God Was Not Directly Judging The People Of Syria And Turkey With Earthquakes

Luke 13:1-5, "There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

A pastor said this week that the deadly earthquakes in Syria and Turkey were God's judgment upon them, because of the wickedness in those countries. Is that true? Is that biblical? No, I think not. My humble opinion regarding the deadly earthquake in Syria and Turkey (45,000 dead so far) is that, yes, it was God's judgment in the broad sense that we live in a fallen world because of sin in general, but not judgment upon those people in particular. Jesus made this clear in our text Scripture passage from Luke 13:1-5.

As of February 19, 2023 there are 45,000 dead in Syria and Turkey

If God were to judge a city, "SIN CITY" Las Vegas would be smoldering in a heap of fire, rubble and ashes. God destroyed Sodom and other nearby cities in the plains of Sodom, as an example of what will happen to all the wicked. Jude 1:7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

I humbly don't think what just happened to Syria and Turkey is God's direct punishment against them; but rather, is part of living in a fallen world. Why does a drunk driver swerve into oncoming traffic and murder a Christian? Yet, an unsaved atheist has a safe commute to and from work for 30 years? Ecclesiastes 9:11 teaches that "time and chance" happens to all. Ecclesiastes 9:11, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Biblically, there is such a thing as "luck."

If a person chooses to build a home near the ocean, as they foolishly did in Galveston, Texas and in New Orleans, Louisiana, it is not God's judgment when they were submerged a few years later under 20 feet of water. Jesus told the parable of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand.

This week I watched a news interview, with a local architect in Turkey. The reporter asked the man why the 50 buildings that he designed in Turkey are ALL still standing. The architect said that it is as simple as positioning the building's four main rectangular support beams perpendicular to each other, so that the rocking motion cannot topple the pillars. That was brilliant. The fact of the matter is that all of the buildings that he designed in Turkey are still standing. So the reason why MOST of the buildings crumbled wasn't God's judgment, it was incompetent architects, greedy contractors and lackadaisical city building inspectors. God is not to blame for those 7,500 destroyed buildings that collapsed, humans are to blame.

Albeit, we know that everything bad which happens in this world is because of Adam's sin, and ours also. Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” This was the point that Jesus was making in Luke 13:1-5. Since we are all sinners, and we live in a fallen world, DEATH is inescapable. Jesus was warning those people that their turn to die is soon coming, so they had better repent (think differently) to get saved by believing the Gospel.

When dozens of tornadoes set down many years ago in 2008, killing dozens of people across several midwestern states, cartoon evangelist Jack Chick made the absurd claim that God was judging the United States for not helping support Israel more. I wrote this article to refute his Zionist superstition. This is the bizarre Zionist heresy being taught in many Baptist churches today. I am glad that Pastor Anderson exposes the Zionist movement.

I remember when hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans coast in 2005. Preachers everywhere were calling it God's judgment on New Orleans because of their annual Mardi Gras. The same with 9/11. Pastors called it God's judgment upon America. We have since learned that evil men conspired to pull off 9/11, including the Satanic Skull & Bones Bush family. Again, 9/11 was evil men who orchestrated this catastrophe, not God. Christians blame God far too much! It was then President George W. Bush and company who beared false witness against Iraq, and then brutally murdered 1,455,590 innocent people in Iraq. It sickens me.

Just to show you how evil and clever Satan and the Luciferian elite are, I saw a military movie recently about the Iraq war. In the movie, they showed U.S. soldiers finding weapons of mass destruction. As we know, in reality no weapons were ever found in Iraq. So to deceive the American people 20 years later, CIA influenced Hollywood is writing lying fraudulent movie scripts that teach people through movies to believe the big lie. Unreal. The wicked New World Order powers behind the scenes are relentlessly trying to INDOCTRINATE the American people that Iraq had WMDs, to justify the incalculable evil that we did to a sovereign nation. In reality, no WMDs were ever found in Iraq. Those elusive WMDs only exist in Satanic lying Hollywood films. The Devil is the father of all liars (John 8:44).

Years ago an F5 tornado set down in Georgia and killed 7 members of a Baptist church. Was this God's judgment? YES! Not specifically toward those people, but upon mankind in general. That is why we must ALL die, because the wages of sin in death (Romans 6:23). Last month I smashed my finger in the carpet-cleaner that I rented from Lowe's. Ouch! ...

And then a few days later I scratched my right knee while assembling a 7-shelf bookcase that I bought from Walmart...

Ouch! God wasn't judging me, but I suffered such injuries because I am a sinner living in a fallen world. In both instances I got injured because it was my own fault. They were accidents. 

Sadly, if the truth be known, I'd dare say that 95% of man's tragedies are caused by human error, stupidity, pride and the love of money. I like watching Mayday on YouTube, about plane crashes and the NTSB investigations that follow. The one for Guam (Korean flight 801) is heartbreaking, in which 229 people died. There were only 25 survivors. It took rescuers over an hour to reach the victims, as many of them burned to death in jet fuel while waiting for help. So sad.

God wasn't judging them. The pilots messed up. The airport had inoperative equipment because of maintenance that dragged on for 2 months. There was a bunch of problems that contributed to the crash. This is part of living in a fallen world. I have watched a few dozen episodes of Mayday. One big thing that I learned is that 80% of all plane crashes are due to pilot error. That is scary.

When I was younger I thought everything was God's judgment, but now that I am older I don't think that way anymore. The people in Syria and Turkey KNOW that they live in an earthquake zone. They had a big earthquake in 1999, and vowed that they'd be ready for the next one. Someone dropped the ball.

I remember back in 1980 when a big earthquake hit California. I was shocked that the city's officials were stupid enough to have built double-decker highways. This is what happened, killing many people...

I remember watching the news back then. Doctors were amputating victim's arms and legs to get people freed from the highway that landed on them. It was horrific. Humans cause many of our own disasters and deaths. I'm surprised that I'm still alive...lol. Accidents follow me around...lol. I've broken both arms, got a top fence twist up my chin, busted my head open multiple times (to knock some sense into me...lol), got metal in my eye at work, et cetera. I busted my head open on an ICC bumper on back of a truck at work. Ouch! I got stitches at the hospital.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my humble opinion about the tragic earthquake deaths in Syria and Turkey. My heart goes out to all those families who have lost loved one. Many entire families were killed, buried under rubble. In the book of Acts in the Bible, we read that the believers were first called "Christians" at Antioch, Syria. Acts 11:26, "And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." The ancient city of Antioch (today called Antakya) was devastated by the recent earthquakes.

Suffering, pain, disease, sickness, death and tragedy will always be a natural part of living in a fallen world. This doesn't mean that people who suffer are worse sinners than others, it just means that we are all vulnerable to time and chance.

I always hear people errantly saying that someone was, “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” If you think about that statement, it is IMPOSSIBLE. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you wouldn't be there!

• You can be in the wrong place at the right time.
• You can be in the right place at the wrong time.
• You can be in the right place at the right time.
• But you cannot be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Unfortunately, those people in Syria and Turkey were in the right place at the wrong time. They lived there. That area was there home. The first earthquake came at about 4 am, while everyone was sleeping. They didn't know what hit them, as the buildings fell upon them.

We live in a fallen world. I think it is cruel and mean to accuse a person, family, group, city or nation of being judged by God when disasters strike, as if we are more righteous than they are. Jesus plainly teaches in Luke 13:1-5 that YOU and I are just as wicked as the next guy. Don't judge others because they sin differently than you do!