Wendy and Ikan, I do not doubt that the child sex trade MAY be one of the reasons God why allowed this terrible tragedy. What I find difficult to accept is your strong inferrences, without specific divine revelation, that this is exactly why it happened.

When I read about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible or SOP I find it very hard to feel sorry for them. In fact, to be honest, I catch myself thinking, They deserved what they got. This hardened attitude disturbs me. Which is why I refuse to latch on to specific reasons why God allowed this to happen in Asia. I'm afraid of how it will affect me.

Indonesia Needs Help, Death Toll Expected To Exceed 400,000
Thu Dec 30 2004 12:52:01 ET

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 (Bernama) -- The death toll in Acheh, the region worst hit by last Sunday's tsunami, may exceed 400,000 as many affected areas could still not be reached for search and rescue operations, Indonesia's Ambassador to Malaysia Drs H. Rusdihardjo said Thursday.

He said the estimate was based on air surveillance by Indonesian authorities who found no signs of life in places like Meulaboh, Pulau Simeulue and Tapak Tuan while several islands off the west coast of Sumatera had "disappeared".

He said the latest death toll of more than 40,000 in Acheh and northern Sumatera did not take into account the figures from the other areas, especially in the west of the region.

"Aerial surveillance found the town of Meulaboh completely destroyed with only one buiding standing. The building, which belonged to the military, happens to be on a hill," he told reporters after receiving RM1 million in aid for Indonesia's Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund here Thursday.

Rusdihardjo said there were about 150,000 residents in Meulaboh, which was located 150km from the epicentre of the earthquake while Pulau Simeuleu had a population of 76,000.

Ambassador Rusdihardjo said a combination of earthquake and tsunami had left 80 to 100 per cent of infrastructure in Acheh province, such as hospitals, health centres, transport and communication networks and homes, destroyed.

"Looking at the scale of destruction, it's difficult to say when the search and rescue operations can be mounted in all affected areas," he said.
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Believe me Mike. I can have the attitude that all of those people that traded in children deserved whatever they got, and still have the Christian compassion of knowing the horror and devestation those people went through. I still feel absolutely devastated for the parents that lost children, everyone that has suffered and is still suffering, and all who lost lives.
For those of us who have watched these travesties go on for so long though, it is somewhat good also to see things such as the sex rings interrupted. How many people in the next few months will be visiting child brothels? Not many I hope.

Most people in these areas didn't deserve what they got here, but since when is Satan a respecter of persons? Did my husband deserve to break his neck in that motorcycle accident? Did we deserve to lose our house and property? Did my children deserve to not have a daddy they can run around and play with? No, but we learn to adapt, and we grow and we realize that God has something bigger and better for us down the road. If not here on earth, then in Heaven.

Good to see you back Wendy!

Doug said,

quote:

---

Neither God or Satan controls weather, storms, disasters...

---

You couldn't be more mistaken. Plenty of passages have already been quoted here that show the reverse is true.

Hi Daryl:)

Thank you, Wendy, for clarifying your feelings about this tragedy. Although I'm not as convinced as you are as to why God permitted it, I am, like you, happy it will slow down the child abuse aspect, at least for awhile. I am also glad you and your family are handling your own troubles in a godly manner. God uses test, trial and temptation as opportunities to showcase His power and praise. How we react and respond to such situations tells for or against His love. Let God be magnified!

Earlier, someone mentioned that the Asian and surrounding nations have had little evangelism to Chrisianity, and that was a reason not to declare them deserving of the tsunami. But maybe God is more concerned about the character of a person rather than the specific religion. It is a universal awareness that its wrong to steal, murder, cheat, abuse children, take someone else's spouse, etc. You see that universal conflict between right and wrong in history and story of all human beings, no matter what the religion. I think of the American Indians, with tribes spread all over America many centuries before any Christian came with the Ten Commandments. They knew the difference between a good person and a bad person. I know Christians are supposed to evangelize the world, but I also sense that a just and honorable God would consider each individual's effort, or lack of effort, to have good character, regardless of which specific religion. Apparently the Asians there had filled up their cup of iniquity by any standard of decency. know this changes the topic too much, but I've wondered if all the many generations of American Indians are lost souls just because Chrisianity didn't reach them for several thousand years, from the Tower of Babel until the 1800's!

Here is proof positive that the "religious leaders" of the world have no clue as to what happened and why:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&e=2&u=/nm/quake_religion_dc

Notice, that Satan is not mentioned, and that God (or usually spelled in the article "god") is the One to blame. The only Bible answer came from an very distant Adventist offshoot, a Jehovah's Witness.

If we Adventists have no more understanding of Him than these people, how can we dare claim to have a message from Him? Could you actually go to the scene and say to a suffering victim. "Well, God is trying to teach you to love Him by killing your entire family."

I doubt if you would surive that interview.

Job was a christian; do not try to make these people into Jobs. Ninety nine percent if not higher know zip about the true Gospel.

If this is not evidence of Satan's hatred of man, I guess we'll need more evidence, huh?

How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man, but in them all God’s purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger—PK 277 (c.1914)

I saw four angels who had a work to do on the earth and were on their way to accomplish it. Jesus was clothed with priestly garments. He gazed in pity on the remnant, then raised His hands, and with a voice of deep pity cried, “My blood, Father, My blood, My flood, My blood!” Then I saw an exceeding bright light come from God, who sat upon the great white throne, and was shed all about Jesus. Then I saw an angel with a commission from Jesus, swiftly flying to the four angels who had a work to do on the earth, and waving something up and down in his hand, and crying with a loud voice, “Hold! Hold! Hold! Hold! Until the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads.”

I asked my accompanying angel the meaning of what I heard, and what the four angels were about to do. He said to me that it was God that restrained the powers, and that He gave His angels charge over things on the earth; that the four angels had power from God to hold the four winds, and that they were about to let them go; but while their hands were loosening, and the four winds were about to blow, the merciful eye of Jesus gazed on the remnant that were not sealed, and He raised His hands to the Father and pleaded with Him that He had spilled His blood for them. Then another angel was commissioned to fly swiftly to the four angels and bid them hold, until the servants of God were sealed with the seal of the living God in their foreheads.” EWp.38

The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude. The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones---9T 11 (1909)

In the great closing work we shall meet with perplexities that we know not how to deal with, but let us not forget that the three great Powers of heaven are working, that a divine hand is on the wheel, and that God will bring His purposes to pass,--Ev 65 (1902)

The death toll is now over 118,000 and rising.