Subject: God Punished New Orleans with Katrina |
Bible Note: That’s a rather harsh judgment sister, for you to cast upon the people of that region, not necessarily supported by anything specific. Your reference to scripture is vast and raises questions if I may put just a few of them forth here? Was Katrina a punishment or a warning? If punishment and delivered by the hand of God, what were the warnings? Since you believe Katrina was God acting upon New Orleans, would you please elaborate on how you have arrived at that conclusion, specifics? To say God sent Katrina to New Orleans as a punishment for sin kind of detracts from the fact that Christ already died for our sins does is not? In your affirmation that Katrina was delivered by God, you seem very much akin to Job’s friends and their thinking. In our fallen world, the saved and secure do die terrible deaths, sometimes due to tragedies out of the blue and unexplainable. Are all catastrophes to be considered divine judgment? You closed your post with the following: “I do not have to fear because the Lord has promised that He will never leave me nor forsake me. In all circumstances I am to trust and obey Him”. That does not keep travesty from falling upon the innocent for whatever reason God determines. As was pointed out in this thread, Luke 13 1-5: demonstrates that rather well. The entire book of Job demonstrates that. I feel the same as you do sister, He will never forsake me, that doesn’t eliminate the fact that tomorrow a tornado can fall upon me and take me out. That doesn’t eliminate the fact that a deer can run in front of my vehicle while I’m driving causing me to veer from the roadside to a horrible death in a ditch somewhere. What it leaves us with is that the time to seek God’s grace is now for tomorrow may be too late. In His grace we are secure, in His Son we are secure and that eternally. That doesn’t equate to everything being peachy while we are here. Katrina happened, most recently Ike happened. I personally know many devastated by Ike. I would not dare judge them because I just don’t know. Do you? What I would do is assure them that the travesty was surely allowed by God, because He is sovereign and that is undeniable, but to claim it was a warning or judgment, well I’m just not that sure and would actually need a whole bunch of convincing to actually believe that. Romans 2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We all need the grace of God. None of us are above that. For what ever reason God allows any specific tragedy, He allows it. As Christians, we’ll suffer loss, and some will suffer greatly. We suffer for Christ or simply because of what this fallen world throws upon us. But these shouldn’t be considered judgments should they? God of course uses such to strengthen us, but… I find the fact that after calamitous tragedies of this sort that there is such a mass returning to God, simply in the fact that people are searching for answers, very intriguing. But to say God has judged New Orleans, I’m not so sure about that. Just some questions and thoughts your post raised. Stand in His grace, WOS |