Seeing the Unseen

Tragically, last week an unusual storm system for the winter produced at least 68 tornadoes in the south, leading to widespread destruction and the loss of life through states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. Even as we pray for those who are dealing with the aftermath of this worst outbreak of tornadoes in twenty years, have you noticed what people are saying regarding the unseen source of these storms?

Of course, many of our modern prophets such as Senator John "Elisha" Kerry (friend of Al "Elijah" Gore) quickly arose to proclaim to us the reason these tornadoes were sent was because of global warming. Do these men not appear as hypocritical televangelists, flying around the world in private jets with red-faced anger, warning the masses of the great apocalypse that is coming unless we all repent of our sin of driving an SUV? Is not their message a twist on the psalm, "Who understands global warming's fury as they should?" One wonders how many carbon credits (I prefer the term "carbon indulgences") Archbishop Gore thinks it takes to stop a tornado from forming. I imagine more than I can buy. These men would do well to recall Churchill's words when asked what qualities being a politician requires: “The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.”

On the other hand, at least one politician was reported as pointing to another source. The New York Times quoted Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee as saying that these whirlwinds were a display of the "wrath of God." However, they later corrected their article as this quote was not from this year, but occurred in 2006 when Governor Bredesen stood beside the ruins of a home that had been stricken by a tornado. Most likely the Times, whose own public editor was not ashamed to admit their liberal bias, made this error in their rush to made the honorable governor appear foolish in his assessments.

These examples demonstrate how one's worldview, with its inherit presuppositions, impacts everything we see. Believe in a naturalistic universe, and you will credit an amorphous Mother Nature's hot flashes as the culprit behind a tornado even as you mock supernatural explanations. Believe in a Creator, and you understand why even insurance policies will still not cover certain "acts of God." Theologian and philosopher Cornelius Van Til said, "I could believe in nothing else if I did not, as back of everything, believe in this (Creator) God. Can I see the beams underneath the floor on which I walk? I must assume or presuppose that the beams are underneath. Unless the beams were underneath, I could not walk on the floor."

Instead of giving carbon the credit for these tornadoes, God does not back away from taking it. Through his prophet Isaiah He proclaimed to a disobedient people, "From the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire" (Isaiah 26:3). He took his true prophet Elijah to heaven in a whirlwind (II Kings 2:11), and spoke to another one named Job from one (Job 38:1), all the while claiming His power over winds and every other act of nature.

We have been sowing the wind as a nation for quite some time now. Is it not about time we finally see we are reaping the whirlwind He promised He would send (Hosea 8:7)? We better, for think upon what yet another prophet named Nahum was saying when he declared, "In whirlwind and storm is His way, and the clouds are the dust beneath His feet" (Nahum 1:3).