The Massacre of 1755

[Emun]

One of the most devastating natural disasters in European history took place in the city of Lisbon in 1755. Early in the morning the city was surprised by an earthquake, followed by a tsunami and finally by a major fire. The city was almost completely destroyed. About 12,000 to 100,000 died.

The earthquake raised anew for philosophers and theologians the old theodicy problem: How could an omnipotent and benevolent God allow such a tremendous calamity as the Lisbon earthquake? Why had the quake hit the capital of a strictly Catholic country, which was working for the spread of (Catholic) Christianity in the world? And why, moreover, on the feast day of All Saints? And why had numerous churches fallen victim to the quake, but Lisbon's red-light district, the Alfama, of all places, been spared? Scholars such as Voltaire, Kant and Lessing discussed these questions.

What gripped me most of all was that this catastrophe took place on All Saints' Day. One could think that God was mocking. Obviously, God has a tendency to bring disasters upon certain people on certain days. For the destruction of the second Temple also took place on a festival, a Jewish festival, a festival of mourning, on Tisha B'Av.

What does this teach us? It teaches us this: Fear God. Obey His word. Stay away from idols. Otherwise, He will bring calamity upon you and He will have no mercy on you or on your children.

Isaiah 45:7
I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create disaster; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

I think we have to consider the reality that there is a "course of nature" that is random and indiscriminate. Few of these events are actually acts of God for vengeance or judgments. Most, IMHO, are nature seeking to rid itself of sickness, much like a body will fever to rid itself of disease or a body will vomit to rid itself of poison. Of course God created these actions and reactions and placed them in nature, so one could insist that they are acts of God. But I believe there is random fate in God's creation, and God allows it.
Levi 18: KJS
24. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25. And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
26. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit [any] of these abominations; [neither] any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
27. (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which [were] before you, and the land is defiled
28. That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that [were] before you.

The land wants rest from the sin sickness.
Leviticus 26:43 GNB
43. First, however, the land must be rid of its people, so that it can enjoy its complete rest, and they must pay the full penalty for having rejected my laws and my commands.

He may simply remove the protecting hedge and allow the course of nature to proceed.

Isaiah 5:5-6 LITV
5 And now I will make known to you what I will do then to My vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be burned. I will breach its wall, and it will become a trampling ground.
6 And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but briers and thorns shall come up. And I will command the clouds from raining rain on it.

I think this is especially true for nations that have known God, know His righteousness, and walked in His ways. When they apostate, the trouble that comes is worse, because they knew better. I believe this is America and much of western civilization today.

Are believers immune from these troubles?
Appears not.

 

[Emun]

Are believers immune from these troubles?

I have not claimed. At Lisbon 1755, however, if you consider the details, an act of God for punishment is not far-fetched.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

I have not claimed. At Lisbon 1755, however, if you consider the details, an act of God for punishment is not far-fetched.

That is possible!
George made a good observation.

"As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world,
they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects,
providence punishes national sins by national calamities."
George Mason

 

[Bob Crowley]

There's an interesting article here.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/july-august/bad-judgment-theodicy-enlightenment-revelation.h

It makes several points - one is that the Enlightenment had resulted in a comfortable assumption that things would get better and better, despite occasional minor setbacks.

Indeed even the word optimisme was coined in 1733 to describe, as literature professor Nicholas Shrady writes, the “spirit of the age.”

Some Protestants had a hey-day as they saw it as judgement on a Catholic city.

In particular, it was easy for Protestant figures to call the disaster a divine judgment on Catholic Lisbon. Almost every important Catholic church in the city had been destroyed by a cataclysmic conflation of earthquake, water, and fire. The Estaus Palace, headquarters of the Portuguese Inquisition, was also destroyed. The enormous wealth of Lisbon and its participation both as a center for the Inquisition and for the slave trade made it a particularly ripe candidate for blame. The optics were just too tempting.

Today though we're less likely to blame natural catastrophes as God's judgement (even if sometimes they just might be). Part of the reason is that we know more about why they happen. We know what causes earthquakes, tidal waves and hurricanes, and in some cases can predict them and take some preventive measures.

For the most part, modern people reject the view that natural disasters are divine judgment. We are less likely than in some past eras to preach sermons or write hymns about the fittingness of God destroying the world through an earthquake.

In the end we're left with an enigma. Why did God allow it to happen, and there are many other episodes of both natural and moral evil which raise this unanswerable question.

Natural evils include the 2004 tsunami, Krakatoa, the Black Death (Plague) and perhaps Covid.

Moral evils include the World Wars, the Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Gulags, and all the violence of one human being against another down through the ages.

I don't think we'll know the answer this side of Glory. We can try to work it out, but it's hidden.