We just received a few responses to my "Japan Earthquake and Tsunami - An
Act of God?" post on the Endtime Prophecy Net Blog. While one response is supportive of my position, the latter claims that I am in error, and that
among other things, God does not cause natural disasters, and He does not
use them as His "tools of judgment" against ungodly, sinful people. This
person claims that God's Wrath was forever quenched through Christ's
Sacrifice on the Cross, and that at this point, God is now only interested
in Reconciliation with humanity, and not in judgment. Following is my
rebuttal to the person who made these statements.

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Hello _____. Thank-you for your comments. You have presented a strong, well-thought-out case for supporting your position. Nevertheless, it is my
view that your understanding is flawed in several regards.

If we accept your reasoning and interpretation of the Scriptures, then you
have presented God as a weak God who is not in control of His creation. You
are indirectly suggesting that the Creator of the Universe has lost control
of what He has created. In the case of the Japan tragedies, you are
suggesting that He was unable to prevent the deaths of many thousands of people, and the homeless status of many thousands more.

Personally, I cannot accept that. Suggesting that it is just nature doing
what nature does is a weak argument, and an attempt to avoid the truth
because it is too painful and too uncomfortable to hear. It is political correctness. Imagine if the Prophets of old had been politically-correct.
Thank God that they weren't.

The truth of the matter is that few people want to admit that our hearts are not right with God. Few people want to talk about sin. It isn't popular. It doesn't bring more people into the churches, or more money into the church coffers. People want to pretend that everything is okay, kind of like this:

"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."
John 3:18-21, KJV

So to avoid the truth, what do we do? We try to recreate God as a
lovey-dovey God, when that is not what the Bible teaches us. The Bible
clearly reveals that our God is both a God of Love, as well as a God of
Wrath. I invite you to read some of my older articles such as "Love And
Light, Or Rod And Wrath?", "Beholding The Evil And The Good", "The Fruits Of Disobedience", etc. Depending on our particular relationship to God, or lack thereof, God can reveal His loving side to us, or His wrathful side to us.

Nature is not an entity. It has no mind of its own. It can make no decisions
of its own. I don't buy into all of that New Age Gaea nonsense or Mother
Nature silliness. Nature is a force which God created, and which God
continues to control -- at every moment. If those events occurred in Japan,
it is because God allowed them to happen. Things don't just happen. Natural events don't just happen. As I said, God guides them and controls them. The ancient Jews most certainly recognized this. Please read Moses' warning to
the ancient Israelites in the Pentateuch.

As you no doubt know, Jesus clearly prophesied in Matthew chapter
twenty-four, as well as in other chapters and books, that earthquakes would
be characteristic of the Endtime scenario. Obviously, He knew this, because
He and His Father are in control of them, just like everything else in the natural world. I am convinced God uses such things as His tools of judgment. The Bible is very clear about this. Again, this is discussed at length in my articles.

Your claim that God's Wrath was fully quenched by Jesus' Sacrifice on the
Cross is likewise flawed, because you are omitting a very important part of
the Salvation equation, and that is repentance. Everything that you stated regarding what Jesus did for us is absolutely true, and I do in fact agree
with it. However, where you seem to err is in assuming that this process of reconciliation -- and God's Forgiveness -- is automatic, when it most
certainly is not. Yes, God wishes to be reconciled with the world, which is
why Jesus died for us all; however, as I point out in "Free Will And
Personal Choice", "Is Salvation Meant For All Men?", "All Are Given A Chance...But" and similar articles, free will and personal choice play a
very important role in God's Salvation Plan.

It is my firm belief that God will not force Himself on anyone. Neither will
He force anyone to accept the Forgiveness and Salvation that He offers them.
In short, God's Forgiveness is contingent upon our personal recognition of
our sinful condition, true repentance, and finally, acceptance of God's Gift through Jesus Christ.

God has allowed Japan to become a great and prosperous nation, and one of
the technological and economic powerhouses of the world. As Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, God sends rain "on the just and on the unjust". Have
the Japanese acknowledged His blessings upon their nation? Sadly, no. In
spite of His many blessings, the vast majority of Japanese people do not
accept what God has offered them at so high a price; that price being the
cruel Torture and Death of His own Son.

What did Jesus say in the verses that I shared with you earlier? He said "he that believeth not is condemned already". That is why I believe that the Japanese are now suffering. They have rejected God's Love and Mercy through Christ, and continue to embrace their false religions -- Buddhism,
Shintoism, etc. -- just like so many other people around the world. They
have slapped God in the Face for years. They have condemned themselves
through their own rebellion and rejection of the Sacrifice of Christ, and obviously, they are not the only ones. Just look at where you find great "natural disasters", and you will also find great sin if you look hard
enough; and yes, that includes in Haiti and New Orleans. Please consider reading my series "Hurricane Katrina and Other Natural Disasters". So, due
to their rebellion against God, the Japanese have felt God's Wrath, just as
we see by this verse:

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;"
Romans 1:18, KJV

You claim that with Christ's Death on the Cross, God's Wrath and Judgment
has been reserved for the Endtime, and that since Christ's Sacrifice, He has been in Reconciliation Mode. Allow me to give you a clear New Testament
example which clearly reveals the flaw in your thinking. Consider what Jesus said concerning the unbelieving Jews, and God's impending Wrath and Judgment upon them:

"But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people."
Luke 21:23, KJV

As you undoubtedly know, Jesus' prophecy concerning God's Wrath against the unbelieving Jews was fulfilled about forty years later, when the Romans,
under the command of General Titus -- the son of Emperor Vespasian --
utterly destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. According to Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, about one million Jews died as a result of the First Jewish-Roman War and the siege of Jerusalem. As the previous verse demonstrates, Jesus clearly prophesied this terrible destruction in the Synoptic Gospels.

Now, if, as you claim, God's Wrath was quenched with Jesus' Death on the
Cross, why then did Jesus prophesy God's Wrath being poured out on the Jews
in 70 AD? Isn't there a conflict between what you are saying, and what Jesus said, and what history actually records? Do you deny that the events of 70
AD were the result of God's Wrath being poured out upon a rebellious and unbelieving people?

So why did this happen? Because God's Love, Mercy and Forgiveness are contingent upon our heartfelt repentance. Yes, God indeed opened the door to Forgiveness and Salvation through Christ, but if we repeatedly refuse to go through the Door -- Jesus -- then we are still subject to His Wrath, now, in this life. Again, as Jesus said "he that believeth not is condemned
already"; and once the verdict is known, the execution of the punishment
must be carried out at some point soon after -- "soon" obviously meaning according to God's Timetable. The unbelieving Jews most certainly felt God's Wrath, and many people have felt it since that time as well.

Now, you may try to claim that Luke 21:23 is talking about the wrath of the Romans, but let's be honest here. You and I both know that throughout the Bible, God has used foreign armies, unbelieving pagans and heathen -- the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Philistines, the Romans, etc.
-- as His "rods of chastisement" and His "vessels of wrath" against His own children. So that was indeed God's Wrath in 70 AD, forty years AFTER the Sacrifice for sin was accomplished. Jesus' Sacrifice did NOT stop God's
Wrath.

Another point. You asked, if God is the cause of bad things happening, why would He stop at New Orleans or Haiti or Japan? Well, let me ask you
something? What makes you so certain that He has stopped? Do you think that just because a major natural disaster doesn't occur every single month or
every single year that He has stopped? Who are we to determine God's
Timetable? As Peter tells us, being that God is a Being who lives outside of time, a thousand years is as a day to Him. Furthermore, if there is any
reason why natural disasters don't occur with more frequency, perhaps it has something to do with this:

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness;
but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance."
2 Peter 3:9, KJV

In short, God gives people lots of time to repent, but eventually, their
time runs out, but not necessarily all at the same time.

[continued in the next message]



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