This is a sensitive issue. I’ve seen both extreme sides where one camp dogmatically insists this was judgment from the Lord. The other extreme polar opposite view states that there’s no way and God would ever do something like this. To those I’ve suggested it is, I’ve been told I’m lacking an understanding of the mercy and compassion of the Lord. To those I’ve said it’s not judgment, I’ve been told that I’m lacking a concept of the wrath of God. Anyway, people don’t seem to equate the two with each other. Could it be possible that this was judgment from the Lord?
I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and say so.
At least not exactly.
For now, I would like to refer you to various prophetic words that had been spoken over the city of New Orleans (which I have been to almost two years ago, and can attest to the grotesqueness of sin taking place there). I link to some sites below because I know how some people reading this would emphatically resist the possibility of God speaking forth to prepare the Body before something major happens, but these words below are compelling given they were stated beforehand, and were not delivered by “September 12th prophets.” However, please don’t think I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth when I say “yes” and “no” at the same time about if this was judgment. I write this entry to add balance to the discussions going on out there, because I’ve been listening to so many Christians glibbly throw the word judgment around about this tragedy. So I link to these words because there’s no point in repeating what others are already saying.
Click here for words people have given concerning it prior to the hurricane happening:
Rick Joyner/Morning Star Ministries
Kim Clement, July 22, 2005
Elijah List
A Word delivered/Vision shared in January by a man named John Mark Pool
Anyway, these words are powerful, but I must remind people that would react against it, that these words were redemptive, and that God’s not just “smite happy”.
Otherwise, I’ve been seeing something very disgusting happening in the Body of Christ lately, and it’s to almost numb ourselves and throw that word around too casually, without any compassion or sensitivity to the victims involved. Let’s give this situation some serious thought before forming an opinion about how God does or doesn’t work in natural catastrophes.
Sure there’s prophetic symbolism in the Spirit to things that take place in the natural, but how bold would we be to call things judgment when they affected us and our loved ones? My hometown in Canada last year was flooded to the point of $100 million dollars in damage, and one out of 4 homes affected (my city is only about 80,000 people, so propotionally that is massive damage) and I never said and I certainly didn’t hear once that it was judgment from God. Why did Hurricane Ivan hit Pensacola last fall, wasn’t that a revival city?
I lived in the Gulf Coast area (Pensacola, FL) for two years, and have experienced first hand–not with any major hurricanes–how hurricane prone that region is. In fact, yes, Hurricane Katrina is the worst natural disaster in US history, but it’s far from the only one there ever has been there.
And secondly, it was common knowledge that ‘the Big Easy’ was under sea level and as a result could have something like this happen one day. A bad combination that most people knew would result in a major problem one day (the rock band The Tragically Hip had a hit in the late 80s called “New Orleans is sinking”–just to underscore how much this was common knowledge). So predictating a major disaster in that area doesn’t seem like it’s hard to do. Judgment from God or not.
And thirdly, not everything bad in life that happens is judgment from the Lord. In fact, “life happens” to the righteous and the unrighteous. He causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
We need to be pre-occupied with how we as a Church can do something to help those affected–I speak as someone who has friends MAJORLY affected either by it or because of it–and probably any of or all of my American friends reading this have loved ones affected also. There’s a more important reaction for the Church to have at this time and it’s not to just sit around discussing if “New Orleans had it coming” or if this was judgement from God or not.
I suggest people look at the story of Job for some ready comparisons. Stuff happened in ways of natural environmental disasters among other things, that was not judgment from God. However, all of his friends came alongside him and told him to repent and so forth because they could not fathom something so tragic happening to him if he was really living uprightly. In the end God rebuked His friends, but interestingly enough did NOT answer Job as to how come these things all happened to him.
Let’s not forget, as many believers do, and mistake this book to be one about tragedy. It is not. In the end, the Lord restores more than double what Job suffered in the way of loss. In fact, Job lived twice as much extra onto his lifespan than he had lived up to that point, twice as many children and twice as much wealth. Christians by and large forget to read the last chapter of that book, and only read it for the bad. Sadly, I think people only look at Katrina right now and say “man, that’s sad.” Please read Rick Joyner’s word as he emphasises the things the Church could be doing to help right now in such a time as this. In fact, as one of those guys stated, the Lord’s judgments are always redemptive, and Katrina literally means pure or purifying from what I understand.
I think the tendency from too much discussion about if something that happens is judgment from God or not is that we are useless in helping after the fact those who need it. When someone I know is going through something terrible, I’d be a useless friend to just come along and spend a lot of my time emphasing why it happened (that God is judging them). Job’s friends, though possiblycorrect in some of their theology, were not being friends of the Lord nor were they accurately portraying the Lord’s compassion in the man’s situation.
There’s nothing wrong with healthy discussion about things like the judgment of the Lord on a land, but let’s not become Bildads, Eliphazes, and Zophars, all of whom Job found useless.
Thanks for letting me have my opinion. After what happened to me on a discussion board when I dared to suggest the hurricane was not judgment from God, and getting reamed to pieces for it, I really want to ask if you’re going to comment it’s that it’s not to ream me to pieces where you disagree with me. It’s my blog, I’m entitled to an outlet for my thoughts.
