David Rietveld of the Wellspring Anglican church in Tasmania recently posted this article on his blog relating to the recent Victorian bushfires. While I agree with the spirit of the message, there are a number of specifics that I cannot leave unchallenged.

Like many Australians, over the past few days I have been distraught and captivated by the devastation of the Victorian bush fires. That so much death and destruction is possible in such a short period of time, and that we are so powerless to defend ourselves in the face of such dangers is difficult to comprehend.

While shock gridlocks one part of my brain – another part is thinking how do I process this as a Christian? Given that I believe in a sovereign benevolent God, how can I make sense of these events?

The problem of evil has plagued believers for 2,000 centuries and I doubt it will be satisfactorily solved any time soon. To reiterate, would be trivial for an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolant God to save those he wished, but this is not what we witness.

The people who died came from all walks of life, with varying racial, social, political, financial, and religious backgrounds. Some were most likely regularly attended church, gave donations every week and helped out in the bake sales. Others were probably without any faith in the supernatural whatsoever. If there was an all powerful being looking out for his followers we might expect to see a greater ratio of the faithful making it to safety, verses those who “choose” to reject his undying love. This data is almost certainly unobtainable, but on the surface it appears the fires trapped and killed people indiscriminately.

If you remove an all knowing God from the equation the answer becomes clear, understandable, and completely logical. Fire happen, and people are trapped. There is no mystery here.

As I look around me, I notice Christian leaders making statements about how our thoughts and prayers are with those who have experienced loss. And this is right. Our first response is one of empathy. In fact this is one of the great distinctives of the Christian faith. We have a God who became man in Jesus, took on our flesh, lived our life, cried at the death of his friends, suffered injustice and was ultimately crucified. And because of all this we have a God who can sympathise with us in our weaknesses.

It is correct to say that our first impulse is one of empathy and to want to help those we imagine to be in pain or distress. However, to claim that this is a singular Christian trait is highly offensive to anyone of any other faith, or indeed those of no faith at all. Just because I do not believe in a great and all powerful spy camera in the sky does not mean I have no empathy for others – quite the contrary.

I believe this is the only life I will ever have. I am extraordinarily privileged to be here and I aim to help make to world a better place for all. I do not do this in order to garner a reward in the afterlife, or to avoid eternal torment. I do this because this experience is all we have.

I also notice Christian organizations launching appeals. Again, this is right. We ought to respond when and where we can in practical ways. The number crunchers tell us that Christians are on average the most generous and philanthropic citizens.

It is true that Christian organisations have launched appeals and that this is the right thing to do, however to claim that Christians are the most generous and philanthropic citizens is an extraordinary claim. I wonder if Mr. Rietveld has verifiable data to back up his claim?

At the I write this article, the organisation that has collect the most funds for the Victorian bushfire victims is the Red Cross, who managed to collect over $50 million dollars in less than 4 days. Current estimates place the total donations are around $100 million dollars – all to an organisation which “makes no discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions.”.

This is in stark contrast to St. Vincent De Paul which “is a lay Catholic organisation that aspires to live the gospel message by serving Christ“, and The Salvation Army whose “message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by love for God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ“.

Of course, it may be argued that it is primarily Christians that give to all of these organisations (the Red Cross included), but again without hard evidence to back this up it is difficult to tell.

But the prime minister and premier call for empathy and generosity. As Christians, what can we say beyond this? My local newspaper headline reads ‘hell fires’. Biblically speaking, fire is often used as an image or instrument of judgment. What can be said in this regard?

Controversial Christian minister Danny Nalliah yesterday said, according to Melbourne paper The Age, that the fires were a result of God’s judgment upon “INCENDIARY” abortion law reforms that last year made Victoria “the baby-killing state”. “God’s protection has been taken off the state, and Satan is having a go at the nation.”

This line of thinking is unpopular and unpalatable, but is there any truth to it? Didn’t God after all burn Sodom and Gommorah for their sins?

Drawing links between Sodom and Gommorah and the Victorian bush fires is problematic. The account in Genesis 19 does not read like a natural disaster that happened to burn a town(s) in its path as was the case in Victoria. According to Gen 19:24 burning sulfur rained down on the city, and on the city alone. The point of the narrative is that God’s judgment was decisive and specific.

For the record, my Bible (KGV) says in Genesis 19:24-35:

“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.”

It seems Mr. Rietveld is not technically correct since God rained deadly fire on the surrounding fields as well so the farmers could not resettle. This is, of course, a minor point. The elephant in the room here is that the loving Christian God utterly destroyed an entire city in the first place. This seems decidedly at odds with his precious 10 commandments, but I guess you can ignore the rules if you created them in the first place.

I can already hear the objections – God had to destroy that city because of the wickedness and sin within its walls. While this is an answer to some, it is a poor answer to me. Why doesn’t God take the high road and guide his precious children back into the light? Why does he need to destroy the city now – what’s the rush for a being who lives outside of space and time? Why was God really keen to rush those people into Hell to begin their ever lasting suffering that day? How do you reconcile this behaviour with the notion of an all loving God?

If you did want to find a biblical parallel to the Victorian bushfires, better is Luke 13. Here a tower in Siloam appears to have fallen without warning, killing 18 people. Jesus is asked if people incur such wrath because they “were worse sinners.” Jesus’ response is to say that they were not worse sinners. To draw the parallels to Victoria, we cannot conclude that the people of Kinglake specifically or of Victoria at large are any better or worse than other Australians. Such conclusions are erroneous.

But there is a sting in the tail to what Jesus says. His next line is: “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:5) Jesus’ message, like it or not, is that while there is indiscriminate and apparently unfair ‘justice’ in life – all humanity (outside repentance) sits under judgment and will one day perish.

Jesus says in Luke 13:3:

“I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”

He then goes on to talk in parables (as he often does) and asks a fig farmer to leave a tree for one more season. If it does not bear fruit, then he should cut it down. The implication here is clear – God does not have infinite patience. Sooner of later he will reach the end of his tether and cut down those trees which do not bear fruit. Better make sure your not one of them!

I find it strange that an all loving being so readily hastens judgement of those souls he is displeased with. These scare tactics might work on people who belief in the boogey man, but I am not at all frightened by them anymore than Christians are frighten by the prospects of spending eternity in Valhalla.

Let me be clear about what I am, and am not saying here. I am not saying that Jesus’ or the Christian view of personhood is that we are all bad and deserve to die. Humanity has been made in God’s image, and God is good. The proverbial little boy who says “God made me, and God don’t make junk” was right. All humans, both those who believe in Jesus and those who don’t, remain capable at times of reflecting God’s image in the way they love, care, and forgive. To be balanced we ought also say our desire for justice and our disgust to think that some might have deliberately lit fires that cased this devastation is also a way in which all humanity reflects God’s character.

According to the “good book” God himself was directly responsible for drowning all living life on Earth, raining fire on cities, turning women into pillars of salt, drowning opposing armies in the Red Sea, and murdering the first born of an entire nation amongst many other atrocities. To say that only “love, care, and forgiveness” are reflections of God’s image ignores these unpalatable aspects. If you are going to draw your inspiration from this ancient book, then you are not afforded the luxury of just picking the parts you like, for by which criteria do you choose the passages to follow or ignore? They certainly do not come from the book itself.

Rather, the Christian view of personhood is that, in Adam, who acted as the representative of the human race, we have all fallen short of God’s standards (perfection) and that have all come under judgment.

If God wished to make us perfect, then he should have done a better job in the first place.

And its not just Adam, or people who light bushfires who deserve God’s judgment. None of us manages to live to our own standards, let alone God’s. The way to avoid judgment is not to be better than your neighbour, but to repent of your inability to make things right with God by yourself, and to believe that in Jesus you can again have peace with God.

So all I need to do is believe in Jesus to spite dubious evidence he actually existed in the first place, let alone was the son of God and made the perfect human sacrifice to save us all from his own wrath.

What does this mean regarding the bushfires? Am I saying that the fires are judgment for sins? No – and yes. No – I do not believe we can conclude that God caused the fires so as to specifically judge persons who have since lost their lives.

That largely depends on your definitions and powers attributed to your God. Perhaps a targeted lighting strike started the fires? Perhaps he directed an army of termites to eat the roots of a pole causing it to fall on power lines and ignite the fires? Perhaps he divinely inspired susceptible sinners to throw beer bottles out the car window, then directed the sun rays to set fire to a nearby pile of leaves?

First, God did not cause them. They were a combination of naturally occurring events and human actions. Second, the fires were widespread and indiscriminate.

The fires may seems indiscriminate to you, but some people believe they targeted the people required to fulfil some divine and perverted plan. Personally I think this line of thinking is deranged and dangerous, but I do not presume to know the mind of God.

But yes – the fires are a consequence of the fact that we live in a broken world – broken by human rebellion God. Natural disasters are a consequence of human sin, and in that sense they function as a self imposed result of our (corporate humanity that is) rejection of God.

And there we go! “Natural disasters are a consequence of human sin”. Having started out as condemning Catch the Fire Ministries views as “unpopular and unpalatable” we now agree with their assessment, albeit in a slightly watered down fashion. It’s not the decriminalisation of abortion that caused these fires, but the more general sins of mankind. We brought this on ourselves due to the choices we made, so God is in the clear. Or his he?

Surely if God made us perfect, then it must have been impossible for us to sin against him (unless this is an attribute of being perfect). Given that (according to the convoluted story) Eve sinned then tricked Adam thus condemning all their descendants for all time, it becomes clear that sin IS an attribute of perfection. This certainly rings true if you read what God got up to in the Old Testament.

Of course I am being flippant – it was our choice (well, Eve’s really) and God has nothing to do with it – right? Answer me this – why can’t your God predict the results of giving us free will?

Where then is hope? Let me turn to media coverage of the bushfires. Two stories caught my attention. One was the story of a man reunited with his dog. The other was a story of a husband and wife reunited by Mike Overton and the Channel Nine helicopter. The two embraced within a scrum of media cameras. What the media is looking for is the good story on the fringe of all the bad news. Fascinating isn’t it – usually the mass media is good at giving us the bad news. But when the news is so bad we can’t comprehend it, they end up trying to find the soft edge.

It may be the soft edge, but the centre is blacked, charred, and hard. Just talk to the gentleman who lost his wife and three kids in the fire. Their last choking breaths of hot smoke would have come as unwelcome relief from the searing heat of the flames an the building around them was engulfed by fire.

Spare a thought for the story I was personally told by a gentleman who’s neighbour sent his two young kids down to the dam to turn on the fire pumps. When they did not return for sometime he went to investigate only to discover they had been incinerated. Imagine the guilt this poor man must be feeling, knowing he sent his children to a horrible death.

What is missing in the media coverage, by and large, is an in-depth look at any of the lives that were lost. All we get is photos of people crying over mellow music. While we the general public might find a glimmer of hope in a couple being reunited, spare a thought for the hundreds who will never be reunited with their loved ones. They will find no comfort or hope in such stories. Nor will any amount of money from various appeals fill this void. In short, for those staring most starkly into this tragedy, I can see no silver lining to this cloud coming from the mouths of politicians or the stories of media outlets.

Life is hard. It is tough, unrelenting, brutal, and savage, but I do not need to invent an afterlife in order to face these realities. Life can also be beautiful, uplifting, and joyful. It is the mixture of highs and lows that define both. For me, it is not about dwelling on the bad times, but making the good times last as long as possible – for everyone.

Here too the Christian story stands alone. Today I bury a parishioner, and in two days I bury my grandmother. Different from death via a tragedy I know, but still death nonetheless. These occasions will be a mixture of sadness and joy. Sadness at saying goodbye, but joy in knowing that both ladies have a hope in a life beyond their suffering and mortality. A hope that does not compare to the finding of ones pet, or a helicopter flight.

Natural disasters remind us there is a shallowness to much of modern life, a finiteness of the human condition and abilities, and the need for hope in and beyond our uncertain world. I’m relieved I have such a hope in Jesus. – David Rietvel

Just because it makes you feel good, does not make it true.

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