3 things Christians should think when they see Hurricane Helene or Milton
It’s been a little over a week since Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm to hit the mainland United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, made landfall and wreaked havoc across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The mountainous regions of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina were devastated.
Beautiful small towns all across the Appalachian Mountains were wiped out and washed away. The high winds, rapidly rushing flood waters, and mudslides brought down homes, churches, small communities, and even bigger cities across N.C., stretching from Asheville to Bat Cave and Chimney Rock to Boone.
Blue Ridge Public Radio remarked, “The amount of rainfall from Helene in Appalachian mountain communities — an estimated 40 trillion tons — was previously incomprehensible, despite the region’s history of landslides and flooding … A majority of those who died in the hurricane-turned-tropical storm, according to official reports as of Friday, were in Western North Carolina. Beyond North Carolina’s borders, entire communities in the mountains of east Tennessee were submerged.”
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Appalachia, a scenic but struggling region of the South, has been tragically annihilated. On October 5, the AP reported that “The death toll from Hurricane Helene inched up to 227 on Saturday as the grim task of recovering bodies continued more than a week after the monster storm ravaged the Southeast and killed people in six states.”
As pictures of these devastated towns and regions have spread far and wide on social media, many Christians have been overwhelmed by the scale of the destruction. Families separated, lives lost, homes destroyed.
In the aftermath of any tragedy, one question always looms largest: “Why?” Why did this happen? Why did it happen to those people? Why did it happen to me?
The search for meaning is a normal response to tragedy and grief. But as Christians, we must always ground this pursuit in sound Christian doctrine. Unfortunately, in our highly politicized age, many people on social media quickly pivoted to convenient and callous “explanations” for why Hurricane Helene hit Appalachia so hard.
On the radical left side of the spectrum, progressives suggested that Helene hit places like North Carolina and Tennessee so hard because “those people don’t believe in climate change” — as if the “gods” of “climate change” decided it was time to teach the hillbillies a lesson.
On the conservative, Christian side of things, I saw some Christians suggesting that Asheville got destroyed because the city has become such a hotbed of sexual sin and perversion; Asheville has become increasingly known for its aggressively pro-homosexual and pro-transgender “scene.” It is undoubtedly an extremely liberal city in an otherwise conservative area and state.
I want to be clear: While I don’t think that either one of these claims can be made with any certainty, they are not equally offensive or equally wrong.
First, “climate change” or “global warming” isn’t real. It’s a fabricated crisis that is weaponized by the global elites. No scientific evidence proves the earth is getting demonstrably or concerningly “warmer” or that “hurricanes are getting worse because of climate change.” Even more absurd is the claim that “Hurricane Helene hit Appalachia the hardest because those people don’t believe in climate change,” as if “climate change” is some wrathful deity visiting destruction upon those who doubt its existence.
There is only one true God, the Triune Christian God, and His name is not “climate change” but Yahweh.
Now, for the Christians who claim that Helene flooding Asheville was an act of divine judgment for their celebration of sexual immorality, like Sodom and Gomorrah of old, I will readily admit that the Bible teaches that things like this have happened and do happen. But it never tells us that we, as finite, fallible, and fallen human beings, have the ability and knowledge to render such pronouncements with any certainty. Furthermore, it wasn’t just Asheville that got hit — Hurricane Helene left a wake of destruction across six states and thousands of miles.
On the heels of Helene, Florida has now been slammed by Hurricane Milton, a monster storm that some are even calling the “storm of the century.” By the end of today, much of Florida may very well look like Appalachia.
Biblically thinking about tragedy
With that said, how then should Christians rightly and biblically think about the reasons for deadly natural disasters? What is a faithful theology of hurricanes, so to speak, or of natural disasters more broadly, like fires, floods, and earthquakes?
Here are three principles from Scripture that can help us process these deeply saddening but regularly occurring events.
1. Natural disasters are a result of living in a fallen and sinful world
While many Christians rightly understand that we are, by nature, sinful and in need of the redemption offered through Jesus Christ, we often forget that the creation itself is cursed as well.
In Genesis 3, when the Lord is dealing with Adam, Eve, and the serpent in the garden after the fall of man, we learn that God curses the perfect creation as well. As God is judging Adam and delivering the sentence of death for his disobedience, we read: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.”
To be clear, inanimate features of the natural world cannot sin, but it is appropriate to understand natural disasters, like hurricanes, as a product of the fall.
In Romans, Paul restates this reality and goes further, claiming that creation itself is longing to be “set free” from the curse. In Romans 8:19-22, we read:
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor.”
Here, the inspired Word of God reminds us that the natural world is in “enslavement to decay.” One obvious aspect of this decay is death, but it’s reasonable to understand that the curse extends beyond death, bringing sickness, tragedy, and even natural disasters.
Hurricanes like Helene remind us of the heartbreaking truth that we inhabit a fallen world. Even creation itself longs to be set free. Yes, God is still sovereign over everything — from the smallest molecule to the largest storm — and He has a plan of redemption that is unstoppably unfolding. But natural disasters will continue to occur until Christ returns to wipe away every tear from our eyes and all things are made new (Revelation 21:1-4).
2. Natural disasters happen to everyone — both saints and sinners
Christians should speak where God has spoken but be cautious and quiet where He has not. What do I mean by that? It is appropriate for Christians to say, “God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual perversion” because that is made explicitly clear in the Bible (Genesis 19, Jude 1:7).
However, it is not appropriate for a Christian to claim, with any degree of absolute certainty, that any one particular natural disaster that occurred in any given region of the world today is an official act of Divine judgment from God for a particular sin.
In fact, Jesus clearly teaches that naturally occurring weather patterns in this fallen world befall both saints and sinners alike. In Matthew 5:44-45, Jesus says, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Rain (and, by logical extension, wind, storms, and even hurricanes) falls on both “the just and the unjust.”
Ultimately, God is the one who is perfectly sovereign over every storm and every other natural disaster in the world — and He directs their path. Yes, man can contribute to these events to a degree (perhaps by carelessly sparking a forest fire), but God is still in control. The winds and the waves still obey His voice.
How and where storms like hurricanes fall is part of what we can call “God’s inscrutable providence.” Inscrutable means “impossible to understand or interpret.”
Christians should not claim to know exactly why any one storm strikes any one location, and they certainly shouldn’t claim to know it was a specific judgment of God on any one group of people in that location. As I said earlier, Hurricane Helene severely damaged the liberal pro-LGBT city of Asheville and many God-fearing churches and communities in the mountains of North Carolina as well.
The rain indeed falls on the just and unjust alike.
3. Natural disasters are still a kind of judgment and a warning to “repent or perish”
While it’s wrong for a Christian to claim that they know that a natural disaster was a specific judgment from God on a specific people in a specific place in our day and age, the Bible also teaches that all natural disasters are a kind of general judgment in this fallen world and should lead people to repent.
We learn this, again, from Jesus. In Luke 13:1-5, Jesus tells the crowd that:
“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Here, Jesus corrects the other end of the spectrum of confusion concerning death and tragedy: Wrongfully assuming that anyone is spared because of their righteousness.
Jesus explains that for both the Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate (not a natural disaster, but still a tragic and deadly occurrence of evil), and those in Siloam who were killed by the collapse of a tower (more akin to a natural disaster), they suffered and died not because they were worse sinners than everyone else.
Jesus uses these tragedies to remind His listeners that tragedy in this fallen world foreshadows a greater judgment yet to come: the wrath of God against sin. He calls on His listeners then, and through the Bible today, to respond in a very particular way — repentance.
As in Jesus’s day, so in ours, when we witness death and tragedy in this life, it should cause us to reflect on our mortality and our coming death and to respond with repentance and faith in the Gospel.
Whether it’s a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, when we learn about widespread suffering and death in this fallen world, we should do what Jesus commands us to do: Repent or perish. These events are a judgment, but the greater judgment is to face God still in our sins.
We may avoid a hurricane, but we cannot avoid the fate of all mankind.
Conclusion
To sum up, when we witness the heartbreaking destruction caused by hurricanes like Helene or Milton or hear of other natural disasters or tragic events, Christians need to be careful to think biblically about such events.
Christians should 1. remember that natural disasters and death are part of living in a fallen world that is corrupted by sin; 2. remember that natural disasters befall both the just and the unjust; and 3. recognize that natural disasters are a general form of judgment that foreshadows the greater judgment of the wrath of God on our sin if we face Him outside of Christ.
What should our response be? Of course, we should pray for those impacted, give to support relief efforts, and even volunteer our time to serve those in need.
But most importantly, we should repent. We should repent and cling ever more closely to Christ, who is our ultimate deliverance and who has promised to one day make all things — including this fallen creation — new.
And when He does, hurricanes will be no more.
Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.
William Wolfe is a visiting fellow with the Center for Renewing America. He served as a senior official in the Trump administration, both as a deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon and a director of legislative affairs at the State Department. Prior to his service in the administration, Wolfe worked for Heritage Action for America, and as a congressional staffer for three different members of Congress, including the former Rep. Dave Brat. He has a B.A. in history from Covenant College, and is finishing his Masters of Divinity at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Follow William on Twitter at @William_E_Wolfe
