It reminded me of how Christians all to easily and to often lay claim to weather events as acts of God.  For example Hurricane Isaac is currently interfering with and affecting the republican convention (and see here) in the USA.  Can we claim that God is trying to warn people not vote republican or that he is expressing his judgement of their behaviours?

John Piper seems to use weather events for claims of God expressing his judgement, with his hermeneutic for that approach given here.  His reasoning can then be applied to suggest that God is warning the Republican party with my question above.  That’s the problem of laying claim to weather events.

Then there is the validity of using the weather in this way for supporting claims about God.  Tony Jones (who I often disagree with) has this response to such a hermeneutic and approach, that explores why this might be less than a biblical approach to take.  I resonate very strongly with his concerns in that post.

And of course for people reading this blog post there is another issue, that the issue I am exploring here will not be considered, due a love or hate for either John Piper and Tony Jones, republicans or democrats.  This post is about using weather events as warrants for biblical claims about God’s actions in the world.