How Could God Have Allowed the Japanese Earthquake?
On Friday 11th March, an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale struck the east coast of Japan. The earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami, which in turn triggered the start of a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant. So far, over 5000 people have died from the tsunami, but the long-term effects of the leaking radation could kill many, many more.
Whatever you do or don’t believe about God, that’s got to make you ask some difficult questions. If you don’t believe in God and consider the world to be the product of random evolution, then it should make you wonder why you feel so angered by the disaster. Why does something within you rage against a sense of injustice, if the world is merely a meaningless collocation of atoms? Why does something visceral within you instinctively want to blame the God you don’t believe in?
On the other hand, if you do believe in God and in the message of the Bible, then it should make you stop and wonder how God can allow such disasters. If he is powerful enough to stop them but doesn’t, how can he be good? If he is good enough to want to stop them but doesn’t, how can he be powerful? It’s one of the toughest questions for Christians to answer.
Whatever your background and beliefs, I’d like to help you by pointing you towards two messages addressing this whole issue. Both come from the Newday Festival in 2010.
The first is a talk by my friend Liam Thatcher on “How Could a God of Love Allow Earthquakes?” He gave this talk in response to the Haiti earthquake last year, but it is equally relevant to the latest Japanese disaster. Click here.
The second is a talk which I gave at the same event on the more general question of “How Can God Allow Suffering?” I spoke for half an hour on how to respond to the suffering we see in the world, and then answered questions which were texted in by the audience while I spoke. Click here.
God expects disasters like the Japanese earthquake to make you ask tough questions. He also expects you to care enough to listen to his answers.
