Forty percent of adults in the United States believe the world will end as a result of some supernatural intervention, according to those who study such things. Obviously the teachings of the Bible about the end of time and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ has made an impact on the expectations of Americans.
What may be a little more surprising is that 40 percent of American adults also believe the world will end in their lifetime.
Against such a background, it should not be surprising that some people are pointing toward Hurricane Katrina as a sign of the approaching end of time. Matthew 24:7–8 and Luke 21:25–26 both declare that wars and natural calamities will signal the beginning of the end of time.
For some, the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami in the Indian Ocean basin coupled with Hurricane Katrina, the largest natural disaster to hit the United States in terms of dollar value, are sure signs the end is near.
Of course, hurricanes and floods have hit other parts of the world with far deadlier results. More than 2 million died in 1959 when floods struck the northern part of China.
But those numbers do little for the angst felt when disaster strikes close to home. Psychologists explain that when disaster is beyond comprehension, people often try to explain it in terms of great apocalyptic plans.
This is not a new phenomenon. Readers will remember the rash of end of times predictions accompanying the Persian Gulf War, the dawning of the new millennium and the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Others see Katrina as punishment. One Web site hosted by a well-known evangelical personality said the hurricane and flood were God’s punishment on New Orleans for tolerating sin in their city for so long.
That the Crescent City has a Sodom and Gomorrah-type reputation is hard to deny. What this argument does not explain is what God had against the residents of the Mississippi coast who suffered equally from Katrina’s winds and waves.
Or what did God have against those living far from the area who lost their homes to tornadoes spun off by the raging storm?
Still others say the hurricane is God’s punishment for the United States supporting the evacuation of Gaza by the Israeli government. One Web site columnist described Katrina as “the fist of God.”
The columnist wrote the storm was “God’s judgment on the nation most responsible for endangering the land and people of Israel.” The storm hit two weeks after Israel pulled out of some of the land seized in the 1967 War.
Interestingly there was no great calamity after Israel returned most of the Sinai Peninsula, also seized in the 1967 War, to Egypt several years ago.
Christians are not the only ones spouting great theories. Some charge that the storms are the result of global warming. New Agers explain the tsunami and this huge storm are messages from the Earth letting humanity know of its pain.
The New Agers contend the environment is undergoing what they call “Earth Changes” that will result in the United States being almost completely submerged in seawater when the cycle is complete.
Concern about global warming and fossil fuels and earth changes is appropriate. The God who created the world invited humanity to join Him in the continued creation process as mankind served as overseer and superintendent of the world (Gen. 1:28).
How strange it is when those who claim to have no god care more for the Earth than those who worship the Earth’s Creator.
Still all the explanations fall short. They are nothing more than ideal speculations that “tickle the ears” of those who expound them. Ours is not a perfect and predictable world, as much as mankind wants it to be so.
Some religious faiths lay everything at the feet of God, especially the spectacular events such as Hurricane Katrina. But the Bible teaches that God is not always in the spectacular.
In 1 Kings 19:10ff, the Bible recounts how Elijah looked for God in “great and powerful winds that tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks,” (v. 11) but God was not in the wind. God was not in the earthquake that followed nor was He in the scorching fire.
Elijah found God in a gentle whisper.
People looking for God in the midst of Katrina will find Him in the gentle whispers of Baptist and other Christian volunteers serving a hot meal or pulling sawed up limbs from homes.
God will be found in the invitation to take a shower in a Baptist-sponsored shower trailer or in the hand of a nurse dispensing an antibiotic for an infected cut. God will be found in the kindnesses Christians provide by opening their homes and churches to refugees and placing dollars in offering plates destined for disaster relief.
God is always good. Circumstances do not determine His character for in all circumstances God offers us Himself. There is no promise of protection from life’s circumstances, only the promise that “I am with you always.”
God calls Christians to be caring as He is caring. That is one reason Southern Baptists now make up the third largest disaster relief force in the nation. Now Southern Baptists are interviewed about relief efforts on national television alongside Red Cross and Salvation Army officials.
Interestingly it is Southern Baptists trained relief volunteers who manned two of the earliest Red Cross feeding units deployed and two of the first Salvation Army feeding units.
About a thousand Southern Baptist volunteers are already working in stricken areas. Thousands more will follow. Each one will testify to the fact of God’s presence, of God’s care as well as the love and care of the volunteer through whom He works.
When the world will end, no one knows. When the next disaster will strike, again, no one knows. What we do know is that God cares. He cares so much that Christ died for us.
And we know that God calls on Christians to care. Pray for all of those impacted by Hurricane Katrina, and do all you can to be a whisper of God’s love to those who are hurting.
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