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R. A. Davis
his lifetime. According to Luther, God uses a wide range of natural events and forces
of nature to discipline sinful humanity. We have already seen that Luther wrote
that God uses earthquakes and fires to discipline humanity. For example, Luther,
commenting on Psalm 1:4 (“The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind
drives away”), described the wind as “the force of God’s wrath and the breath of
His anger” (LW 10:23). The same goes for hail as in Isaiah 28:17 (“And I will make
justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; hail will sweep away the refuge of
lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter”) (LW 16:231). Luther wrote that “big
thunderstorms, lightning, floods, and fire in the skies and on earth are signs”, but he
warned against too much speculation into the meanings of these natural phenomena:
But how this happens, or what natural powers are at work here, or what secret processes are
active, these are questions that the magi investigate and juggle with; they are of no use to
you and not necessary for you to know. It is enough that you should recognize God’s wrath
in these things and lead a better life. (LW 52:168)
So, in this life, according to Luther, God uses creation and natural disasters to urge
humanity to repent and turn toward God. Furthermore, Luther was not interested in
scientific analyses of the causes of weather events or how these things occur. Neither
was he much interested in the question of why they occur. He already knew that God
caused these events and that, given their destructive force, God caused them in order
to discipline humanity.
For many people today, it would be mistaken to attribute the problems of climate
change to God’s wrath. For example, theologians and church leaders (such as Cliff
Bird) attributed Cyclone Winston to nature’s freedom or scientific explanations
(Bhagwan 2016). The Pacific regional ecumenical body also rejected the notion that
God lies behind climate change. In their Otin Taai Declaration of 2004, the Pacific
Conference of Churches wrote:
We would like to say a word about God’s promise to Noah not to flood the earth again.
Some Christians view this covenant as a guarantee that they are not at risk of flooding from
climate change. But the sea level is rising and threatening Pacific Islands with flooding from
high tides and storm surges. This is not an act of God. It is a result of human economic
and consumer activities that pollute the atmosphere and lead to climate change. Most of
these polluting emissions come from highly-industrialized countries. (Pacific Conference of
Churches 2004, p. 3)
If this analysis is correct then these human activities can become the focus of
political and social action. Indeed, one popular slogan among climate change activists
in the Pacific is “We are not drowning. We are fighting” (https://350pacific.org),
which challenges the narrative that Pacific people are victims who can do nothing
but accept their fate as sea-level rise destroys their lands and cultures. After Cyclone
Winston the slogan in Fiji was “Stronger than Winston”, which aimed at boosting
people’s resilience in face of the destruction that the cyclone left in its wake (Finau
et al. 2018, p. 130). Not everyone embraced these slogans. For those Christians who
believed that Cyclone Winston was God’s punishment, to be stronger than Winston
was claim that it stronger than God’s instruments of wrath and even God himself
(Cox et al. 2018, pp. 389, 392). For those Christians, this attitude does not show the
R. A. Davis
his lifetime. According to Luther, God uses a wide range of natural events and forces
of nature to discipline sinful humanity. We have already seen that Luther wrote
that God uses earthquakes and fires to discipline humanity. For example, Luther,
commenting on Psalm 1:4 (“The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind
drives away”), described the wind as “the force of God’s wrath and the breath of
His anger” (LW 10:23). The same goes for hail as in Isaiah 28:17 (“And I will make
justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; hail will sweep away the refuge of
lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter”) (LW 16:231). Luther wrote that “big
thunderstorms, lightning, floods, and fire in the skies and on earth are signs”, but he
warned against too much speculation into the meanings of these natural phenomena:
But how this happens, or what natural powers are at work here, or what secret processes are
active, these are questions that the magi investigate and juggle with; they are of no use to
you and not necessary for you to know. It is enough that you should recognize God’s wrath
in these things and lead a better life. (LW 52:168)
So, in this life, according to Luther, God uses creation and natural disasters to urge
humanity to repent and turn toward God. Furthermore, Luther was not interested in
scientific analyses of the causes of weather events or how these things occur. Neither
was he much interested in the question of why they occur. He already knew that God
caused these events and that, given their destructive force, God caused them in order
to discipline humanity.
For many people today, it would be mistaken to attribute the problems of climate
change to God’s wrath. For example, theologians and church leaders (such as Cliff
Bird) attributed Cyclone Winston to nature’s freedom or scientific explanations
(Bhagwan 2016). The Pacific regional ecumenical body also rejected the notion that
God lies behind climate change. In their Otin Taai Declaration of 2004, the Pacific
Conference of Churches wrote:
We would like to say a word about God’s promise to Noah not to flood the earth again.
Some Christians view this covenant as a guarantee that they are not at risk of flooding from
climate change. But the sea level is rising and threatening Pacific Islands with flooding from
high tides and storm surges. This is not an act of God. It is a result of human economic
and consumer activities that pollute the atmosphere and lead to climate change. Most of
these polluting emissions come from highly-industrialized countries. (Pacific Conference of
Churches 2004, p. 3)
If this analysis is correct then these human activities can become the focus of
political and social action. Indeed, one popular slogan among climate change activists
in the Pacific is “We are not drowning. We are fighting” (https://350pacific.org),
which challenges the narrative that Pacific people are victims who can do nothing
but accept their fate as sea-level rise destroys their lands and cultures. After Cyclone
Winston the slogan in Fiji was “Stronger than Winston”, which aimed at boosting
people’s resilience in face of the destruction that the cyclone left in its wake (Finau
et al. 2018, p. 130). Not everyone embraced these slogans. For those Christians who
believed that Cyclone Winston was God’s punishment, to be stronger than Winston
was claim that it stronger than God’s instruments of wrath and even God himself
(Cox et al. 2018, pp. 389, 392). For those Christians, this attitude does not show the