Is it just a "bad thing happened" standard? Something bad happened that we cant explain otherwise, therefore it must be Satan.\n\nHow can we distinguish Satans act from God's acts. If the US economy is hurt, then its not Shaytans work, but ALLAH's punishment. Some people even claimed that the New Orleans flood was God's punishment. Maybe God and Satan joined forces on New Orleans cause Im sure Satan didnt want to be left out from that kinda misery.\n\n\n"Its the work of the devil"; "Shaytan is behind the spread of this virus"
206372
James 1:13 When under trial, let no one say: “I am being tried by God.” For with evil things God cannot be tried nor does he himself try anyone.\n\nSince that scripture is clear. It is impossible for god to try anyone with evil. We can see that the evil and bad things that happen are from Satan the devil not god.
373644
I've never heard anyone blame God for anything.\n\nI think the general rule of thumb is that we (the opposition) generally wonder why, if God is all-loving, AND all-powerful, AND all-merciful, AND all-compassionate,etc... does he not step in to STOP (or at least intervene in) the 'destruction and unexplained deaths'. \n\nThere is no answer for that. The whole claim is perposterous!\nI think if anything good did happen - we would jump up and down looking for the 'God' behind it. But so far.... the well has been found to be dry and wanting.
403072
Bad things happen to us all and so do good things that is life. It is how we deal with the bad times though that define what kind of person we really are. Somewhere high above us or all around us, depending on how or what you believe, God is watching and waiting to see how you deal with life. It is the choices you make here that will define the life you have after this one is done.
322428
I've been noticing that every time America hosts an anti-Israeli leader, a natural disaster hits America the same day. The more sin progresses; the more nature groans in response. I'm not surprised that things are progressing downward. As we legalize more sin, nature groans. Sooner or later, you'd think the world would see what's happening, but no....they close their blind eyes & says it's just coincidence.
187569
hi,\n I can understand your confusion, but bringing in the answer from above, my brother is also suffering from a brain tumour and my grandfather died four years ago of the same thing. sickness came into the world through SIN, not an individual sin but corporate. many ppl ask why God allows such terrible things to happen, but to ask Him to get involved, as in fix it, is to ask Him to make a judgement. Is any of us ready for God to do this???? as the question states, only 8 ppl lived the last time.\nPraying you receive the truth in your answers.\nGod bless\nShaz\nx x x x x
582792
Thank you very much for asking this question as it allows us to see the true natiure of the Christian believer. Look at these cold-hearted answers:\n\n"Most sat on their ass when they should have gotten out of there": here we have a person who has presumably never lived anywhere near a natural catastrophe blindly passing judgement on those who tragically lost their lives. The implication here is that nobody was caught or stranded and that, in a sense, they had it coming. This is human compassion.\n\n"God didn't send the hurricane; Satan did": here we have the classic argument: that which is good is the work of God, that which is bad is the work of the Devil. God, who the Bible repeatedly states can control the world however he wants, chose this time to sit back and allow the Devil to do his thing. Even more amazing, those who did survive were saved by God. Those who didn't, for reasons I guess we cannot know, thus weren't.\n\n"Not all of the people are dead, so obviously He helped them": again, here we have a God arbitrarily picking-and-choosing. One wonders if he just threw darts at a dartboard to decide who should perish, leaving their loved ones to mourn, and who should be saved. One might be reminded at this time that innocent babies were among the dead.\n\n"God gave them brains and feet to run with": again, apparently those who died were not using their God-given brains. I dearly truly hope that none of the people who have answered here are met with a natural catastrophe. I, for my part, would never dare to blame their demise on their own lack of thinking...\n\n"He was with those people but maybe they did something wrong": arrogance! Do you know anything of the minds of those people who died? How many of them had been good citizens, maybe even good Christians? How many of them were innocent babies with no way to protect themselves?\n\n"If one prays, God can easily divert or stop the hurricane": natural disasters are caused because people don't pray. or, alternately, God could have stopped the hurricane, but just decided not to because not enough people were praying... Divine justice and mercy...\n\n"Do you also blame the police for not stopping every crime?": well, or course not, for we can recognise that the police are fallible and not all-powerful. The analogy does not fit at all because the God that many of those people believed in is all-powerful... but sometimes chooses not to use that power.\n\n"God never strikes a place without warning its people first": this wins hands-down for most arrogant and crude response yet. The number of people who die tragically in natural disasters is all but incalculable. The suggestion here is that God is repeating his Sodom-and-Gomorrah trick countless times a year and people are just too deaf to hear. Additionally, the people who died in New Orleans were the ones who "embraced witchcraft and celebrated lewdness" - or perhaps this person believes that _all_ people in New Orleans were/are lewd witches. The tragedy of this lack of compassion is that it implies, somehow, that the writer's good luck never to have been hit by a natural disaster somehow makes him more righteous than other people.\n\nNote that all of the above is from a 'Christian' point of view... It's enough to make you cry.
650129
wether its the act or the react , is the main question. first of all muslims (not muslums) embraced Islam as their way of life (and death), Islam (and all other relegions) never teach its believers to be a bad human,  bad to other human, bad to animals, or even bad to any plants and earth.. Its all begin with a concerted effort by the hidden hands to label muslims apparantly, and they succeeded. They planed their plans hundreds of years ago to achieve this state of global labelling on muslims, they try to play god, but have they forget God;s plan is better than their plans?. God is most Mercyful, all catastrophies on this earth is from our own wrong doings. God created a logical reason just to suit our level of thinkings, has any of us observed how great were the previous nation during civilization before us? have we ever understand why those civilizations, which were great vanished? or is it just a coincident? The Romans were so advance and powerful, but where were they? Was it because of the works of terrorist during their era?.. Where are Babylonians now? Why there is only the Ankor Wat's Temple there, what happened to the Ayuthians? Do they vanished because of the terrorist?\nThis could happen to Americans too.... the signs, the hurricanes, the earth has spoken, lightly... just wait until the dollar values drop in next 7 months... America is Big, if Big falls, it will fall hard...
305756
because Satan is at work destroying God's creation. It will never get better until the End.  Then everything will be destroyed with fire.
499830
LOL...Good point! Give em something to think about!\n\n********\n\nNoah and his ark was actually a true story.....notice, I said STORY....not EVENT.\n\nThe Fertile Crescent had spring floods every year, due to the snows melting from the Ural mountains to the north. The story was a tale told at the time to get locals to prepare for the spring floods by moving to higher grounds or to build barges/floats, to keep above the flood waters.\n\nThe "story" says it was the "whole world" that flooded.....actually it was THEIR whole world.....people didn't use to travel a lot, ya know. the whole bible is a compiled group of stories just like this one.
607724
It's not GOD that made the person who choose to act out and hurt others, it's the idividual. NOW if the church doesn't do anything then they are accountable.\n\n  A deeper study and understanding of just what the Atonement really is can help, and bring peace to a tormented soul.\n\nThe sad thing is too many times people blame GOD when in fact it is not GOD at all but Satan.
26298
I cannot make sense out of your question, but if you are asking if these natural disasters were "acts of God," the answer is emphatically - NO!  He does not ever wish such things on people, nor would he do anything like these without prior warnings.  \n\nA good example to study is that of Noah.  Yes, that was a major "natural disaster," but the people had been warned again and again, and chose not to listen.  Read Chapters 6-9 of Genesis.  Also note what Jesus said at Matthew 24:37-39 - "Just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be.  For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away"
333268
The sodom story is misread. The real trouble with the city was hospitality. His guests were going to get raped. They don't mention that having sex with men is a bad thing. (prove me wrong if i am). Besides, ive also read that in biblical texts, that sodomy is the relation between a man and a boy. Obviously thats not a good thing.
592534
God is soveriegn, and everything that happens is according to His will. Sometimes God even has to allow bad things to happen to make people turn to him or to help people trust in Him.
577650
First off...I say no.\n\nSecond of all, perhaps there's more to consider.  \n\nAsk yourself WHY satan appeared as a serpent in the garden?  (hit...satan always tries to decieve).\n\nIn Exodus, when the children of Israel are being afflicted by the "flying serpents" moses puts a serpent on a cross (um...symbolic) and says "look to the serpent to live".\n\nThis is not doctrine of my faith, however I sincerly believe that at one point the serpent was a symbol of christ rather than of satan.  Satan appeared in a manner trying to mimick christ and therefore decieve eve.  Moses knew this symbology but it's since been forgotten.\n\nI believe the snake was originally a symbol of Christ.
146040
You're thinking about Job, and it's actually a long story.\n\nIn the end, Job was blessed for his suffering, even though he never knew why.\n\nJob was shown for the type man he was for our learning, not to prove Satan wrong.  He's an excellent example for us in suffering.  Sometimes we do suffer as the result of evil being in the world and sometimes we are tested because others think our service to God is hypocrisy and we would deny God if our privilege was taken away.\n\nIn the end, Job has a better understanding of God, Whom he loves and has worshipped consistently all his life. \n\nHis story shows us that suffering is not always the result of personal sin; riches are not always proof of God's approval and the lack of them is not always proof of His disapproval; disaster is not always judgement; our obedience is not just a personal matter - our examples affect others (all beliefs his friends held, and many still hold today).\n\nWe don't always get why God does things, but we learn from Job that God is in control, He considers us even though He allows us to be tempted, and that He is with us (read the end of the book) even when we are suffering.\n\nIn John 12:27-28 Jesus says, “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”  This is right before He was taken to be beaten and crucified.  Sometimes when going through a trial or grief, I consider that my purpose may be to go through the trial in a godly way.  How I deal with adversity may be my single greatest achievement, and more important than anything else I accomplish.  It may serve to bring someone else to Christ.  If my temporary suffering aides in bringing about someone else's eternal reward, that helps to put it in perspective.
310943
Very true and very sad.  It's horrible that those who have answered other questions here and claimed to haved live as Christians previously, but have turned away don't realize that also.  It's silly that those who don't believe honestly think they can have so much hate and it comes from themselves, but then claim that Christians are the ones who hate.  They don't understand that because of our love for God we will defend Him to the end, fully acknowledging that He does not need our help, He certainly can handle it!!  But that Satan wants to put anger and fear and doubt in all of us.  Satan's total reason for being is to turn us away from God...he has no other purpose.
612934
We are saying "peace unto you" to the Angels Raqeeb and 'Ateed ( the angels that record the good and bad deeds.) They are good angels,neither is bad as you claimed .These two Angels remain with the person as long as he lives, and when he dies they stand at his\ngrave till the day Judgment day. Angels do not whisper bad thoughts to us. They worship God non-stop without eating,drinking, sleeping..etc. The devil (shaitan ) does whisper bad thoughts to lead us astray.  \nI get what you're trying to say but, like I said Angels are pious servants of God and don't whisper bad thoughts. The mind though, is located between these to Angels (Ateed who records the bad deeds and Raqeeb who records the good deeds) So, it's nice to remember them before we take action on our thoughts whether good or bad. As it could stop us from doing bad and encourage us to do good, and prepare us for a better judgment day.