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God's Judgment of Haiti?
Written By Timothy Fish
Published 1/16/2010
Is God judging Haiti? If you’ve paid much attention, that seems to be what Pat Robertson is saying. Whether it is a poor choice of words or sensationalism, it’s hard to say, but in language that now seems typical of Pat Robertson, he called the earthquake a “blessing in disguise” and stated that their problems are due to a “pack with the devil.” Brandon Cox, the pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Bentonville, Arkansas, gives one of the best responses I have seen. You can watch it in the video below:
We don’t always know when God is judging someone else. We look at Job’s friends and we see men who thought they knew why Job was suffering as he was, but they didn’t have a clue. The question of God’s judgment is often nothing more than a philosophical debate that makes for interesting conversation. That’s fine when people aren’t suffering, but what about when they are? In every situation, there are four possibilities. Let’s look at each in turn.
It Is Not Judgment and We Know It Isn’t: This is the easy case. If people are suffering, we know they didn’t cause their suffering and we have the means to help, it is easy for us to say that we ought to help.
It Is Judgment, but We Don’t Think It Is: From our perspective, this case looks just like the last one. We’ve made a mistake or God hasn’t told us that he is judging someone. Until God tells us otherwise, our responsibility is the same as in the last one. If we have the means to help, we should. God may prevent our efforts to help from being effective, that is his business, but we should err in favor of helping those in need rather than do nothing.
It Is Not Judgment, but We Assume It Is: This appears to be the worst mistake we can make in a situation like this. Something bad has happened and God wants us to help, but we think it would be wrong for us to help because he is judging them. God being God, he can find another means of helping these people, but we would miss out on the blessing. So, what we would like to do is help them anyway. But is there a case when that would be wrong?
It Is Judgment, and We Know It Is: In the other three cases, the answer seems to be that we should help, but what about the case when it is judgment and we believe it is? Should we help anyway, so we don’t risk losing a blessing when it isn’t judgment, but we assume it is? We have a precedent in the Bible. There was a time when God was so angry with the children of Israel that he threatened to destroy them and start over with Moses. But Moses stood between God and the people, asking God not to destroy them. The fact is that it is very rare when God completely withdraws from a people to the point that we should not help them. Even in the midst of the great tribulation period, God has promised to send two prophets to preach the gospel and many will be saved as a result of their preaching. Even when we know that God is judging, that does not free us of our responsibility to help, if we can.
To summarize, whether it is judgment or not, our responsibility remains unchanged. It is meaningless for us to debate whether God is judging Haiti or not. If he wishes to tell us, he will do so, but in the meantime, we should help them if we can.
