As we seek to learn why bad things happen in this world, we are looking at several principles of a theological chaos theory. We are currently discussing the point that due to the fall of humanity, nature has spun out of control. In yesterday’s post we saw that Scripture and theology seems to indicate that in some way humans were enabled by God to guide and control natural forces, but when we sinned, we lost this ability, and nature spun out of control.
Due to sin, we lost control of the powers that control nature, and having spun out of control, they now wreak havoc on the world. There is now disarray and chaos in creation.
From this, we can know several things.
Storms are Not Sent “From God”
First, when storms and disasters occur, they do not “come from God.” Storms are not sent by God. (I know that some will object and point to the Flood or to the storm that God sent to bring back a fleeing Jonah. We will look at these texts at a later time.)
Storms occur because the forces of nature are out of control. Much of the work of God on earth is focused on protecting humanity from complete destruction at the hand of these destroying powers. Sometimes God “withdraws” His hand of protection and allows storms to rage, but we must be careful with saying that this is why all storms occur. We do not know why God allows some storms. When it comes to storms, there is much we do not know.
For example, we will never know all of the boundaries that God has placed upon the destructive powers so that they do not overwhelm and annihilate mankind forever. We can never know how many disasters have been averted, how many floods have been avoided, how many meteorites have been nudged off course by God. And when storms and disasters do occur, we can never know what string of events and decisions by God, angels, and human beings led to that storm occurring.
