New Testament Prophets (4) - Confusion produces Fear

We have a serious problem in Christchurch. We have just gone through a huge calamity, but Christians do not know what is going. They have been taught that life has meaning and purpose, so they expect their leaders to be able to explain the meaning of the earthquake.

The problem is that most church leaders ducked for cover when they earthquake struck and quoted the dean who said that the earthquake was not an act of God, but just the earth doing what the earth does. This explanation let them off the hook for explaining why God had allowed an earthquake, but if left people confused. The earth doing its thing argument was helpful for some of the pastoral problems, as leaders did not have to explain why some Christians were killed and injured. It was just bad luck. The people who died were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Another problem made this worse. In the September earthquake, when no one was killed and only a few injured, Christian leaders called it as a miracle. But when nearly two hundred people were killed in the February earthquake, there was no explanation of why we did get another miracle. Only silence.

The lack of credible Christian explanations left a huge void of unanswered questions. Where was God? Why did he warn some people, but not others? If we could some warn people, why could he not prevent people from being killed? If he knew in advance that the earthquake was coming, why could he not prevent it from happening. Or did he choose to let it happen anyway? These are hard questions, but Christians expect the leaders who bring a word from God each week to provide some answers.

Without a clear trumpet call, the people get confused. The silence of Christian leaders meant that their people were left to look to find their own answers. When the message is unclear, the people get muddled and grab what they can. The dreams and voices circulating in Christchurch came from the fringes of the church where people have gone for insight, but they produced only fear and confusion.