Cause of the Christchurch Earthquake (6) - Work of the Devil

The broken roads and past smashed houses of Christchurch do not look like God’s handiwork. The destruction looks much more like the deeds of a destroyer. More accurately, it looks like a destroyer lashing out violently, but being cramped up an unable to strike out with full force.

The signs of a destroyer is evident everywhere. The only destroyers in the scriptures are the devil and his evil spiritual forces.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10).

In John’s Revelation, the devil was called Destroyer.

They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon (Rev 9:11).

Abaddon and Apollyon both mean “Destroyer”. Both names mean Destroyer.

In one sense, all earthquakes are caused by the devil, because they are the consequence of the fall. The emergence of human sin had a huge, as it placed the earth under a curse.

Cursed is the ground because of you (Gen 3:17).

This curse gave the devil authority to mess with God’s beautiful creation. He went to work with a vengeance and released terrible destruction on earth. The way it functions was totally changed. Earthquakes, floods, droughts, tsunamis, tornados and volcanoes appeared on earth for the first time. Animals, insects and plants changed into dangerous forms that had not existed when the world was good. Bacteria and viruses the cause sickness and disease emerged and began to spread. All these were the work of the devil.

Creation Groaning
The fall changed God’s good earth into a place in which earthquakes, volcanoes, storms and droughts are normal. It became a dangerous place to live.

Paul describes the effect on creation in his letter to the Romans.

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time (Rom 8:19-21).

Creation was subjected to futility by the horrendous effects of the fall, and up till the time of Paul was groaning under the strain. However, Paul has a message of hope for creation. The children of God revealed is not a reference to the second coming, but to those who are called by Jesus coming to faith in him.

As more and more people are born again, creation will be liberated from bondage to decay and brought into the same glorious freedom as those who follow Jesus. As increasing numbers of people submit to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is released to restore creation. As the authority of God on earth expands, the effects of the fall are pushed back and the decay of creation is reversed.

The opposite is also true. If the gospel goes backwards and the number of people obeying God declines, creation goes back under bondage to decay. If the Holy Spirit is squeezed out of society, the groaning of creation increases. Therefore, when a nation rejects God, the severity of earthquakes is like to increase.

Direct Intervention
The devil is not a deist. He did not mess up the world and then sit back to watch what happens. Just as God is active to work all things for good, the devil is active in the world to work things for evil. He intervenes in the world to do harm whenever he gets the opportunity.

Our struggle is ...against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil (Eph 6:12).

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8).

The devil is always active, looking for ways to destroy God’s people. He often uses other people, as when Saul attempted to kill David. At other times, he uses animals, as when a lion and a bear in attempt to destroy David as a boy. At other times he uses the forces of nature. The devil and his evil powers have far more power to work through nature than most Western Christians understand. The Bible does not highlight this fact, because the Holy Spirit does not want to give him glory, but there are hints for those who search carefully.

1. Pharaoh’s magicians had power to manipulate nature. They were able to kill the fish in the rivers and make it smell. They made frogs come up out of the rivers and spread over the land (Ex 7:22; 8:6).

2. Satan caused Job’s sheep and their shepherds to be destroyed when “The fire of God” that fell from the sky (Job 1:16). “Fire of God” is a figurative expression used to describe a calamity in the same way that we speak of an “Act of God”. The sheep may have been struck by lightning, but given the scale of the losses, it is more likely that the sheep were killed by some kind of volcanic activity.

3. Satan caused a “mighty wind from the desert” that struck a house and killed Job’s sons and daughters (Job 1:18). This event was not the wind doing what the wind does. What appeared to be an act of nature was actually the work of the devil.

4. Jesus disciples were nearly killed twice by storms on the Sea of Galilee. One storm began when Jesus was asleep and less active in resisting evil. The meaning of words used in the gospel to describe this event is partly lost in translation. Mark describes it as a “great storm of wind” (Mark 4:37). Matthew says the boat was being “tormented” by the waves and that the wind was “hostile” (Matt 14:24) He used the word “shaking”, which is also the word for earthquake. Luke used the word for a “hurricane” and says that their lives were in jeopardy and they were in danger of being “destroyed” (Luke 8:22). These were experienced sailors, but they were filled with terror. The extreme words suggest that this was not ordinary wind, but at terrible storm whipped up by the devil in order to kill Jesus and his embryonic church.

5. Paul was almost destroyed by a “violent battering storm” on the Mediterranean Ocean (Acts 27:18).

Many earthquakes are just the usual working of fallen creation. However sometimes the Devil releases an earthquake to do harm in a place that he hates. The evil spirits are not strong enough to create a huge earthquake, but they do have enough power to release and earthquake in fault where pressure has built up. They determine the timing and direction of the quake to do as much evil as possible.

Purpose for Christchurch
The forces of evil hate Christchurch, and not just because of its name. The reason is that God is building his Kingdom and Christchurch has a special role in his plan. The kingdom of God will emerge in a unique way in this city and will shine as bright light for the nations.

Christchurch will be a centre from which the Kingdom of God is exported. The city will demonstrate a model of the kingdom that can be copied in other nations that turn back to God. The revelation of the Kingdom that emerges in Christchurch will be copied all over the world, as nations see what God had done and want it for themselves. Christchurch will have a key role in displaying the glory of the kingdom. The devil would like to destroy Christchurch to prevent this from happening. He has not succeeded, but the earthquakes are a sign of what he would like to do.