Posted on 03/07/2012 10:24:56 AM PST by marshmallow
MINNEAPOLIS (ABP) – An author and preacher popular in Calvinist circles says it is no accident that recent killer tornadoes followed paths that ravaged some communities while others were spared.
“Why would God reach down his hand and drag his fierce fingers across rural America killing at least 38 people with 90 tornadoes in 12 states, and leaving some small towns with scarcely a building standing, including churches?” John Piper of Desiring God ministries wrote in a blog March 5.
Piper, pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, said it is wrong to ascribe power capable of causing an estimated $2 billion worth of property damage to Mother Nature or the devil.
“God alone has the last say in where and how the wind blows,” Piper said. “If a tornado twists at 175 miles an hour and stays on the ground like a massive lawnmower for 50 miles, God gave the command.”
Piper said he doesn’t know why if God has a quarrel with America that he wouldn’t show his displeasure in Washington or Hollywood instead of places like Henryville, Ind., but that “every deadly wind in any town is a divine warning to every town.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abpnews.com ...
We have always had tornadoes even in the puritan gay 90's and the 1950's. Guys like this make Christians look like idiots.
Most Calvinists are dour folks anyway.
I know that are not random because I know if one is coming in from the southwest and tracking toward my direction, the chances have been greater that they hit close.
Not so much if they come from another direction.
I don’t know what that has to do what what this guy is saying.
Hmmm. 1925. Washington was much smaller. Hollywood wasn't a liberal-infested hellhole. And this happened:
F5 on the ground for 219 miles.
These tinhorns should read up on their history before trying to claim that a medium-sized (historically) tornado outbreak like last Friday's is a sign of anything more than bad luck weather.
The world’s just chock full of nuts and crackpots, isn’t it?
So when innocent people die, we're to conclude that God ordered their death? This idiot confuses "God is in control" with "God commands Mother Nature to kill innocent people because he's angry."
More fodder for the barely human debris that is Mike Malloy.
I guess Job was a determinist too:
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.[c]
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing
God doesn’t punish people by generating natural disasters. Jesus addressed this issue in Luke 13:4, when discussing the collapse of a tower in Shilokha (Siloam), a suburb of Jerusalem, in which 18 people were killed:
4“Or those eighteen upon whom the tower of Shilokha fell and killed them; do you think that they were sinners more so than all the children of men who dwell in Jerusalem?” 5“No, but I say to you, unless you repent, all of you shall be destroyed like they were.”
It seems this paragraph clarifies his meaning:
“We are not God’s counselors, nor can we fathom all his judgments,” he said. “That was the lesson of Job. Let us beware, therefore, of reading the hand of providence with too much certainty or specificity. God is always doing a thousand things when he does anything. And we see but a fraction.”
I always think of that verse in Matthew 5 when it comes to natural disasters striking some and sparing others:
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Piper is exactly right. “Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?” Amos 3:6
Most of them are down to a tulip with the one petal of eternal security.
That is a very common christian teaching.
No, an event is good or bad based on whether it draws us closer to God or farther apart. Plus, an event which happens to us isn’t necessarily designed with us as the end-product. It could be happening to us in order to minister to someone else.
I can’t, because I’m not omniscient, tell you the particulars concerning the why of a thing. I just know that God is sovereign and his overarching “banner” is love. To me that is a whole lot more comforting than thinking we are either at the mercy of an arbitrary dice-thrower, or that some things are able to thwart God’s will.
I have been called many things, but I don’t believe I’ve ever been labeled as “dour,” ... until today.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.