Showing posts with label disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disaster. Show all posts

Friday 15 April 2011

We are ourselves responsible

We are ourselves responsible Originally placed on Apr 12, '11 1:58 PMe
Dutch version / Nederlandstalige versie: Wij zijn zelf verantwoordelijk

In the magazine of the Leuven Hospital Gasthuisberg in an interview by Jan van Rompuy with elder patients I could read that an elderly couple was not pleased with God about not helping them after they prayed so much and burned so many candles. The man of the lady with cancer has lost any hope in God and had abounded Him because He clearly would or could not help him.

Every time we hear about a disaster and we are confronted with a lot of disastrous pictures on television people shout that this is because of a terrible and injustice God. Others shout that it is a punishment of God. But when they would read the Bible properly they would be able to find out that it would probably not be a penalty from God.

 Genghis Khan said: “I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

Many religions say that their gods send punishments to those or these.

On the occasion of the Intensity 9 earthquake and the devastating tsunami  that ravaged Japan some time ago, and the threat of toxic radioactivity emerging from the damaged nuclear reactors, friends of mine have asked me whether we could consider these calamities as punishments from God.

First of all we have to question if punishment by God is compatible with the biblical affirmation that “God is love”. It is true that we find examples in the Bible where God brings over a punishment to certain persons or even several people or even towns. In the Bible we can find how the Jewish race developed and were given laws. They could accept those laws or ignore them. We learn how they settled in ancient Israel, and how it says God sometimes punished them for disobeying his commands, which led to them changing their ways. (e.g. Read 2 Samuel chapters 12 & 13 and look what happened after the king and one of his sons became estranged: 2 Samuel chapter 15-19, 21)

Often wickedness in places are mentioned as the reason why god came to punish them. The  conservative group Repent America in the US for example claimed that the hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was an 'act of God' in judgement on the city because there was the annual event 'Southern Decadence' which brought together thousands of homosexuals, enabling them to celebrate their sexuality. The hurricane hit New Orleans and flooded up to 80% of the city, taking up more than a month just to clear the water and still now you can find debris and not restored placed yet.

If this tragedy occurred because God is angry at New Orleans, what was the point of the awful devastation and loss of life wrought in Mississippi and Alabama? Why was then the French Quarter, the district where the event was to be held, one of the least devastated parts of the city so far?
Also the disbarred lawyer Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (born November 13, 1929) an American pastor heading the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas,  claims that many devastating events, such as September 11th, the December 2004 Tsunami, deaths in Iraq, and the horrific Hurricane Katrina are the result of God's wrath against gay people.

Also for the Indian Ocean earthquake and following tsunami in December the 24th 2004 with a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, the third largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph in the world, people said it was God punishing the Muslims and unbelieving Hindus. but also a lot of Christians lost their life.

Some people argue that if God is the same yesterday, today and forever why are we not punished in the same ways?

God has revealed Himself in history in His Covenant and through His covenant to Abraham and his descendants as a helping, delivering, guiding sympathetic positive God with a nice design for His creation. God had given men freedom, but new he was not going to make much of it. For the misstep of the first men God set up a sacrificial system that pointed to the future in which He would redeem man back to Himself. Under the law, man was shown how God dealt with man's sin nature. Mankind was accountable to God depending upon which dispensation they lived. Was there Innocence, Conscience, Human Government, Promise, Law, Grace or shall it happen in the time of Divine Government.

With the coming of Jesus Christ and his finished work on the wooden stake we have come in the time of Grace. Jeus' offer  has liberated all humankind. Today God deals with us through the finished work of Christ. Jesus has offered his body as the ultimate Lamb and therefore God does not require any offers any more. Now, men are held accountable, not by their conscience but by their acceptance or rejection of God's grace. Grace is the unmerited favour of Almighty God. He provides through Christ, the means by which we can receive eternal life. The judgement God will send over the stubborn and bad people shall come when Jesus returns and when God will raise them up at the last day. No punishment before that time, not on this earth, not in a purgatory or in a hell.

God has not changed and for Him those who can hear the voice of those who preach the Good News, the Gospel of Good Tidings, the Liberation by Christ, and do not want to listen, repent and come to God shall have to face their punishment and destruction after Armaggedon and the resurrection, to face the second death.

God's will is that all be saved, yet He will not override the free-will of every person to accept, or reject His salvation. He is not a tyrant and does not want to force anybody in His ideas. Everybody has received a free will and can do as he or she likes. But every person shall have to be responsible for their own deeds.

What ever we fabricate we shall have to bear the consequences of our acts. We can not escape our responsibility. The only problem is what certain individuals do can affect more then one person. That is not Gods fault, but it stays the fault of human, who thought he could manage it on his own. Therefore we have to be very careful with what we do. Not only for ourselves but also for those around us.

We do have to be careful with our behaviour and reactions to others, but also with our use of natural products. We should calculate the risks of all things. Because whatever we do or use it can affect us but also our neighbour, even the whole earth.

Do you want to go on your own? Would you prefer to come under the wings of Christ Jesus and accept God as the only one God to whom belongs the earth?

What risks are you willing to take and how do you want to safeguard yourself?



Continue reading in following articles:


Japan’s nuclear disaster reason to think twice

A risk taking society

Securing risks



In Dutch you can find:

Nucleaire ramp in Japan doet mensen twee maal nadenken

Energie met vergiftigd geschenk

Nemen van Risico door de maatschappij

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Thursday 11 November 2010

National Natural Disaster and Bible Prophecy

Is God in control of the National Natural Disasters which crossed Australia? What is the role of Britain in Bible Prophecy?

Andy Walton looks specifically at the Queen of Sheba, Tarshish and Tyre and how they are all linked.
Andy made a cd which includes TWO Bible talks. The Natural National Disaster talk was given as a public lecture recently. It should be beneficial for anyone including interested friends. The Role of Britain in Bible Prophecy was given as a Bible Class and does assume a basic understanding of our core beliefs. eg Christ's return. Both talks have the full powerpoint and audio in a video format.
How does the CD work?
The CD only works on a computer. It runs automatically. The video file is in a WMV format and should work fine on all computers.
NOTE: If you have a MAC the CD will not autorun but you can open the CD, find the files and open from there.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER the Audio Visual Powerpoint



Saturday 20 February 2010

Reacting to Disasters


Reacting to Disasters
Whenever there is a disaster in the world, we find ourselves both troubled by the suffering and loss of life involved and by the questions asked about why God allows such things to happen. 

There are no ‘easy’ answers, as Job was to discover as he struggled with the catastrophes that overtook him and his family. Of course his friends were convinced that he was being deliberately punished by God. But their understanding was discredited by God himself, who declared they had “not spoken of me what is right” (Job 42:7). 

Many years later, the Lord Jesus Christ was asked about the massacre of Galileans in Jerusalem by Roman soldiers. The case of the Tower of Siloam, also in Jerusalem, was also fresh in their minds. It had collapsed and killed eighteen people. Jesus asks the rhetorical question: “Do you think that [the people who suffered] were worse sinners than all other men?” He provides the answer: “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-5). 

> > > Click to read the full article

Also of interest: Read:  Haïti: did God cause the earthquake?

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Friday 30 October 2009

I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late !

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday  Morning  Commentary.

  My confession:  I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.  I don't feel threatened.  I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.  It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me.  I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.  In fact, I kind of like it.  It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu .  If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.  I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.

  I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.  I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country.  I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.  Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?  I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.  But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.  In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different:  This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

  Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina).  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives..  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'  In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc..  I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK.  Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he's talking about.  And we said okay.

  Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves..  Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'  Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

  Are you laughing yet?  Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.  Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.  Pass it on if you think it has merit.   If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did.  But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

      My Best Regards,  Honestly and respectfully,  Ben Stein