tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4802192063076155160.post3217020371277307983..comments2023-10-10T09:43:02.566-05:00Comments on Ice Shavings and Shinny: Making Excuses for God...The Modern Theology of a Natural CatastropheCraig Daliessiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04622536691388864746noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4802192063076155160.post-49841061890335858512013-05-22T11:27:47.791-05:002013-05-22T11:27:47.791-05:00This says so much. I think it's a mistake to ...This says so much. I think it's a mistake to make excuses for God in the first place because it's not God that brings these natural disasters about. People are forgetting about the book of Job altogether. Why doesn't God "Fix" the fallen creation so there are no tornadoes or earthquakes or hurricanes? What evidence do we have that these are punishments exactly anyway? We are told the creation is GROANING and expectant of the day that all things will be made new… It's under a curse just as we are…. I like what you said about God not micomanaging the world for us and I agree. This is absolutely the exception not the rule. We are in a world full of tribulation….. he warned us we would not escape, we WOULD have tribulation in the world but to take hope in the fact that he had overcome the world. What you say about peace is so true as well. Peace doesn't mean absence of pain or denial of hard facts, it's the Christian inheritance to be able to live in a world like this with peace, to help us through the storms, and by having our hope placed on the solid Rock of Christ that we can weather the storm without being washed away. The storms don't disappear. The "natural forces" that destroy are some of the hardest to understand, but when I think of the book of Job, you have a picture where Satan is a supernatural creature with free will (as we have) who is capable of interacting with nature to bring about destruction to human beings…. (unless God intervenes specifically)<br /><br />You have a real problem here. Like you say, people are associating the thing with God because he is on the throne, true which he is, but if he were to correct all the evils in the human world as well as world of nature, where does free will yet exist? It's the C.S. Lewis point that every piece of wood picked up to beat somone on the head would turn into a feather…. and if you take that to its logical conclusion, every angry thought would disppear before it resulted in an angry act. No more evil or angry throughts….. There would be no free will. So you can't have both. A world without the freedom to choose harm and a world without pain. And as soon as you interject the idea that a supernatural being can influence the forces of nature (like a tornado) with its free will, you have a real monkey wrench in the question…. <br /><br />Yes, God is the one bringing good CONSTANTLY from the free will acts meant to bring harm. So when people are trying to make sense, perhaps they are misled and don't really understand; you make a great point, the loss of a child is not something that is going to "make sense" to someone in this lifetime. It is not the world the way it was meant to be - Separation from God has wreaked havoc in the lives of human beings from Adam until now and it will not stop until the last day. Only in the context of the new heaven and the new earth, where he will wipe away every tear does the answer come; but there is no need to make excuses for our Creator. He is all goodness and worthy of all praise… The enemy is the one bringing the darkness, God is bringing the hope and light and peace from that darkness - The people that help, comfort, the people who build up, not tear down. We should never get that confused.kathleenmacgirl@gmail.comnoreply@blogger.com