This is a sticky question, and one I’ve struggled with.
- John Piper wrote in 2009 that a tornado in Minneapolis was a judgment on the Lutheran church for its stance on homosexuality.
- Greg Boyd disagreed.
- I was thinking of this after the April 2011 tornadoes in the United States, and the numerous churches damaged or destroyed, including:
- This Assembly of God church
- Alabama churches: Baptist and Methodist
- Church of God of Prophecy
- Several Southern Baptist churches
Were all of these churches somehow in need of judgment? Despite the Scriptures bandied about, I have significant problems thinking of all tornadoes (and natural disasters in general) as the judgment of God. I prefer the approach of C. S. Lewis: God has made this world a dangerous place in part because only in the context of danger do eternal issues of character come to the fore.
What do you think? How do you reconcile this?
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