Tsunami disaster

Chuck Colsen has some very thoughtful remarks on the disaster:



“One death is a tragedy,” said Josef Stalin, “a million is a statistic.” He was wrong. Any decent person cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the suffering caused by last month’s tsunami. The thousands of dead aren’t statistics; they are people made in the image of God—victims of a catastrophe that has spurred the world to action and left many in a state of despair.



One of the strongest intellectual arguments regarding the disaster is the "wounded earth" explaination. The earth was affected by the fall of man. We will never understand this. George Will uses an excellent line by Einstein:



``We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is.''



No one from any philosophical school is able to explain most of the aspects of our universe. Why should Christianity be condemned because we start with faith in a Sovereign God and leave all things in His hand? Many people are able to question faith and ask, "How could a loving God allow this to happen?" I cannot think of any religion/philosophy that can explain this disaster. I know of few that can give the comfort that Christianity can.



Whatever God's purpose in this, we can know several truths. Any Christian who dies will spend eternity with God. However many Christians that perished in this calamity are dancing with the saints. Any unsaved person who dies, whether it be by age, or drugs, or cancer, or tidal waves, will be judged for his personal sin. He will be judged according to his acceptance or non-acceptance of Christ's work on Calvary. All men have an opportunity because God loves all men. None of these deaths override the love of God.



This disaster has certainly opened the eyes of the world. We are but specks of creation. We are nothing next to the majesty and power of nature. The God who commands the winds and the waves to obey him is the God to whom we can call. The gospels tell us that in the latter days there will be wars, and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in diverse places. We see such occurrances daily. I have been thinking about why wars and earthquakes would proceed earth's final judgement. I believe that God is extending His mercy to mankind for one final time (for any act of God that is not judgement is mercy). For the last plea God reveals to mankind that they have no hope of themselves. It is anyone's guests whether the most sophisticated warning system could have saved the lives the countless poverty-stricken people of the region. Nothing man can ever do will secure him from the power of the firmanent. I do not know that these are the last days. I do know that God desires that all men come to him, and that He knows what will bring men to him.