The Christian Post article 25 Mar 2011 entitled "Piper, McLaren
Ponder God's Hand in Japan Quake" asked the question "Did God caused
the eartquake in Japan". Pipe states an unequivocal "Yes" on the
basis that God permits it - be-it caused naturally or by spiritual
forces. Brian McLaren responded by reflecting that Sovereignty need
not mean absolute control. God is not heartless claimed McLaren.
The question of whether God causes the Japan Quake ultimately
reflects on how we see the omnipotence, and ommnipresence of God. We
give too much weightage on these theological constructions to give
simple and direct answers to "everything", yet by saying that God
caused the Tsunami simply because He was the creator of the
earthplates, or because He had seemingly allowed it is tantamount to
blaiming God and devoiding ourselves of responsibilities.
Was God in the first place engaged intimately and is everywhere and
in every situation to be held accountable for not stopping the
disaster ? Our theological construction of an "Ommipotent" God is
presuming that God can do anything, yet God's power is constrained
in order to be consistent with His other attributes such as
morality/legal standing, and righteousness. There is also a
sovereignty of God, not that He is mysterious but God has a will and
character and a purpose in mind. God cannot simply "do anything"
simply because He was God. His actions are consistent with his
morality, holiness and righteousness.
There is a moral code that will simply not passed away and God
operates within this constraint. That was why Mother Theresa, the
Saint, prayed and yet felt a deep dark gulf between her and God. It
was not a test by God. The church was reaping what they sowed
according to the law. They had minimize Jesus and exalted the Pope,
Mary, the Saints and the Priests until the direct communion between
laity is replaced by a religious structure.
The Jewish nation had a covenant with God, that they were His
people, He will guide and protect them, and that they will keep the
laws, perform the worship sacrifices, and be identified with Yahweh
and not any other gods. It was a covenant relationship. Hence God
was intimately involved and when they failed to follow the laws and
committed spiritual adultery, God allowed for calamities or the
enemies of Israel to overrun them for a season. But the purpose and
heart of God was always to bring the Jewish people back to Him and
permitting harm was a last resort.
We commit a grave biblical error if we take Japan for Israel, for
God was not in it, nor required to be involved and engaged with the
nation of Japan through any covenant relationship. Hence, using
biblical pasages referring to Israel where God was highly engaged to
that of Japan is simply cherry picking the bible to fit our
predetermined theology. There was no legal standing to blame God for
permitting the event.
Japan was simply a natural disaster, compounded by the fact that
they build far too little protection in a highly risky area proned
to Tsunami. A giant Tsunami actually hit the same area in 1953, but
the wall built to prevent another disaster did not account for the
size of this Tsunami.
Why didn't God built a better earth crust then, so that earthquakes
and Tsunami will not occur since "God is perfect"!. This again is
not mindful of the history of creation. When God created Earth, He
called it beautiful, but the ownership of this Earth has since been
given over by mankind to Satan. That was why Satan could offer Jesus
the entire Earth! The entire Earth is therefore moaning, groaning,
and detereorating waiting for the new creation and the new earth.
There is also no legal standing in blaiming the creator for faulty
creation as it is badly maintained and handed over to "others".
(Gen 6:3 NKJV) And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with
man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one
hundred and twenty years."
God is not "ommipresence" as claimed by many Christians in the sense
that He did not choose to be everywhere all the time. God has a
will, a sovereign will with a choice of where He wants to exhibit
His presence even though He could be everywhere. The bible is very
clear in Gen 6:3, before the flood in a time where the demi-gods
existed that He will not strive with the apirit of man, ie He will
not be actively engaged in the happenings of human history. There
was simply too much evil and corruption in man.
God removed His Spirit, the Holy Spirit from being engaged with
humanity, and chose Himself a person in Abraham, a nation called
Israel to be His people, to show forth His glory and salvation. But
even then, the Spirit of God stayed within the Holy of Holies where
the presence of God was said to reside. They sought the Lord each
year and through the Prophets. The voice of God was heard through
the Prophets and priests and not on an individual basis.
However, the Spirit of God did not contend with Israel forever.
After they returned to exile from Babylon, there was a period of 400
years where there was no revelation ie the voice of God could no
longer be heard. There seemed an errie silence during this period
where God seemingly was not there despite the restablishment of the
temple worship. There was difference from the earlier worship in
that the Ark of the Covenant was lost. It was an empty Holy of
Holies, devoid of the reality of the Spirit of God, until Jesus came
into the scene.
God is not intimately involved in the affairs of mankind today to be
blamed for not stopping every evil dictator or blowing the Tsunami
away. It is not that God doesn't care or is disengaged. He gave it
all in His Son, Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago. When Jesus died two
thousand years ago, He said "it is finished", and He meant it.
God did His part, the Holy Spirit was free again to be in
communion with those who had legal standing and righteousness before
God in Christ Jesus. Hence, as Christians we become Jesus' hands and
feet guided by the Holy Spirit when we chose to abide with Him.
We pray because our prayers have substance and are accepted by God
because we are the sons and daughters of God. Some say that God will
act even when we do not pray forgetting that morally God cannot act
without a good legal reason. God's love is not unilateral. it has to
be consistent with His morality and righteousness hence the demand
of the sacrifice of His Son as a payment for our sins.
God has done everything He could, to empower us to act on His behalf
to be the light to the nations. We are His hands and feet to bring
the Gospel of Salvation, and the revelation of God's love, grace and
mercy. Our mouth becomes the tools of worship and supplication, and
our hands giving a lifeline to the hurt and suffering humanity.
Many bad things happen in the world is the result of what mankind
sowed rather than whether God had allowed it. This world doesn't
belong to God, God has little jurisdiction other than praying
Christians calling upon help based on the name of Jesus Christ. This
world morally belong to the various Pincipalities and God just can't
morally intervene without a good legal basis for righteousness sake.
The 911 is caused by evil religious people, so was World War Two and
the bombing of Pearl Harbour. We can't blame gays for it or
judgement from God, when they had nothing to do with these acts of
evil people. Of course, it is easier to blame God and gays and not
address why we let this evil to happen in the first place. In World
War Two for example, the Americans did little to help China whilst
the Japanese were killing hundreds of thousands prior to WWII by
invading China! Nor did the British intervened long before by Hitler
started killing the Jews and invading Poland.
This world belongs to us. God has given us the tools - the power of
prayer, the guidence of the Holy Spirit to bring Salvation and Hope
to humanity. Alas, we kept our light under a hill when we should be
like "little Christ" to a lost and suffering world.
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