Whose Fault is it Anyway? Part 1

Whose Fault is it Anyway?

What a crazy world we are living in right now; but I have to say, as a lover of history, that all times are pretty crazy for one reason or another.  Now just seems the worst because it is happening to us right now.  I have heard some theories about how Corona Virus Disease '19 (COVID-19) came about from accidents to animals, to bio-weapons.  Whatever the case, here we are stuck in our homes for the foreseeable future praying that God would just get our lives back to normal.

Listening to more nonsecular sources, I have heard tell that is possibly God's "wake-up" call.  Maybe it is, maybe it isn't His construct at all.  If it is of His design, does that mean that the poor souls who have succumb to this illness have done so at the Hands of our Creator?  Questions such as these are among those I want us to explore, in three examples, for the next three weeks in a discussion series I want to call "Whose Fault is it Anyway?" 

Can God be "held responsible" for the World's calamities?

As Christians, we believe that God is sovereign over all the earth; that which He created both belongs to Him and is His to do with as He chooses.  If you read any of the Old Testament especially, you can see the tremendous works of God bring calamity upon His creation:

• The Flood (Genesis 6-8)
• The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19)
• The plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7-12)
• Poisonous vipers (Numbers 21)
• Power over Job (Job 2)
• Removal of God's protection (Judges)
• Storm on the high seas (Jonah 1)
• Saul's evil spirit (1 Samuel 16)
• Death of an infant (2 Samuel 12)
• Plagued with enemies (Kings, Chronicles)
• Babylonian Exile (Daniel, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel)
• Various calamities sent by God (Amos 4)
• Jesus' suffering and death (Isaiah 53)
• Paul's suffering (Acts 9)

How can we reconcile these things with the God of love?  The fact that He is also the God of justice.  Many of these disasters had the purpose of turning the hearts of the people back to God, or giving them reason to revere Him for the first time.  Each of us demands justice in the world; I believe it is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. 

Can we hold Him responsible?

In the best timeline we can put together from Biblical and extra biblical dating, in the year 2065 BC, Abram petitioned a mysterious group of three visitors to save the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  These "cities of the plain" were wealthy and wicked; so much so that the surrounding people begged God constantly to do something about it. (Genesis 18) When I was completing my Bachelor's degree at Liberty University I took a biblical archaeology class and this particular event had plenty of evidence of it having taken place.  Archaeologists found skeletal and architectural remains of a great burning; evidence suggesting that huge balls of fire were hurtled at the unsuspecting city.  Utter destruction.

Scripture is not private on this; God took full responsibility for the judgement of these two cities and their unrepentant inhabitants.  This is a great calamity, among others, when we can say that yes, God stepped down and wrecked the place for His namesake.  No one bats an eye at this, especially when we read about how wicked they were, instead we say "Yes! They finally got what they deserved!"

While we will approach the topic more in-depth in the next few lessons, I want to leave you with a few questions for interaction:

1. Do you believe that God still does/should step down into His creation to punish sin?
2. If you were God, what kind of interventions would you perform?
3. Do you think that we can hold God accountable for global calamities, or is that something reserved for biblical history?
4. If God can be held accountable, how does that change your opinion of Him (check out Job 2:10 for Job's opinion)

Please answer some or all of these questions in the comment section below.  Be sure to sign your name  as a poster or at the bottom of your comment so we know who you are as a classmate!