Do you believe passages like the ones posted above must be interpreted to mean Jesus withdraws His protection and permits evil angels to cause death and destruction? For example, does Jesus expect us to read - "Since the flood, God has used both water and fire in the earth as his agents to destroy wicked cities." - to mean "Since the flood, God has [permitted evil angels to use] both water and fire in the earth as agents to destroy wicked cities."

Also, does Jesus expect us to read - "These judgments are sent that those who lightly regard God's law and trample upon His authority may be led to tremble before His power and to confess His just sovereignty. . . . and to acknowledge the infinite power of God." - to mean the result of permitting evil angels to destroy leads sinners to tremble before His power and to confess His just sovereignty and to acknowledge the infinite power of God.

Punishment is not destruction. The passages I posted make it clear Jesus employs the forces of nature to punish sinners.

Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that the great deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. ... {GC 35.3}

We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty. {GC 36.1}

APL, who do you believe upholds the laws that give the forces of nature life and enables them to act? I suspect you believe Jesus is the source and sustainer of everything. I am certain you do not believe evil angels are the source and sustainer of the laws of nature that run and regulate matter, molecules, plants, animals, people, etc. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

Did I misspeak? Do you believe evil angels have power to give life to the forces of nature? Do you believe if Jesus were to cease empowering nature to act that evil angels can empower them to continue acting?

When the drunk gets into thousands of pounds of metal and drives headlong into the family with kids in the backseat and kills them, shall we deteriorate to the point of saying, "It was God's will"?

Either God is UNABLE to prevent bad things from happening, or He is UNWILLING. There are no other options.

If God is UNABLE, then we need to change His moniker to "sometimes mighty" God. "Almighty" will sound hollow.

If God is UNWILLING, then there are two roads before us: we reject the notion that God is unwilling to do something that we would do if we had the power, or we reject the notion that God is bound by what we would or would not do.