God, according to the Bible, is omnipresent. God is everywhere.
This means, according to State Senator from Nebraska, Ernie Chambers, God can be sued, since he resides in all the United States. Specifically, Senator Chambers is suing God for what the insurance companies usually call "acts of God"-- namely natural disasters, such as the tornadoes that recently struck Kansas and Nebraska.
Check out the story on msnbc.
Of course the Senator is going to have a difficult time getting God into court, one would think. Those of us over 30 all learned that this is a bad thing to do from the movie, "Oh God!" with George Burns. In fact, God will have a much easier time getting Senator Chambers into court, in due time.
But the story raises an important issue, which one of my seminary professors pointed out: "To what extent should God be blamed for what might be called random natural disasters? I am not talking about specifically targeted judgments like those depicted in Exodus or Revelation. I am simply talking about your average generic twister that causes mayhem for God's people and everyone else in its path. Think of hurricane Katrina and the mayhem on the Gulf coast, not just on sin city in New Orleans, but also on the First Baptist Church in Biloxi."
I met with a pastor friend of mine today... he son has Cerebral Palsy. Is this God's fault? Is it God's will?
Recently, John Piper had a post about the disastrous collapse of the bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis. His view was that, however random it might seem to us, this actually was the will of God...and, in essence, we should just suck it up. God is sovereign and he disposes things as he will, and according to his sovereign pre-ordained plan.
Is this really what we believe about God? Does God's sovereignty REALLY mean that God causes everything?
You are welcome to post your thoughts, or, for a slightly lighter view on this story, go here.
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7 comments:
Ahhh, actually, that was my point, j.doc.
:O)
That thing about the God being sued is insane!!
Hmmm...Piper's comments give me a little heartburn. I guess there's the tension b/w what we see God allow/cause in the OT and what we have come to acknowledge as God's allowance of evil but not His cause of disaster. I tend toward the latter, but don't know what to make of the former. I'd like to think that God doesn't cause disaster, but rather allows "bad stuff". That makes me feel more comfortable...not that my comfort has much of anything to do with God's will...in fact it's typically never related. :-)
Regardless of that, I firmly believe that God is looking for our reaction to the situation instead. Do we use it for His good or for our bad? Do we praise Him in all things, or do we "woe" in pity?
I really struggle with this issue.
I have tended to lean toward God allowing suffering rather than causing it. Then who am I to claim to know God's intentions?
After Hurricane Katrina I had some friends of mine say that this was God's judgement on the sin in New Orleans. I was angered and nearly sick. Yes, there is sin in New Orleans, but there are also solid Christians, and there is sin everywhere.
On one of the nights on our work trip to New Orleans I was in tears with frustration for the difficulties facing these people and the utter injustice of it all. I did ask out loud, "Where is God in all of this?" The response I got from one of our group members was that "This was God's will." Hardly comforting.
Our sermon last week was on the "consider the ravens and the lilies of the field" passage. I also struggle to reconcile the belief that God provides with all the abject poverty in the world.
The good old problem of pain.
I believe that whether God desires that something happens or not, it all fits into His plan and we will never understand it this side of heaven. Some things like the Minneapolis bridge collapse is the result of human error. We can't break the natural laws that God put into place. God allows things to happen. We learn from our mistakes. We aren't allowed to go through life without consequences. Why do bad things happen to good people? Things such as people dying in tornadoes and hurricanes, people getting diseases, hungry people...I don't know, but I have to believe that it is a part of God's master plan...otherwise how do we say that God is completely sovereign? I like the comment about God looking for our response. We do have to go on believing that God IS...and respond accordingly.
In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard talks a little about God's will. One illustration he gives is that he compares God's will to the arrangement of furniture in our homes.
For example, it is my will that the sofa be next to the window, the end tables go on either side of the sofa, the pictures hang on the wall, etc., but I am not actively causing them to continue to stay there. I am not constantly thinking about my furniture but its arrangement in my living room is a manifestation of my will.
Maybe God's will is for us to live in a world with weather? Weather that sometimes is awesome and powerful and makes us realize our own limitations and dependence on Him? So, God wills "weather" and part of what comes along with that are natural disasters.(?)
How does that stand up?
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