The Bible says in Matthew 5:45, "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Rain can be good or bad, depending on the amount and the geographical area. I don't think God grants any special protections to the saints. We read in Ecclesiastes 9:11 (easy to remember because of the 911 attacks), that "time and chance happeneth to them all." There is such a thing as, “luck.”
I read Mrs. Beverly Hyles, Pastor Jack Hyles wife, say on her blog that: "Everything happens for a reason." Although I agree with her statement, I also think that sometimes things just happen randomly to whoever is there at the time, whether good or bad. The reason may be our lax laws on drunk drivers, or our society's lack of punishment against criminals, or an ignored safety hazard, or any one of hundreds of “reasons,” but time and chance happens to everyone. I read years ago in the news about a deadly tornado that destroyed a Baptist church in Georgia, killing 7 Christians.
Jesus made it clear in Luke 13:5b, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” There misfortunate wasn't because of their individual sins. Those 18 people died when the Wall of Siloam fell upon them because of sin in general (i.e., because we live in a fallen world of sin - 1st John 5:19). We live in a fallen world because of the sin of Adam, who opened the floodgate of sin and death upon the human race, and death came upon all men as a result, for all have sinned. Romans 5:12-13, “Wherefore, as by one man 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.” Because we live in a fallen world, something very bad could happen to anyone at any time, maiming or killing us. This doesn't mean that God is punishing us directly for some sin that we commit, but because we live in a fallen world as guilty sinners.
When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005, preachers everywhere were errantly saying that it was God's punishment for Mardi Gras. I don't think that at all. If God thought that way, Sin City Las Vegas would be under millions of tons of fiery brimstone like Sodom and Gomorrah. The architects and land planners of New Orleans foolishly built their homes too close to the ocean, and when the hurricane storm surge came inland, it did billions of dollars in property damage, and hundreds of people died as a consequence. It wasn't God's fault or doing.
The same with the 911 attacks. That wasn't God's judgment upon America. Our own White House orchestrated the attacks. It was a blatant INSIDE JOB! New York City Firefighters (NYFD) said that they heard BOMBS going off in World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 just before the towers came down in a professional symmetrically fashioned demolition, completely to the ground in less than 15 seconds. Those firefighters were gag ordered by a New York judge to shut up or face jail time and loss of their jobs and retirements. It was a cover-up of mega proportions!
Anyway, I believe that God does sweep away the righteous with the wicked in this sin-cursed world. Albeit, in Job chapter one we learn that Satan could not touch job without God's explicit permission. Having said that, God sends the tornadoes, earthquakes and Tsunamis, not Satan. 1st Corinthians 10:26 says: “For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.” Albeit, Satan is the god of this evil world (2nd Corinthians 4:4). But wait, we read in Job 1, that God gave Satan permission to take away Job's children. The Devil sent a tornado (or mighty wind) to bring the house down upon Job's children, killing all 10 of them. So Satan can control the weather, but only with God's permission.
We find biblical support for the idea that God sweeps away the righteous with the wicked in Luke 4:25-26, where Jesus said, “But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.” The righteous and the unrighteous starved together in the famine, except one woman who befriended the prophet Elijah with food and drink when he asked for it, and Elijah promised to take care of her and her son.
Through the Bible we find saints suffering the same fate as the unsaved. God did deliver Lot and his family from Sodom. But we read in Hebrews 11:36-40, “And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
Noah by faith built the ark for 120 years, but the prophet Elijah was purportedly by history to have been sawn into pieces by his wicked grandson, King Manasseh. Why does one Christian woman get violated on the mission field (which happens quite often, especially in Russia), yet most Christian women on the mission field are left alone? It is time and chance, as Ecclesiastes 9:11 teaches, nothing more or less. Certainly God can protect His own when He so chooses, but so often evil things befall believers and it tests our faith to the very core.
People often say that someone was "in the wrong place at the wrong time." If you think about that statement, it is impossible! You can be in the wrong place at the right time, or be in the right place at the wrong time, or be in the right place at the right time; but you cannot be in the wrong place at the wrong time, otherwise you wouldn't be there! Thank you for reading.