Photograph by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

A God of Love?

Although we might often worry about our civilisation's potential to destroy the planet, we can easily forget that the planet also has an untamed ability to destroy civilisation too. Examples of this are the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria earlier this year killing more than 50,000 people and making many more homeless (2023)

or the tsunami at Christmas 2004 which killed over 250,000 people. Humanity has an enduring vulnerability in the face of nature. This is why the prospect of there being an unstoppable, life-threatening change in our climate, for example, cannot simply be ignored. Scientists may explain to us how such natural events occur, but it's not their job to tell us why. So, why do they happen? Although commercial contracts and insurance policies may refer to these events as 'acts of God', society in general doesn't explain such events as 'acts of divine intervention and displeasure'. Only die-hard atheists are rash enough to use such events to rubbish any belief in the existence of God. However, we may still find it difficult to reconcile 'a God of love' with the damage God seems to let happen to this planet He created. We all struggle to make sense of disasters.

God gives His answer

The Bible records many occasions when God has used a 'force of nature' – rain, hail, fire, earthquake or flood, to achieve His plans. For example, wars have been stopped, cities captured, and powerful people brought to their knees by so-called 'natural events'. Superficially, such events may look like the actions of 'a vindictive God'.

But God has a very beneficial 'long-term plan', a 'purpose' for His Creation. Sometimes He uses the 'forces of nature' to move that plan forward, as His prophets make absolutely clear:

"If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?"

• Amos 3:6

"I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things."

• Isaiah 45:7

Whilst God allows all natural events to occur, whether good or bad, He does use such events to achieve His purpose. Thankfully, anybody can be included in God's plan for a better future, even those whose lives are cut short by natural disasters.

A Real-life Example

Facing terrible, personal disasters, but accepting the truth of those statements, Job, a very rich man, said this when he lost absolutely everything, including his children: "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"

• Job 2:10

Job accepted that God had blessed him before and, if God so wished, He would bless him again. But above all, Job looked forward to something far better than anything this life has to offer. He looked forward to the time when all the world would be free from evil, including man-made and natural disasters. He demonstrated his faith in God in these words: " and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!"

• Job 19:26-27

Job's hope of being resurrected to a better life helped him make sense of the personal disaster that brought him such great sorrow and suffering.

A Promise To You Too!

The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes observed that "time and chance happen to them all"

• Ecclesiastes 9:11.

This could occur from just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, like being killed by a terrorist bomb, or swept away by a tsunami while sitting on a beach. But similarly, neither does winning the lottery mean we are a better person, more greatly favoured in God's eyes than those less fortunate. The Apostle Peter wrote that God is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

• 2 Peter 3:9

All of us have an equal opportunity in God's eyes and, to us all, He has made this special promise: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

• John 3:16-17

Even though we all die, we can all share the hope of resurrection that Job had, as Jesus said: "the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

• John 5:28-29

Resurrection?

Yes, bodily resurrection when Jesus returns is the true Christian hope, clearly set out in the Bible (see the Apostle Paul's powerful arguments in 1 Corinthians 15 for example). Look at the evidence now and respond to the divine invitation while you still have time.

Tomorrow may never come!