God and Hurricane Helene

A seven-year-old boy named Micah was stranded along with his mother and grandparents on their roof in Asheville, awaiting rescue amid the devastation of Hurricane Helene. Their roof collapsed and Micah and his grandparents died; his mother was saved when she became wedged in debris and was not washed away.

According to his aunt, the last thing Micah yelled before he was taken was, “Jesus! Please help me!” His body was later found about a quarter-mile from where his mother was rescued.

Innocent suffering is the most difficult issue Christianity must face. We believe that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. As a result, he knew about the hurricane before it struck; he is powerful enough to have stopped its advance; and he is loving enough to want to do so, or so we would think.

Why, then, did he allow such a tragedy, one of the worst natural disasters in modern history?

It is one thing to watch people suffer as a consequence of their wrong choices. A person who speeds should not be surprised if they get a ticket. A student who decides not to study should not be angry with his teacher when he fails the test.

But hurricanes and natural disasters are no one’s fault. None of those suffering the devastation of Helene caused the storm or deserved its wrath.

In addition, natural disasters seem especially to implicate God, since he made the natural world. We hold car makers responsible when their vehicles are flawed and require recalls; we blame authors for mistakes in the books they write.

Why, then, should we not blame God for Helene and similar tragedies?

At such times, some will reject the existence of God altogether. But most of us, rather than denying his existence, will question his character. C. S. Lewis, grieving the death of his wife, wrote:

Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him. The conclusion I dread is not “So there’s no God after all,” but “So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”

How are we to understand the nature of God in the face of natural disasters?

Consider three logical options.

1. God, if he exists, is irrelevant to natural events

Atheists such as Bertrand Russell and Sam Harris blame innocent suffering for their atheism. Deists don’t go this far—they believe God created the world but has nothing to do with it now. In their thinking, he is like a clockmaker who creates a clock, sets it on the mantle, and watches it run down.

Other thinkers such as J. S. Mill believe in a “limited” God who does not intervene miraculously. Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his bestselling When Bad Things Happen to Good People, similarly claimed that God cannot do everything, though he can do some things. We ought not expect him to intervene miraculously, since he does not act in these ways today.

The German historian Ernst Troeltsch claimed that we should not believe events to have happened in the past if they do not happen in the present. In other words, if you have not experienced a miracle, you should not believe in biblical miracles. Nor should you expect others to experience them.

This approach could be encouraging in a way, in that it assures us that we are not to blame when God does not intervene in our natural disaster. However, this is cold comfort, since such a view also prohibits hope that he can and will help us when we need him most.

Of course, anyone who believes the Bible to be the trustworthy word of God knows that it records numerous natural miracles across its pages. We are also told that God does not change (Malachi 3:6), meaning that he can and does still act today as he did then.

All this to say, if we are biblical Christians, we must dismiss claims that God is irrelevant to tragedies such as the one we are discussing today.

2. God causes all that happens

The other extreme is the view that God causes all that happens, including Hurricane Helene.

We are familiar with natural disasters he causes in Scripture, from the plagues of the Exodus to the hailstones and other natural disasters in the Book of Revelation. Jesus taught us, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matthew 10:29). The psalmist declared, “The Lᴏʀᴅ has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19).

It would only seem logical, then, to believe that God caused Hurricane Helene and that he causes all other natural disasters as well.

However, this view of God’s character makes God the author of evil, contradicting the biblical truth that “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). A perfect God (Matthew 5:48) who is “holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8) cannot cause evil to exist in his world. Nor can a God who “is” love (1 John 4:8) make such a choice.

There are unquestionably times when God does cause natural disasters. But across Scripture, as we will see below, these are his responses to specific sins, sent in judgment for the purpose of leading sinners to repentance. Such actions are not evil but just and redemptive.

The fact that he causes some natural disasters does not mean that he must therefore cause all disasters.

3. God allows all that happens

Since God is sovereign, he must cause or allow all that happens. In the case of natural disasters (apart from those that express divine judgment on specific sins), I believe that the latter applies.

Here’s why.

I believe there are limits to God’s providence, boundaries he has chosen to erect and chooses to honor. For example, God created us to love him and each other (Matthew 22:37–39). Since love is a choice, he endowed us with free will and chooses to honor this freedom. As a result, he allows the consequences of our misused freedom lest he remove our ability to choose his word and will.

Paul tells us that God “desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), but not all are saved (cf. Revelation 20:15). Peter assured us that God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), but not all come to repentance (cf. Revelation 16:21).

In the case of misused free will, we see God’s permissive will at work, not his perfect will.

Similarly, I believe that much that happens in nature is part of God’s permissive will as well. When the first humans fell into sin, nature fell with them. God therefore warned Adam: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Genesis 3:17–19).

As a consequence, “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22).

This fact explains the vast majority of the natural disasters and diseases that plague our fallen world. None was present in the garden of Eden before the Fall. None will be present in God’s perfect paradise in heaven. But in between, they are part of what it means for fallen people to live on a fallen planet.

Which option should we choose?

With regard to disasters such as Hurricane Helene, how do we choose between options two and three? If God does sometimes cause natural disasters, how do we know he did not cause this one?

I’ll answer this question by asking two others.

One: Is this a response to specific sins and sinners?

As I noted earlier, this is the pattern of Scripture. However, I am not aware of any sinful behavior that would warrant Helene’s destruction across the Southeast. To the contrary, those who live in this region are typically much more religious than those who live in some other parts of the US. 

Two: Did God warn them prophetically beforehand?

Before God sent the plagues against Egypt, he repeatedly warned the people through Moses. Before he brought judgment against Babylon, he warned them through the prophet Daniel. Before he allowed the Romans to destroy Jerusalem, he warned the city through Jesus (Luke 21:5–6).

I am not aware of any such prophetic pronouncements against the American Southeast prior to Helene’s landfall. Nor have I seen any indication that the millions of people so devastated by the storm rejected warnings about the impending disaster, either from God through his people or from other sources.

It is therefore my belief that Helene should be seen as another manifestation of a world broken by the Fall, not specific divine judgment against its victims.

How should we respond practically?

Let’s close with four practical ways you and I can respond biblically to this horrific tragedy.

One: Understand the limits of our understanding.

There is much about God’s omniscient ways that finite humans by definition cannot understand. The Lord reminds us: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lᴏʀᴅ. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9).

Just as we would not expect a preschooler to understand calculus, we cannot expect fallen and finite humans to understand God’s divine mind.

This fact relates to some of the perplexing questions that arise from a discussion of natural disasters and divine providence:

• Since God sometimes intervenes in nature (cf. Jesus calming a storm in Matthew 8), why didn’t he intervene this time?
• Since he sometimes answers calls for help (cf. Peter’s drowning cry in Matthew 14), why didn’t he answer Micah’s cry to Jesus in Asheville?

The bottom line is: I don’t know. I have to assume that he has ways and reasons that I cannot understand. I believe that the reason he doesn’t explain such ways and reasons is not that he is unwilling to explain himself but that I am unable to comprehend his answers.

The good news is that with regard to our eventual experience in heaven, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

One day we will understand what we do not understand today.

Two: Listen to the pain people experience without trying to answer all their questions.

I was leading a question-and-answer time in my first pastorate when one of our members raised her hand and asked, “Why does God allow Alzheimer’s?” I started to launch into a theological response when the Spirit checked me and I asked her, “Why do you ask?” She then told us that she had been forced to place her mother in a memory care facility that afternoon.

She needed explanations far less than she needed empathy.

When addressing issues of suffering, it is vital to listen to the Spirit as he leads us to help in the best ways we can. These responses may often involve theological discussions such as we are having in this paper. But in my experience, this is seldom the place suffering people begin.

They ask “why?” because it is human nature to do so—even Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). And responding to this question will be vital in its time.

But before they want to know why they are suffering, they usually want to know that we are suffering with them. Grief and pain are so isolating that they require the community of fellow sufferers.

Remember: Job’s friends were helpful until they began trying to explain his suffering. Even if we cannot answer a hurting person’s questions, we can share their pain.

Three: Look for ways God is redeeming this tragedy.

As I often state, I believe God redeems all he allows or causes. This is for several reasons we have already discussed in this paper:

• Because he is sovereign, he must cause or allow all that happens.
• Because he is “holy, holy, holy,” he can never make a mistake.
• Because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), his character requires him to want only our best.

God makes a mistake if he allows or causes anything he does not redeem for an eventual greater good. Since he cannot make a mistake, his character therefore requires him to redeem all he allows or causes.

I am not claiming that you and I will understand such redemption on this side of eternity. Much of what happens in this fallen world will perplex and trouble us until the day we understand it through eternal perspective (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12). Then we will agree with Paul: “I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Nor am I claiming that every person experiences such redemption. If we misuse our free will to reject God’s word and will, the consequences are our fault, not his. But he then redeems even our misused freedom and its consequences for his larger purposes and greater glory, though we forfeit such blessings personally.

For example, Pharaoh’s “hardened heart” led to the destruction of his army but also to the liberation of the Jewish people. Judas’ betrayal of Jesus led to Judas’ eventual suicide but also to our Lord’s atoning redemption for all who trust in his grace.

In any current crisis, it is good to look for ways God is redeeming this tragedy.

Four: Join God at work.

One of the ways God redeems suffering is by calling his people to share in such redemption. When he uses us as his hands and feet, we continue the earthly ministry of Jesus today (1 Corinthians 12:27). Our compassion draws others to his love. Our service leads those we serve to the One who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

So, let’s close with these questions:

• What can you do personally to serve the victims of Hurricane Helene?
• How can you pray for them?
• How can you support relief efforts through your financial contributions?
• How can your church be involved in such efforts?

And how can you serve others who are suffering closer to home?

In Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Tim Keller noted: “In the secular view, suffering is never seen as a meaningful part of life but only as an interruption.” However, he added that “if faced rightly,” it can drive us “deep into the love of God and into more stability  and spiritual power than you can imagine.”

The choice is ours.