Does God cause natural disasters?

It seems logical that if God is all powerful, He must be responsible for everything that happens on our planet. But there is a missing piece we must not overlook: Both good and evil exist in our world. There are flowers and thorns, fresh air and pollution, love and hatred.

Why? The devil was once Lucifer, a being who stood by the throne of God. He became jealous and began to spread rumors that God was selfish, controlling, and unjust. The accusations grew until Satan and a third of the angels were cast out of heaven to the earth (Revelation 12:7–9). Instead of immediately destroying the devil and creating confusion and fear in the hearts of all the other beings, the Lord allowed Satan to play out his ideas before the watching universe.

After Adam and Eve sinned, the world began to change (Genesis 3:17). The enemy was permitted to touch our planet and bring destruction through earthquakes, tornados, fires, and floods. As we come closer to the end of time, Jesus predicted these types of events will increase (Matthew 24:8). But God has not abandoned His people.

When Jesus came, He brought healing and hope. “The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9:56). To questioning and blaming people, He once said, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone me?” (John 10:32). Evil does not come because God is unfair. It often comes because God is pushed away. “And many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ ” (Deuteronomy 31:17).

Yet sometimes innocent people suffer in this world of sin. Calamity does not always come to sinful people. Jesus more than once corrected that false teaching (see Luke 13:1–5). Catastrophes will not last forever. Christ promised to come and put an end to all calamities.

Key Bible Texts

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:14 KJV)