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The United States has been captivated by the fires sweeping across Los Angeles, California, destroying nearly everything in their path. “With so much going on,” Backholm emphasised, “it can be easy to gloss over the headlines. But as Christians, we want to make sure we analyse every headline through the lens of Scripture.” It’s important to ask, “How do we think about these things biblically?”

Reflecting on the fires in California, Backholm stated, “Our hearts go out … to everybody who is suffering a tremendous loss.” But a question many have raised goes as follows: “[D]id God do this?”

David Closson, FRC’s director of the Center for Biblical Worldview, joined last Friday’s episode of Washington Watch. “[T]his is a kind of an age-old question,” he stated. “[A]s a young boy … I was living in Orlando, Florida, and we had three hurricanes blow through in a series of I think four or five weeks. … [T]hat’s where I first started to really think about … ‘natural evil.’”

A Fallen World

According to Closson, “it’s important for Christians to realise there is a distinction” between moral evil and natural evil. As he put it, “[M]oral evil is a category we’re more familiar with. These are sins that are carried out by moral agents, individual people.” On the other hand, “natural evil is kind of what you just observe. [It entails the] things that take place in the natural order. And … it’s important to note, this is part of the consequences of living in a Genesis three, fallen world.”

Closson referenced Romans 8:22-23, which states, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Closson contended, “Creation itself longs for redemption. And so … we could look at some of the political decisions that have led up to why some of these fires are maybe as big and bad as they are, and maybe there is some moral blame there. This is a good example, such as a hurricane or a tsunami, of natural evil [and] the fact that we do live in a fallen world.”

Backholm asked, should acknowledging that reality “make us feel better about what we’re experiencing? I mean, what’s the way to process this? … [We’re] seeing entire neighbourhoods and maybe even towns just obliterated by these fires.” Could it be said that it’s just a matter of being “unlucky”?

“I don’t know if I would put it like that,” Closson responded. “[A]s a Christian looking at this through the lens of a biblical worldview, Christians do have a category that even the worst things that can happen in our lives can be used for good” (Romans 8:28).

He explained that “even unimaginable evil … can accomplish purposes that we can’t see in the midst of it.” And so, “again, the category I mentioned earlier of natural evil, the fact that we live in a Genesis three fallen world,” is what’s really at the heart of these unfolding catastrophes. “[T]heology is always just behind the headlines,” he added.

The Blame Game

Another question Backholm posed had to do with the inclination humans have to blame. As he put it, “There does seem to be in … our human nature this desire to blame someone when something bad happens. … [I]n a fallen world, things are broken and things decay, and there are storms and there are fires. And our life is just going to be challenging because we live in a world infected by sin.” But what should we “make of the instinct to find someone to blame?”

According to Closson, the desire to blame someone “speaks to the human instinct to try to explain our lives. I think … when something like this happens, you want an explanation.” He went on to say how we “are rational reasoning creatures,” and in a secular world, “that’s almost post-Christian in many ways.” The idea “of natural evil and of living in a fallen world … is an alien concept to a post-Christian world.”

“[I]n the months and years to come,” Closson added, “I’m sure there’s going to be the political blame game. … There might be merit to some of these critiques on how the forests are managed and whatnot. But I think right now, as the fires are still raging, I would say that … the first impulse of a Christian should just be prayer.” Christians should be “praying that people, those who are made in God’s image, are safe.” Christians should be praying “for wisdom [and] for the authorities that are on the ground from President Biden all the way down to the fire chiefs there in L.A. County. I think that needs to be kind of the first impulse, first instinct of a Christian.”

Backholm addressed how the fires in California and all the loss and destruction they have caused offer an opportunity to be reminded of what Jesus taught during His Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Though painful, Backholm said, “This seems to be … [an] important reminder of how temporary everything that we have is.”

He continued, “[S]ome of the neighbourhoods that are being destroyed are some of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in America and therefore in the world. And these are people who, presumably five days ago, felt a tremendous sense of security … and that all is well in the world. … And then in a moment, they’ve lost so much of what made them secure.”

“And again,” Backholm concluded, “while we remain sympathetic for that, we need … a reminder of the fact that everything here is temporary. And if we hold too [tightly] to material things for our security and for our joy and our satisfaction and our contentment, we may get a very rude [awakening that] we can’t take it with us.” But in Heaven, he added, we “store up our treasures in places where they are eternal and where storms and fires cannot take them from us.”