Many have been speaking that Katrina is God's judgment on the U.S.A. Do we live in the Church Age? Do we live in the age of grace? Did God pour out His wrath on His own son as the ultimate sacrifice and payment in full for mankind?
Is God in the business of beating up His own people?
Would God pick the USA out of all the nations of the world to punish? Since most missionaries come from the USA and the gospel is being preached primarily from this nation, wouldn't it be counter productive to beat up the voice that speaks forth the gospel in the earth? Why didn't God zap Hitler? Why doesn't God zap Iran?
The planet suffered a cataclysmic break down in the flood that left it unstable. Natural disasters are not the judgment of God in this age of grace and the preaching of the gospel. Jesus didn't come to destroy lives but to save them.
As far as sovereignty is concerned, it does not mean God can do anything He wants. God cannot lie, cannot change His Word, cannot deny His promises, cannot be tempted by evil and will not tempt man with evil. God has limited Himself to His Word and wokrs through his Word in the earth. Sovereignty means that God has the priveledge of establishing the laws, principles and order of His creation, and once established, God submits Himself to what His Word has declared.
If God is in control, why did He come to destroy the works of the enemy? If the works of the enemy represent the will of God, and if they are under His control, then it makes no sense for Jesus to destroy them since they are being controlled by God in the first place.If the fiery darts of satan represent the 'controlling will of God,' then why does God give us faith to quench those darts?
If storms are of God, why did Jesus rebuke them?
If God desires that we lose everything in the storms of life, why does he exhort us to be doers of the Word in order to stand firm and pass through those storms, and he explains that those who are not doers of the Word suffer loss and calamity?
If God is in control, then why does He declare that His people destroyed for lack of knowledge? What difference does it make how smart or ignorant we are if God is going to do what He wants anyway?
MJ Martin
I agree with Hilton Sutton as per Jim Bramlett's post.
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/sep2005/jim910-1.htm