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Act of God? Nonsense

Lynda Patterson   |  06 Mar 2011     TEXT

On a shelf in my kitchen - when I still had a shelf - I had collected a line of plastic bottles filled with drinking water. I had two tins of beans and four packets of chicken soup and a carton of that UHT milk which tastes a bit like soap. I had a torch and a sleeping bag and a battery-powered radio. And I went about my business, secure in the knowledge that I was prepared for pretty much anything.

But, I wasn’t prepared for the earthquake that shook us over a week ago. None of us were. None of us are prepared for the names we know on the ever-growing lists of the dead and the missing. For some people, there is the horror of waiting still for news of a loved one or a mate who just never came home. None of us were prepared to get back from work and find our homes in pieces.

For many of us the streets we had played in as kids, the places we met the people we love, where we first worked – they’re gone or changed beyond recognition. The quake has taken the lives of so many, and the livelihoods of many more, and the memories of almost everybody. Who is ever prepared for loss on that scale?

When the earthquake struck, I was huddled in a doorframe in the back of the cathedral waiting for the bells to ring wildly as they had done in every major quake before. Instead there was a long, slow rumble as the tower fell down. I’ve been replaying that noise in my mind ever since, so when I heard on Saturday that no bodies had been found in the cathedral, I sat on my front step and wept. In one of the bleakest weeks I remember, it was a small ray of hope.

We can store up all the packets and bottles and sleeping bags we like, and tell ourselves that we’re secure, but it’s not really true. We are fragile people. We are so very fragile.

In the language of the insurance policies, the Christchurch earthquake was "an act of God". That sort of theology sees God like a puppet master who stands above the stage and pulls our strings with a supreme lack of interest. Some people believe that the earthquake is a sign God is punishing us, so they roll out our favourite hobby horse to blame. I’m already starting to receive angry emails from people who insist that everything from transvestites in Latimer Square to the ordination of women to the Christchurch Wizard and – remarkably - the floral carpet are at fault.

Nonsense. We look for blame because it’s easier to have an explanation than to live with uncertainty. But I don’t for one second believe in the sort of God who doles out misery like gold stars in reverse. I don’t believe in God the tax accountant, who tots up a careful arithmetic of blame. We have a God who believes in new life, life in all its fullness, and God is there among the rubble weeping with the lost.

It’s time now to apply some defiant common sense. As Dean Peter Beck said this week, the earthquake was not an act of God. It was just the earth doing what it does. Under our feet there are two unimaginably vast slabs of rock floating in the tides of a ball of liquid iron. They grind on slowly, as they have done for millions of years, and where they rub together the earth is pushed up at the seams into mountains, or swallowed up in vast trenches. Sometimes the slabs move, stick and then move again as they did for us. Into all this impermanence, we are born and set up camp for the briefest of periods.

But that’s not the end of the story. Behind this globe of molten rock, there is a God who designed it all and put it in place. There is a God who knows just how breakable we are and how much it hurts, because that God has been here and walked about, laughed and wept and died and rose to life again here among us.  

The earthquake isn’t an act of God. The act of God is the way we care for each other in the aftermath. In the city, there are hundreds of search and rescue workers carefully lifting the rubble as they retrieve the bodies of the dead and return them to their families. There are police and military keeping the cordon secure. There are emergency workers in the Art Gallery co-ordinating the almost unimaginable task of the cleanup. What all these people are doing is an act of God.

There is the 20,000-strong student volunteer army who turn up in streets in Bexley and Aranui with shovels to dig people’s homes out of the contaminated silt, and to bring in supplies of fresh water. What they are doing is an act of God.

There are the dairy owners in Avonside who just gave their stock away to people in need after the quake. This is an act of God.

In my own street, there is an elderly woman called Jean who lives by herself. Directly after the earthquake, families all around her were moving out of the city. Her neighbours were so reluctant to leave her on her own that they brought Jean and her labrador with them to their relatives on the West Coast. This is community at work, and it is an act of God.

Jesus reminds us (in Matthew 25:31-41) that faith isn’t about what you believe. Faith isn’t a series of careful statements which you can argue, more or less cogently. In the end, I am sure it won’t matter terribly much where exactly you stand on the nature of the church or the authority of the pope or what you believe about the Anglican covenant. Faith is about what you do. Feed the hungry, Jesus says. When people don’t have water, give them something to drink. Throw open your doors to the stranger, look after the sick, visit the prisoners. Goodness isn’t planned. It’s not a heroic decision or a clever calculation. It’s an expression of who we are.

Faith isn’t something you can fall into like a soft job, without getting your hands dirty. It takes muscle and guts. It’s that kind of faith that builds and rebuilds communities.

We are never really prepared for an event like the earthquake, however carefully we might plan. But we are not left without a promise either. Paul sets it out plainly in what I think is the single most powerful passage in the whole New Testament:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Comments on this story

Admin User

Friday 07 June 2013 4:50:15 pm

test comment.

Paddy Noble

Friday 09 December 2011 7:59:31 am

Oh my god! I hate this rant and rave on this post! Just remember that Maori are not heathen, we understood God before it was written in word. Also all this talk about God's will! Firstly I will take the scientific approach and reinforce that Christchurch is sitting on a fault line that will cause earthquakes. Secondly announcing that this is God's will is crap! God will not put suffering on people! We do enough of that already on each other. The God that I worship is compassionate, loving and accepting, not judging and hell fire and brimstone.

Brandon Holman

Tuesday 12 July 2011 3:20:14 pm

It's a miracle that we can maintain continuity of human life, given that we exist on the crust of a ball of molten rock hurling through space at breakneck speed! I once heard that there are 6 key numbers that allow human life to be possible (e.g. distance from the sun, melting point of water etc.). To put it another way, he holds us in the palm of his hand. We exist only because he wants it to be so, and one day we will see him face-to-face. For those that know him, it will be like seeing an old friend across a crowded room. I expect I will be speechless, lost in wonder, happy to be with the one who guided me through the years...

Yaaqov Zeev

Tuesday 08 March 2011 9:15:45 am

Why does ChCh have so many churches? I suspect most of them were empty for years on end as Nz's have now embraced the heathern Maori culture. Not that Christianity is much better off with their steeples, idols and other pagan symbols. If New Zealands would repent from their sins, maybe, just maybe YHWH Almighty will then hear their cry and spare their lives. I still feel sorry for the sinners who die, but do not think for one second that sinners deserve mercy.

Ggordon Pilcher

Monday 07 March 2011 7:49:56 pm

All too often for many folk their knowledge of God is merely mental assent not a relationship The Bible tells us we are to have a relationship not just know of Him

Ggordon Pilcher

Monday 07 March 2011 7:45:14 pm

You can receive Jesus Christ right now by faith. "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation" (Romans 10:9-10).
If you now believe on God and place your faith in His Son, congratulations — and welcome to His family. We, all being His children, share in a heavenly inheritance! We are heirs to heaven and are promised the eternal pleasure of glorifying God. As our life here on earth progresses, God will continue to work in our hearts. We are daily being conformed to the image of Christ, Himself. We will begin to live lives of righteousness. Obedience to God will not be a burden to us, but rather a joy.
You may wonder, now that you are a Christian, "What now?" Our greatest recommendation for believers, new and old, is fourfold: 1) find a church so you might hear the preaching of the Word and rejoice in the fellowship of other Christians, 2) study the Bible for that is where we learn of God and His plans, 3) pray to Him to strengthen your faith and increase your love toward Him, and 4) enjoy the blessings given by God in the heavenly ordained sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper. All of these will work to encourage and build upon your faith. If you have any questions, search the Scriptures
If someone can show me how an earthquake is an act of God? I will modify my believing,
when Jesus came he gave a new and living covenant, contract John 3:16 (Amplified Bible) 16For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([a]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.
We now live in the age of grace washed in the blood of Jesus, but read that scripture correctly, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. It says nothing about joining a denomination
We are but a short while in the scheme of things according to my bible the earth is around 6,000 years old so according to my reckoning the average person live to around 70 years we are here for just a dot in time, but eternity is limitless so make the most of these 70 years get it right, trusts in, clings to, relies on Jesus Christ now
While the cathedral was a nice old building it is not the church the church is the body of believers who claim Jesus as Lord. I recently had an old aunty who told me she has been going to church for years that she had made just by going to church sorry aunty I slept in the garage for over a month one time and I’m still not a car, spent plenty of time in the dog house and I still don’t eat dog food or bark. Get saved.
Sinner's Prayer - Recognizing the Need
the "Sinner's Prayer" is a term that describes the words spoken by a person when he or she has recognized their sin and their need for a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It goes something like this:
“Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey you, and to do your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.”
If you decided to repent of your sins and receive Christ today, welcome to God's family. Now, as a way to grow closer to Him, the Bible tells us to follow up on our commitment.
Tell someone else about your new faith in Christ. Find a good church that preaches the Bible and forget all this act of God stuff other than he loves YOU unconditionally , no matter what you have ever done he loves you. When Jesus was nailed to that cross his arms were stretched out so that he could embrace you.
Finally whenever I hear the words an of God I see red the blood flowing from an innocent man that died for you and I, I’m in no way saying I’m perfect but I was a sinner and now I’m saved by grace the Grace Of God.

Ggordon Pilcher

Monday 07 March 2011 7:42:09 pm

Whenever I hear the comment “an act of God “I am usually fairly sure those that say that often don’t believe in God or at least the god that I know. To really make my pint I have to go all the way back to the book of Genesis. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God told man to have authority over all that he had created. Now jump to chapter 3and here we see mankind gives up his dominion. I am not discussing religion but a fact of life.
I will now come to my point, How to Know God; did you know that you were created to have a loving relationship with God? He is patiently and lovingly waiting for you to respond to His invitation to salvation. Yes, you can receive forgiveness for your sins and assurance of eternal life through faith in His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17). "Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3).
You may be asking yourself: "How can I know God?" Man is able to know the true and living God through His Word (that is, the Bible). The Bible reveals God's character and His plan for mankind. It is through reading His Word that we come to knowledge of the righteousness of God and that which He requires of us.
What is it that prevents us from personally knowing God? Our sin has separated us from God — our corruption is to such a degree that we cannot know Him personally and cannot experience His love. God's Word says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Man was created to have fellowship with God, but because of his sin (i.e., anything that is against the righteousness revealed in God's Law) he is prevented from that fellowship. This includes anything less than perfect obedience to God's commands.
"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23a). The ultimate result of this death is an eternity in Hell. This spiritual death forces a separation from God. Man is sinful and God is holy. This creates a gulf unbridgeable by man making that intended fellowship impossible. The only solution is a divine bridge — that bridge is Christ.
God created a way by sending His Son to pay the price for our sin. "God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He died in our place; He who knew no sin became sin for us. This removed our burden of sin and allows us to enter into that desired fellowship if we follow His way.
He is the only way. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
It is not just enough that you know these truths. We must individually place our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savoir. It is by repenting of our sins and believing on Christ that we can know God personally and experience His love.
"But as many as receive Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12).
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:8-10).
"Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).
You can receive Jesus Christ right now by faith. "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation" (Romans 10:9-10).
If you now believe on God and place your faith in His Son, congratulations — and welcome to His family. We, all being His children, share in a heavenly inheritance! We are heirs to heaven and are promised the eternal pleasure of glorifying God. As our life here on earth progresses, God will continue to work in our hearts. We are daily being conformed to the image of Christ, Himself. We will begin to live lives of righteousness. Obedience to God will not be a burden to us, but rather a joy.
You may wonder, now that you are a Christian, "What now?" Our greatest recommendation for believers, new and old, is fourfold: 1) find a church so you might hear the preaching of the Word and rejoice in the fellowship of other Christians, 2) study the Bible for that is where we learn of God and His plans, 3) pray to Him to strengthen your faith and increase your love toward Him, and 4) enjoy the blessings given by God in the heavenly ordained sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper. All of these will work to encourage and build upon your faith. If you have any questions, search the Scriptures
If someone can show me how an earthquake is an act of God? I will modify my believing,
when Jesus came he gave a new and living covenant, contract John 3:16 (Amplified Bible) 16For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([a]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.
We now live in the age of grace washed in the blood of Jesus, but read that scripture correctly, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. It says nothing about joining a denomination
We are but a short while in the scheme of things according to my bible the earth is around 6,000 years old so according to my reckoning the average person live to around 70 years we are here for just a dot in time, but eternity is limitless so make the most of these 70 years get it right, trusts in, clings to, relies on Jesus Christ now
While the cathedral was a nice old building it is not the church the church is the body of believers who claim Jesus as Lord. I recently had an old aunty who told me she has been going to church for years that she had made just by going to church sorry aunty I slept in the garage for over a month one time and I’m still not a car, spent plenty of time in the dog house and I still don’t eat dog food or bark. Get saved.
Sinner's Prayer - Recognizing the Need
the "Sinner's Prayer" is a term that describes the words spoken by a person when he or she has recognized their sin and their need for a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It goes something like this:
“Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey you, and to do your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.”
If you decided to repent of your sins and receive Christ today, welcome to God's family. Now, as a way to grow closer to Him, the Bible tells us to follow up on our commitment.
Tell someone else about your new faith in Christ. Find a good church that preaches the Bible and forget all this act of God stuff other than he loves YOU unconditionally , no matter what you have ever done he loves you. When Jesus was nailed to that cross his arms were stretched out so that he could embrace you.
Finally whenever I hear the words an of God I see red the blood flowing from an innocent man that died for you and I, I’m in no way saying I’m perfect but I was a sinner and now I’m saved by grace the Grace Of God.

Bruce Sporle

Monday 07 March 2011 3:50:09 pm

Sadly in attempting to explain this tragedy, you have reduce God to human terms. Either He is good and of limited power or all powerful and not good! Our God is both good and all powerful! The Bible is quite clear on this. How then do we reconcile a tragedy like this. In my community of Howick some years ago we suffered a tragedy (on a smaller scale) when a group of students and a teacher were killed in a flash flood on Mt Ruapehu. How can we reconcile a loving God with such tragedy? the key indeed lies Romans 8 Verse 28 says "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." (ESV). Our God is so far from our brains to comprehend sometimes we need faith to Know that he is good and all he does is good. Every day we have on this earth is an act of grace and love from the Almighty. We deserve death but He died for me. That tells me He is Good and is love, but I need to accept that sometimes I cannot explain what he does in human terms."The secret things belong to the Lord our God," Deut 29:29 You are right to comfort those who grieve but do not reduce our God's intrinsic attributes.

Joan Stanners

Monday 07 March 2011 2:44:42 pm

Wow this blew me away. It touched part of me that nothing else has. Thank You.

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