Why does God allow suffering & calamities? (May 1st, 2011)

In the last decade we've seen terrorism run rampant beginning with the 911 tragedy where over 2,800 people lost their lives.  We've seen an increase in natural disasters such as earthquakes exampled by the Earthquake and Tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004 that killed around 280,000, the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 where around 316,000 died, the recent Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan in 2011 with 26,000 dead or missing. 

Then we've had deadly Hurricanes like Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans in 2005 killing 1836, and is considered one of the 5 deadliest Hurricanes to ever hit the United States. 

Then we have an increase in Tornadoes.  Data shows a steady, overall increase in tornadoes over the last 50 years.  Recently we had hundreds of tornadoes tear through the southeast United States this past Wednesday.  Cumulatively it was the deadliest twister disaster since 1932, with the death toll at 318 people and still rising.  April of 2011 has already shattered the benchmark for the number of tornadoes in a single month by a long shot. Meteorologists estimate that close to 600 tornadoes have formed thus far in April. That's nearly four times the average of 160, and twice the amount of the previous April record, 267 twisters in 1974.

The World Cancer Report tells us that cancer rates are set to increase at an alarming rate globally.  Global cancer rates could increase by 50% to 15 million by 2020.

(Reuters) - Chronic illnesses like cancer, heart disease and diabetes have reached global epidemic proportions and now cause more deaths than all other diseases combined, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Then we have all the wars in the last decade and still going on.  The war in Iraq, Afghanistan,  Egypt, Libya, and the ongoing war between Israel and the Muslim nations. 

What do we make of all this?  Are these signs of the end times and the return of Christ?  I'll let you do the considering.   Let's look at what Jesus prophesied 2,000 years ago.

Matthew 24:4-8
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Matthew 24:38, 39
38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Jesus said no one would know the exact hour or day of His return but He did disclose to us the signs of His coming.  So from what I see we are close to that day.

Now let's move on the title of this sermon, "why does God allow suffering and calamities"?  Quite often you hear people speak out using this type of verbiage.  They point the finger at God and blame Him for all the natural disasters we've discussed, the wars, the sickness, the disease, the suffering and death.

Answering this question is very complex and no one knows the exact answer but God alone.  All we can do is take a look  into what the Word of God reveals to gain a better understanding, so that is what we are going to do this morning.

Before we attempt to answer the question, another question comes into play.  If God doesn't cause it, why doesn't He intervene to stop the natural disasters, to halt the suffering, to halt the wars, and prevent the diseases, etc.?
 
To begin with we know that God does intervene in human affairs because He's shown His power throughout history, but He has actually limited Himself in that area.  Why you might ask?
Because God has created a free world.  He has given mankind freewill, and He allows us to use our freewill ... to do good, or to do evil and destroy ourselves and nature.
 
So the argument that God should help out more is put to rest in the fact that we are given freewill, and any intervention on His part is an intrusion into the very freedom He gave us.
 
So with that in mind let's go back to the beginning to the creation of the world, and the creation of man and woman.  God created a perfect world and placed mankind in the world.  His kingdom was to be an eternal kingdom with no pain, no sorrow, no death.  At that time it was truly heaven on earth.  When mankind was created He was created sinless with freewill and was to live forever and ever in the presence of almighty God.
 
But something happened in the Garden of Eden that changed everything.  Man used the freedom God had given him as a license to rebel against God himself and do evil.  Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  That one act of disobedience turned this world upside down.

This beautiful world God created that was to be His eternal kingdom on earth was lost due to man's sin and rebellion.  So through that one act man was separated from God and was forced out of the Garden of Eden.  Now God no longer walked with man as He did in the beginning.  Man's sin destroyed his beautiful relationship with God.  Look what the Bible says...

Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

James 4:4
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

So Adam and Eve chose to be enemies of God and sin was conceived, and that sin brought forth suffering, sickness and death to mankind.   But sin also introduced death and destruction to all of creation, and is the ultimate cause of all the destruction in this world including the natural disasters and calamity that we see around us.

Romans 8:20-22
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

So sin has caused all creation to fall from the perfect state in which God created it.  The world is subject to frustration and bondage to decay so that is cannot fulfill its intended purpose. 

One day when Christ returns and sets up His Eternal Kingdom on earth (the New Heaven and the New Earth) all creation will be liberated and transformed to God's original intension.  Until that time creation labors and travails with eager expectation for that glorious day in time.

So it can be summarized that sin and the subsequent fall of mankind is the culprit behind all the worlds natural disasters and calamities, as well as all sickness, disease, and death.

From now on when we see some of the terrible things that happen around the world must realize man's rebellion against God has caused us to live in a fallen world that is subject to all these calamities.  Knowing this, we should never blame God, but the blame should be placed on Sin and its consequences.

We do need to keep in mind there is good news over the horizon.  One day God will restore His Kingdom on earth when Christ returns, and we will live in a perfect world forever in His presence. 
Before we close I would like to touch on one more thing.  Many times we here Christians say that these natural disasters are a result of God's judgment.  Is that true?

In some cases it may be God's judgment, but in others it may not be.  To say that God never exercises judgment on nations and peoples is not true.  The Bible clearly speaks otherwise.
 
The first example of God's judgment is spelled out in Genesis chapter 6 through chapter 9.  Man had become extremely wicked and rebelled against God.  God therefore unleashed the universal flood the killed all on the earth with the exception of Noah and his family.

Then in Genesis 18 and 19, God rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns because they rebelled against Him and gave themselves up to sexual immorality, perversion and homosexuality.   The remains can still be seen today.

God even brought judgment on some of His own people who fell into sin.  You can read it for yourself in Numbers 16.  The tribe of Korah rebelled against God and Moses and as a result God swallowed 250 of them up into the earth in what can be assumed was an earthquake.
 
There are other examples in scripture of God's judgment upon people who rebelled against Him.  What is interesting, we find that if a people in rebellion turn from their wicked ways He will withhold judgment.  Look at what happened to Nineveh who was about to see the judgment of God because of their rebellion.

Jonah 3:10
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

So some calamities can be a result of God's judgment.  We can make assumptions but only God knows the clear answer to each situation.  
What we can ascertain is that a people who are in rebellion against
od and Christ could see God's judgment, but they can also avoid God's Judgment if they truly repent, turn from their wicked ways and turn to Him.

With all this in mind I did some research with respect to some of the natural disasters over the last 10 years.  I'll give you the history and you can decide for yourself if these natural disasters were a result of God's judgment.

Was Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans in 2005 an act of God's judgment similar to what we just read in the Old Testament?  It's no secret that New Orleans has always had a level of sin that was offensive to God.  Beads, boobs, beer, and bongs make this city the North American choice for Mardi Gras. Its sinful history dates back to the 19th century when it was a mixing ground of music, prostitution, French food, and hedonism. Nowadays, you’ll find a modern mix of this in the city’s French Quarter, with strip clubs, porn shops and bars to satisfy your appetite and make the locale one of the most tantalizing sin cities around.  New Orleans is ranked number 7 in Sin cities in the world.  Another interesting fact that may shed some light, is there was to be a big homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.

Now let's look at the 2004 Tsunami in Sri Lanka.  Could that disaster have been the result of God's judgment?  You decide for yourself.  No one knows the answer for sure, but it's interesting to note that in 2001, 70% of the country were practicing Buddhism, 15% were practicing Hinduism, 7.5% were Muslims, and only 7.5% were Christians.  As a nation they are predominately worshipping other God's and in rebellion just as many of the people in the Old Testament were. 

According to Christian traditions, Thomas the Apostle first arrived in Sri Lanka (as well as India) during the 1st century. After his arrival, small Christian settlements were recorded to have been established on Sri Lanka's coastline. However, the population of Christians in Sri Lanka didn't dramatically increase until the arrival of Portuguese missionaries during the 15th century. In the 17th century, the Dutch took over Sri Lanka and Dutch missionaries were able to convert 21% of Sri Lanka's population to Christianity by 1722.  But in 2001 we see that the country has fallen away from God with only 7.5% believing in Christ and 92.5% rejecting Christ.
 
Then we have the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti.  It's interesting to note that about 50% of the population practice Voudou.  It is common for Haitians followers of the Voudou religion to include Catholic prayers in Voudou worship. From the day of independence of 1804 to the present, missionaries have tried to convert the Haitians back to the Christian religion which previously had been forced on them by their masters, but Voudou remains a powerful force in Haitian society. 

In addition, the country made a pact with the devil years ago.  The leaders of Haiti make no attempt to hide their allegiance to Satan. Haiti’s government is a government of the devil, by the devil, and for the devil. It is a matter of well-documented historical fact that the nation of Haiti was dedicated to Satan 200 years ago.
On August 14, 1791, a group of houngans (voodoo priests), led by a former slave houngan named Boukman, made a pact with the Devil at a place called Bois-Caiman. All present vowed to exterminate all of the white Frenchmen on the island. They sacrificed a black pig in a voodoo ritual at which hundreds of slaves drank the pig’s blood. In this ritual, Boukman asked Satan for his help in liberating Haiti from the French. In exchange, the voodoo priests offered to give the country to Satan for 200 years and swore to serve him. On January 1, 1804, the nation of Haiti was born and thus began a new demonic tyranny.

If this was God's judgment, He sure was patient not wishing that any should perish for 200 years.

Now let's take a quick look at the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan this year.  What is The usual dating of Japan’s first contact with Christianity is 1549 when Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, arrived in Japan. His stamina, zeal and willingness to suffer resulted in thousands of conversions in just two short years. Unfortunately, the Church soon adopted some extreme methods to advance itself, including the introduction of Buddhist and Shinto religious elements into Christian worship and using feudal lords to coerce their subjects to convert.

The shoguns were also eventually persuaded that Christianity was an attempt to soften them up for European conquest. Added to that, quarrels among rival missionary groups aggravated the situations and as a result, as many as 280,000 Japanese Christians were persecuted and thousands were martyred.  In 1626, Christianity was banned in Japan. For the next 250 years, Japan closed its door to the rest of the world.  Throughout her history, Japan has repeatedly rejected Christianity.
 
So what is the religion of Japan as of today?  The highest estimates suggest that 84–96 percent of the Japanese population are Buddhists or Shintoists, including a large number of believers in a syncretism of both religions.   Professor Robert Kisala (Nanzan University) suggests that only 30 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to a religion.   Taoism and Confucianism from China have also influenced Japanese beliefs and customs.   Religion in Japan tends to be syncretic in nature. Less than one percent of Japanese are Christian.  That means 99% reject Christ.

All this information is very interesting to contemplate and as I mentioned before you can come to your own conclusions as to whether these natural disasters are in fact God's judgment. 

We do know that in the last days God clearly says that His judgment will fall on rebellious mankind to a level beyond anything we've ever seen.  It will be God's final judgment just before the return of Christ. Keep in mind, we cannot look at the following scripture and label it a natural disaster, or mother nature ...

Revelation 16:17-21- Seventh Bowl of God's wrath
17Then the seventh [angel] emptied out his bowl into the air, and a mighty voice came out of the sanctuary of heaven from the throne [of God], saying, It is done! [It is all over, it is all accomplished, it has come!]  18And there followed lightning flashes, loud rumblings, peals of thunder, and a tremendous earthquake; nothing like it has ever occurred since men dwelt on the earth, so severe and far-reaching was that earthquake. 19The mighty city was broken into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And God kept in mind mighty Babylon, to make her drain the cup of His furious wrath and indignation.20And every island fled and no mountains could be found. 21And great (excessively oppressive) hailstones, as heavy as a talent [between fifty and sixty pounds], of immense size, fell from the sky on the people; and men blasphemed God for the plague of the hail, so very great was [the torture] of that plague.

I hope this gives everyone some food for thought when it comes to answering the question, "Why does God allow suffering and calamities"?  I think we have found that sin and rebellion of man is the root cause of all disease, suffering, calamities, natural disasters and death.  We have also learned that it is a sign of the end times.  In addition, we have also found that some natural disasters are a result of God's judgment.
 
I want to end with a verse that provides us all with the answer to all of this.  Applying this verse will definitely keep us as individuals as well as our nation from falling under the judgment of God, that is if we heed what it says.  

2 Chronicles 7:14
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.

The ultimate sacrifice
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