A Look at Tsunami From a Biblical Perspective

The year 2004 came to an end with the destructive fury of Tsunami, the worst catastrophe in recent history that struck 11 countries, mostly in Southern Asia, on Sunday December 26, 2004. Tsunami dwarfs everything experienced during the past half a century in terms of death and destruction. In a few hours the 9 points richter scale earthquake created jet-speed waves that unleashed their energy upon various shores, leaving a wide arc of devastation extending from Indonesia and Thailand to India and Sri Lanka all the way to Somalia in Africa. Over 150,000 persons are reported dead and the count continues.
 
 

By Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.,
Retired Professor of Theology and Church History

From a biblical perspective the Tsunami tragedy is purely an act of God, because there are no human factors to blame. There are no loggers to blame for clearing forests, no engineers to fault for poor design or construction, no government planners to call to account for allowing urban development in risky places. The slipping of the tectonic plates on the ocean-bed off Sumatra, cannot be blamed on global warming or on the lack of adequate precautionary measures. What happened is beyond human capacity to influence or control.

Some Christians wish to blame the Devil for such natural disasters, but nowhere does the Bible attribute to Satan . power over weather, natural phenomena or disastrous events. Satan is called the prince of this world (2 Cor 4:4, John 12:31, 14:30, Eph 6:12), but his power is limited.

For Christians who believe in God as Creator and Controller of this world, there is only the difficult conclusion that the responsibility for the Tsunami disaster rests directly with God. Scripture tells us that God controls the rain (Deut 11:14-17, 28:12, Job 5:10, Matt 5:45, James 5:17-18), lightning (Ps 97:4), thunder, snow, whirlwind, flood and clouds "to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world, whether for correction, or for his land, or for love, he causes it to happen" (Job 37:12-13; cf. Job 28:10-11, Ps 107:25, 29, Nahum 1:3-4).

Earthquakes happen naturally, but can also be caused by God (Job 9:5, 28:9, Ps 18:7, 77:16-18, 97:3-5, Isa 2:19, 24:20, 29:6, Jer 10:10, Nahum 1:5, Heb 12:26). He causes the mountains to be thrown down and the valleys to fill (Ezek 38:20). The forces of nature never spiral out of God's control. They are controlled by God who "shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble" (Job 9:6). God "looks on the earth and it trembles, touches the mountains and they smoke!" (Ps 104:32).

What Are the Implications of the Tsunami Disaster?

If God is in control, then, what are the implications of the Tsunami disaster? Did God choose to strike Southern Asia because He regarded the Hindus of India, the Muslim of Indonesia and the Buddhists of Thailand as especially deserving His divine punishment? But, then, what about the hurricanes that devastated several costal towns in Florida? Are the Floridians deserving divine punishment more than the rest of the United States?

The attempt to explain natural disasters as divine punishment upon deserving sinners, ignores that sometimes many of the victims are innocent children, as in the case of the this Tsunami's disaster where 40% of the victims were children. And even among the adults there are godly people who live according the moral principles implanted in their consciences. An old woman in a devastated village in southern India's Tamil Nadu state, wailed: "Why did you God do this to us? What have we done to upset you?" There were also Christians killed in this widespread disaster.

The answer of the Bible is that those who suffer or die because of natural disasters are NOT necessarily singled out by God as deserving special punishment. Jesus refuted this fallacious reasoning by explaining that those eighteen persons who were killed by the collapse of Siloam's tower, were no worse offenders than the rest of the people in Jerusalem (Luke 13:4). That tragedy, however, was to bring home the important lesson that "unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:5).

The Bible suggests three major reasons for the destructions caused by natural disaster like Tsunami.

1. A Call to Repentance

First, disasters serve as a wake up call to repentance for mankind. Disasters can have a sobering effect upon the human mind. When a war breaks out, or an earthquake destroys countless lives and property, or a drought burns the crops and dries up the water supply, or an epidemic disease victimizes millions of persons, many people will call out to God either in curses or prayer. C. S. Lewis wrote that "pain is God's megaphone to a deaf world."

It was an earthquake that caused the jailer at Philippi to exclaim: "Men, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). It was a famine that sent King Ahab searching everywhere for the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 18:10). It was a plague that brought Pharoah to his knees, confessing before Moses: "I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, I pray you, only this once, and entreat the Lord your God only to remove this death from me" (Ex 10:16-17).

In His Olivet Discourse Jesus predicted that certain calamities will occur before His Return. Because of their nature and function, we can call these calamities "signs of divine judgment." Specifically Jesus said: "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the sufferings" (Matt 24:6-8; cf. Mark 13:7-8). Luke adds "pestilences" to the listing of calamities (Luke 21:11).

The manifestation of divine judgment through calamities is intended to summon people to repent. The prophet Joel, for example, describes a disastrous drought and fire which destroyed the harvest, the pasture, and the trees and dried up the water brooks (Joel 1:11-12, 19-20). In the context of this calamity, the prophet calls upon the people to repent: "Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, . . . Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God; and cry to the Lord" (Joel 1:5, 14).

2. An Announcement of the Final Judgment

Second, disasters are used by God not only to summon people to repentance, but also to announce His final judgment which is associated with the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament and with the Day of Christ's Coming in the New Testament. For example, Joel sees the historical famine described above as a sign that "the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes" (Joel 1:15).

In the prophetic perspective, disasters such as wars, earthquakes, and famines not only reveal God's immediate judgment upon human ungodliness and wickedness (Rom 1:18), but are also harbingers of the final judgment to come. They constantly remind mankind that the Judge is standing at the doors (James 5:9). Every report of calamity by sea or land is a testimony to the fact that the end of all things is at hand.

3. A Pledge of the Certainty of the End

A third noteworthy aspect of calamities is that they serve to point to the certainty of the approaching End. Jesus spoke of wars, earthquakes, famines, and pestilences as disasters occurring not exclusively at the very end but during the whole time preceding His Return. This point is implied in the admonition not to be alarmed by the occurrence of these signs "for this must take place, but the end is not yet" (Matt 24:6; Mark 13:7; Luke 21:9). In fact, these signs are said to represent "but the beginning of the sufferings" (Matt 24:8; Mark 13:8).

The latter expression was used in Judaism in a technical way to describe the period of suffering ("the birth-pangs") that would precede the establishment of the messianic Kingdom. Possibly Jesus made use of this familiar concept to characterize the conditions that will precede His Return. The occurrences of wars, earthquakes, famines, and pestilences do not pinpoint but point to the approaching End. They constitute a pledge that the End will surely come.

By saying that wars, earthquakes, famines, and pestilences are "but the beginning of birth-pangs" (Matt 24:8; Mark 13:8), Christ clearly implied that they will intensify as the End approaches. "But the beginning" presupposes that there will be more and worse disasters yet to come. These will cause such a "great tribulation" that, Jesus said, "if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved" (Matt 24:22; cf. Mark 13:20).

Christ's prediction of the intensification of calamities before the End finds support in the prophetic books of the Old and New Testaments. These books predict an intensification of warfare and disasters prior to the Coming of the Lord.

Both natural and man-made disasters are increasing today in different parts of the world. Through natural cataclysms and man-made environmental crises, God is announcing His impending judgment upon human rebellion and is calling people to repent before it is too late.

The unprecedented fulfillment in our time of the signs of divine judgment predicted by Christ is a clear harbinger of the impending final judgment that Christ will soon execute upon mankind at His Second Coming. Through natural disasters like Tsunami God is calling upon unbelievers to repent and upon believers to live holy and godly lives while "waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God" (2 Pet 3:11-12). Let us take to heart the prophetic implications of this Tsunami.

http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/endtimeissues/index.html

 
Maranatha!
Deborah
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