Reverend Peter Marshall's Commentary Archive

 California Burning: The Fire of God?

". . .Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" (Luke 12:56)

     The images from what is being called the worst disaster in Southern California history have transfixed the nation this week.  At this writing, the number of acres devastated by fire is climbing toward 500,000, which translates into upward of 700 square miles of destruction!  Already, about 1500 homes have been destroyed, and approximately 1 million people have been forced to evacuate by the flames.  And, although the Santa Ana winds have dropped, many of the fires are still burning out of control.  California is on fire.

Pondering this, certain questions come to mind: Is there any connection between the fires and God?  Is it possible that these fires are in some way God's judgment on California because of the recent, horrible pieces of legislation signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger?

SB 777 prohibits any kind of speech or instruction or activity in public schools that "promotes a discriminatory bias" against "gender" (including cross-dressing and sex changes) or "sexual orientation" (meaning homosexuality, bixsexuality, or any other kind of alternative lifestyle).  In other words, using the terms "mom and dad" or "husband and wife" in a school setting could easily be construed as anti-homosexual discrimination.  Textbooks that mention that people are created male and female could be rejected in favor of books that include transsexual, bisexual and homosexual people. Homecoming kings and queens can now be either male or female. (In my local paper recently was an account of one high school, I cannot remember where, that has already elected a male as the homecoming "queen"). 

There is, of course, in the legislation no corresponding protection for students with traditional values, which is obviously the vast majority.  In fact, their values have become the target.  Any of these students who deign to open their mouths in protest against the legislation, or to speak up in favor of traditional values in their schools might as well be walking around with a target painted on their backs, for it is almost certain that the powers that be in their school will come down on them.

AB 394 promotes all the same deviant sexual practices through state-funded publications and handouts that go to teachers, parents, and students.  That bill makes it entirely possible that a parent who states in the presence of a lesbian teacher that marriage is only for a man and woman could be convicted of "harassment," and perhaps even of "hate crime speech."

AB 14 was also signed into law by Schwarzenegger, and this prohibits state funding for any program that does not support alternative sexual practices---including state-funded social services managed by churches.  This directly impacts church food and housing programs, after-school or preschool programs, senior services, jobs programs, anti-gang ministries, among others.  It will force hospitals, even private religious ones, to support homosexuality and bisexuality in their policies.  And, it will subject nonprofit organizations to lawsuits if they exclude members who are transsexual, homosexual, or bisexual.

Sadly, Governor Schwarzenegger had vetoed similar legislation last year, but apparently the homosexual and lesbian lobbyists have now triumphed over reason and sanity.  With these laws now in place in California, indoctrination in the social agenda of the left has replaced traditional education in the second largest public school system in the nation.  The state that older generations of Americans used to call "paradise" has become dirty and soiled. 

And now it's on fire.

Is there a connection between these fires and God?  There certainly could be.  Consider the fact that there are numerous passages in the Bible that deal with fire as an instrument of God.

Exodus 19:18 tells us that when God came to Mount Sinai to give His law to the people of Israel, He came in fire: "Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire."  In Moses' subsequent retelling of this event in Deuteronomy he reminds the people: "And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.  Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire."  God spoke out of fire.  Perhaps He is doing so again. 

Not only does the Bible teach us that God speaks to us through fire, but there are also many passages that tell us that He uses fire to visit His judgment upon human sin.  For example, Isaiah 29:6: "You will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire."  And here is Deuteronomy 32:22: "For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains."  Interesting to note that so much of the burned area in Southern California is the foothills of mountains! 

In that same fourth chapter of Deuteronomy we are told: "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God" (verse 24).  That truth is considered important enough by the Holy Spirit to have the Apostle Paul repeat it in the Letter to the Hebrews: "For our God is a consuming fire" (12:29).  

America is a nation founded on the Bible by people who had a vision and a calling from God to build a society based on the commandments of God, which exclude the deviant sexual immorality now being officially endorsed by the State of California.  Could it be that God is a bit upset by all that?

I have long predicted that the whole package of deviant sexual behavior, as well as homosexual marriage, will become commonplace in America.  The only thing that can stop this trend is the Third Great Awakening---a major, society-changing spiritual revival of true Christianity.  That has not yet occurred, and unless it does, you may rest assured that there will be further devastations and upheavals in our land. 

In Isaiah 65:2-3 there is a scripture that certainly seems to apply to present-day America.  God says, "I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually. . ."

I believe that because of the Christian faith of our ancestors and their attempts to construct a society based on God's Word, America has through the years had around it a hedge of divine protection and grace.  We live in a favored land, which, by the grace of God, has been blessed with prosperity far beyond any other.  But, if we continue to reject His commandments, spurn His grace and mercy, and provoke Him to His face, we will suffer His judgments. 

These judgments will come in many forms---weather disasters, scandals of corruption in business and politics, economic meltdowns, epidemics of disease, etc., etc.  And, unless we come to repentance before God, they will increase in severity as time goes on.  How else can God get the attention of a recalcitrant people who will not listen to His prophets and priests?

Now, am I saying that God actually caused the fires in Southern California?  No, of course not!  That is not the way He usually operates (although we read in the Book of Revelation that at the end of the age He will send seven angels to spill "bowls of wrath" upon the earth!).  Most of the judgments that we experience should probably be described as the working out in our lives of Galatians 6:8: "For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. . ."  For instance, if you continue to indulge in sexual immorality you will eventually contract a sexually transmitted disease.  Does God send the disease?  No.  It will happen because of the universal law of reaping and sowing.  Could that then be seen as a judgment of God?  Absolutely, but it would be a judgment that you brought down on yourself. 

Did God send the Civil War upon America in 1861?  No, not in a literal sense.  But, He allowed it---as the inevitable result of the nation's refusal to repent of the sin of slavery.  Given the increasingly non-negotiable insistence of the southern slaveholders and their politicians that slavery be legalized anywhere in the U.S. territories (the source of future states), and that they would take their states out of the Union if this were not granted, a violent clash was inevitable.  Was the war, then, the judgment of God upon the nation?  Most definitely.  But, we brought it on ourselves.

Are the fires in California the judgment of God upon the state, and indirectly upon all of us Americans?  Could be. 

But, the more urgent question is: How should Californians (and the rest of us)  respond?  Of course, in the immediate near term we must deal with the tragic losses that so many people have suffered, and also extend gratitude and support to the firefighters and other First Responders who have totally given themselves to combating the flames and ministering to the victims. 

In my view, the longer term response must be to relearn what the Christian settlers of America---particularly the Pilgrims and Puritans of early New England---knew so well, which is that devastations and disasters call for us to get down on our knees before a Holy God and ask Him why He is allowing them.  In Michael Wigglesworth's famous poem, "God's Controversy with New England," written concerning a prolonged drought he says this:

"The clouds are often gathered as if we should have rain; But for our great unworthiness are scattered again.

We pray and fast, and make fair shows, as if we meant to turn; But whilst we turn not, God goes on our fields and fruits to burn."

The Puritan understanding was that God sometimes visited His judgments upon an unrepentant people through natural disasters.  Puritan pastor John Cotton, on November 3, 1727, after an earthquake, selected Psalm 119:120 as the text for his Sunday morning sermon: "My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee; and I am afraid of Thy judgments."   Then, in the opening paragraph of his message he preached this: "It is a day of no little distress, concern and fear, and it may well be so, for what a holy and provoked God may be about ready to do with us, He alone knows.  One thing is certain, our transgressions have been multiplied, and our iniquities testify against us."

I think we can say "Amen" to that!

The people of California have got to rise up and deal with the destruction of their public school system.  Failing that, there has to be a mass exodus of families out of public education.  But, in the long run, the Christians and other concerned people of that state in particular, and the rest of the nation in general, have got to fully engage themselves in the moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of our beloved America, before it's too late.

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