Good Question

A reader called Mcdadius asked a serious question in a comment on an earlier post.

You have a prophecy from December 1999 on your website under the Christchurch heading. It is entitled "Shaking". I take it to be God speaking about Christchurch and the nation of NZ, however you turn around and say that God was not behind the earthquake, in your analysis you made regarding what qualifies as a judgement from God. It seems to me that this prophecy qualifies as the warning that precedes a judgement from God. I am confused by the seeming contradiction. The prophecy sounded like a warning to me. Might you be making the error mentioned in Prov. 3:5,6 of "leaning on your own understanding".

I believe God is in the process of bringing redemptive judgement on his church as spoken by Peter in 1 Peter 4:17-19. I believe Christchurch NZ is a sign for the shaking that has begun in the church worldwide. Just as the steeple fell on the cathedral in Christchurch NZ so also the steeple was damaged on the US National Cathedral in Washington DC during the recent earthquake on the east coast of the US. I heard an early news report that said they knew of no damage to any buildings in DC except the National Cathedral. It got my attention.

I respect your work but I don't understand this. Praying God's blessing and protection on you. (abridged)

This is a good question, so here is my response.

In an article called Prophetic Events, I distinguished between Shaking Judgments and Warning Events. Failure to distinguish between these different types of even has led to a great deal of confusion.

Shaking judgments are initiated by God to shake his people out of sin and complacency. He warns in advance so people know how to respond. A remnant prepared to share the gospel and minister peace to strengthen the people shaken is essential.

Warning Events are initiated by the spiritual forces of evil, when the sin of a city or nations gives them greater authority to do their stuff (see discerning seasons for the reason they get this power). These events are destructive not redemptive, but for alert Christians, they are a wake-up call, because they warn them that evil is getting a greater hold in their city or nation.

The earthquake in Christchurch was destructive. There were no warnings with conditions for repentance. It struck in the part of the city where the gospel witness is weakest, so no remnant was ready to share the gospel and minister the peace of the Spirit. If the people whose hearts are crushed by a disaster are left in pain for too long, their hearts harden and close tight, so shaking without a remnant does more harm than good.

On this basis, I have concluded that the Christchurch earthquake was a warning event and not as shaking judgment. God will work it for good to wake up his people, but he did not initiate it to shake our nation.

God will shake New Zealand, but our shaking will be economic, not geophysical. He is is trying to prepare a remnant, who will stand strong during a season of troubles and minister to his people.