Earthquakes

On January 12, 2010, the country of Haiti experienced a 7.0 earthquake.  By January 24, at least 52 aftershocks had been recorded at 4.5 or greater.  The Haitian government has stated that 217,000 to 230,000 people died throughout the catastrophe.  Further, 300,000 have been injured and 1,000,000 are now homeless.

On February 27, 2010, an 8.8 earthquake rocked the South American country of Chile.  The death total was in the double digits and fear of an aftermath Tsunami threatened the countries on the east side of the south Pacific Ocean.  Much of the city was destroyed as some described that the buildings "shook like jelly."

This morning, I woke up to the news that Turkey, the Middle Eastern Country north of Syria and Israel, experienced a 6.0 earthquake at around 4:30 this morning.  The death total is already in the fifties.  With so many natural catastrophes since the beginning of the year, I am left wondering where God is in all of this.  Why so much natural evil in the recent days?

The power of an earthquake is judged on what we call a Richter Scale, a system developed in 1935 by Charles Richter.  The numbers we use to judge earthquakes are single numbers that have been assigned to quantify the amount of seismic energy that has been released from an earthquake.  The scale ranges from 1 to 10, with 1 being the weakest and 10 being the strongest.  According to my research, our world experiences almost 10,000 2.0 and below earthquakes a day.  We could be experiencing a 1.0 earthquake right now and not even realize it.  In addition, 49,000 3.0-3.9, 6,000 4.0-4.9 earthquakes, and 800 5.0-5.9 earthquakes happen per year.  Anything in the 5's is considerate moderate, but can still cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings.  Anything 6.0 and up is considered serious, and the numbers show that these are more rare than the others.  An average of 120 6.0 earthquakes, 18 7.0 earthquakes, and 1 8.0 to 9.0 earthquakes are recorded each year.  10.0 is very rare, and happens around once per every twenty years. 

As Christians, we naturally desire to make sense of natural disasters.  Naturally, unbelievers will look at us and ask, "Where is your God now?"  A sort of paradox is presented to us.  God is sovereign, yet evil exists.  Since God is not evil, does that mean that He is not sovereign?  The skeptics conclude that by such catastrophic events, God is either (a) not sovereign or (b) evil.  That is, the presence of evil denies the existence of the Christan God.  What are we to do? How are we to answer?

This is a question that has been around for years.  I believe it was first presented by David Hume, an eighteenth century philosopher.  Likewise, tons of answers have been given stretching from free will to evil being a non-existent thing, such as a hole is a non-existent thing.  (A "hole" is a word we use to describe the absence of ground.  Some declare that evil is the "absence of good," and not a thing itself.)  This is perhaps my favorite topic, but I am not going to get into it today.  What I will do, however, is share a passage that I was led to this morning.  It simply declares that natural evil exists because of sin, but there is hope present within the evil surrounding us.

Romans 8:19-25 says, "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.  For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it."

I believe that in Numbers 16 we have one of the first historical records of an earthquake.  Korah rebelled against Moses and against God, and the ground opened up and swallowed him and many of his children.  The natural evil was a result of moral evil.  I believe that earthquakes exist because of our sin.  As Paul wrote,  "Creation was subjected to futility."  I am not declaring that the earthquakes happened in specific countries because of specific sins from specific people.  Sin is everywhere and we are all sinners and in truth all deserve earthquakes in that context.  We may not have all of the answers, but we have the Answer, and He is our hope.  Like Paul wrote, we need to focus on the hope of Jesus Christ; "in hope we have been saved."  We must persevere and wait eagerly for Him to return.  Whatever the trial, whatever the catastrophe, know that you can await eagerly for the salvation that is from God and God alone.