What about the sign that is happening in recent times where natural disasters become such a frequent thing? What is your view toward it?<\/p>\n\t
There is built within your question an assumption that frequent natural disasters are a sign. A sign of what, I’m not told, but it obviously must be a sign about something.<\/p>\n
The answer is that I’m not privy to God’s plans, outside of what He has chosen to reveal in His word. The problem is that we have a tendency to assume that there must be meaning to every event that happens in life. But the Bible states that this is not necessarily so. There is such a thing as random events. “I returned and saw under the sun that – the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all<\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).<\/p>\n People of Jesus’ day made the same false assumption. A tower fell in Jerusalem, killing a number of people. “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no …<\/em>” (Luke 13:4-5). The falsehood is assuming that bad things only happen to bad people. The entire book of Job was written to dispel this notion. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and those bad things are even allowed by God as a test.<\/p>\n Could a natural disaster be a divine punishment from God? Yes. Such has occurred in the past. But are all natural disasters divine punishments? Here the answer is clearly “no.” But without God telling us, we are only left to guess which is which; and given mankind’s history of accuracy, I would say that most often people guess wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: What about the sign that is happening in recent times where natural disasters become such a frequent thing? What is your view toward it? Answer: There is built within your question an assumption that frequent natural disasters are a sign. A sign of what, I’m not told, but it obviously must be a sign…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[410,182,188],"class_list":["post-3344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-judgment","tag-suffering","tag-trials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14233,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-homosexuality-a-sign-of-mental-illness\/","url_meta":{"origin":3344,"position":0},"title":"Is homosexuality a sign of mental illness?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A few days ago I saw my two friends making out and they are both guys. Everyone thinks they are mentally sick. Does being gay mean you have mental problems? I am really worried about them. They also asked for my suggestions. Answer: Having sex with someone of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-god-telling-americans-to-straighten-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":3344,"position":1},"title":"Is God telling Americans to straighten up?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: There are so many terrible things going on in the world today.\u00a0 I have a friend that is saying God is trying to warn us as Americans that we need to straighten up in this country or\u00a0 God will turn His back on us. What are your views on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31014,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-homosexuality-innate-or-natural-for-some-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":3344,"position":2},"title":"Is homosexuality innate or natural for some people?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about something that I'm really confused about. It deals with homosexuality. In Romans 1, it talks about men and woman going against nature and having unnatural relations with the same sex. I've read on a pro-gay theology site about how the original Greek words phusikos\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2750,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-girl-girl-relationships-condemned\/","url_meta":{"origin":3344,"position":3},"title":"Are girl-girl relationships condemned?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What can you say about girl\/girl relationships? Is it a sin and an abomination to the Lord? Did the Bible say anything about it? Answer: God's teaching clearly condemns girl-girl (lesbian) sexual relationships along with boy-boy (homosexual) relationships. \"For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-haitians-make-a-pact-with-the-devil-did-that-cause-the-earthquake\/","url_meta":{"origin":3344,"position":4},"title":"Did the Haitians make a pact with the devil? Did that cause the earthquake?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you know what the basis for Pat Robertson's comments on Haiti and their pact with the devil was based on in terms of the light of Scripture? Is it true they made a pact with the devil? I find his comments to have no scriptural basis at all.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30857,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-we-make-things-right-and-be-committed-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":3344,"position":5},"title":"How can we make things right and be committed Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a middle-aged woman in a relationship with a middle-aged man for about a year. We have talked of marriage, but I am not sure if this man is the one that God wants me to marry. I am a born again Christian. 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