Greg Laurie Asks: Is God Trying to Get Our Attention With Hurricanes and North Korea?
Laurie explained that sometimes God can allow for something traumatic to occur in order to "wake us up."
"This was the case with Jonah. God told him to go to Nineveh and preach because God wanted to lay down the biggest revival in human history. God wanted to do this through Jonah, but he said no. Jonah didn't want the Ninevites to repent because they were wicked. But God always has the last word," Laurie wrote. "A storm came while Jonah was on a boat headed in the opposite direction. Jonah was thrown overboard and then swallowed by a great fish, which eventually vomited him onto the shores of Nineveh. Finally, reluctantly, Jonah did what God had called him to do. The result was the greatest revival in human history."
Laurie concluded by asking the question "why are all these bad things happening?"
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"Simple answer ... I don't know," he wrote. "Is God trying to get our attention with natural catastrophes and threats of war from those who want to destroy us? Perhaps."
"But I know this: God loves us. With all the racial tension after Charlottesville, we saw people of all races and backgrounds working together in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. I'm sure we will also see it when Hurricane Irma has done its work," he continued. "This is a time to pray together and for each other. It's also a time to work together and love one another. But most importantly, it's time to believe in and follow Jesus Christ."
Laurie is not the only evangelist to comment on the significance of the natural disasters occurring in North America.
Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Billy Graham's son, took to Facebook Sunday to comment on the "[w]ildfires raging on the West Coast," the "[v]iolent hurricanes, one after the other, ravaging everything in their paths," the magnitude 8.1 earthquake that rocked Mexico and also the "rare solar eclipse."
"The Bible says in Luke 21:25, '...there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves.' In Matthew 24:7 it says, 'For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places,'" Graham wrote. "These are some of the Biblical signs before Christ's return. Nobody knows the day or hour, not even the Son of God, but it is a reminder to all of us to be ready — to repent and confess our sins, and ask for God's forgiveness."
Evangelical author Joel Rosenberg wrote in a blog post addressing the natural disasters, "The God of the Bible wants to shake us loose of [our flawed notions] in order that we might turn to Him, and to the life He offers through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ."
"This is a 2 Chronicles 7:14 moment, for the Church, for America, for Israel, for all nations," Rosenberg wrote. "If My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
