The Lie God’s Not Responsible Natural Disasters – 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Can you trust a God who hurls each lightning bolt to the earth during a thunderstorm, while the alternative is trusting a God who doesn't know where the lightning will hit? Today we probe the mystery of God's hand in natural disasters.

Please stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. We're in a series on ten lies about God and why you might already be deceived. Pastor Lutzer, lie number six is that God is not responsible for natural disasters.

For those who believe this lie, who is responsible? You know, Dave, considering your intro, I want to pick up on something that you said and then I will answer your question more directly. You mentioned lightning. If there's anyone listening who thinks that God is not in charge of natural disasters, my suspicion is that when they are running through a lightning storm, they will call on God. Because there's something within us that knows intuitively that God does know where lightning strikes. Now in order to dig a little deeper, what we must understand is God may use the devil as he did in the book of Job. Remember, Job's experience was that Satan is the one who called the windstorm and the wind blew and of course Job's children were killed and the lightning that killed the cattle. But notice this, Satan could do nothing without God's permission. So it is true that nature does what nature does because of weather patterns, because of shifts in the earth's crust, but all of it is supervised by God and God has to approve what happens. So ultimately, God is in charge. Now what does that make us do? It makes us worship him, submit to him, and it's so important for us to understand that God does not back down from the implications. I've written a book entitled Ten Lies About God and Dave, as you correctly said, the sixth chapter is about natural disasters. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you.

Simply go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let's remember God is God and we aren't. I came across a quote one time that literally took my breath away and you know every so often you have a quote that is so, so filled with theology and yet difficult perhaps to accept but nonetheless true. The quote is this, if I had the power of God for 24 hours, what changes I would make on this earth, said one theologian.

Let me just stop there before I give you the rest of the quote. Could you imagine that? You have the power of God for 24 hours, what changes you would make on the earth. I mean, wow, it would be incredible the changes that would be made. But now the rest of the quote says, but if I also had his wisdom, if I also had his wisdom, I'd leave things as they are.

Can you accept that? If we could see God's eternal purposes, we would know that his plan is on a schedule. We would leave things as they are. Our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever he has pleased. All that he needs to do is to act consistently with his own nature and as we learned in a preceding message.

Let us keep in mind what that professor at Notre Dame said after 30 years of lecturing. I know two things. First, there is a God and I'm not him.

That's worth learning. No, we cannot charge God with evil. But question number three, can we trust him? Question one, does he take responsibility? Yes, it says in the book of Amos, shall disaster come to a city and God hath not done it?

The obvious answer is yes, of course, God did it. He's God. It's question number one, do we charge him with evil? No, we don't charge him with evil.

He does as he pleases. And by the way, we always think of the negative part of the disaster. But remember that Jesus said that God also sends rain on the just and the unjust and sunshine.

Sometimes we're not very appreciative for all the times when there aren't those disasters going on. But let's go to a third question. Can we trust him? Can we trust him? Well, I of course think that it is only this kind of theology that means that God is worthy of trust. Let's suppose that it were true that God was only an interested observer of the natural disasters.

He kind of abandons the world and says, it's under sin and there are faults on the earth and let them just take their course and I'm staying out of this. Let's suppose. Would that give you a lot of confidence in terms of your life? You know what could happen? A stray lightning bolt could smite you or me dead and suddenly we're lying there on the sidewalk dead and God still has work for us to do. And God says, oh no, I can't believe this.

You know, that's what happens when nature's out of control. Some of my servants, you know, they die and next time, by the way, when I speak on whether or not God knows the future, that's going to be one of the arguments. There are many evangelicals today who say that God does not know our future decisions and that's next time's message. I've already prepared it.

I'm steaming on that one. My dear friend, listen to me very carefully. If nature is out of God's hands, then I am out of God's hands and I'm a victim of nature because some earthquake somewhere, some natural calamity could smite me and somehow I die outside of God's appointed time and purpose. No, it is the fact that God controls nature. It is that that gives me the confidence to trust him and if I die in such a calamity, I say I die according to God's will and God's purpose and because of that, I die abundantly satisfied because God is God.

Of course, we trust him. And also the shaking of the earth is a reminder of our unshakable God, isn't it? You know what earthquakes and so forth should do as soon as the earth begins to quake, people are trying to run to someplace.

They're trying to flee to something solid. Well, the Bible would teach that we should do that too and that something solid is God. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the depths of the sea.

Talk about a natural disaster. Though the mountains shake with a swelling thereof. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the most high. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.

God shall help her and that right early. The heat and rage, the kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us and the God of Jacob is our refuge. Yes, we trust God and we trust him because he is sovereign and that means that we are within the hollow of a sovereign hand. A fourth question. Question number one, is God in charge of natural disasters? Yes. Question number two, do we charge him with evil?

No. Number three, is he still trustworthy? You'd better believe it.

In fact, you had better trust him. Question number four, what are the messages of natural disasters? What's God really trying to say anyway? This past week I learned that when that earthquake took place in Turkey, there was an altercation between a cab driver and a lady journalist and they were discussing, they were both Muslims and they were discussing as to why the earthquake happened. Now mind you, they both agreed that Allah did it. The Muslims have a very strong view of God's sovereignty, so they both agreed that Allah did it. That was not their question. Their question was what made him so mad that he did it? And the cab driver told the woman that it was because of women like her who refused to be veiled.

That was the problem. And she thought it was because of boorish and judgmental men who walked around and got rid of them. Well, let's see if we can shed a little bit more light on this question of what's going on. Take your Bibles and turn to the 11th chapter, actually the 13th chapter, the book of Luke. Luke chapter 13, we have an insight here that is very important for us to understand these tragedies.

Luke chapter 13 verse 1. Now there were some present at the time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you too will perish.

Now we come to an event that could be called a natural disaster. Now maybe there was human error, maybe the tower was not built well, but it falls into that general category of accidental death. Verse 4, or those 18 who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them, do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Wow. First of all, let me say that it is clear that sunshine is on the righteous and the unrighteous, and so are natural calamities. The people in California are not more wicked because they have the earthquakes. The people in Turkey or Honduras named the country, it's not because they are greater sinners than other people in the region. It's not because Kansas and Oklahoma are greater sinners that they seem to get the tornadoes.

No, no, no, that's not it. And so let's keep that in mind. You see, the simple fact is that God gives these things indiscriminately. Now, let me be clear that in the Old Testament, now remember the message that I preached entitled that God is more tolerant than he used to be and that was a lie.

I said that he was not more tolerant. I explained that in the Old Testament, the judgments were immediate. You sinned and you were instantly put to death or there was an earthquake that would swallow you up. That's not the way it is in this era because God is dealing entirely differently. And so that's why in this era, what you find is that just because people die, that does not mean that they are greater sinners than others.

Well, what are the lessons? Number one, death is inevitable. Death is inevitable. It will come. It'll happen. There was a couple that moved from California to Missouri because of the earthquakes in California and they died in a tornado in Missouri. You can't escape it.

C.S. Lewis said something that appears harsh, but it is true. He says that war does not increase death. War does not increase death. Everybody who's ever died in a war or a natural disaster would someday die because death is inevitable.

You cannot escape it. When you are reading about these tragedies and 50 people killed here and a hundred here and a thousand over there, what you should be doing is seeing your own obituary because you and I are going the same way. Not through the same calamity, but we too are on our way. We too have been born to die. Death is inevitable. Second lesson, judgment is coming. Notice Jesus said, unless you repent, you shall likewise perish. Not in the same kind of disaster, but calamity is going to overtake you.

No question about it. And when you look at the judgments of the book of Revelation, many of them were judgments of nature. God was saying these little events and I call them little now because of the comparison. These earthquakes and tidal waves and tornadoes are little cameos, little insights into the total picture of what is coming because what's coming is far worse.

Just listen to this. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal. Lo, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black, a sackcloth of hair and the moon became his blood and the stars of heaven fell onto the earth even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places and the great men and the rich men and the bond men and the free men, they hid themselves in the dens and in the caves of the mountains and said unto the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the day of his wrath is come and who is able to stand? What God says is when you read about a tornado in Kansas or an earthquake in Taiwan, be reminded there's a lot worse coming, a lot worse coming. Unless you repent, you shall likewise perish. You read the rest of the book of Revelation, you find one judgment after another, one calamity of nature after another as God judges, God judges and God judges and God judges. During this era, he is restrained. You know, liberal theologians sometimes say, I don't believe in a hell. I believe that all that God is is pure love. Oh my goodness, where have you folks been? You don't even have to read your Bible to know better than that.

You just need to read the newspaper. If God can permit the tragedies that we are reading about that are beyond our comprehension in this world, if that can be permitted, if that can be, shall I use the word ordained? If God says, yes, I'm doing this.

Wow, not very hard for me to believe in hell personally because God is not only love. What did Elihu say? We read the words. He sends the clouds for judgment to punish, but he also sends the clouds at times to show his love and nature reveals both a love of God and the judgment of God. And by the way, isn't it interesting that Jesus in Matthew 24 said that at the end time, there's going to be an increase in earthquakes. He said there are going to be earthquakes in different places. And this, he said, is the beginning of pangs. It's the beginning of the end time. I don't want to be a sensationalist, but have you ever noticed?

I think that in the last couple of years and maybe months, I've heard of more earthquakes than it seems I heard about in my previous existence almost. God judges the world. That's the second lesson. Third, we escape judgment by repentance.

Look at the text. Unless you repent, you shall likewise perish. Judgment is coming. You know, even if we say that the drowning of the Titanic going under the water was not really a natural disaster because there was so much human error, you know, you know the whole story. But still here you have a ship going down with what was it?

1522 people. And later on, the white star office in Liverpool was the area where friends and relatives were notified as to whether or not their friends on the boat were among the dead or the living. And it is said that they had a huge cardboard sign and a man would come out of the room with a name and then he would go to this side. This side said known to be lost and the other side known to be saved. So when the messenger came out, every eye was glued on him. Which side was he going to go to? And number two, whose name was he going to pin on the cardboard?

Somehow I can't think. I can think rather that maybe, maybe, and I'm not dogmatic, but maybe that's the way it's going to be in heaven. I could imagine that there's going to be a mother there who's going to wait to see whether or not her son is going to show up in heaven, whether he will be among the saved or the lost.

Children waiting for their parents. And God is telling us today that unless you repent, you shall likewise perish. You may not perish today, but you will perish. You will perish. So what do we do?

What do we do? We take this business of natural disasters and we say to ourselves, we don't understand it all, but we believe that God is using his megaphone to get the attention of the world. And people are beginning to think about their death and their mortality. I don't know about you, but I do. I do it, especially when I find out that someone with whom I went to school has died. And I'm saying he's far too young to die. People who went to school with me should not die.

But when they do, it's a reminder of my mortality. I had intended earlier in the message to quote the poem by Cowper. I shall quote it here as we think about the mystery of God and his messages to us in natural disasters. God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.

He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill, he treasures up his brightest designs and works his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessing on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning of providence, he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast unfolding every hour.

The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Then listen to this blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain. Yes, he stands behind natural disasters.

Yes, he is trustworthy. Yes, unless you repent, we shall likewise perish. By the way, have you repented? I'm talking now to those of you who have never trusted Christ as savior.

Could you imagine standing before God, having heard this message and giving him an explanation as to why you didn't believe? Let's pray. Now Father, we thank you for your greatness and for your sovereignty. We thank you that you are the Lord and that beside you there is none other. And we ask today that you will cause men and women to repent. I think of the many who are listening to this who have never believed on Jesus.

They've come to Moody Church today, perhaps being brought by others, perhaps just having wandered in, but they have never cried out to you and said, save me, become my savior. May they do that right now, I pray. And why don't we just be silent while you pray to God? Oh Father, complete the work that you've begun in our hearts. May we tremble in the presence of a God who can cause such devastation and may we flee to Christ for mercy. We pray in his name.

Amen. Yes, my dear friend, let us remember that the tragedies of nature remind us of coming judgment. Jesus made that very clear and as I like to emphasize in the book of Revelation, you have massive natural disasters, all of them signifying the judgment of God. That's why we have to flee to Jesus Christ. Well, I've written a book entitled 10 Lies About God. It's really a defense of God.

I argue there that there is only one way to come to God, that God isn't whatever we want him to be and other lies that are in popular culture. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because we're making this book available for you for a gift of any amount and we believe it'll help you in your spiritual journey. Here is what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. If you're like me, sometimes you don't have a pen or pencil handy so once again you can go to the phone right now and call 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. Thanks in advance for your prayers and for your financial help. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Some theologians think we make a move and then God responds with a counter move. They say God gives us totally free will and adapts himself to our choices as we make them. For these people, the future for God is an unfinished novel. Next time on Running to Win, another myth will be exploded. Plan to join us for lie number seven that God doesn't know our future decisions. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.