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In seeing the great tragedy Katrina has brought to so many people, I wondered why? Why would God allow so many to lose everything? Even little babies?
I thought of the city New Orleans and remembered the many parties, festivals, prostitution, gambling, drinking, etc., they are famous for; and wondered if that is why God allowed the city to be struck with such devastation.
Someone posted this site on another board with still another reason.
The above article mentioned the Southern Decadence festival that was to take place the weekend after Katrina hit. Curious to see exactly what it was and if it really was planned for that weekend, I clicked the provided link.
It appears that New Orleans is not only home of parties, gambling, etc. but they host several gay festivals each year: Gay Easter, Gay Halloween, Gay Marti Gras, Gay New Orleans and Southern Decadence.
Remember God destroyed not only the sodomites, but also innocent babies, when fire rained on Sodom and Gomorra. New Orleans should heed the warning as they begin to rebuild.
Amazingly, the news reported a decadent few who actually dressed up and danced amid the shambles celebrating the festival that wasn’t. It seems some never learn.
-------------------- 1 Thes. 5:21 (KJV) Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
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If anyone doubts the justice and fury of God against transgression of His law they only need look to the cross of Christ. And why is God so angry with sin? Because it destroys happiness and results in death.
Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed and the results recorded in permanent history so that future generations might learn the consequence of disobedience to God's will. They are without excuss who have access to the Holy Bible but refuse to learn what God expects of them.
Scripture is very plain that the entire world will be destroyed by fervent heat and that all the works will be dissolved by fire. It is not out of character for God to give warnings to the inhabitants of the cities the fate that will await them if they continue to remain in close association with evil-doers. If Lot had not left Sodom then he too would have been consumed.
Maybe the warning to "come out of her lest ye be partakers of her sins and ye receive not of her plagues," needs to be proclaimed even louder in our cities. I know that this message will be given in louder tones because Revelation 18 says that an angel cries with a mighty voice that Babylon has fallen. That angel is followed by the message to "come out."
If Christians will not separate themselves from the company of transgressors then they will, unfortunately, suffer with them. We have this example from Bible history.
"Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. He warned the assembly, 'Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.'"
If we have compassion upon wickedness then we share the heart of Lot's wife. There comes a point when the evil must be destroyed lest it infect others with its "charm" and intice them into sin. We must never forget that God destroyed the anti-deluvians with a world-wide flood because they would have destroyed the whole world. In fact, only eight persons escape their influence and were spared.
Let's make sure we side with God and not sympathize with evil-doers. But let's also vow to warn others to get away from the evil so they do not suffer with them.
God loves ever person and considers them worthy of salvation. Christ died, not to condemn them, but to save them. But if they refuse his grace and lead others away from God then they must be destroyed. And their destruction must be an example to others lest they follow the same course. Just as the Martyrs' deaths gave testimony to an obedient life, so the death of evil-doers testifies against a life of disobedience. Both are to the glory of God.
As we cry about the innocent let's not forget that Christ, the Innocent, died for the sins of the whole world. But at the same time, let's tell those who will hear to remove themselves far from the wicked cities so that God's justice might be poured out.
As Christ's 2nd coming draws near it is to be preceded with signs and wonders and men's hearts failing them for fear of what is coming upon the earth. At this time the faithful are to look up. As time draws to a close the disasters will grow in intensity and frequency just as labor pains of a woman about to give birth. What city will be next? Will Los Angeles be leveled with an earthquake? Will San Francisco be destroyed by fire, again? New York a tidal wave? Washington D. C. a nuclear explosion? Chicago a chemical spill? None of us can say for certain. But we can warn those who will listen.
New York was hit hard in 2001. New Orleans in 2005. If these disasters increase in frequency then the next disaster should occur before 2009. And, it should be even worse than Katrina. The Tsunami was in 2004. Will another city outside of America be hit in 2006? London? We don't know. So we should warn everyone we can to come out of the cities with haste!
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Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would--He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them. {GC 589.2}
While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. "The earth mourneth and fadeth away," "the haughty people . . . do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." Isaiah 24:4, 5. {GC 589.3}
From the book <cite>The Great Controversy</cite>, by Ellen White.
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Hey Jeff, I fully appreciated your first post on this topic, and fully concur. However, this second one by Ellen White (who is she anyway?)leaves me with a sense of uneasiness. THroughout my life I have believed that it is God, and God alone that is in charge of the elements, weather, etc. Throughout Psalms He is described as the author of all such events, both catystrophic and blessing.
I must admit that I am somewhat confused by all of this as well. I have a hard time reconciling a loving God, who gave his only begotten Son so that we might not perish, with destruction of his created beings. Yet, we know that God will eventually destroy even Satan in the lake of fire. So we can be sure that God does indeed destroy both "body and soul in hell."
On the other hand, scripture does refer to Satan as the "prince of the air" which would suggest that he is able to command the winds and bring about the destruction recorded in Job.
But in the end God reigns supreme and nothing happens without his permission. So while God will finally destroy the wicked and Satan in the lake of fire maybe Satan is responsible for most of the loss of life we see today. True, God does not stop it but allows it so he does take responsibility. But then when we place ourselves outside of God's care and into the hands of the enemy... can God override our choice and protect us? Yes, he could but then would he deny himself? What I mean is that if God created us as free moral agents then it would be contradictory for him to step in and remove that right from us even to protect us from death or pain. Wouldn't it?
I would appreciate your thoughts on this.
PS. Speaking of the Psalms, there is a verse that says, "It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law." Psalm 119:126 And in Isaiah a verse says, "For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act." Isaiah 28:21 So it would appear that God is not in the business of administering destructive justice but that once we pass a certain point in transgressing his law he does go to work. Other verse validate this such as we find in Isaiah 24. "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left."
I've always understood that God is the giver AND taker of life, not Satan. I'm remembering this Scripture, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickendness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness...." Romans 1:18
The late Ellen White is the woman who has been declared the prophetess of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. She has written many big thick books and is quoted very often by the SDA.
As for weather events being of Satan, true God allowed Job to be tested by Satan. However, Job was a firm believer in God.
In the OT, God used various means to warn his people and to destroy the wicked. God used the flood to destroy wicked men but spared his faithful servant, Noah. He used fire and brimestone to destroy Sodom and Gomorra but spared Lot. He often sent the heathen nations to war with Israel because of their refusal to obey him. Scripture tells us the last days will be like in Noah's and Lot's day. Thus, are we to be suprised when such things take place? And should we give Satan credit?
I do not remember any description of Satan being behind any event like this to deal with the wicked. Rather Satan wars with the saints. Why would Satan destroy a wicked city? Satan loves wicked cities.
Just after Katrina, the huricane Ophelia (sp?) did a dance on the east coast showing that man has no control, nor can predict what God's creation is going to do. Now Rita is hot on the trail of the Gulf Coast again. Could it be another warning? Could it be because New Orleans plans to rebuild their sinful city again? Could it be because many refuse to consider the warning and repent? Without the gambling, partying and such, they would lose their most valuable means of commerce to the city.
What of the threat on Texas, the oil capitol and supplier of our nations fuel, the life line of commerce? What would happen if whole cities actually repented and turned to the Lord? Would these exceedingly terrifying storms turn back to the sea? I don't mean a national day of prayer either; but true repentance.
I think the fourth seal shows the many disasters that will occur in the world and the fifth shows the world will join Satan in persecuting more Christians. Then more disasters strike the earth ,even moving the mountains, as the day of the Lord arrives. Rev. 6 While natural disasters have always occured, they seem to be more intense and more frequently now. Just so the saints have always been persecuted and it continues til the end.
Not necessarily disagreeing with everything that Faith wrote, just rounding out our understanding. I don't want to leave anyone with the idea that sinners are safer in the care of Satan than in the hands of God--as if Satan cared for them more than God. After all, it was Jesus who gave his life for sinners while they still hated him.
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Romans 8:31-34.
What has Satan done that we should be drawn to him or owe him anything?
I believe that where the Lord is there is life and safety and happiness and health. There is no death, no tears, no fear, no strife, no darkness. It is not God who brings sickness and death. Sin brought all that when men turned away from God. God created this world perfect. Sin has brought the disease and destruction.
God spelled it out very plainly to Israel.
Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known." Deut 11:26-28
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