Does God Control Nature ? Poll

[JIMINZ]

That would mean that weather events in unpopulated areas were also retribution; but why? How can a place with no inhabitants be punished for the sins of people who do not exist.

One can not say all weather is a punishment. I mean we can predict a lot of weather because it obeys the laws it was created to follow. If God sent every storm the weather would be unpredictable.

Rather like when someone programs something. It does what it is programed to but the person still has authority over it.

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That's my point, God does not micromanage.

 

[JIMINZ]

for he maketh. his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:45


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Yes, But the question asked is, does He make a Hurricane hit a specific cith for a specific reason?

 

[Jude1:3Contendforthefaith]

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Yes, But the question asked is, does He make a Hurricane hit a specific cith for a specific reason?

Then Yes Absolutely He does:

The volcano eruption at the Roman city Pompeii.

Sodom and Gomorrah

Earthquakes in San Francisco and giant waves in Thailand etc.

 

[Drought of the Heart]

May the Lord not deal with us according to our sins, but grant us greater repentance.

amen

If you look at the big picture, either the Lord is in control (of all things) or he isn't. Which would you prefer?

We make a mess I choose God

 

[Drought of the Heart]

Global Warming is 2 Lies put together.

Pollution is real though.

Yes we have been bad stewards and yes God could speak and everything be good again but Earth always had an expiration date

 

[Drought of the Heart]

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Yes, But the question asked is, does He make a Hurricane hit a specific cith for a specific reason?

He is in control of the winds we know that and yes , my call has been to remind us all of this very thing . Scriptures from page one to the last tells us He is in control and earth is His footstool

 

[Bobber]

I would think on this poll there should be an option....Sometimes. That is sometimes Yes and Sometimes No. God set forth the creative order but it did get compromised when sin entered the universe. Romans 8 :22 makes this claim. So sometimes the Earth is just doing it's strange or sadly destructive things BUT there are times when God initiates an event....Such as the storm God caused to come up in regard to Jonah.

But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken. Jonah 1:4

 

[Drought of the Heart]

I would think on this poll there should be an option....Sometimes. That is sometimes Yes and Sometimes No. God set forth the creative order but it did get compromised when sin entered the universe. Romans 8 :22 makes this claim. So sometimes the Earth is just doing it's strange or sadly destructive things BUT there are times when God initiates an event....Such as the storm God caused to come up in regard to Jonah.

But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken. Jonah 1:4

Job 36
22 Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?

23 Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?

24 Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.

25 Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.

26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

27 For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:

28 Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.

29 Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?

30 Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.

31 For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.

32 With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.

33 The noise thereof sheweth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapour.

 

[Drought of the Heart]

Job 36:22 Who teaches like Him

 

[Cement]

I find this question redundant since every breath you draw is because of God. Does God send bad weather to punish people today? Who can say. I don't dwell on the thoughts of God. Once a hurricanes hits we can see God lead his people to help those in most need. People especially atheists would deride God by saying if he really cares he would have stopped the storm it's path. I think tragedies whether man made of natural remind us that we are only here for a short while and that our lives unless specified by God can be cut short at any moment.

Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” [Lk 13:2-5]

I don't think Jesus was particularly concerned about how these people died in such a gruesome manner but that their death illustrates a point that no one can escape the judgement of God that is coming upon the world unless they repented.

 

[Drought of the Heart]

I find this question redundant since every breath you draw is because of God. Does God send bad weather to punish people today? Who can say. I don't dwell on the thoughts of God. Once a hurricanes hits we can see God lead his people to help those in most need. People especially atheists would deride God by saying if he really cares he would have stopped the storm it's path. I think tragedies whether man made of natural remind us that we are only here for a short while and that our lives unless specified by God can be cut short at any moment.

Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” [Lk 13:2-5]

I don't think Jesus was particularly concerned about how these people died in such a gruesome manner but that their death illustrates a point that no one can escape the judgement of God that is coming upon the world unless they repented.

You see many say no but yes we can not even breath without Him

 

[Drought of the Heart]

Everyone can quote verse 14 but it is verse 13 that explains 2 Chronicles 7
13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

 

[Hank77]

You see many say no but yes we can not even breath without Him

This is true, without Him there would be nothing.
But is He telling your heart to beat and your lungs to inhale every breath you take? Or did He create us with a body that has a brain, heart, blood, and lungs that work together to keep our bodies working? Our bodies are an amazing witness to the glory of our Creator.
Even more so that He should create us in His own image. Not our bodies, the material part of us, but the part that can't be seen. The part of us that can tabernacle with Him. How great is our God.

 

[St_Worm2]

How great is our God.

Hi Hank, when I began to wrap my mind around the scope of what this meant (see the text in bold in v17 below), well, blown away doesn't quite do it justice .. and I'm still just as blown-away today

Colossians 1
16 By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.​

Yours and His,
David

 

[TuxAme]

He can be in control, but I think we should be careful to not attribute every single horrible thing that happens to Him. It seems much more likely to me that God is aware of when these things will happen and allows them to occur.

 

[gideon123]

OP

No I believe you should re-think "control". God sets the physics of storms and weather, then they unfold in a random way. Just because a storm blows down power lines or wrecks a house .... it does not mean that God deliberately caused that destruction. God is not malicious. On a daily and weekly basis, there is a lot of randomness to the weather.

However ... the Bible teaches in many places that God is perfectly capable of controlling the weather ... if He wants to get a point across. Such as the drought during the time of Ezekiel, or the fact that Jesus calmed the storm on the lake. In my view, these are extraordinary miraculous events. But daily weather is random.

 

[nonaeroterraqueous]

I don't believe in randomness. It's merely a statement of human ignorance. A highly chaotic system is so complex that people cannot grasp the intricacies of all of the parts, and they cannot predict the outcome, so they call it "random." They say this word as if it were something real, as though a system could be more or less random. It's not the system that's random. The system abides by its own rules. Or, rather, it abides by God's rules. Hence, the so-called random events are always ultimately controlled by God.

I think people make the mistake of thinking that if God controls a weather system, then he must impart meaning into it. In other words, when a hurricane hits Florida, people assume that either God was not in control of it, or that the hurricane had something to say to us. It could easily be neither. The hurricane was going that way because God fore-ordained that hurricanes would go that way, and people managed to get in the way.

The close cousin to that mistake is in thinking that every event not only has a general purpose, but that each event has a specific purpose. If God makes certain kinds of weather to happen in certain places, then he might have a general purpose for making that kind of climate there. People might be so focused on a particular storm, when the real purpose (to accomplish an outcome, rather than convey a meaning) has more to do with the general climate.

 

[Douger]

COOL But how do we do that

Prayer, faith. I'm no expert, but I know these things happen and therefore can be done.

 

[JIMINZ]

I always pray His will as we are told to do.

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But if this storm is going to hit, don't you first believe it is Gods' Will, no need to pray for it to go hit Bermuda where some really bad people live?

 

[JIMINZ]

He is in control of the winds we know that and yes , my call has been to remind us all of this very thing . Scriptures from page one to the last tells us He is in control and earth is His footstool

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God wound it up like a top and set it spinning, what weather patterns happen, happen naturally, otherwise God has an Annual Retribution Program going, and that is just on the East Coast of the U.S., let alone all of the other types of weather that hit all over the world, killing thousand upon thousands ever year.

But if you believe that God has this type of Annual program in motion then........