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 ...
Matthew 13: 1-5
This passage makes it clear that God may, if he so chooses, visit disaster upon us but that not every disaster is God's explicit doing.
Marshmallow, would you please write a short post on “Why I rejoice in being Roman Catholic!” Something positive, inspiring, and uplifting! It would make your posts a delight to read!
I don't see that passage as making your coclusion clear at all. All this passage says is that when God visits disaster on someone it doesn't mean it was because they were worse sinners than those who weren't victims of such a disaster. Judgment will come to all. As Amos tell us, all disasters are the work of God, we just have no business trying to assume we know God's reasons or motives for each act he does.
My old pastor likes Piper. I stopped liking my old church about the same time my old pastor started quoting Piper and friends.
It is horrible doctrine. It makes you feel like bad things happen to people because they have done something wrong (which can be the case, but not necessarily).
If you blab it and grab it, maybe you can overcome a deep insecurity and inferiority complex. It's all about them. "God" is simply a magical incantation.
Nobody is predestined to either follow or reject the Two Commandments of Christ.
nutcase.
Exactly
You are correct. Also, we are reformed because God caused it to be so. I’m thankful for it.
Is evil "the work of God"?
I’m always surprised to see Christians taking the lord’s name in vain.
When you say “God is punishing you because I am right and you are wrong.”, that’s your own vanity speaking, not God.
You’re just using God’s name as a cudgel.
That’s a sin bubba.
Sovereignty of God is not synonymous with God instigating and orchestrating every physical, chemical and biological event. God gave us the laws of physics which govern creation, including weather patterns. This means there is no need for God to trace the path of a tornado any more than He must trace the path of the #15 bus which takes people home from work. Is he any less "sovereign" for this?
God sometimes intervenes and suspends these laws of physics. We call these events "miracles".
When man sinned the wheels were set in motion, God could no longer walk with man in the cool of the garden, and in many ways, was left on his own in a world without the overriding protection of God. We chose to go it alone, and so far, it ain’t been working out well, that’s all there is to it folks. We sinned, the world became a hazard instead of a blessing.
Evil isn't a thing - it's the absence of good. And it is all our (human's) fault and and has been since the first transgression of the fall.
To be fair, he said most. In which Calvinist church were you raised? It does make a difference.
Piper Himself is saying one cannot read the hand of Providence.
He's merely stating God's judging qualities and His authority over everything. I don't have a problem with a Preacher reminding people of that.
You're reading too much into this.
The Arminians have Pat Robertson and the Calvinists have the likes of John Piper.
Piper is a hyper-Calvinists, but there are worse.
I wasn’t raised in a calvinist church. Upon studying the Bible, I chose to be a calvinist (/heavy irony). I’m now a member of the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America, one of the conservative presbyterian churches).
Poor Robertson. He can’t help being an Arminian. </more irony>
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