Saturday, September 19, 2009

When A Tower Falls


Why do bad things happen to people? Doesn't the World want to know the answer to that question?

We read the answer in Genesis 3, but people love to discredit Genesis don't they? We Christians in our zeal to have people like us often disregard that book too. We are willing to embrace Evolution if it will make people like us enough to come sit in Church with us. OK not all of us act that way, and the faithful few of us here have probably just cried out in our hearts with anger at being accused of doing that.

But popular Lordship Salvation proponent John Piper is denying the truth of Genesis.

Recently a tornado hit Central Lutheran Church, Piper's explanation?
6. Conclusion: The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction. Reaffirm the great Lutheran heritage of allegiance to the truth and authority of Scripture. Turn back from distorting the grace of God into sensuality. Rejoice in the pardon of the cross of Christ and its power to transform left and right wing sinners.
This is the conclusion, his whole article can be found at Desiring God.

It's a shame when even an Open Theist has a more Biblically sound answer than a Calvinist.

With view of John Piper's use of Luke 13:4-5 Greg Boyd says the following;
Far from supporting John’s speculation about why a tornado broke a church steeple, it seems to me this passage directly assails it! It makes me want to ask John, “do you think that the folks at Central Lutheran church are more guilty than you or any others living in the Twin Cities?” And the only answer this passage allows us to give is an unequivocal “no!” In the fallen world in which we live, towers sometimes randomly fall; bridges sometimes randomly collapse; and tornadoes sometimes randomly do property damage – even to churches. That’s all there is to be said about it.
Read all that Greg Boyd had to say about this at his website.

Genesis 3 tells us that God cursed Creation. That's why bad things happen to people. Good people, and bad people... that's why cars rust, people get cancer, people die, why towers fall over, and why tornadoes hit both good and bad churches.

3 comments:

David Wyatt said...

So true! Just like Jesus said in Luke 13!

Luke said...

If Judgment were going to fall on an individual church, why would it be some little no name Lutheran church of all places? Think ye that they were sinners above all in Christendom? I tell ye, unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish ;)

Greg said...

It is also possible that the tower fell as a judgment from God.

In the same way blindness can result simply from the curse in general (contra John 9:34), but can also result as a judgment from God (Acts 13:11), so can towers fall due to the curse in general or as a judgment from God.

There more more details to this story that were not reported here that suggest to me that this was a judgment from God. In fact, I read in the national news about what this church was about to do before this whole thing happened. I am encouraged in the Lord that he sometimes breaks in to protect His name like this.