Dear Roger,
Hurricanes, floods, wildfires, brutal ice and snowstorms, oppressive heat and droughts. On the airwaves, Christian leaders beg God to perform a miracle and stay global warming.
I was confused. Was this God’s judgment on us for turning so dramatically away from its spiritual roots of Christianity?
Did God really answer prayers to stay these disasters?
I wondered if the problem was that American Christians just didn’t have enough many people praying?
Thanks,
Adam
Dear Adam,
So many of us wonder if natural disasters can be God’s judgment for a nation’s sin. The answer to that is simple. Yes, God does sometimes uses nature to punish sin.
In 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 God proclaims how He sometimes deals with sin.
13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Let’s think for a moment about the United States. Does the U.S. stand under God’s hand of Judgment? No doubt. America is no longer a God-fearing nation. It is trending toward a secular country. Sin is everywhere–from top to bottom–from the president to congress to the common people.
Mrs. Billy Graham said: If God does not bring judgment upon America then He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
So, we hear about climate change with PAX storms from the frigid arctic paralyzing the entire Eastern half of our nation with snow and ice. Floods and hurricanes are the worst in recent history. Tornadoes are roaring though Tornado Alley at an increasingly prodigious rate. Extreme weather proliferates.
The western half of the United States is experiencing a decade-long drought. California is out of water, blazing with wildfires. Many say, “These are God’s judgment on a sinful society.”
I don’t think so. These are simply manifestations of natural disasters.
God’s judgment looks entirely different. When a nation rejects God, loses its conscience and acts as if consequences to sin are inconsequential, God turns His back on that nation. He basically says, “You have rejected Me so I will reject you. You are on your own. Make the best of it as you rot away from the inside and fall inwardly upon yourselves to utter destruction.
Please, read the following passage from Romans 1:18-32. You will see the United States, indeed the world, under God’s judgment.
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness…
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:18-32).
God’s judgment on America is allowing the internal turmoil that will destroy our country from the inside. The breakdown of the social fabric of many nations has brought on anarchy and civil war. Leaders lie to us regularly. I am reminded of Aaron who tried to excuse his sin by saying, “Don’t blame me. The people wanted a god they could see. Invisible gods are hard to see. All I did was throw in the gold and out jumped this calf.”
Who is to say we in the United States are any different. Sin abounds, the very principles we hold dear are being torn asunder and we cry, Don’t blame me.”
Most natural are simply just that, natural disasters.
For example, ice ages cover massive parts of the earth occur every 11,000 to 14,000 years. The last great ice age occurred 11,000 years ago. We are due for another. Why? Because over time the sun varies in the amount of heat it dispenses.
Climate change is nothing new. Centuries ago Mesopotamia was lush and fertile with abundant rainfall. Now it is desert. The Holy Land was not called the “land of milk and honey” for nothing.
Volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire occur naturally as continental plates collide. Tsunamis result from underwater landslides deep in the ocean which produce water upheaval that create huge waves as they approach land.
We can think about God’s judgment on America; we also know that He has judgment reserved for our sinful world.
The Book of Revelation has three cycles of disasters that occur just before the Lord Jesus returns to set up His earthly kingdom. The first is man’s judgment upon himself. The second cycle is that Satan does to man. The third cycle is God’s judgment upon mankind. The cycles increase in intensity
Man is producing disasters that are not natural, they result from man and his behaviors–like nuclear reactor meltdowns rise in sea levels and fuel emissions.
Global warming will destroy our world. The atmosphere of now filled with carbon dioxide. The surface temperature there is over 840 degrees.
The book of Revelation clearly links the disasters of the end times with the Judgment of God. Revelation categorizes the disasters as famine, plague, war, wild beasts. These first four kill off one quarter of mankind.
Then come massive earthquakes, energy from the sun increasing to destructive levels, cataclysmic events upon the sun and moon. The earth, rivers and seas are contaminated, demonic manifestations torment millions,
Finally, God pours out His wrath upon mankind. It begins with painful sores; every creature in the rivers and oceans dies. The sun increases in intensity killing many. Massive nuclear war occurs.
At long last Jesus says, “Now, I am coming to earth.”
We must continue to live godly lives and help the hurting. They need us more than ever. It’s time to pray and preach the Word with boldness and compassion.
I hope this helps!
Love, Roger