1) Katrina: Not God's Wrath--or His Will: By Tony Campolo
2) Hurricane Katrina: By Phillip Ryken
If you read both articles you see a vastly differing view of God and how He relates to disasters. Over the years I have not been impressed with Tony Campolo’s use of scripture and how it is made to fit his social construct, which is ever changing. To appeal to a Rabbi over the clear teaching of all of scripture would seem to be very postmodern. The fact that the word “omnipresent is not mentioned in scripture does not deny it is an attribute of God. The entire panoply of God’s word shows a God that is all powerful. I wonder if the sentiments that Campolo’s espouses make him feel confident in God. This is the same tact taken by the “Open Theists” and the result is a helpless god (not capitalized for a reason) that is not able to do anything but react to unforeseen and overwhelming circumstances. You need to search all of the scriptures yourself and read them as a totality of God’s revelation (OT and NT, the Rabbi stops short of this) and the picture that presents itself is of a God that “omnipresent” and not taken aback by such occurrences as the last few weeks. To use the straw man of God has no part in evil is nothing new but the truth is those of us that see God’s hand in everything do not see God has doing evil.
Compare this article with that of Phillip Ryken’s and you see a more clear picture of the God of the Bible. The second article gives us actions to take but does not try and protect God from the everyday occurrences He has control over. But we also see a God that by being part of all occurrences in some manner (this is where there is a measure of mystery) leaves us with a God that, while we may not now the reason for the occurrence, is still God and has His reasons for all that happens. To leave the “bad” things that happen to some outside influence is not the answer and is not biblical. Job understood this (Job 2:10) and so should we.
Grace and Peace,
Tony
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