I watch people whose homes, businesses, churches, etc. have been destroyed or whose relatives have been killed by so-called “natural disasters” giving praise to God for sparing their own lives. However, I notice that no one praises Him for sending the disaster responsible for the death and destruction. The unspoken rule concerning the allocation of blame in such situations is that it was either nature or Satan that had caused the problem.

However, I remember one incident in which a television reporter had the spine to speak the unspeakable when interviewing the mayor of a city that had been ravaged by a hurricane that would prove to be one of the most destructive in the history of the United States. He first identified the problem–the sins for which the city is known which he tied to the overwhelming presence of the Catholic Church. Needless to say, this profession of Biblical Truth grabbed my attention. But what was more unusual was what he said next: HE GAVE CREDIT FOR THE STORM AND ITS DEATH AND DESTRUCTION TO GOD. And he did so on television where it was viewed by millions of people.

This unusual conversation took place in New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina hit the decadent, sin-soaked city with maximum force. To say that I was startled when I heard the newsman’s remark would be an understatement. However, I was not surprised when the third person in the conversation–a world famous evangelist–“corrected” the reporter with a “Bible truth” that all church people “knew” to be true. God, he noted angrily, would not do such a thing. After all, God loves everyone. The hurricane, he assured the television audience, was simply an “act of nature”–Catholicism and sin had nothing to do with it. Having grown up in the church he represents, I was not surprised by his totally unbiblical response.

I am reminded of this occurrence each time people are interviewed following a “natural disaster” such as the North Carolina flood that ravaged that state several weeks ago and the Southern California fires that are still raging at the time of this writing (1-25-’25). I recall several years ago when an earthquake struck Los Angeles, California and did a huge amount of damage to what I call California’s “sin-central city.” A child living through the devastation reportedly asked her mother: “Why is God mad at us?” The child knew what very few people know about the God of the Holy Bible Who said: “There is no curse without a cause” (Prov. 26:2). Another Bible Truth the world, including the church world, refuses to acknowledge is that the Lord is the source of the curses caused by sin. This Biblical Truth is made abundantly clear in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. If you have not done so, read those two chapters carefully. Note the first 13 and 14 verses respectively in order to see how God desires to bless His people. This “headline” is embraced wholeheartedly by professing Christendom. However, there is another side to that spiritual coin which those same people refuse to accept because they have been told that, being already saved, there is no need to read any further. God commands us to read further, and further in search of His “fine print.” Religious people are not interested in His “fine print.” “Headlines” are all that is needed. And Satan smiles.

Notice what the Lord tells us in Leviticus 26:14,15: “But if you will not listen to Me and DO ALL OF MY COMMANDMENTS, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments and refuse to do ALL OF MY COMMANDMENTS and thereby break My covenant ….” He goes on to describe the curses He will place on believers if they continue to sin after getting “saved.” He makes the same promises in Deuteronomy 28.

In all the years I have seen and heard television interviews following mass destruction caused by “mother nature,” I have yet to hear one of her victims state the Bible Truth concerning the root cause of the problem. Nor have I heard anyone thank God for teaching them a much-needed lesson with His display of wrath. The little girl living in a tent following the Los Angeles earthquake had half of the situation figured out: GOD WAS MAD AT THE PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES. The part she had not figured out was WHY GOD WAS MAD AT THEM? Hopefully by this time she has learned that sin is the cause of God’s anger toward those who claim to be His people but continue to serve Satan by sinning–BREAKING HIS LAW (1 JN. 3:4). Read about so-called “natural disasters” using the key word–Natural.

Like their anti-god counterparts, church people find the Lord’s sin-curse connection unbelievable. This ignorance is the result of their refusal to believe God’s Truths while embracing Satan’s church truths. Churchman “packs his own parachute.” What he sows, he reaps. In the common vernacular, the saying is: “What goes around comes around,” to which I add: “… with a hammer in each hand.” BY HIS LIFE’S WALK (THOUGHTS, WORDS AND ACTIONS) MAN DETERMINES HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD. IT IS MAN HIMSELF WHO DETERMINES WHETHER HE IS BLESSED OR CURSED BY HIM. In First John 2:6 the Lord tells us that if we claim to belong to Jesus and expect to spend eternity with Him we must “walk as He walked” during His earthly tenure. His life provides the example which we must follow in order to join Him in His eternal walk in the hereafter. As He promised in Romans 5:21 and 6:22, THE END RESULT OF A LIFE OF HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS IS ETERNAL LIFE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Read about that kingdom using the key word–Kingdom. L.J.