Contact: Kathleen M. Campbell, Campbell Public Relations, LLC, 877-540-6022, kcampell@thecompletesolution.com

LONDON, Feb. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- Where is God? That question is an understandable reaction to the appalling earthquake in Haiti where more than 200,000 people died in under a minute. A second question follows; how can anyone want to believe in a God who would allow such things? Here we face the old challenge of the skeptic. If, as we Christians claim, God is both all-powerful and good then why did this happen? Surely, they say, only one of two conclusions is possible and neither leaves the idea of the Christian God intact. Either we must conclude that God couldn't stop the earthquake happening, in which case he isn't all-powerful or he wouldn't stop it happening, in which case he isn't good.

The best and most honorable response to suffering has always been to act first and philosophize later. The people of Haiti do not need an explanation of why this event has happened; they have more pressing problems. This is the same principle that applies in our own personal relationships. When we go and visit a bereaved friend, we do not try and explain what has happened. We put our arms around them, weep with them and try and help. The Bible tells us that Jesus wept at the funeral of a friend (John 11:35). The Christian God is not a remote detached being who doesn't care about suffering, but One who suffers with us. There are a number of places in the Bible where God says, in effect, to curious human beings "Don't waste your breath asking questions; get on with the task of doing what you're supposed to be doing." (Job 37-24, John 21:21-22; Acts 1:6-8.) In short, the priority is respond first and reflect later.

Therefore let us consider these points:

• Every person, whether atheist or believer, has similar reactions when faced with such a disaster. All of us find them an outrage and all of us feel sympathy for the victims. Yet if we do hold to the atheist position that there is no God, this is rather puzzling. You see if human beings are quite simply no more than the product of natural selection over millions of years then there is absolutely no reason at all why we should be appalled by such events. If we are created by Nature then why do we find ourselves uncomfortable with any of Nature's acts? Does not Darwinism teach that we are adapted to this world? So why should earthquakes (or volcanoes or tsunamis) provoke our outrage? Wouldn't it be more logical to shrug our shoulders and say "It's the way the Earth works" and simply walk on without another thought? Yet no one but a monster would do this. The fact is that human beings do suffer when others suffer. The best explanation of this is surely the one the Bible gives: that human beings are made in God's image (Gen. 1:27). This means lots of things but one is surely this: we are designed to be both indignant at things that are immoral and compassionate to those who suffer.
   
• Christianity has never taught that the world we see about us is how God intended it to be. The result of sin -- the rebellion of human beings against God -- means that the created order is distorted so that disease and destruction occur. It is probably significant that in Genesis 3:17 we are specifically told that the ground is cursed because of sin. The point is while we do have an elegantly designed Earth, all is not as it should be. Yet, if Christianity teaches that the earth is not what it was, it also teaches that it is not what it will be either. The earth has already been redeemed by Christ's death on the cross and one day it will be remade in glory (Romans 8:19-22).
   
• We must also ask whether it is possible that some of the unease about the Haitian earthquake comes from the way that it reminds us of two unpalatable facts: we are neither immortal nor are we in control of our lives.
   
• We do not like to think of death and our culture places a very high value on human power and autonomy. After all, are we not "the masters of our fate"? There is something almost traumatizing about the way that the shaking of the solid earth undermines (sometimes literally) all that we are and have achieved. Without warning, in seconds, destruction and death are upon us. Earthquakes remind us that life is more than comfort and prosperity.

So how are we to see the earthquake in Haiti? Jewish culture at the time of the New Testament of the Bible evidently held to a tight cause-and-effect link between sin and disaster. They believed "bad things happen to bad people". Remarkably, Jesus rejected this view and taught that because we live in a sinful world, we cannot escape tragedy and death.  However else we view the Haitian earthquake, it may not be a bad thing to see it as a warning and a reminder of our own mortality. Where is the Christian God in such earthquakes? The answer is that He is right there beside us. 

J. John (Canon)

To read the complete article go to, www.philotrust.com