Solomon Island believers attribute tsunami to God...

God’s judgment of the wicked begins with God’s character. Here in Mt. 5 we have Jesus (the greatest pacifist who ever walked the on earth, by the way) telling us about God’s character (and how his followers are to be like him).

We also see Jesus referring to what we call common grace. “For he makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” As I see it, God’s character/nature is to bless not to judge. The only way God can judge anyone is because a person has broken his law. That’s what sin is, it’s the breaking of God’s law. The time for God’s judgment is primarily on the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord (Rev. 20:11-15). COME LORD JESUS!

But God does judge before that time: e.g. Acts 5:1-8; 1 Cor. 11:27-32; etc. But it seems that these examples of God’s judgment in post resurrection times refer to individuals being judged by God, not a whole region of the world. (Help me to refine/correct this if you can.)

Paul’s words in Gal 6:7, that a person reaps what he sows, is hinting on cause and effect. Which I think refers to how God has set up the world to reflect his coming judgment in the Last Day. Natural disasters are a reflection of God’s wrath which is to come. (Let me explain how I understand “how God has set up the world to reflect his coming judgment.” It is basic cause and effect. If you break God’s law and have sex with lots of people, you more than likely will get a STD. (Not to speak of a dirty conscience.) If you break the speed limit, you will more than likely get a ticket, etc. It is based on cause [break the law] and effect [you are punished].

The world we live in is unsafe. Accidents happen because bad things just happen. If I shoot my self in the thumb with an air gun with a 2 1/2 inch staple (which I did two weeks ago) I could blame it on lots of things. But I just say, “Bad things happen, Praise the Lord for what he has given.” I don’t’ say: God’s judging me for something.

Now let me get back to how I look at Mt. 5:45 when I hear of Christians saying that natural destruction is caused by God’s judgment for people doing sinful things.

The whole world does sinful things. The Bayly brothers do sinful things. I do sinful things. You Matthew, do sinful things. Does God open up the earth and swallow you up? Why not? Are you any better than the prostitutes or the pimps or the bad people in the south Pacific? Apart from the blood of Jesus and the work of his cross and your faith in both of them you deserve to be destroyed. But I suspect the fact is that you make choices that eliminate cause and effect judgments in your life. And one of those is that you don’t live in the Ring of Fire. Because if you did, the chances of your home experiencing an earthquake or tsunami would be greatly increased.

The destruction in the south Pacific happened because those islands are in a location of the world where there are lots of earthquakes. The sinful city of Las Vegas is not in an earthquake prone area and thus the chances of it being hit with that type of destruction is less likely (we will see about Hollywood).

The statement “Sin – contributing factor to destruction” is true. The sin of Adam and all of our sins produced a world under the wrath of God because we have broken his laws.

The statement “This is a turning point for everybody. A reminder that God created the Earth," is a good statement because it is using a real life situation to point people to the God of the gospel.

The interpretation of a reporter that, “Many clergy in the Solomon Island – which have been wracked by years of ethnic and political turmoil – have blamed the catastrophe on people straying from Christian ways.” I think is faulty.

Is God grieved that the Solomon Island people are turning from Biblical principals? Yes. Did God, in response to the Solomon Islands turning from Biblical principals, one day think, “I’m going to cause an earthquake and punish those wicked people?” I don’t think so. I think the fact is, that those dead people once lived in an area of the world that is prone to earthquakes.

Having said all of that, I must reiterate that (I think) God does punish people and people systems. Primarily through the law of cause and effect. Take for example the good old United States of America. We are reaping what we have sown for the past 100 years. The religion of secular humanism, as it has taken over church schools and secular universities, has produced a country that is flying the middle finger in the face of God. (Sorry if that is too graphic, but it is what our country is doing to God.)

But as we heed the words of Jesus in Mt. 5:43-48, our response to this change in course is to be like God’s response. We are to be nice to them, pray for them, and warn them about the coming judgment.