Worldwide Weather Disasters
Recently the Southeastern United States was struck by two powerful hurricanes arriving almost simultaneously. When weather disasters strike, many people are prone to ask, “Is God telling us something?” We posted a blog in 2008 in which we asked if certain weather events were an “Act of God” or rather, an “Act of Man.” We introduce our current discussion by linking our 2008 post:
The recent hurricanes Helene in North Carolina, and Milton in Florida have generated substantial loss of life and property. Of all natural disasters, 93% are related to weather. Natural disasters provoke much discussion related to The Maker’s role in creating and sustaining an operating system for our natural world which sometimes includes “natural evil.” The concept of natural evil is a difficult issue to explain in terms of a benevolent God who creates humanity to fellowship with Him and follow His divine instructions for our daily lives. Whenever we discuss such troubling questions we are reminded of Bible passages which propose highly diverse descriptions of creation’s wonders. Scripture relates both desirable and potentially fatal weather events.
Genesis 1 reminds us five times that God viewed His varied works of creation and pronounced the creation either good or very good. After doing word studies of scripture passages and studying complex weather events in context, we are convinced that the operating system of God’s weather and climate systems can work either for our benefit or detriment. We explain the thoughts expressed in this paragraph as follows: We do not abide in a perfect world. Rather, we live in a good or very good world.
Our past post of May 18, 2024 was not inspired by the same degree of natural and personal devastation that hurricanes Helene and Milton caused. However, the post dealt with some beneficial effects of unpleasant weather events and how humanity could profit from them:
From 1920 to 1960 there were much higher death rates from weather-related events than those from 1960 to 2020. This surprising statistic contradicts some of the alarmism we have experienced from media outlets concerning dangers inherent in climate change. Perhaps modern man has learned to be better prepared with wise building codes and timely publicized meteorological warning systems.
“We are not defenseless against disasters: Deaths from disasters have fallen significantly over the last century as a result of early warning systems, better infrastructure, more productive agriculture, and coordinated responses.” (Quote from
Our World in Data.) This improvement has occurred in spite of the quadrupling of world population from 2 billion to 8 billion in the last century.
Climate Change is an ideologically charged political issue. “Instead of considering the objective damage caused by weather events, (media) networks tend to look for disasters that are ‘rife with drama.’ As one New York Times article put it — hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires, and earthquakes, all make for splashy headlines and captivating visuals.” (Our World in Data)
Worldwide food shortages from hunger and starvation result in even greater sorrow from a humanitarian point of view. News about worldwide food shortages, famine, and starvation is also a human tragedy. We do not wish to trivialize the horrific tragedy of loss of life and property caused by our recent hurricanes. Rather, we must understand the divine operating system designed by our Creator with its occasional physical disasters.
The future New Creation described in the Book of Revelation 21-22 will be free of disasters and filled with perfection.
