THE HAITIAN HORROR’S
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
January 17, 2010
As I was driving home from last week’s worship service
I had a fairly good idea of what I believed the Lord wanted me to share with
you folks this morning. However, in the middle of the afternoon I came across
an article in Time Magazine which convinced me otherwise. So much so, that
I started gathering background material. I even had the hymns selected in
the exact order I thought they ought to be sung. Little did I know at the
time, but the Lord had other plans for me, and I am now absolutely certain
of what He wants me to share with you folks this morning.
The only thing remaining from my plans of last Sundays
are the hymns I originally chose. They are in honor of our countries observance
of the birthday of a man God used mightily for the cause of civil rights for
every American: Martin Luther King, Jr. As it turned out, the hymn we just
finished singing is very appropriate as a lead in to this sermon. Now allow
me to ask each of you folks this question. How are the lyrics of that hymn
“Jesus Loves the Little Children” consistent with what I’m going to refer
to as being The Haitian Horror’s?
The International Red Cross estimated 45,000 to 50,000
people were killed in last Tuesday’s cataclysmic earthquake. Hard pressed
recovery teams resorted to using bulldozers to transport loads of dead, and
the horror’s go on and on. However, the suffering and death of the little
Haitian children is significantly different from that of the thousands of
Jewish children I spoke about last week who were thrown kicking and screaming
into the flames by the Nazi’s during the Second World War. Sinful man had
nothing to do with causing that huge earthquake in
These are the kind of tragedies many uninformed people
use in an attempt to put God on the hot seat, so to speak. Can you offer any
Scriptures we can use to get Him off of it? If you are aware of any I invite
you to come forward and share them with the rest of us because to the best
of my knowledge there aren’t any. That’s why I’m going to speak about a man
named Cyrus to whom thousands of years ago God revealed vitally important
information. Information which up until that time was what theologians refer
to as being God’s ‘secret will,’ which Arthur W. Pink in his classic ‘The
Sovereignty of God’ defines as being “...his eternal, unchanging purpose concerning
everything which he has made, and which would be brought about by a predetermined
means to their appointed ends. Concerning this God expressly declares “I make
known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is to come. I say
My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” (Isaiah 46:10). This
is the absolute effective will of God. It’s always effective, and it’s always
fulfilled. Whatever God has determined within Himself, whether to do it Himself,
or to do it by others, or to allow it to be done, knowledge which is known
only to Himself, and is not made known by any event in ‘providence,’ (which
J. I. Packer defines as being ‘the unceasing activity of the Creator whereby,
in overflowing bounty and goodwill, He upholds His creatures in ordered existence,
guides and governs all events, circumstances, and free acts of angles and
men, and directs everything to its appointed goal, for His own glory’) Pink
explains: “these things are not known by precept, or by prophecy because it
is His ‘secret will.’ Such are the deep things of God, the thoughts of His
heart, and the counsels of his mind, which are incomprehensible to all creatures.
But when these are made known they become His ‘revealed will:’ and such is
the case of almost the entire book of Revelation, wherein God has made known
to us things which “must soon take place.” (Revelation 1:1—“must” because
He has eternally purposed that they should).”
Thousands of years ago, and unknown to him, the Lord
had been secretly working in the life of a man named Cyrus, and saw to it
that he was fully prepared and thoroughly equipped to assume the high position
of being a very special king. The Lord had supported, strengthened, guided
and directed and strongly inclined and enabled Cyrus to do exactly what He
wanted to accomplish through him. This man was destined to be used by God
as a human instrument to do great things, especially in delivering the Jews
from captivity and restoring them to their own land. As you read these verses
you might say; everything he touched turned to gold. Despite being privy to
such wonderful foreknowledge, as far as we know, Cyrus left this world in
the same spiritual condition as when he entered it—a pagan. Nevertheless,
God revealed to him profound truths including one which, as we are about to
see, will never take God off of the hot seat!
Isaiah 45:1-13 (NIV)
1 "This is what the LORD
says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue
nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before
him so that gates will not be shut:
2 I will go before you and will
level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars
of iron.
3 I will give you the treasures
of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am
the LORD, the God of
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is
no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you
have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the
sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am
the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create
darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these
things.
8 "You heavens above, rain
down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have
created it.
9 "Woe to him who quarrels
with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say,
'He has no hands'?
10 Woe to him who says to his
father, 'What have you begotten?' or to his mother, 'What have you brought
to birth?'
11 "This is what the LORD
says-- the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do
you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my
hands?
12 It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled
their starry hosts.
13 I will raise up Cyrus in my
righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city
and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty."
Concerning natural disasters, Brian H.
Edwards in his excellent work entitled ‘Not By Chance’ offers the following
insight: “The responsibility seems to stand with the Almighty alone; it was
an “act of God.” Like death itself these natural disasters affect all men
sooner or later. But like death also, they do not just affect the really bad
people; everyone, including little children is involved.” “These natural disasters’
are the usual hunting ground for those who attack the Christian faith, Man
doesn’t seem responsible at all, so the whole blame falls squarely upon God.
As a Christian, how do I face up to this? Well, I do have an answer, but I
may as well admit in advance that, though it is true, it is not very popular.
The Bible everywhere teaches that God must and will punish sin. Christ claimed
to have ‘authority to judge’ (John 5:27), Paul spoke of the day when ‘God
will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ’ (Romans 2:16). Hebrews 9:27
reminds us that man is ‘destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.’
James warned that ‘Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has
not been merciful” (James 2:13). Peter looked on a time when men ‘will have
to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead’ (1
Peter 4:5). John encouraged Christians with the reminder that they will have
confidence on the ‘Day of Judgment’ (1 John 4:17). And Jude expected a day
when the Lord would come’ to judge everyone (Jude v 15). The result of that
judgment for those who do not trust in Christ for salvation is almost too
terrible to describe. Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul referred to it this
way: ‘They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from
the presence of the Lord and the majesty of His power’ (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
John put the matter plainly when he wrote, ‘if anyone’s name was not found
written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire’ (Revelation
20:15).”
“The
purpose of establishing the teaching of the Bible on the subject of the judgment
is to make it clear that one day, a final judgment will arrive from which
no man will be exempt. It will be a day of terror for those who have rejected
God and His Son. God must punish sin, to be consistent with
the importance of His own laws. The punishment of God’s final judgment is
called hell: ‘shut out from the presence of the Lord’, says Paul.”
“You
may think that this is not really so bad. After all, if you seem to live fairly
satisfactorily now without Christ, you ought to be able to manage without
him in hell also. I can best explain the horror of hell and the joy of heaven
by recalling that Christ left heaven and lived and died on this sinful earth
in order that he might save us from hell and bring us to heaven. God knows
what hell is like.”
“So,
what has all his to do with natural disasters? Just this: every natural disaster
is not merely a reminder of the immediate result of sin, but a solemn warning
of the ultimate result of sin. The tragedy of... [the Haitian Horror’s} ...was
not because the... [Haitians]...were a more sinful people than anywhere else,
but it was, and is, a serious warning that sin brings judgment from which
none can escape. Natural disasters are the Day of Judgment written small.
They are effectively God’s trumpet sounding an alarm that all is not well
with the world, that man cannot control his world and that man is responsible
and answerable to a God who punishes disobedience. The reason for the disaster
is once again positive and constructive: it is intended to point man away
from himself.”
“The
fact that very few heed the warning of God does not condemn God, but man.
A parent will slap a disobedient child in the hope that such a relatively
mild punishment will avoid the need for more serious punishment later. Unfortunately,
the raps of God make little impression on man’s rebellious and delinquent
spirit. The severity of some natural disasters is God’s alarm, warning
man that worse is to come. His action in one part of the world is intended
as a lesson to the whole world. No
one will be able to stand before God and hide behind the excuse: ‘I thought
man was master of his own fate,’ or ‘you never warned me how seriously you
viewed sin.’ Without putting a fine point on it, if any man, living in today’s
world, really believes that man is in charge or that God winks at sin, he
must be a fool. C. S. Lewis once referred to suffering as being ‘God’s
megaphone’ and ‘blockades on the road to hell!’ Suffering ought to make
us stop and think. These things do not just happen by chance.” Now, please
read along with me the following verses from Luke in which Jesus Himself addresses
this issue.
Luke 13:1-5 (NIV)
1 Now there were some present
at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed
with their sacrifices.
2 Jesus answered, "Do you
think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans
because they suffered this way?
3 I tell you, no! But unless you
repent, you too will all perish.
4 Or those eighteen who died when
the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than
all the others living in
5 I tell you, no! But unless you
repent, you too will all perish."
Commenting
on these verses in his famous Daily Study Bible, William Barclay writes: “We have here references to two disasters about
which we have no definite information and can only speculate. First, there
is the reference to the Galilaeans whom Pilate murdered in the middle of their
sacrifices. As we have seen, Galilaeans were always liable to get involved
in political trouble because they were a highly inflammable people. Just about
this time Pilate had been involved in serious trouble. He had decided rightly
that
“As for the eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell, they are still more
obscure. The King James Version uses the word sinners of them also; but, as
the margin shows, it should be not sinners but debtors. Maybe we have a clue
here. It has been suggested that they had actually taken work on Pilate's
hated aqueducts. If so, any money they earned was due to God and should have
been voluntarily handed over, because it had already been stolen from him;
and it may well be that popular talk had declared that the tower had fallen
on them because of the work they had consented to do.”
“But there is far more than an historical problem in this passage. The Jews
rigidly connected sin and suffering. Eliphaz had long ago said to Job, "Who
that was innocent ever perished?" (Job 4:7). This was a cruel and a heartbreaking
doctrine, as Job knew well. And Jesus utterly denied it in the case of the
individual (John 9:5). As we all know very well, it is often the greatest
saints who have to suffer most. But Jesus went on to say that if his hearers
did not repent they too would perish. What did he mean? One thing is clear--he
foresaw and foretold the destruction of
At
this point some of you folks may be having difficulty moving past the suffering
and eventual death of little children. Any truly thoughtful person would.
What I am about to share next is something which most people will find revolting
and will totally reject. Perhaps some will even wonder if ‘Satan’ himself
has taken up residence in my body. However, I must include it for the simple
reason that it’s absolute Biblical truth. I’m going to quote something
from “Human Nature In Its Fourfold State” which was written by an old Puritan
named Thomas Boston. In the interest of clarity I have modernized the language.
“Concerning the death of the infant children of men; they have been exposed
to many miseries: they were drowned in the deluge, consumed in Sodom by fire
and brimstone; they have been slain with the sword, dashed against the stones,
and are still dying ordinary deaths. What is the true cause of this? On what
ground does a holy God pursue them? Is it the sin of their parents? That may
be the occasion of the Lord’s raising the process against them; but it must
be their own sin that is the ground of the sentence passing on them: “For
every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike
belong to me. The soul that sins is the one who will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4).
“Is it their actual sin?” Boston asks. He responds by saying “They have none.
But just as men do with serpents, which they kill at first sight, and before
they have done any harm, because of their venomous nature, so it also is in
the case of little children.”
I
would love it if you folks were to think long and hard about that statement
and everything else in this message. Just as many people lived to regret marrying
someone, so too have many parents wished they hadn’t brought a certain child
into this world, a child who is putting them through a wide-awake nightmare.
I have known such mothers and perhaps you folks have too. You can be certain
millions of the victims and their loved ones of evil fiend’s such as Adolph
Hitler, Josef Stalin, Osama bin Laden, the nut-case in North Korea, all the
worlds terrorists, Ted Bundy, Jeffery Danaher, and pedophile priests and such,
would be grateful if those guys went to their grave while they were still
infants or young children.
Now
allow me to share the following additional insight concerning the death of
infants and young children. It’s from the pen of another Puritan named Samuel
Rutherford. In attempting to console a grieving Christian mother on the death
of her child, he advised the woman to “acknowledge the sovereignty of God
to be above the power of us mortal men, who may nip a flower in the bud and
not be blamed for it. If our dear Lord were to pluck one of his roses, and
pick sour and green fruit before they are ripe, who can challenge him? For
he sends us into his world, as men are sent to a county fair. Some stay for
many hours and eat and drink, and buy and sell, and pass through the fair,
until they become weary. Such are those who live long, and get a heavy fill
of this life. Others come to the fair in the morning. They don’t sit or stand,
nor buy or sell They just look around a little, and go home again; these are
the infants and young children, who end their short stay at the fair in the
morning.” Rutherford is echoing Job who says to God; “Man’s days are determined;
you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.”(Job
14:5).
Although
several of the things I have shared this morning are probably new to some
of you, others have heard me mention them in the past. However, it’s always
profitable to refresh our memory so we can use it to share with an open-minded
person such as my fictitious boy and therapist who have been sincerely searching
for truth, and not exhaust ourselves on a closed-minded know-it-all such as
another one of my characters named Charlie. And please don’t allow yourselves
to become demonically deceived such as the three evangelical pastors I met
with this past week who have convinced themselves that all we have to do is
just share the Scriptures and live a Christ-like life and then leave the rest
to God. These pastors insist that if anyone wants to know more about such
things they will send them back to God and ask Him to help them understand.
Of course we can’t do what only God can! It’s impossible! I believe that with
all of my being! For instance, we can’t open another person’s heart to pay
attention to what we are saying as the Lord had done with a certain woman
named Lydia (Acts 16:4). However, we all must do everything lawfully possible
and make a humble, heart-felt, passionate appeal in an attempt to persuade
the poor lost sinner to pay attention to the Scriptures were are sharing,
and all the other information such as I have put together this morning as
an aid to help the person acquire a clearer understanding of their Creator,
and then lovingly attempt to convince the person that unless he or she accepts
the love and forgiveness of the Risen Savior, they are destined to experience
eternal torment infinitely exceeding that of the Haitian Horror’s.
In case anyone is interested, I want you folks to know
that because I wanted to glorify Him and because of my love for each of you
and my love and deep concern for those I will either hand deliver or send
this message to; I literally begged Him a number of times not to stop helping
me put it together.
Lord willing, soon....