A week ago I was interviewed by a local reporter, and he asked me if I would like to ask God why tragedies happen. I responded that I did not need to ask God, because the Bible tells me already. He was surprised, and followed up by saying I surely believed that God was not involved in such things. I responded that, no, I believe God is sovereign over all things and his providence is governed by holiness, wisdom, goodness, and love.
Well, what do I think now? Do I believe this of Hurricane Katrina? The answer is Yes. The Bible describes God’s sovereignty as comprehensive and complete. Jesus said that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s will (Mt. 10:29). Paul stated that God has “determined allotted periods and the boundaries of [mankind’s] dwelling place” (Acts 17:26). Both of these statements make it impossible that God was ignorant of Hurricane Katrina and her destruction or unable to intervene to prevent the disaster. Therefore, God is necessarily sovereign over such events, which happen only with his knowledge and will.
But does this perspective shatter the Bible’s statements about God’s holiness, goodness, and love? The answer is No.
The first reason is that God’s sovereignty does not remove contingent causes. There are plenty of reasons for Katrina other than God’s supposed neglect or vindictiveness. Katrina resulted from natural causes having to do with the weather. Though I know little of this science, I gather that the El Nino and long-term weather patterns are responsible for Katrina. So is there is no moral cause for this disaster? Yes, it was our first parents’ sin that caused the original paradise world to be warped so that things like violent hurricanes happen. Paul explains, “The creation was subjected to futility… For we know that the whole creation has been groaning in the pains of childbirth until now” (Rom. 8:20-22). Paul’s point was that the creation itself longs for its rebirth in the new heavens and new earth, since the Fall has placed it under the curse of death. One aspect of that curse is the violence of nature, as seen in Hurricane Katrina.
What about the people of New Orleans? Was Katrina God’s swipe of judgment at “Sin City”? We do not have warrant to claim that this was a specific judgment like Sodom and Gomorrah. Moreover, if we think New Orleans was worthy of God’s judgment, we need to remember that we also are worthy of judgment. Indeed, in this sense, I am personally responsible for Katrina – just as is our whole sinful human race. I am reminded of G. K. Chesterton’s answer to an essay contest that asked, “What is wrong with this world?” He submitted the shortest answer: “I am.” So if Adam and Eve are responsible for Katrina, and if sinners in the path of Katrina are responsible, then so am I responsible for this being a cursed world under the bondage of death. In short, sin – Adam’s, yours, and mine – is responsible for the violent natural order that brought Hurricane Katrina.
The other reason Katrina does not disprove God’s holiness, goodness, and love is God’s purpose in even the worst events. I quoted Acts 17:26 as proving God’s comprehensive sovereignty. But Paul goes on to show God’s purpose in exercising his sovereignty: “that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:27). Because of sin, everyone is destined to die. But God works in the affairs of this world to draw already dying people towards life in him. God permits trials large and small to call our attention to what matters most: our eternal destiny. Without suffering, the truth is that we will go on ignoring God to our eternal destruction. God wants Hurricane Katrina to result in multitudes of otherwise dying people seeking him and finding him so as to gain eternal life – for this we should labor and pray.
Because God is sovereign over tragedies like this with a purpose of grace, we should respond not with anger at him but with abiding hope and praise. This is not a senseless tragedy, because God will bring good through it for those who trust in him (Rom. 8:28). The most horrific, wicked, and evil event ever to happen on the planet Earth was the judicial murder of the holy Son of God, Jesus Christ – an event in which God was completely sovereign and man was completely guilty. But the cross was made by God the most blessed, glorious, and holy event ever to happen on the planet Earth. Likewise, Katrina was a terrible event. But God will bring good from it. Through death he offers resurrection life, if we will turn through faith in Christ to the sovereign God of holiness and grace.
Rev. Richard Phillips is the chair of the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology and senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church Coral Springs, Margate, Florida
Visit the Question Box archives.
