God, evil and moralityDraft · awaiting advisor review
Are natural disasters God’s judgement?
In short
The Bible says God rules over nature and sometimes describes particular disasters as judgement. But Jesus warned against treating victims as worse sinners than anyone else, and told everyone to turn back to God. Christians hold that we cannot read God’s verdict on people from the weather or the ground, and that suffering is a sign of a broken world awaiting renewal.
The Objection
If God controls nature, every earthquake and flood is his act. The Bible itself says so: “shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6). It records floods, plagues and fire sent as punishment. So either disasters are judgement, which blames the drowned child, or God sends them for no reason at all. Either way, Christians can’t escape the conclusion that God aims catastrophes at people.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Scripture
The Bible does present some disasters as judgement: the plagues on Egypt, Sodom, and droughts and locusts sent to call Israel back to God. In each case a prophet or the text names the reason. The Qur’an likewise tells of peoples such as ʿAd and Thamud destroyed for rejecting their prophets (69:4–8).
- Scripture
Jesus refused the simple link. Asked about people killed by Pilate and by a falling tower in Siloam, he said they were not worse sinners than others, but warned everyone to repent. Of a man born blind he said neither the man nor his parents had sinned.
- Scripture
Job’s friends insisted his losses proved his guilt, and God said they had not spoken rightly. Jesus said God sends rain on the just and the unjust, and Paul describes the whole creation as groaning, waiting to be set free. The Bible ends with a promise of no more death or pain.
- Historical evidence
Disasters fall on believers and unbelievers, children and adults, with no pattern matching guilt. After the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which struck on All Saints’ Day while many were in church, some preachers called it judgement. Voltaire’s poem on the disaster mocked that idea, and the debate shaped modern thinking about evil.
- Philosophical argument
Some argue that a world with stable natural laws is needed for free, responsible creatures to act and learn, and that the processes behind earthquakes, such as plate tectonics, also help make the earth habitable. On this view disasters are a side effect of a reliable world, not targeted strikes. It is an argument, not a full explanation.
- Christians differ
Some Christians hold that human sin brought disorder into nature itself (Genesis 3). Others think earthquakes and animal death came before humans and belong to a good but unfinished creation. Christians also differ on whether God still sends particular disasters as judgement today, though most agree no one can know that without a clear word from God.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
Saying disasters are never judgement goes beyond the Bible, which names some as such. Saying sin caused earthquakes is hard to square with geology, which shows them long before humans. The “reliable world” argument may explain why disasters happen in general, but not why this child died in this flood. The Bible gives no full explanation, and Christians must sometimes admit they do not know.
Arguments to Avoid
- Claiming that the victims of a particular earthquake, flood or hurricane were being punished for their sins, which Jesus himself rejected.
- Saying God has nothing to do with nature, which contradicts the Bible’s teaching that he rules over all things.
- Treating each new disaster as proof that the end of the world is about to happen on a date we can calculate.
- Offering neat explanations to grieving people instead of first weeping with them.
Read for Yourself
Luke 13:1–5
1There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilæans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilæans were sinners above all the Galilæans, because they suffered such things? 3I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4Or 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? 5I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
John 9:1–7
1And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
Romans 8:18–25
18For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 24For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Job 38:1–11
1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 4Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 5Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? 9When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, 10And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, 11And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
Further Reading
- The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? · David Bentley Hart (2005)
- Walking with God through Pain and Suffering · Timothy Keller (2013)
- God’s Problem · Bart D. Ehrman (2008)An agnostic scholar argues that the Bible gives no satisfying answer to suffering.
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
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