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Feedback archive → Feedback 2005
Reader questions motive of response to tsunami disaster
14 January 2005
A reader, M.W. from the USA, attacked our motives in the first
response to the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami disaster, and Dr
Jonathan Sarfati, CMI–Australia responds. This is followed by
a brief positive response by Kirk Reynolds, USA,
then an addendum by B.S. of Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia,
that positively comments on Dr Sarfati’s answer in the main section.
I just came across your site, and I am outraged that in the wake of the horrible
disaster in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, etc., that the best you can do is to use this
event to make capitol for your own agenda [referring only to the article
Waves of Sadness: Tsunami terror raises age-old questions; the article
‘Lost’ without Genesis: Coping with the ‘Death Wave’
was written after M.W.’s letter].
No, it’s not about our agenda, but about encouraging people that there really
is a God of love in control of the world, in the face of massive discouragement
in the face of such a tragedy. Hence the title of the article (and the later one).
Bible proves Tsunami/Tsunami proves Bible.
You might wish to re-read our article, because we said nothing of the sort. Rather,
we said that the Bible provides a big picture explanation of why there can be disasters
in a world originally created by a God of love—because we live in a world
justly cursed because of Adam’s sin.
Also, if you had followed our feedback rules and performed
even a cursory search of our site before writing, you would know that we do not
say that tsunami/science/archaeology ‘proves’ the Bible. This is because
a proof logically moves from an authoritative premise
to support a less authoritative conclusion; so this would make tsunami/science/archaeology
the authority over God’s Word, which is folly. See also
Creation: ‘where’s the proof?’
Just what kind of Christians are you?
The kind that believes what Christ actually said—the only (consistent)
kind possible! Therefore we believe Jesus when He said ‘Scripture
cannot be broken’ (John
10:35—see Jesus Christ on the infallibility of Scripture),
that God made a literal Adam and Eve ‘from the beginning
of creation’ not millions of years after a ‘big
bang’ (Mark
10:5–9 citing
Genesis 1:27 and
2:24), and a literal Flood and Ark (Luke
17:26–27). Why, what did you mean by
‘Christian’? Does it have any resemblance to Christ’s actual recorded
teachings?
It seems to me that Jesus would want us to go to the aid of the victims rather than
preaching dogma over them.
Not everything is as it seems. Instead of forming a fact-free opinion about what
Jesus would want, it’s best to go to the historical record of what He actually
said and did—the New Testament. Jesus’s teachings were never either-or
(a common liberal fallacy) but both preach and help the needy.
E.g., His Great Commission (Matthew
28:19–20):
‘Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”’
However, if the only record of Christ, the New Testament, can’t be trusted,
and Jesus was mistaken on the above things, why should we care what Jesus wants
anyway? Indeed, Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:12): ‘I have
spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe
if I speak of heavenly things?’ If Jesus was wrong about earthly
things (such as the authority of the Old Testament, recent creation and a global
Flood), why should we believe what He says about heavenly things (such as God’s
commands to help people)? Note that Jesus’ second greatest command, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew
22:39) is a direct quote of the Old Testament (Leviticus
19:18), and the latter passage ends ‘I am the Lord.’
So it is simply not possible to separate the Bible’s morality (social and
personal) from the Bible’s theology, despite the gross mistake of the ‘social
gospel’ of liberal theology.
Therefore, defending the Bible has a strong indirect effect in increasing charitable
donations and work. Indeed, World Vision has found that conservative Christians
(that is, those that actually believe the Bible) are the strongest donors. Indeed,
we explained these principles long ago in reply to a similarly emotive and uninformed
statement, ‘You should be feeding the hungry’.
What percentage of your bookstore sales, etc. are actually going to HELP these people?
This would be illegal—our constitution explicitly states
what CMI is allowed to do with the money that comes in, much from donors. However,
many of the staff have personally donated to the tragedy, and so have many
of our supporters. In fact, my local newspaper ran an article about one lady who
has long been a charitable donor since she was a girl, without mentioning that she
is also a strong CMI supporter. She said a number of instructive things about the
need for accountability of donors’ funds, so they are not swallowed up by
bureaucrats (such as UN officials flocking to 5-star hotels or the
UN Population Fund sending condoms to survivors) and overheads.
Indeed, the personal generosity encouraged by Christianity also provides donors
with incentives to make sure the funds are used efficiently. By contrast, many government
‘foreign aid’ programs mean that poor people in rich countries are taxed
to give to rich élites in poor countries—to spend on arms and palaces
rather than the people themselves. Also, the noted economist
Thomas Sowell argued that foreign ‘aid’ should be called ‘foreign
hindrance’. [Update 6 January 2007: It turns out that only
a small fraction of aid promised by governments has actually been delivered anyway
— see
A Tsunami of a Problem (off-site).]
For myself, I rejected one veteran international charity, founded on overt Christian
principles and using a Christian symbol, because they have turned back on their
Christian roots and thus the only rationale for charity by banning any reference
to Christ on greeting cards and any Christmas decorations over Christmas. Instead,
I found another Christian charity that is still overtly Christian but helps people
of all faiths, and is accountable and efficient. After this, CMI has overtly
promoted donations via
Gospel Literature Services (GLS) which is involved in the tsunami relief
effort in cooperation with mission agencies ABWE and BMM.
Why isn’t your headline ‘Please help us to help’ perhaps with
a picture of a hungry child in one of the devastated areas? In your fanaticism over
religion you have forgotten the teachings of the Man who inspired it.
M.W.
USA
Au contraire, as we pointed out, it is precisely because of the teachings
of this Man that many biblical Christians show great personal generosity.
Of course, this is the only kind of true generosity there is, as opposed to leftist
politicians who are ‘generous’ with other people’s money and so
claim to be compassionate. You should consider the old saying: give a man a fish,
you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, you feed him for life. By analogy,
we can give aid ourselves and have a limited effect; but if we help defend the Christian
worldview (as commanded in
1 Peter 3:15,
Jude 3 and
2 Corinthians 10:4–5), presenting the gospel to people, it
can result in long-term aid from a large number of people (and once again, it’s
both/and not either/or). But to you, defending this worldview that has had the most
beneficial charitable effects throughout history is what you call ‘fanaticism’.
However, if evolution were true, as per the indoctrination in the media and state
education systems, and as you apparently believe, why should we help our competitors?
After all, evolution is supposed to proceed by survival of the fittest, which really
means death of the unfit. The victims were evidently unfit, so what’s the
big deal, from an evolutionary perspective?
And the evolutionary perspective claims that humans are just another life-form—one critic claimed:
‘What an arrogant assumption to think that humans are anymore important than
a colony of bacteria.’
So how can we justify sending antibiotics to the tsunami survivors that might wipe
out billions of innocent bacteria?
Also, so many evolutionists carry their anti-life philosophy even further and also
push the discredited overpopulation bandwagon. So they should logically be glad
of the population being thinned out. This is why some Greenie ecofascists lobbied
to ban DDT—it destroyed malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquitoes which
thus allowed millions of people to live instead of being ‘culled’ by
the disease. In undermining such an evil philosophy, our ministry is helping the
suffering indirectly but most significantly.
Nor has Islam (aka ‘The Religion
of Peace’) been much use—although many victims are Muslims,
the four big oil states, which collect $15 billion in oil revenues every month,
agreed to spend only $70 million to assist their co-religionists. And in Aceh, Indonesia,
Islamofascist extremists have even threatened to attack Christian aid workers—those
trying to help their Muslim brothers!
To summarize, Christian charity is firmly based on who Christ is, and can never
be separated. And the Bible is the only record of who He is and what He commands.
It follows that there is no hope for Christian charity unless people accept the
Bible as an accurate record. CMI aims to encourage people to do just that.
Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D.
Brisbane, Australia
The tsunami—a small reminder of the Flood
My comment has to do with yesterday’s 9.0 earthquake and corresponding tsunami.
First of all, my prayers go out to everyone who has been affected, as well as all
of the aid workers who are helping. But second, I’ve been reading the news
accounts of how rapidly the waters rose and how powerful the waves were. The experts
have been discussing plate tectonics, and the movement of the water. It seems clear
to me that something of this magnitude is but a small reminder of how massive and
earth changing Noah’s flood really was. How could one be so skeptical about
Noah’s flood after witnessing this latest catastrophe.
My prayer is that through this event many people will have their eyes opened to
the truth of God’s Word.
May God bless your ministry,
Kirk Reynolds
USA
The hypocrisy of objecting to our tsunami response and not to
the murder of innocent Christians
I think Jonathan’s reply to the outraged tsunami writer was quite to the point.
I am disgusted with many so-called christians and others who will appear to be upset
about the truth of Carl Wieland article, that truly stated the facts. We never hear
these people write in about how the world and the church stood by and watched 10,000
Christians be murdered in the Maluku islands by Indonesian Muslims or the thousands
murdered in East Timor by their military, it seems these people have their own agenda
and don’t [care] about anyone else to speak up for their needs. Keep up the
good work at [your ministry]; you are doing a God Job.
B.S.
Beaudesert, Queensland,
Australia
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