A hurricane killing thousands, a tsunami or earthquake destroying hundreds of acres of land and leaving people homeless and a tornado claiming the life of a father of seven -- could these events truly be acts of God?

This leads us back to the question: "If God is so loving, why do bad things happen?" And as I always say, the answer is pretty simple, but unless you're really open-heartedly looking for an explanation, these answers will never truly be enough.

The Fallen World

The first thing that we must realize is that, yes, God did create the world with the idea of natural calamities happening. He made the laws governing air pressure, weather, seismic activity and temperature falls and rises, but not with the intent of destroying man.

What makes me say that? Well, God never meant to destroy anything when He created them -- most especially man. Genesis 1:31 tells us, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."

Why would a good God want to destroy very good creations? There must have been something else that was wrong. And yes, there was. There was and still is something wrong with the fallen nature of man.

In God's love, He has graciously awarded man with free will, hoping that we would freely love and choose Him. But because of our fallen nature, we can never truly stay in the presence and protection of God, leaving ourselves vulnerable to the chaos of the world that He had created.

It's not so much that God will not protect and bless fallen people, but that He can't because He respects our free will to protect and bless ourselves.

The God who also calms the storm

It seems ironic how man will easily blame God for the occasions that natural disasters claim lives but not praise Him for the protection, peace and good weather we have most of the time.

God may be the God who sends down rain, fire and trembling to the earth, but He is also the God that preserves us through famine (Genesis 47:13-27), calms the storm (Mark 4:35-41) and saves us from the ultimate calamity of separation from God by sending Jesus to take our sin and curse.

Because of our stubbornness, man disqualifies himself from the full physical protection of God, but by His grace through Jesus Christ we are all blessed with life and peace in a good and abundant measure for eternity.

Matthew 5:45 says, "For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike."

Dr Erwin Lutzer puts it eloquently when he says: "Many people want to protect God from the clear teaching of the Bible, which shows He is involved in natural disasters. It is not that God causes them, but the very fact that He could prevent them shows that we need to face squarely the fact that natural disasters happen within God's providence.

"What we need to realize is that God can be trusted, even when it seems as if He is not on our side. We have to point people to the fact that God has intervened in our planet by sending Jesus Christ. There we see the love of God most clearly."