A Christian perspective of the suffering resulting from disease, global warming, floods, fires, storms, earthquakes, droughts, famines, etc.

This article is an excerpt from “Rubber on the Road Christian Thinking” [2012] by Ray Tiller

Some questions your students may ask:  If God loves us so much, why does he allow so much suffering through disease, floods, fires, earthquakes, global warming, famines, etc?  How do we explain God’s apparent lack of interest in or intervention in the disasters?  Why do Christians suffer along with others if they believe God will protect them? Does God send natural disasters such as droughts, earthquakes, fires, floods and storms to judge people for doing the wrong thing?  What should Christian do when natural disasters strike?

In addressing these difficult and perplexing questions, we need to establish some foundational biblical truths that will form the foundation for our own thinking.  In turn these foundations will guide our formulation of answers for our students that will help them confront the terrible realities that face them, yet preserve their confidence in the character and integrity of God, so that they will be carriers of God’s redemptive and transforming truth and hope to their generation.

In the beginning

1. God created the world and the cosmos in a state of perfect harmony and order.  There was no death and suffering in the original perfect created order because the whole cosmos was an expression of and in harmony with God’s perfect character.
2. Because God is both the creator and the sustainer of the cosmos, its physical and moral stability and harmony depend on its creatures living in harmony with God’s character and command.  In that sense, the physical harmony of the cosmos is inextricably linked with the moral harmony between the creatures of the cosmos and its creator/sustainer God.

The entrance of sin

One of God’s creatures, the angel Lucifer, rebelled against God and, in seeking to glorify himself, stepped out of harmony with God’s character and command.  This creature’s choice began a process of disruption of the harmony and perfection of the cosmos.  

God gave mankind two characteristics that set him apart from other earthly creatures:

• Mankind is the only earthly creature to whom God has given the capability of moral choice.  This choice is a part of that characteristic unique to mankind of being made “in the image of God”; and it gives mankind the unique right to respond and live in harmony with God’s character and command, or to refuse to do so.  
• Mankind has “dominion” over the earth.  That is, mankind has authority, capability, and responsibility to use and develop the earth and its resources (see Rubber on the Road to Christian Thinking statement 7 – The environment, the earth and its resources).

Mankind’s seduction by Lucifer, and consequent choice to rebel against God, has therefore had a double-pronged effect on the cosmos:

• Mankind’s choice to respond and live in disharmony with God’s character and command has produced a “lesion” in both moral and physical order and harmony of the cosmos.  God’s curses on mankind and the earth (Gen 3:16 – 19) indicate that mankind’s choices radically changed the ecology of the earth and mankind’s biology – in short, “nature” is now subject to death and suffering.
• Mankind’s dominion and authority over the earth and its resources is corrupted by mankind’s sinful nature; that is, his being out of harmony with God’s character.  The consequent history of mankind’s dominion of the earth has been littered with imprudent, greedy, and abusive practices with the consequent negative effects our environment and our capacity to live in it comfortably.  
• In this sense, therefore, we cannot blame God for the disasters that beset our world because they are collectively and historically of our own doing.  To turn on God and question his love or integrity, saying, “If you love us why do you let these things happen?”, is like a child, having been warned by his father not to touch the fire, complaining that his burns are a result of his father’s lack of love.

Creation groans

Creation was subject to frustration (and groans as in the pains of childbirth) … and waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. (Rom 8)  

In our understanding of the state of the earth and our environment, we must take into account that in the current time and space that we occupy, the whole cosmos is in a state of “suffering” resulting from its disruption because of sin.  In the big picture, history is moving towards a bringing the cosmos back into harmony with God’s character and command through the redemption and restoration of mankind to their proper place as God’s obedient sons.  Until that is fulfilled, our cosmos will suffer various degrees of imperfection and suffering.

God’s Judgment

Throughout biblical history God used natural disasters to intervene in the affairs of man and to bring His judgment on their communal conduct as societies and nations.  Old Testament scriptures make a direct link between the behaviour of peoples and God’s judgment through floods, storms, droughts, disease, famines, etc.  

In our day, God’s requirements on the conduct of nations and communities have not changed, and we need to acknowledge that God is eternally sovereign and can intervene in individual or national human affairs at any time he so chooses.  In effect, the circumstances we see around us (either the relative prosperity and well-being of a nation, or the tragic state of social turmoil, economic breakdown, and ecological disruption) may be seen as God’s response in blessing or judgment to the conduct of a society (see Deuteronomy 28). No human being is able to live outside of the behaviour-consequence pattern that God has built into His creation.  People may choose to live in rebellion against Him, but they cannot choose to exempt themselves from the moral and physical consequences of God’s immutable and universal laws. (for further expansion of this idea see Rubber on the Road to Christian Thinking statement 9 – Success).

Having said this, however, we should exercise a number of cautions:

• God’s redemptive intention in our age is indicated by Jesus’ announcement of the “acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4).  This is a time of the extension of God’s grace and opportunity for all of mankind to respond to His invitation to be His people.  The work of the body of Christ is primarily to announce, express, and pursue the fulfillment of that good news.  Majoring on pronouncements of God’s judgment may well be counter-productive in this mission.
• Whereas we recognize that the general judgment of God continues over the earth (as noted above), it is probably an unwise practice to pronounce that a particular disaster is God’s specific judgment addressed to a particular sin or practice of a group of people.  The practice of establishing such a firm nexus between a particular judgment and sin puts us in danger of opening a “Pandora’s box” of subjectivity with different “prophetic” groups each with its own to pet opinion (or “revelation”) about God’s judgement – the probable result is the disrepute of the whole Christian church and a mistrust of the Christian agenda for redemption of people and the nation.  For example, for Christians to pronounce that a tsunami was God’s direct judgment on a particular nation’s culture or legislation is presumptuous, and may make the gospel and the church an unnecessary offence to unbelievers and those who are suffering in grief and loss because of the tsunami.

Christian suffering

We often pray for protection and special provision of God, hoping that we will be spared the pain and suffering that we see around us.  Our prayers seek relief from both suffering caused directly by human sin or mismanagement (eg a famine caused by human greed or corruption), or because of sin’s generic disruption of the harmony and perfection of the cosmos (eg, diseases or natural disasters).  And God has and will sometimes answer these prayers and has supernaturally protected, delivered, or provided for Christians in the midst of adversity.  However, many Christians also suffer, and die in these adversities, so to properly understand the sometimes harsh realities that we see around us, we must recognize two fundamental truths about the world we live in:

• Christians live and participate in community with unbelievers, and for the most part, we must live within the economic, political, ecological and historical circumstances of the nation in which we live.  If the nation is living in relative peace and prosperity (probably because of the relative obedience to God’s ways of earlier generations) then Christians will live, with unbelievers, in the benefit of that state.  (It could be said that many western nations have enjoyed this privilege because of their Christian heritage.)  If, on the other hand, a nation is beset with political, economic, or natural disasters, Christians will also suffer along with their unbelieving neighbors.  For example, Christians in Zimbabwe in 2009 are suffering destitution because of the state of their nation.  In this sense, the blessing (or lack thereof) of God for economic, social, agricultural, political well-being is not an issue of individual faith and obedience, but of the corporate response of community.  (How important it is for our young people to be equipped and committed to leading their communities to restore God’s ways to community and national life!)
• Christians who attempt to stand up for righteousness or who try to bring the good news of God’s kingdom to ungodly societies will often be persecuted by the communities that they seek to minister into.  Jesus warned us that we would suffer in this way.  Our young people need to be aware that, when they seek to live by God’s truth and communicate it or establish it in community, they are fundamentally confronting the kingdom of darkness and will face a multitude of sometimes terrible opposition.
• Suffering in this way in the service of God’s kingdom is a part of our being co-heirs with Jesus and is seen as “sharing His sufferings” (Rom 8).  Our assurance is that the outcome of our being a co-heir and our suffering is that we will also share in His glory.  The biblical “formula” is that the eternal benefits of our inheritance of Jesus glory in us far outweigh the dimensions of our suffering.

The Christian response to disaster and suffering

In the face of the inevitability of disaster and suffering in our world, the responsibility of the Christian is to announce and express the love of God to those who are suffering for whatever reason.  Mother Theresa of Calcutta captures this thought well when she says “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”  Christians ought to be the first to offer material assistance, comfort, and, of course, eternal hope in relationship with Jesus.

The eternal perspective

There will be no complete relief from suffering and disasters until God “winds up” this time-space world of ours and ushers in the new heaven and the new earth.  

Meantime, our mandate and responsibility is to seek the well-being of our environment and society by living and teaching God’s ways.  As a result of this work by Christians, we have in the past, and will in the future see relative degrees of God’s blessing in nations that comply with God’s ways.

However, our ultimate destiny is not on this earth.  Perhaps the greatest consolation for people whose lives have been devastated by disaster is the assurance that this current age is a temporary phase of the bigger picture of eternity in which God “makes all things new”, and in which all suffering will cease and our persons will be completely whole as we live in the eternal peace and harmony of God’s kingdom.

God’s sovereignty and human humility

It is fitting to draw back from any difficult and perplexing discussion such as this, and position ourselves intellectually as the humble creatures of an infinite sovereign God.  Sometimes it may not be possible for us to draw together for ourselves a totally coherent rational explanation of things that God may choose to do, such as the expression or withholding of judgment, or the expression or withholding of provision, healing, or deliverance. We need to recognize that our understanding is but a small part of His infinite wisdom.  Paul addresses our position bluntly in Romans 9: “… who are you, O man, to talk back to God?”  And Francis Schaeffer (The Church Before the Watching World) said “Although God has not given us exhaustive knowledge (only He is infinite), He has given us true knowledge (what I have often called true truth)– true knowledge about Himself, about history, and about the cosmos.”  

The “true knowledge” that we have of God’s goodness, justice, mercy, and the assurance of His eternal purpose, along with our submission to His sovereign and infinite wisdom helps us to be at rest with aspects of perplexing questions which we cannot understand.