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The Lord Has His Way In The Whirlwind

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Mark Osgatharp, Aug 29, 2005.

  1. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    Once again God has had his way in the whirlwind, wreaking mass destruction on the shores of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

    While I have heard our President, the governer of Louisiana, and others calling for prayer that God would deliver the people who are in the path of this storm, I have yet to hear any in the media or the government acknowledge that this storm is the very work of God.

    The word of God tells us that God has His way in the whirlwind. One can only make of that that every building blown apart or submerged, every fallen tree, every ruined neighborhood and, yes, every lost life is the direct work of God Almighty.

    When will we ever quit attributing the work of our God to a ficticious "Mother nature"? How can we in one breath pray for God to deliver us and in the next deny that He had any part in the destruction in the first place?

    The wonder, to me, is not that God does these things, but that He hasn't been more severe in His judgments on us. These things are only a foretaste of the havoc He will wreak on this earth before the great and dreadful day of Christ's return.

    Mark Osgatharp
    Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church
    Wynne, Arkansas
     
  2. guitarpreacher

    guitarpreacher New Member

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    So a Godly man's house sits next to a wicked man's house and God destroys both to punish the wicked man? The property belonging to a wicked man in Biloxi is totally wiped out, while the property of an equally wicked man in Baton Rouge is only partially damaged, while the property of a more wicked man in south Arkansas is not touched at all. That's pretty whacked out.
     
  3. Joseph_Botwinick

    Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

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    Matthew 5:45

    Yep. Pretty whacked out. How dare God excercise his sovereign choice.

    Joseph Botwinick
     
  4. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    Guitarpreacher,

    So you don't believe God controls the weather? Do you not believe God has His way in the whirlwind?

    Do you believe this was just some big atmospheric accident?

    Mark Osgatharp
     
  5. Petrel

    Petrel New Member

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    I believe that was guitarpreacher's point. God doesn't make only good things happen to good people and only bad things happen to bad people. There's no reason to conclude that a hurricane is a judgement from God rather than God just allowing a weather pattern to continue that he established before people even lived in the southern US.

     
  6. PastorSBC1303

    PastorSBC1303 Active Member

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    God is in complete control of every aspect of life.
     
  7. Joseph_Botwinick

    Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

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    I believe that was guitarpreacher's point. God doesn't make only good things happen to good people and only bad things happen to bad people. There's no reason to conclude that a hurricane is a judgement from God rather than God just allowing a weather pattern to continue that he established before people even lived in the southern US.

    </font>[/QUOTE]Good Point.

    Joseph Botwinick [​IMG]
     
  8. guitarpreacher

    guitarpreacher New Member

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    Matthew 5:45

    Yep. Pretty whacked out. How dare God excercise his sovereign choice.

    Joseph Botwinick
    </font>[/QUOTE]So let me get this straight - You believe that when Jesus said in Matthew 5 that God's blessings on the righteous would also benefit the unrighteous, that also means that the righteous will also have to share in God's judgments on the unrighteous? Sounds to me like that's what you're saying, and if so, yeah bro, that's whacked.
     
  9. guitarpreacher

    guitarpreacher New Member

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    Guitarpreacher,

    So you don't believe God controls the weather? Do you not believe God has His way in the whirlwind?

    Do you believe this was just some big atmospheric accident?

    Mark Osgatharp
    </font>[/QUOTE]Let me answer your question with a question. If I say I believe totally in the soveriegnty of God and that I believe he is in control, does that mean I have to say I believe that God formed Huricane Katrina and slammed it into the gulf coast destroying the lives and property of saints as well as sinners?
     
  10. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    I would not presume to judge all of the reasons as to why every man receives what he receives. Sometimes the righteous suffer to try and purify them (as with Job) while sometimes the wicked are blessed with pleasant things that they might learn the goodness of God.

    My point is that whatever happens in nature happens, not because of any chance circumstance, but because God made it happen. As Nahum said,

    "The Lord has his way in the whirlwind."

    I beleive that. I do not believe God is a cosmic clock maker who wound this earth up and let is spin. I believe He is intimately invovled in every minute detail of what we call "nature."

    This is the plain Bible teaching. The man who denies it must deny the very words of God Himself.

    Mark Osgatharp
    Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church
    Wynne, Arkansas
     
  11. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    YES.

    Mark Osgatharp
    Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church
    Wynne, Arkansas
     
  12. guitarpreacher

    guitarpreacher New Member

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    YES.

    Mark Osgatharp
    Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church
    Wynne, Arkansas
    </font>[/QUOTE]We will have to disagree my friend
     
  13. PastorSBC1303

    PastorSBC1303 Active Member

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    Why is it so difficult for us to let God be God?
     
  14. Marcia

    Marcia Active Member

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    I don't usually agree with guitarpreacher, but I'm with him on this one.

    I believe God is in control but hurricanes are a result of man's sin bringing natural disasters into the world. Just as God is in control when people murder people, or when an armed man robs a bank, so God is in control when there are hurricanes. He is allowing it just as he allows sin for now until final redemption.

    Lk 13.1-5
     
  15. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    It is the Bible, not just me, with which you disagree. That God controls the course of nature is so tied up with Biblical theology that it is a wonder any man who ever named the name of Christ would deny it. Take, for example, the text quoted by Joseph:

    "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

    That text explicitly says that God "causes" the sun to rise and that He "sends" the rain. So are you still going to tell me He didn't slam "Katrina" into the Gulf coast?

    Mark Osgatharp
    Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church
    Wynne, Arkansas
     
  16. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    A murderer is a rational creature with a will of his own - though I do agree that even when a murderer murders God maintains a providential hand over him so as to accomplish His will. Which can only mean that if I get murdered it is because God so willed it.

    But a hurricane is an inanimate creation of God which has no will of it's own and no force other than that infused to it by God. If the Bible doesn't teach this it doesn't teach anything. But you quote Jesus' words,

    I don't know how this is supposed to commend your philosphy. The text only says that what God sent on some He would eventually send - in kind - on all who do not repent. It certainly doesn't teach that disasters are out of God's hands.

    Mark Osgatharp
    Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church
    Wynne, Arkansas
     
  17. Joseph_Botwinick

    Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

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    Matthew 5:45

    Yep. Pretty whacked out. How dare God excercise his sovereign choice.

    Joseph Botwinick
    </font>[/QUOTE]So let me get this straight - You believe that when Jesus said in Matthew 5 that God's blessings on the righteous would also benefit the unrighteous, that also means that the righteous will also have to share in God's judgments on the unrighteous? Sounds to me like that's what you're saying, and if so, yeah bro, that's whacked.
    </font>[/QUOTE]If that is God's soveriegn choice, then yes. If the Bible doesn't meet the approval of your human, carnal wisdom, that is not my problem, and your argument is not with me:

    1 corinthians 1:18-31

    Joseph Botwinick [​IMG]
     
  18. Joseph_Botwinick

    Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

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    A murderer is a rational creature with a will of his own</font>[/QUOTE]If the doctrine of election is true, then does man truly have a will of his own?

    Joseph Botwinick
     
  19. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    Hear the words of Nahum:

    "The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

    The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

    The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him."

    Then read the 104th Psalm.

    Then read the following diatribe by the infidel Mark Twain: http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/twain/thefly.htm.

    Then tell me which God you serve - the God of Nahum and of David, or the god of Mark Twain.

    Mark Osgatharp
    Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church
    Wynne, Arkansas
     
  20. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    Joseph,

    The doctrine of election is true and in no way conflicts with either man's free will nor God's sovreignty, for God in His sovreignty has chosen to save all who exercise the choice to trust in Him.

    All of which has ZILCH to do with the topic of this discussion which is that God is in absolute control of nature. So much so that it can truly be said that what we call "nature" is but the finger of God.

    I ask that you please not turn this thread from it's intended topic to another tired discussion of election. There is plenty of room for that in the Calvinism/Arminianism forum.

    Mark Osgatharp
    Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church
    Wynne, Arkansas
     
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