Introduction:
Over the past year or so the news has regularly been dominated by events that are generally termed "natural disasters." It started off with a major tsunami in the Pacific that devastated the coastlines of several nations and racked up a death toll that came to hundreds of thousands. Then we had an unusually severe hurricane season in the Atlantic culminating in the United States being devastated by such major hurricanes as Katrina and Rita. Since then we have had a major earthquake in Kashmir generating a death toll in Pakistan alone of over 80,000, with grand totals well in excess of that. And looming ahead on the horizon is the threat of a world wide pandemic caused by the avian bird flu that is demonstrating a capacity to effect humans as well. Plus currently Hurricane Wilma, with category five vengeance, is bearing down on Florida. It certainly seems time to take a look at what is transpiring as this pattern continues to unfold. We will look at it theologically and Biblically. We will look to ascertain what we can learn about God’s dealings with his creation in such circumstances. As our object lesson we will examine the lessons to be learned from Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina:
Hurricane Katrina may just turn out to become one of the great disasters of American history, rivaling the Johnstown flood and the San Francisco earthquake. The heart of an entire American city has been destroyed and made uninhabitable. It may never really be rebuilt, certainly not in a fashion to compare with what was so suddenly swept away. Its destruction compares with that of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, its walls (levees) beached and its temple (Superdome?) in ruins. And although the Lord used different means to accomplish his purpose with each city, the parallels may not end with their comparable destruction.

America:
Let us examine the nation upon which such a signal act of God’s providence has been visited. The Bible enunciates the principle that knowledge of the truth brings greater moral responsibility and accountability.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17).

And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:47-48)

According to this principle, America should receive greater judgments and prior judgments to the pagan world that is largely ignorant of God’s word, like Israel of old who was at times dealt with more severely than the pagan nations. As Habakkuk’s complaint states it…

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? (Habakkuk 1:13).

Now, historically, America has been blessed with a knowledge of the word of God as few other nations have been. Historically, she has also been blessed with ecclesiastical, political, and cultural institutions that recognized that word and were to various degrees founded upon it or in conformity to the principles therein. What has America done with that heritage? How has she responded to this spiritual heritage? Well, for the last half century she has been actively working to suppress any testimony to the Christian faith in her culture. She has banned the Christian scriptures and prayer to the Christian God from her public institutions. She has embarked on a political campaign to legalize those things such as fornication, adultery, sodomy, gambling, Sabbath desecration, and so forth, that historically were earmarks of our legal commitment to Christian morality and ethics. What have been the results? God has not blessed! Our currency is debased by inflation, our standard of living has been falling, and unprecedented levels of prosperity have been replaced with unprecedented levels of debt. Simultaneously we have had epidemics of venereal disease, divorce, crime, and a general unraveling of our social fabric. As God has progressively withdrawn his blessing on the nation what has been our response? Have we sought his favor? Have we repented of our folly? Have we submitted to his holy judgments? No, we have not. Can we expect more? If we believe in a holy and a righteous God and the absoluteness of his providential governance over his creation, absolutely. If even Thomas Jefferson can say, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just," how should we feel about the prospects of the American republic mired in the wickedness of the twenty-first century?

Natural Disasters or Acts of God?
There is a very interesting aspect to our response as a nation to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. It is the results of the following poll taken in mid-October of 2005.

Note the precise nature of the question. The poll does not ask if these recent hurricanes are judgments of God or if they indicate in any way God’s displeasure with the nation. They simply ask if they were deliberate, that is conscious, acts of God. Two thirds of the nation think not. That is, two thirds of the nation reject the Biblical testimony of God’s sovereign control over his creation, and have accepted the Deist position, that the creation is on auto-pilot, and if there is a God, he may occasionally intervene, but does not actively superintend and consciously control daily events in this world. While the Scriptures say, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:29-30), "shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?" (Amos 3:6), and "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things" (Isaiah 45:7), Americans think differently. (Note: The word evil in these texts refers to evils such as war, famine, and pestilence, etc., not to moral evil in the sense of sin.)

While polls consistently demonstrate that a majority of the American people, as opposed to the populations of Western Europe, still believe in "God," this demonstrates the kind of god that they have accepted. It is definitely not the God who reveals himself in the Bible. And shockingly, the statistics for evangelical Protestants are not much better. Over sixty per cent hold the same Deist position. They have been so indoctrinated in a false caricature of the God of the Bible, that they cannot imagine a holy and a just God visiting such devastation on his rebellious creation. Even Catholics, who historically have held to a very stern and judgmental God from whom only the tender entreaties of Mary can save them, overwhelmingly follow suit. Theologically, America has been neutered. America is far from ready to begin learning the lessons of Katrina and company.

New Orleans:
And what of the city on which this deliberate act of God was visited? What of New Orleans upon which such a signal judgment of God has fallen? What kind of city is it? And how did it react to this visitation of divine displeasure? New Orleans is beyond dispute a very wicked city. It has long been notorious for the corruption of its politics, although that is becoming more and more commonplace in large American cities. It is also an extremely lawless city. Back in the late sixties, when I spent a lot of time in New Orleans on business, it was a very safe city. I have long since been informed that that has radically changed. Statistics bear out this assessment. The city has a murder rate of over fifty per 100,000 residents (53.1 in 2002). To put that in context one has to realize that this is seven times the murder rate of New York City! Astounding! Robberies are three times the national average and one third of the black males (the city is 67% black) in the city have done time in prison. While other American cities that are dominated by racial politics (New Orleans has a black mayor), that minimize personal moral responsibility and maximize entitlement demands, have serious problems, New Orleans seems to be in a class of its own in that respect. This was indeed a city ripe for judgment.

And how did the city respond to this disaster? With patience and fortitude? With humility and resignation? With repentance and sorrow? No, none of the above characterized its response. Instead it responded with an outbreak of crime and lawlessness that shocked the rest of the world that had assumed that America was a civilized nation. The police forsook their sworn duty to uphold the law and ceded the streets of New Orleans to roving bands of thugs, looters, murderers, and rapists. To get the flavor of what transpired when moral restraint was temporarily lifted in the city, study this quote…

"At the Superdome, where some 30,000 fled to escape the floodwaters, one National Guardsman reported 53 deaths in two days—mostly murders. Fights left the losers bleeding in fetid corridors littered with crack vials. At the nearby Convention Center, a seven-year-old boy was found raped and killed, his body stuffed in a freezer."

Rape, murder, theft, arson, and mayhem, as well as insurrection, took over the city as bands of thugs fired on authorities and even on would-be rescuers. It was ugly. If God spared not the cities of the plain, we marvel that he spared New Orleans sufficiently that it can even be rebuilt. This is a wicked city and a testimony to God’s longsuffering and patience.

The Great Depression:
Tests of character come under unusual circumstances. A husband’s fidelity is not really tested when he is home surrounded by family, friends, and his own community. At home he has strong institutional support to walk the straight and narrow and a fear of the shame and rejection that immoral conduct would bring. By contrast, it is when he is far from home, an anonymous guest in a big city hotel, and confronted with the prominent allurements of the sex industry, that his character and fidelity are really tested. It is unusual circumstances that test our character. The circumstances can be good or bad. What a man really is will come out if he wins the lottery and suddenly becomes a multi-millionaire. Similarly, adversity can really bring out a person’s character.

Let’s consider America’s character when Christianity was still the acknowledged faith of the nation and Biblical morality formed the basis for accepted codes of conduct. The Great Depression of the 1930’s is a good example of a time of great national adversity. Tens of millions were out of work. Men literally could not provide for their families. Yet crime did not noticeably increase. Upon rumors of work being available somewhere in the nation, men would flock there in search of a job. They would walk, hitch-hike, or catch a freight train. They would stop at a home, offer to do chores for a meal, and ask if they could sleep in the barn or the garage. Stealing did not occur to most of them as an option. Men suffered and struggled, but the overwhelmingly majority maintained their integrity. The social fabric did not unravel.

If America is being beginning to come under God’s progressive judgments, the events in New Orleans to not portent well for how we will bear up under national calamities. We are a far different people than we were at the time of the Great Depression or during WWII. Part of what took place in New Orleans was a general rage among the population that their sense of entitlement had been frustrated by reality. They expected that government would take care of them and provide all their needs, including safety and security. The inability of government, at all levels, to deliver on these messianic expectations was visibly and forcefully demonstrated. It is not for nothing that the Scriptures warn, "put not your trust in princes." No government can protect its people from the judgments of a holy, offended, and almighty God. This is a lesson that Americans do not seem prepared to learn.

Christ’s Response to "Natural Disasters":
We need to heed Christ’s words on natural disasters…

There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Luke 13:1-5

Christ’s words are very instructive. He is dealing with the typical response of those who may acknowledge that a "natural disaster" was a deliberate act of God and constitutes judgment on sinners. Their reaction is that while God may rain his judgments on the very wicked, like he did on Sodom and Gomorrah, it will not come nigh to them. This is akin to the presumption of many that hell is for murderers and child molesters, for the Hitlers and Stalins of this world, but not for decent people.

Note carefully the words of Christ. He does not say that these disasters were not deliberate acts of God. Neither does he say that the Galileans and the men of Jerusalem who were affected were not sinners worthy of judgment. What he says that that the particular inhabitants of Galilee and of Jerusalem who were slain in these judgments were not worse sinners than the Galileans and the Jerusalemites who were spared. Those who survived these disasters can not take comfort in the hope that their own moral status will exempt them from similar judgments. As Christ warned, except they repent they will face similar judgments. This is the great lesson of these disasters. This is what we need to learn from such judgments. They are designed not only to punish the wicked, and to demonstrate God’s holy justice, but to call the survivors to repentance.

Elijah’s Response to "Natural Disasters":
What was the prophet Elijah’s response to natural disasters that fell on Israel in his day? Elijah took God at his word. Elijah believed in God’s promises. He had full faith in the reality of the covenant God had made with Israel at Sinai. According to that covenant Israel would obtain specific blessings if they were faithful to the covenant. On the other hand, the covenant listed specific curses, covenant sanctions, that would be visited on Israel should they forsake God’s covenant and worship other gods. Moses lists the specific judgments that God would send on Israel for covenant breaking in Deuteronomy 28:15-68. A brief quote is in order…

Now how did Elijah respond to Israel’s covenant breaking when they apostatized and worshipped Baal? Did he plead for God to set aside his word to Israel? Did he hope that God would break the terms of his covenant and not uphold his word? No, he did not. Instead he prayed. And what did he pray for? He prayed that God would enforce his covenant and visit Israel with the curses, with the sanctions, of the covenant. Specifically, he prayed that, in accordance with the above highlighted curse, that there would be no rain in Israel. And God answered his prayer, and withheld the rain until after Israel had repented and acknowledged that Jahweh was God and the priests of Baal had been slain.

Elijah had great courage and conviction, as well as great faith in the God of Israel and his covenanted word. He knew that the answer to his prayer would send great distress on Israel. Hardship, famine, and even death would face both man and beast. Yet he prayed his prayer even though he knew that he also would share in the national distress. He had faith that God would take care of his people if they did the right thing and asked God to uphold his word, uphold his honor as the true King of Israel, and enforce his covenant. And God did so. He fed Elijah by the ravens at the brook, and through the widow of Zarepath. He also took care of his other prophets, hidden from the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel in caves, and ironically fed by the secret work of Ahab’s prime minister, Obadiah. God will take care of his people, especially when his people are faithful to his word and covenant. Do we have such courage? Do we have such faith? Do the churches of America? It is high time to start asking such questions.

Elijah was accused by Ahab of being a "troubler of Israel." To many it must have seemed so, as he called for God’s judgments to fall on the land. But Elijah answered him forthrightly, saying, it was him and his wife and their idolatry that was troubling Israel. Did Elijah hate Israel? Did Elijah want Israel to suffer? I do not believe so for a moment. He loved Israel. But he knew what they needed. They needed the chastisement of the Lord. They needed to be called to repentance. They needed to be reminded that God’s word means what it says, that the covenant made with God at Sinai was real, and that there are consequences for one’s actions. Elijah did what was best for Israel, and he was vindicated on Mount Carmel when the nation rejected Baal and affirmed that Jahweh was God. Are we willing to be troublers of America? Are we willing to do what is best for the nation? Are we willing to suffer ostracization and rejection by our own countrymen? Do we have the faith and convictions of Elijah?

The Church’s Response to "Natural Disasters":
What has been the response of America’s churches to these "natural disasters"? Particularly, what has been the response of Reformed and evangelical churches? Has it approximated the response of Christ, or that of Elijah? Tragically, it has not. Instead, their response has been characterized by a concern for the temporal needs of men, rather than their spiritual needs. Today, churches faced with such suffering rush to morph themselves into just another social welfare agency. They seek the world’s approval by offering indiscriminate aid to those under God’s holy judgments. Nowhere in the Scriptures, not once, is there a single example of churches offering material aid to unbelievers. In the Old Testament there is not a single example of material aid to Philistines or Moabites, when they came under God’s judgments. In the New Testament the work of the deaconate, and Paul’s fundraising for the churches of Judea, were all exclusively to aid fellow Christians in distress. When James says, "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?" (James 2:15-16), he is speaking about believers, about brothers and sisters in Christ, whose spiritual needs have already been met. (For a full treatment of what constitutes Biblical charity and what is wrong with contemporary Christian charity, see the author’s unpublished manuscript on the subject, The Devil’s Advocate, available from the American Presbyterian Press.)

When it comes to confronting the nation with spiritual realities, with the reality of God’s temporal judgments, and the wrath of God to come, the churches are strangely silent. They want to appear nice. They want to appear loving. They rush in with material aid. They turn their sanctuaries into shelters and their church basements into soup kitchens. Then they tell the victims of God’s justice that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives if they will only please listen to Him. This is a travesty! This is a disgrace! This is treason to Jesus Christ, the Head of the church. This is a disastrous dereliction of their duty. This is not "speaking the truth in love." This is not love at all. It is cowardice. It is seeking the praises of men rather than the praise of God.

The Biblical Response to "Natural Disasters":
What should the churches be doing? Well, that should be fairly evident by this stage of our discussion. Instead of acting as just another relief agency, with the fig leaf that they are different because the charity is offered in the name of Christ, although he has nowhere in his word authorized such activity, the churches need to pronounce God’s prophetic word. They need to proclaim that there are no "natural disasters," there are just the providential acts of a holy and offended God.

The churches in general are not prepared to proclaim God’s prophetic word to a sinful nation sinning against better knowledge and coming under God’s holy judgments. Evangelical leaders when on television are always more concerned about appearing "nice" and appearing to be "loving" than about confronting a hostile and unrepentant world with the truth it needs to hear. When men such as Jerry Falwell and Bob Jones III appear on Larry King Live they seem more concerned with trying to be accepted than with confronting a sinful world with the spiritual realities that it faces. They hedge and dodge the tough questions and speak of love and concern for unbelievers. When Stephen told the religious leaders of his day what they needed to hear, they were furious and gnashed on him with their teeth. We will never have national repentance until they are willing to give the kind of answers that will flood the switchboards of CNN with a deluge of calls from angry and offended sinners. Do the churches and their leadership have that kind of courage?

Are the churches prepared to bear the reproach of Christ? Are the churches prepared to bear the reproach of the gospel? Christianity is about the truth, not about making "nice." Are the churches prepared to proclaim the truth, fully and courageously, without fear of man, scorning the opposition of this present world, and seeking only to be faithful to him who loved us and redeemed us from sin and death and hell by his precious blood? So far, they are not.

Christ said…
¹⁸If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. ²⁰Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. ²¹But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. (John 15:18-21)

Most churches today want to be accepted by the world. They desire to appear well in the sight of men—in the sight of unrepentant sinners in enmity against God and his word. This world has only temporal concerns, so a social gospel and churches acting as just more social welfare agencies giving indiscriminate aid without reference to religious principles is what the world accepts. Most churches are not prepared to serve Christ without the camp and to suffer for his name’s sake. By God’s grace, may at least a remnant of them repent of that and be ready to serve Christ at whatever cost, for he has redeemed us from sin, and death, and hell at great cost, by his sacrificial death on the cross.

Conclusion:
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from Katrina. However, the Lord’s people need to learn them first. The churches need to learn them, and teach them, and proclaim them. The nation will never learn them if the churches do not faithfully proclaim them, even in the face of the fierce opposition and vicious anger of the unrepentant and the wicked, who do not care to have their sinfulness cast in their face. The Lord’s people need courage and conviction, and a commitment to be faithful to their Scriptural duty and Biblical calling. To date they have not demonstrated that they have even begun to understand what their duty is.

They continue to operate as if the world’s approval is all that matters and that people will support Christianity if they can be convinced that we are "nice." Elijah wasn’t "nice." The Old Testament prophets weren’t "nice." Christ wasn’t "nice," just read Matthew 23, and study his confrontations with the religious leaders of his day. The Apostles weren’t "nice." Just read Peter’s sermon on Pentecost. They all fearlessly proclaimed God’s prophetic word, confronted their audience with their sin, warned them of the judgments of God to come, and called them to repentance. Can we do less? Not if we are to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray for a reformation of the church that she might be prepared to be God’s instrument to call the nation to repentance, lest worse things fall upon us. AMEN!

POST SCRIPT: November 2006
The news recently reported that crime statistics were significantly up in the city of Houston, Texas. This was attributed to the great influx of refugees from New Orleans that were relocated to Houston by federal and state welfare agencies. That is how the denizens of New Orleans have repaid the city that more than any other has been a host for them after the disaster of Katrina. There has been no evidence of an iota of humility and repentance on the part of the people of New Orleans after the Lord so severely chastised their city.

Hurricane Katrina hit just before the city of New Orleans was to host "Southern Decadence," a major homosexual festival drawing tens of thousands of sodomites to their city. The leadership of New Orleans has been trying to resurrect their city, and particularly its tourist trade, by emphasizing that it is still a great place to party and to indulge in one's favorite vices.