The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Our Dynamic Universe

1.5.05 @ 12:01AM

BEFORE THE FALL
Re: George Neumayr's The Great Flood:

Thank you, George Neumayr, for your "exegesis" of the disaster in south Asia. Much of it is a timely counter-balance to recent journalistic hand-wringing-verging-on-loss-of-or-questioning-of-faith:

In God, His Wisdom, His Mercy. I have seen such wavering even among conservative commentators, as at National Review Online. How can this be?

The tsunami and its after-effects are indeed horrific, shocking, even too much to bear -- yet deceptive. In a certain way, once again we are gulled by the media. The earth -- or Mr. Neumayr's "dynamic universe" -- has always been, and always will be fraught or riven with natural disasters. The rub is that never before have so many people lived on the planet, meaning that never before have so many people been in harm's way, meaning that never before can so many people die in one disaster. A further rub is that never before have we had the ability to see such a horrific event as this one play out almost before our own eyes, in color, with minute-by-minute tallies of the deaths, the destruction, the aggrieved.

If a massive disaster such as this causes one to question God, logically any such event, regardless of numbers involved, must provoke doubts. If the loss of 150,000 innocents does it, does the loss of 150 do it as well? Or 15? Why not? And then, why not only one victim? And if the "untimely" loss of one innocent provokes the questioning, what is it that we expect? A comfortable, problem-free ride through to our life's expectancy or longer, then an easy drifting away into nothingness?

Life is not like this; the earth is not like this. If we accept, with Hamlet, that "there is a certain providence in the fall of a sparrow," then we must also accept that there is a certain providence in the fall of 150,000 sparrows, however horrific this may seem to us. We are indeed called to prayer for the souls of the deceased, and to prayer and compassion for the survivors. What I pray for as well is that, among the 150,000 dead, there were more than just a few who knew, with Hamlet, that "the readiness is all."
-- Jeffrey S. Erickson
Davidson, North Carolina

Since you opened the door to the theological perspective, I think its fair to give you a little theological correction. Tsunamis would NOT have occurred before the Fall of man as the Bible states that God created the Earth "and it was good." Tsunamis are certainly not "good." The consistent Creationist approach would be that earthquakes and Tsunamis are a residual effect of the global catastrophe that was The Flood of Noah's day and the subsequent raising of the continents and their separation afterward. Also the Bible states the "earth groans" as woman in labor, awaiting our Lord's most imminent return.

No doubt you're going to take a lot of heat for your perspective. Keep up the good work.
-- Paul

Wonderfully put, Mr. Neumayr, wonderfully put. Thank you for putting our world's most recent calamity into proper perspective.

Kofi and all the secularist Kupcakes (thank you, Jed Babbin) may pin together their tickytacky UNarks of salvation. But they willfully ignore the most hopeful promise. The LORD God covenantally guarantees to man that "I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done."

"I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set my [rain]bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the [rain]bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." Genesis 9:11-16

Somewhere in the world, every day, the sun refracts light through water vapor in the rainy skies, and rainbows appear. And every day the LORD sees those 'bows and holds His covenant in His mind. He will never again flood us out unto death. From God's perspective those devastating rollers ripping across the Indian Ocean basin amount to no more than ripples in a bathtub. We ought to thank Him that He doesn't create these awful waves every day!

"See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death, and I who give life. I have wounded, and it is I who heal; and there is no one who can deliver from My hand." Deuteronomy 32:39. But temporal death by water is nothing, compared with eternal death by fire for those reprobates whom God calls "accursed" and "adversaries". Gospel of Matthew 25:41-46; Hebrews 10:26-30. When we each face the ultimate Judgment Day that eternal Ark, the Lord Jesus, God the Son Himself, will save His people.
-- David James Hanson
Fayette, Iowa

This piece was simply outstanding. The paragraph:

"What happened to the media's hardheaded realism on display during the days of Saddam Hussein? If human disasters don't merit American leadership, why should natural ones? The American media were chanting, follow, follow. Now they chant, lead, lead. Which is it? Aid to Iraqis was "patronizing" and presumptuous, but massive aid to Indonesians is compulsory?"

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Business, Social Security, Global Warming, Books, Hollywood, Law, Iraq, United Nations, NATO, Oil, Unions