This winter has been one of the warmest winters on record. As a result, we have had some turbulent wind and storms. People died in many states last week, including my own, due to tornadoes.

John Piper, Calvinist and Christian hedonist, said that the tornados were God’s fingers of death telling everyone to turn from sin and come to Jesus. Piper, as do others, refers to Job’s ignorance about how God was intervening as a pattern for us to succumb to the old idea that ‘God works in mysterious ways’ as we try to put the pieces of tragedy together.

This is simply inadequate when God by His word for us today tells us He has already revealed further information about his way of intervening, which is not found in the oldest Bible book of Job.

Unfortunately, he and other Calvinist-minded people have missed the dispensational truth that God is not testing the world as under any Jewish covenant today. He’s not even waiting for the world to turn from sin. That ended with the advent of “the dispensation of the grace of God.”

God’s Terms of Peace Today:

“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” (2 Corinthians 5:18 (KJV)

Instead of God intervening through tragedies, we learn from Paul’s explanation of today’s grace dispensation that…“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing (counting) their trespasses (sins) unto them” (2 Cor 5:19).

God’s terms are grace and peace offered through us as His “ambassadors” (2 Cor 5:20). He is not pouring out judgment, punishment, or wrath… not yet.

Even Peter recognized the delay of God’s anticipated return to judge as the present “longsuffering (patience) of our Lord” unto salvation (2 Pet 3:15).

What a terrible testimony to the longsuffering and grace of God to say that every natural tragedy is God’s fingers killing people under terms of reconciliation.

God is not dealing with the earth in death and destruction through a conditional covenant, but He is freely offering all men grace, peace, and positions in “the heavenly places.”

How We Properly Respond to Tragedy:

Our response to tragedy is to recognize it as a symptom of this “present evil world” (Gal 1:4), and to be motivated to see souls saved before they face the sudden reality of death in this sin cursed existence.

God has reconciled the world to himself. He is offering terms of peace, and free gifts of grace, through faith in the blood of Calvary’s cross amidst the ongoing storm of this broken world. We are to trust in Christ completely for our peace and reconciliation with God. He was made sin for us, so that the punishment for sins would not fall on us.

Tribulation and death through the eyes of a minister of the gospel of peace reminds us of the fallen state of battlefield earth. This works to direct our affections towards the hope of heavenly places where we will abide for eternity in Christ (Col. 3:2-4; Phil. 3:20, 2Cor. 5:1).

We, as members of the body of Christ, are God’s hands on earth, not tornadoes. The hands and feet of “the body of Christ” ought to minister the truth of “the mystery of Christ” and “the gospel of peace” in any circumstance.

Unlike Job…

Unlike Job who did not know whether God hated him or loved him, we know the manifold wisdom of God and his terms of peace. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” (Romans 5:1 (KJV)

Unlike Job we are not waiting for the Lord to return to earth: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:” – Job 19:25 Today, Christ lives in us. “²⁶ the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: ²⁷ To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” (Colossians 1:25-27 (KJV)

Job’s friend asked, “Hast thou heard the secret of God?”, because he did not know it (Job 15:8).

Today, we can know the secret of God in “the mystery of Christ” as was revealed to Paul; and it affects how we react to tragedy:

“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery,… ⁴ Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) ⁵ Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets (preachers of today’s grace age message) by the Spirit;” (Ephesians 3:2-5 (KJV)