Pat T – Are tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis being created by God?

Dave – The short answer is these things were not part of the original, pre-Fall creation. There was no death or dying process at the creation beginning. If these storms were part of the original design, then they would have killed some people.

The longer answer is based on a careful read of Genesis. God originally made a tranquil earth. There also was no mention of rain before The Flood. Genesis 2 tells us that there was a mist raising from the earth that watered vegetation.

There was also no mention of the four seasons until after Noah’s Flood. This would logically lead me to believe that the earth was not tilted at its present 23 degrees because this tilt causes the change of seasons rather than the distance from the sun during earth’s orbit around it. I assume the original earth was straight up and down in relation to the sun. Perhaps an ice meteor hit the earth and caused the tilt. The British astronomer George Dodwell (1879-1963) worked for the government of Australia and conducted some remarkable research concerning how the tilt of our earth came about. He notes that the earth was wobbling, and this was gradually decreasing. He knew that if a spinning toy top got hit with something, it too would generate a wobble that ebbs over time. Taking precise measurements, Dodwell concluded, based on the rate of wobble decrease, that our spinning earth must have been hit with a meteor about 4500 years ago. This would be about the time of Noah’s Flood.

Once sin came into being among the human race, many negative results went into action, some having affects many years later in human history.

God’s judgment during The Great Flood caused the crust to burst open around the entire world as the “springs of the great deep burst open” thus causing the plate tectonics that we can observe today. This in turn would cause our first earthquakes and perhaps the first volcanic eruptions, and we can’t have tsunamis without earthquakes. Hurricanes and tornadoes are caused by severe temperature and air pressure differences colliding. Again, the earth was quite tranquil pre-Flood. It most likely had a decent temperature worldwide. So these differences could not have been great enough to cause a storm before the Flood.

Rather than labeling these storms as “acts of God,” I would rather call them “results of a fallen world.”

Pat T – Thanks for the good info Dave, I agree 100% about no cataclysmic events before the Fall. I just
needed someone to help remind me it was man’s sin that messed things all up.

Feedback:

Nels F (7/26/13) – Always learning something new–thanks so much!!