Why does God Allow Natural and Man made Disasters?

• God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good - God created the world and He created man in His image. He created all of the animals and all of the creatures of this earth. At the end of His six days of creation (Gen 1:31), God surveyed all that He had made, and proclaimed it “very good”— both complete and perfect with no pestilence, disease, natural disasters and human death. Man existed in an idyllic paradise of happiness and beauty where he shared an intimate relationship with his Maker. Additionally, Gen 3:22 records that man had continual access to the “tree of life” that stood in the garden, the fruit of which would allow him to live forever. This tree points to Christ. It points to eternal life.

Gen 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31 “4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 21And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 25And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

Gen 2:9 “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

• The Creature was Made Subject to Vanity - Sin first reared its ugly head in the least likely of places – a perfect environment where two individuals who had been created perfectly by God and in His image existed in perfect fellowship with their Maker. Unfortunately, this idyllic situation was short-lived as their Creator presented them with a test, which they tragically failed, as we read in Gen 3:11-14. Man fell into sin by the deception of Satan and, as we know, the whole story of man has been one of misery and trouble ever since the fall. Sadly, we see that man’s relationship with God was broken. He died spiritually in his soul, or spirit essence, and physically his body became subject to deterioration and death. Because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, not only was all mankind cursed with the “second death”, the entire creation was also cursed. So the world has earthquakes and tidal waves, and tsunamis and disasters, hurricanes that come upon it. We have thorns and thistles, we have disease, we have physical ailments that afflict us constantly because of the curse upon the creation. God also placed the Cherubims — and Cherubims represent His wrath — with a flaming sword “to keep the way of the tree of life”. This is because the only way to approach the tree and to live is to go through the wrath of God. Christ endured the wrath of God for His people, by making payment for their sins by shedding His own blood and made provision to the “tree of life” — eternal life.

Gen 3:17-19,22-24 “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 22And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Rom 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

Rom 8:19-23 “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

• It is of the LORD's Mercies that We are NOT Consumed - Mankind has always been quick to blame others – even God – for his sins, failures, problems, sorrows, and frustrations. However, this blame is altogether misplaced, since the Bible clearly explains that our problems stem from us – from our own sins, pride, greed and lust. Pride is the root of all sin, and the one that God especially despises. Not only man, in his pride, is guilty of disobeying God's commands, but he is guilty of changing the commandments of God by putting himself over the authority of the Bible. We live in a universe of cause and effect that God has established by His Word. Not only is that true in a physical sense, its spiritual ramifications are devastating. The more the world isolates away from God and His Word, the more evil it will become and sin will multiply. The reason this is so is because sin, by biblical definition, is the transgression of God’s Law (1 John 3:4). There are two sides to sin, one we have to face the consequences of the sin and the other we have to face the God's punishment for sin. Didn't God bring Judgement on whole earth by flood of Noah? Didn't Sodom and Gomorrah fall to a storm of fire and brimstone? And during the time of Elijah didn't God use drought and famine to punish his people for their sin? It is NOT that the people who are effected by the disaster are bigger sinners than those that are not effected. Everyone of us are equally guilty of sin before God, as Jesus reminds us in Luke 13:3. It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed (Lam 3:22). Natural disasters are a constant reminder of God's impending Judgement Day with eternal punishment and the need for repentance as 2 Pet 3:7 affirms.

Luke 13:1-5 “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Lam 3:22-24 “It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

2 Pet 3:4-11 "And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,”

• There will be NO more Death in New Heaven and New Earth - God's Elect are also effected by the natural disasters. God allows or disallows disasters according to his divine plan as he works in the lives of His Elect. The ultimate good God looks at is the eternal Glory He gives for His Children. In the process he draws them and molds them into likeness of Christ through various events and chastisements. For one thing, such events shake our confidence in this life and force us to think about eternity. They remind us how fragile and temporal this life is and drive us to God. They help us to set our eyes on things above. God’s mercy manifests itself along with the comfort that God alone abundantly supplies to His children as 2 Cor 1:3-4 affirms - “... the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God”. And the means of mercy and comfort is found in the Scriptures as we learn from Rom 15:4. Rom 8:19 amazingly tells us that “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed”. Incredibly, this means that when the children of God – those who are born again (or born from above) – are glorified into a spirit body at Christ's return, the creation will become renewed and freed from the curse that occurred during the fall in the Garden of Eden. 1 Pet 1:3 further testifies, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively [or living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. So the believer in Christ can have the utmost confidence on his death bed as Php 1:20-21 acknowledges. Only when Christ returns will the new heavens and the new earth be established (Rev 21:1): “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea”. Man will have access to “tree of life” again (Rev 22:14). In this new earth and in the new heavens, “[God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4) and 1 Cor 2:9 affirms “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Php 1:20-21 “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

2 Cor 5:6-8 “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7(For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

Rom 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

Rom 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Job 2:9-10 “Then said his [Job] wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. 10But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”

1 Cor 15:16-22 “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Rev 22:14 “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”

Rom 8:35-40 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”