Superstorm Sandy, God’s judgment on America?

Much ado has been made about Christian preacher John McTernan’s comments that Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy is God’s judgment on the gay agenda in America and the anti-Israel policies that America seems to be embracing in our recent history, especially under President Obama. Is McTernan correct or is he just another religious fanatic blowhard?

The harshest critics leaving comments about McTernan across the Internet have stated that this is why Christianity should be kept out of the public square. Others have left the usual questions like–“If this is God’s judgment on gays, then why did he leave San Francisco alone?” Still others have held to the idea that it’s not God’s judgment, but global warming on steroids that caused the latest freak storm. So who’s right?

It’s my opinion that McTernan is on to something here, but I disagree with him on restricting it to homosexuals and America’s policies concerning Israel. I believe Superstorm Sandy is, in fact, God’s judgment on America. From what the Bible tells us, this is God’s M.O., his modus operandi. When nations are hellbent on promoting sin, he fires off warning shots like natural disasters to give people opportunities to repent. If a society doesn’t repent, God allows them to destroy themselves and adds in his own destruction to go with their self-destruction. He allows the amount of their iniquity to become full (see Genesis 15:16; Daniel 8:23; Matthew 23:32; 1 Thessalonians 2:16), then lowers the boom.

America has a whole host of sins that have brought about its recent disasters from record numbers of tornadoes to earthquakes to the drought and now Sandy. Those sins include all kinds of sex outside of God-established marriage (not just homosexuality), pornography, witchcraft, satanism, other false religions, stealing, murder, lying, anti-Christian sentiments, and the list goes on. And working against the best interests of Israel is part of the list. But Israel isn’t completely blameless itself.

If this is God’s judgment on such sins, why didn’t he hit other places in the U.S.? God often judges one place, but uses the places he hits to be a lesson to the other places that do the same sins, but weren’t hit. He destroyed Sodom & Gomorrah and their surrounding villages to testify against sodomy, but throughout Canaan at that time there were sodomites. He brought about the destruction of Babylon, but other kingdoms were just as prideful and idolatrous as Babylon was during that time.

Nevertheless, for all the times that God has displayed his awesome power in judgment, we humans continue to be hardhearted and stiffnecked. Which is why God will soon judge the whole Earth, as opposed to his current policy of selectively judging certain areas. I’m continuing to pray that America will learn from these hardships and repent. I’m praying for the people affected by Superstorm Sandy. I’m praying for God’s will to be done. Will America change for the better? We’ll see, but looking at how the U.S. is so adamant about continuing its downward moral trends, I’m reminded of Revelation 9–

²⁰ And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

²¹ Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Source: Gianluca Mezzofiore. Hurricane Sandy: Christian Preacher Blames Gays, Obama and Romney for Frankenstorm. International Business Times, http://www.ibtimes.co.uk. October 29, 2012.

Harry A. Gaylord