to meet Him on the other side.
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THOSE EAGER to benefit the Nashville tragedy can do so through the Middle Tennessee Community Foundation: https://www.cfmt.org/story/middle-tennessee-emergency-response-fund/
It is also advised those wishing to help can contact any churches in Nashville, Cookeville, Putnam County or other desperate areas by doing a “church search” for any location, obtaining a snail-mail address, and sending a United States Postal Service money-order. A copy will show tax deduction credit but far better is an acknowledgement receipt that should be mailed to the donor’s address.
