God again?

“Why let the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.” 

–Psalm 115:2-3

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE caution everyone from jumping into conclusion that the powerful earthquake that walloped the central Philippines, particularly Cebu on September 30, 2025 was “an act of God.” 

We also don’t agree that the same magnitude of quake that blasted Negros and Iloilo on February 6, 2012 was also “an act of God.” 

Science tells us that when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another, an earthquake happens. 

The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane, according to Earthquake Hazards Program. We believe in science and eschew superstition.  

It explains that the location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter.

On February 8, 2012, or two days after the magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Tayasan, Negros Occidental and was strongly felt in Iloilo, triggering a tsunami alert and causing panic in Iloilo City, a group of Christian pastors reportedly gathered for a prayer meeting.

They agreed that God had very little to do with the powerful tremor while assessing impassable roads and damaged buildings.

 

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Since the earth is under the Curse from Creation, earthquakes and other natural disasters simply happen according to laws of nature.

Our earth is actually not immune to disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes.

“So how does God fit in? Intuitively, people know God is in charge. When tragedy strikes, people call out to Him,” asked Dr. Erwin Lutzer of Monergism.

“We know that when something is outside of our control, we need to call upon a higher power for help. But if people intuitively know that God is in charge, how do we explain the heart-wrenching suffering that accompanies such disasters?”

Among the numerous earthquakes that have shaken this earth, none has had such significance and publicity as the catastrophe of Lisbon. 

For the student of Bible prophecy it has a particular meaning, but Bible students were not the only ones to be impressed by it.

On November 1, 1755, the greater part of the city of Lisbon, Portugal, was destroyed. 

Besides the earthquake, a tidal wave followed and wrecked the shipping in the river Tagus on which Lisbon is built. In addition to that, fire broke out and completed the work of destruc­tion. 

Sixty thousand were said to have lost their lives, and the property damage, although it cannot be estimated accurately, was of course enormous.

 

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According to the Ministry, an international journal for pastors, the immediate repercussions of that Lisbon tragedy were registered in religious as well as antireligious circles. 

That was particularly true in France, where the Encyclopedists tried to vulgarize the achievements of the human mind, and where Reason had its most eloquent spokes­men. 

France was, at the time of the occurrence of the earthquake, the focal point of rational­ism. Everything was examined by the philoso­phers: the origin of the world, the creation of man, the church, education, et cetera. 

Among the most influential writers, explained the Ministry, none were more read and followed than Voltaire and Rousseau, who both saw in the Lisbon catastrophe a signif­icance that brilliantly, although tragically, proved and illustrated their systems.

Voltaire was always clear, but never well co­ordinated. He is considered an infidel, a man without a Christian's faith, rejecting divine rev­elation; holding that the Holy Scriptures are not God's Word, nor is the church the visible body of those "called out." Christ was, to Vol­taire, neither the Redeemer nor God Incarnate. 

On the other hand, Voltaire was not an atheist; he was a deist, as it was intellectually fashion­able to be in the eighteenth century. While al­most all philosophers were deists, there were shades of difference in their individual beliefs.

 

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Voltaire believed that God is the Source of all life and substance. He was convinced of the ex­istence of God for two reasons: First, he thought that the world could not be explained without God, that is, without a "First Cause." 

However, Voltaire thought that God the Creator cannot be reached by man, nor can God be conceived by our knowledge. But by our very reasoning we are forced to admit God's existence, and only ignorance could attempt to define Him. 

Second, without God there is no foundation of morality, and thus God is the basis of human society. 

It was Voltaire who coined the cynical phrase, "If God did not exist, we would have to invent Him."'

It is evident that Voltaire's views were not only mistaken but superficial. He could not discern spiritually because his concept of the world was that of a rationalistic investigator. 

It is especially in the field of prophetic Bible in­terpretation that Voltaire's judgments are often erroneous and sometimes childish, particularly his pert remarks on Isaac Newton's Observa­tions Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. 

Yet he cannot be con­sidered an atheist. One of his most outspoken statements against atheism is in his letter to the Marquis of Villevieille: "My dear Marquis, there is nothing good in Atheism…. This sys­tem is evil both in the physical realm as well as in that of morality…" 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)