AS THE STORY GOES, Jesus and the apostles were in a small fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee.  A sudden storm kicked up, and the guys were terrified...except Jesus, of course.  Jesus was so calm, he was actually asleep in the bow of the boat!  So the guys woke Jesus up, and told him they were afraid that they were about to die in the storm. 


Jesus got up and, according to Luke, "rebuked the wind and the raging waters".  A moment later, the lake and the wind were calm.


Just who was Jesus talking to?  Water?  Air?


This idea is not out of the question, I suppose.  I mean, if Jesus was/is God, then He could command anything.


But consider this: the Jewish people of Jesus' time believed that angelic forces, good and evil, controlled the weather.  This idea is supported, repeatedly, throughout the Bible.


So when Jesus calmed the storm, He did so by commanding the demonic forces who had whipped up the storm to knock it off.  Luke tells this true story to illustrate Jesus' superiority to those angelic forces.  He follows this story in Luke 8 with another story about Jesus kicking demonic butt.  In that story, a pack of demons has possessed a man; he runs around naked in graveyards.  According to Luke, Jesus then kicks a legion of demons right out of the man.  As powerful as angelic forces are, of course, God is stronger.  He created them.  God the Son, Jesus, currently rules over them, according to Scripture.


There was a huge tsunami a few years ago.   It was a horrible disaster, and many people were killed.  Many people were asking the age-old question, "How could God do something like this?"


Let's respond to that question with a question: DID God do it?  If demonic angelic forces caused the storm on the sea of Galilee, what caused the tsunami? 


The Biblical worldview is that we live in a "fallen world".   That means people are born flawed, and naturally prone to doing nasty things.  This worldview is in direct conflict with the humanistic worldview, which asserts that people are basically good, and left to their own devices, people will just get better and better.  How do these two viewpoints jive with the world around you?  Are humans born good and getting better? 


Most of us have been around small children.  A simple question: do children need to be taught to do bad things?  Or do they figure out how to do them on their own?  The truth is, a child is only good if he or she is taught to be good.  Being ornery comes naturally and easily.


Evil happens in the world because evil comes naturally and easily in a fallen world.  And people are not the only ones who are fallen.  A huge number of angels are fallen as well.  If those angels control the weather, then "natural" disasters will happen just as surely as human disasters do.


Sometimes, God intervenes.  Jesus stood up in the boat and stopped the storm.  In 2005, the dam at the Taum Sauk power plant in Missouri broke, and a billion gallons of water swept away a house and the sleeping family it contained.  Jerry Toop ended up in a tree.  Lisa Toop hung on to their two children, including a seven-month-old baby.  Their third child also survived.  Incredibly, the family made it through the disaster relatively uninjured. 


Disaster happens.  It is naturally inclined to do so.  Sometimes, God intervenes.


According to the Bible, angelic forces are constantly in motion all around us.  Good angelic forces are constantly battling evil spiritual forces.  The outcome of these skirmishes directly affects the behavior of people around us, and the behavior of the elemental forces of weather as well.


Of course, you don't have to believe that.


But if the Biblical worldview is the correct view of reality, whether or not you believe it does not change that reality.