Priorities

First things first.  When Christians see suffering they feel empathy. We too have bodies (Hebrews 13:3). Therefore, love commands, “Weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15).

Then comes aid. We want to help relieve human suffering—all of it, especially eternal suffering:  So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:10).  And that includes enemies: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27); If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink (Romans 12:20).

But sooner or later people want more than empathy and aid—they want answers.

Proclamation and Power

When love has wept and worked, it must have something to say about God. It doesn’t need to have all the answers. Only God does. But it has the Bible, and the Bible is not silent on this matter.

No earthquakes in the Bible are attributed to Satan. Many are attributed to God.¹ This is because God is Lord of heaven and earth:  He commands even winds and water, and they obey him (Luke 8:25); He sends forth His command to the earth. . . . He gives snow like wool; He scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before His cold? . . . He makes his wind blow and the waters flow (Psalm 147:15-18); He looks on the earth and it trembles . . . touches the mountains and they smoke! (Psalm 104:32); [He] shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble (Job 9:6).

Earthquakes are ultimately from God. Nature does not have a will of its own. And God owes Satan no freedom. What havoc demons wreak, they wreak with God’s permission. And God has reasons for what he permits. His permissions are purposes. That’s the point of Job 1-2 and Luke 22:31-32.

Purpose

God does nothing without an infinitely wise and good purpose:  He is wise and brings disaster (Isaiah 31:2); The Lord is good (Psalm 100:5); All his works are right and his ways are just (Daniel 4:37).

Therefore, God has a good and all-wise purpose for the heart-rending calamity in Japan on March 11, 2011 that appears to have cost tens of thousands of lives.  Indeed, he has hundreds of thousands of purposes, most of which will remain hidden to us until we are able to grasp them at the end of the age: How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Romans 11:33); The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us (Deut 29:29). Yet there are possible purposes revealed in the Bible that we may pray will come to pass:

1. The end-time earthquakes in the book of Revelation (see above) are meant as calls to repentance—to warn people who deny Jesus Christ that a day is coming when unbelievers will cry to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16).

1. The end-time earthquakes in Matthew 24:7-8 are meant to be interpreted as “the beginning of the birth pangs.” That is, they are a wake-up call to this world that God’s kingdom will soon be born. So be alert and prepare to meet Jesus Christ.

1. God’s unilateral taking of thousands of lives is a loud declaration that “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). The message for all the world is that life is a loan from God (Luke 12:20) and belongs to him. He creates it and gives it and takes it according to his own will and owes us nothing. He has a right both to children (2 Samuel 12:15) and to the aged (Luke 2:29). It is a great gift to learn this truth and dedicate our lives to their true owner rather than defraud him till it is too late.

The power felt in an earthquake reveals the fearful magnificence of God. This is a great gift since “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10). Most of the world does not fear the Lord and therefore lacks saving wisdom. The thunder-clap summons to fear God is a mercy to those who live.

1. When the earth shakes under our feet there is a dramatic sense that there is no place to flee. In most disasters the earth is the one thing that stands firm when wind and flood are raging. But where do you turn when the earth itself is unsafe? Answer: God.

Pray

And let us pray that in this catastrophe the Lord fulfills two other purposes:

1. 1.   That Christians repent of worldliness. “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).

1. 2.   That Christians in Japan and around the world would step forward with extraordinary, sacrificial love to show more clearly the mercy of Christ who laid down his life in the midst of the Father’s judgment. The suffering and death of Jesus Christ for the sin of the world is the one place where empathy, aid, and answers meet. He invites everyone to come for all three.

O how fragile this life is. The world, and all its life-sustaining processes seem so sure and solid. They are not. One thing is sure and solid:

Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28).

¹ 2 Samuel 22:8; Isaiah 13:13; 24:18-20; 29:6; Psalm 60:2; Nahum 1:5-6; Revelation 6:12; 8:5; 11:13-14; 16:18

Some of you may not be aware of the name, but Rob Bell is an influential pastor of the 10,000 strong Mars Hill Bible Church (http://marshill.org/) in Grandville, MI [Not to be confused with Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington  (http://www.marshillchurch.org/)]
He is fairly famous for his NOOMA videos that have been viewed by millions (apparently there have been 19 released); well produced short 15 minute video conversations by this leading “Emergent” pastor (“emergent” is taken from the idea that as culture changes, a new church should emerge in response). For a great overview of those videos see:

(http://www.alliancenet.org/CC/article/0,,PTID314526_CHID598014_CIID2396222,00.html).

In addition to cloudiness on the meaning of the gospel itself – among many other subjects, Rob Bell’s position on the eternality of Hell has been suspect. As of Monday, March 11, 2011 there will be no more suspicion. Tomorrow is the release date for his newest book, “Love Wins: Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.” It is his answer to the question, ‘Does a loving God really send people to hell for all eternity?’ (Often the very framing of a question leads in a given direction).

A pre-publication proof has been reviewed by Tim Challies at http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/love-wins-a-review-of-rob-bells-new-book#more. Rob Bell, like many false teachers can be very ambiguous, but the more he writes the plainer his perspective comes out. His concern is this:

“A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.”

Tim Challies writes, “Does Rob Bell deny the existence of hell? He would say no. We would say yes. He affirms, but only after redefining. And that’s just a clever form of denial.”

J.C. Ryle, an evangelical Anglican pastor said well over a hundred years ago:
“Men are beginning to tell us ‘that God is too merciful to punish souls forever, that there is a love of God lower even than hell – and that all mankind, however wicked and ungodly some of them will be, will sooner or later be saved…the time is come when it is a positive duty to speak plainly about the reality and eternity of hell…Believe me, this is no speculative question. It is not classed with disputes about liturgies and Church Government. It is not to be ranked with mysterious problems, like the meaning of Ezekiel’s temple or the symbols of Revelation. It is a question which lies at the very foundation of the whole gospel. The moral attributes of God, His justice, His holiness, His purity, are all involved. The necessity of personal faith in Christ and the sanctification of the Spirit is all at stake. Once let the old doctrine about hell be overthrown, and the whole system of Christianity is unsettled, unscrewed, unpinned, and thrown into disorder…If language has any sense belonging to it, hell is forever.”

If all the fires that ever burned, and all the flames that ever blazed, were concentrated into one expansive inferno; it would be but a painted campfire in a picture, compared to the endless, ceaseless, unimaginable fire of the lake of God’s wrath. Justice demands sins’ infinite separation from God’s holy nature and presence or propitiation in the infinitely absorbing cross of Christ. If you are not in Jesus Christ by faith, there is no deliverance from sin. Time can’t finish it, tears can’t quench it, logic can’t refute it, empathy won’t abate it, denial won’t erase it, emotion won’t change it and love won’t destroy it. “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “vile, vile, vile” cannot meet on the other side of the rejected cross.

C. H. Spurgeon: “Think lightly of hell and you will think lightly of the cross”

Matt. 10:28, 12:31-32, 13:49-50, 18:8, 25:30, 41, 46, 26:24; Mark 3:29; Luke 13:24-28, 16:23-28; John 3:18-19, 36; Rom. 9:22; 2 Thess. 1:8-9; Jude 13; Rev. 14:9-11, 16:9-11, 19:1-3, 20:10, 15.