Though there is much we do not know about Cain and Abel, we do know that on that fateful day Cain chose to take the easy way out, as did the five foolish virgins (church members) written about in Matthew 25. In both of these cases–one real, one parabolic–all 12 people involved knew what to do, why and how to do it. All 12 knew the penalty for disobedience and the reward for obedience. Ironically, half of them chose to rebel against God. The second irony is that they did so believing that God approved of their rebellion.

It is notable that Abel (Mat. 23:35) and five of the virgins CHOSE TO OBEY GOD. His attitude toward each of the six is brought out by the words used to described them: Abel is called “righteous” and the five virgins are called “wise.” To the contrary, those who disobeyed God were given quite different labels. Cain is said to be “of the wicked one.” The virgins are called “foolish.” Notice that all twelve people had a connection to God; all would have been described as having a positive relationship with Him. Today we would say that they were all “good Christians” who are “active in church.”  Obviously, their religious pedigrees affected neither God’s expectations of them nor His treatment toward them. No matter what superlatives are used to describe a church member, disobedience to God’s Word still makes him/her “of the wicked one” and “foolish.”

Concerning all those “good (church) people” referred to in the original question, Jesus cleared the spiritual air relative to the meaning of “good” in Matthew 19:17. When called “good” by a well-meaning admirer, the Lord corrected him, stating that only One is good, and that One is God. Here He applied the word “good” only to the Father, against Whom any concept of personal goodness must be measured. Jesus was stating that, as a man, not even He measured up to the God level of goodness. If only God is good, we must not label other people as “good” when they or their possessions are destroyed by one of nature’s outbursts. As Jesus said, only God is good. In another case a woman stated that blessed was the womb that bore Jesus and the breasts at which He had nursed. His reply: “Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep (obey) it” (Lk. 11:27,28).

In Deuteronomy 28 we find God stating plainly that we reap what we sow. The United States has sown the wind. Now we are reaping the whirlwind. See Self-deception, National Deception and Sodom and Gomorrah Revisited.

Over the past decade or so “nature” has displayed her wrath in ever larger, more deadly and more frequent ways, bringing ever more pain and destruction on both “good” and “bad” members of the human race. Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, plagues, fires, death and destruction–GOD IS SPEAKING TO THE WORLD.

This does not mean that those who die or have their possessions destroyed as a result of nature’s wrath are any more wicked than anyone else. Jesus made this clear in Luke 13:1-5 when He said that those whom Pilate had murdered and those who perished in the collapse of the Tower at Siloam were no more wicked than other people of their day–NONE OF THEM WERE “GOOD.” As He said, THEIR DEATHS SERVED AS WARNINGS TO THE REST OF US THAT UNLESS WE OBEY HIM, WE TOO WILL DIE. L.J.