Why Katrina?

IAM blog
Why did Katrina happen?

In the New York Times piece, Peter Steinfels points out that highlighting the man-made dimension of the catastrophe only “pushes the [theological] issue back one notch.”

The question is not only how could God have allowed this disaster to happen. It is also, as he puts it, “How could God allow the negligence, racism, indifference or hard-heartedness that long gnawed at the social fabric of New Orleans?”

Of course this is what philosophers call the classic theonomy question. For non-believers, the question is: if God is all-powerful and all-good, how can evil exist?

For believers, the question is, why would our sovereign, loving God bring or at least permit such a great disaster?

If we start with false assumptions, how can we avoid drawing a false conclusion? That's why the question of unbelief gets us nowhere. We can’t presume to know the mind of God, but we can come to a better understanding if we consider the issue in light of God’s self-disclosure in the scriptures and in Jesus Christ.

First, we can dismiss the simplistic sophistry of unbelief. Simplistic unbelief asserts that the existence of evil proves that God, if he exists, must therefore be either unloving or not all powerful.

Such reasoning presupposes an attitude of unbelief toward God and the Bible says that anything that is not of faith is sin. Furthermore, such reasoning doesn’t take into account the realities of Satan, the blinding effects of indwelling sin or the reality of the kingdom of darkness. In addition, it fails to take into account God’s great redemptive plan in history. God is resolving the problem of evil progressively and incrementally in time, and this plan is only consummated in eternity.

In addition, the question of unbelief assumes God is accountable to fallen man. This posture is more absurd than a guilty criminal who struts into court imagining the judge owes him an explanation for the rising crime rate. He is in for a very rude awakeneing.

Even though we can’t give an answer that will satisfy everyone, there are some truths and principles that help in understanding how and why God might permit or bring natural disasters:

1. This world is futile by design.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:20-21)

Have you ever noticed the futility of every day life? Its universality is so evident, we even have a name for it: Murphy’s Law. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Things in this world, whether great or small, go wrong, wear out, break down, decay. And God has designed this world to be that way. For the non-believer, it is sign to seek God. As Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and restless are our hearts until they rest in you.” That’s it. This world is futile by nature and by design, because we were made for God and our hearts can never be satisfied with anything else or anything less. For this reason we shouldn’t be surprised when things go wrong.

2. Adversity comes to us as a test.

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands…He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. (Deuteronomy 8:2,15-16)

God sometimes sends adversity to test us and reveal what is in our hearts. He tests us not so that he may know, but that we may know. Sometimes it only through testing and failure that we come to know our sin and weakness, and are so positioned to be able to receive grace. We know neither the depth of our sin nor our helplessness to do anything about it, and it is only by God’s grace, which may come in the form of testing, that we realize our need for the Savior. Notice that God’s ultimate purpose is that it may go well for us in the end.

3. Natural disasters are pictures of the wrath to come.

9/11, the tsunami and Katrina are terrible disasters on a huge scale. I do not want to minimize the great suffering of those who have lost so much in this great disaster. I don’t pretend to be able to fathom what these victims have suffered.

But these disasters are nothing compared to the wrath to come. As alien as it may be to the post modern ear, the wrath of God is coming. We must not think that God is in anyway slack in bringing justice for sin. His justice is coming and it will be swift, sure and severe.

Katrina’s scale may have been vast, but the coming wrath will be universal. Losing all we have, loved ones and even life itself is bitter. But the coming judgment will signal eternal loss for those who are unprepared. Those who ignored the warnings and directions of the authorities paid a dear price.

It is a mercy that there are reminders to us that this world is not forever, and that some day we will all stand before an infinitely holy judge to give an account of how we have lived in relation to his law. It is designed to drive us to the gospel, the sure way of escape.

4. We must be careful to avoid thinking that the Katrina victims are worse sinners than we.

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them - do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:1-5)

Jesus addressed this tendency to think disaster victims are worse sinners that we are. His message is that the victims are not necessarily worse sinners than we. Some believers are linking the catastrophe to the casino gambling, strip joints, prostitution and murder rates in some affected areas. Of course these things are wrong, but many of those who were affected were not involved in such things, and many were children, poor, elderly and infirm. No. The message to all is repent, because all have sinned.

In conclusion, let’s not ask the questions of unbelief. It won’t give us any comfort or any understanding. Let’s ask the question of faith: What good purpose is our sovereign, loving God engineering for our ultimate good?

Is he reminding me that this world is passing away?

Is he testing me to humble me and reveal my heart so that I might come to him for grace?

Is he taking away lesser, temporal things –things I cannot keep so that I might gain the ultimate good that can never be taken away?