“And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons … and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” Revelation 9:20-21

Jennifer Lawrence blamed Mother Nature and Donald Trump for hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Kirk Cameron called the hurricanes “a spectacular display of God’s immense power” and said, “weather is sent to cause us to respond to God in humility, awe and repentance.” Max Lucado wrote a column in Fox News online in light of the unusual number of natural disasters happening now saying, “Lift up prayers. Lift up hope. Lift up your hearts. God is above this storm.”

Dana Milbank wrote in the Washington Post, “some End-Times pastors and other provocateurs on the right attribute the storm to a wrathful God’s vengeance on liberals.” And, recently I’ve read many in the secular media speculating about “God” and “End-Times” in light of the onslaught of hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and other disasters we’ve witnessed.

The Bible teaches that God sends natural, supernatural, and manmade calamities as a means to call people to “repent” of their sins. According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, the Greek words translated “repent” mean to change the mind. Repentance is a good thing, right? I mean, not repenting or changing one’s mind about God after suffering calamities is bound to be asking for more of the same. At least, that’s the way the story goes in the Book of the Revelation.

We’ve moved from playing political blame games to playing moral blame games, as if there were any north star moral values left in America today. Americans are more split than ever over Christian or biblical morals. Americans disagree over interpretations of the First and Second Amendments in the Bill of Rights, even though we have volumes of writings of our Founders explaining why we have those amendments. Yes, times have changed; but people have not changed.

The human race is filled 100 percent with sinners who need to repent. The very fact we argue with each other says someone’s wrong, if not everybody’s wrong. Moreover, we have many means with which to destroy Earth. Top that thought with the thought there are many in the human race who want to destroy part if not all of Earth. Frankly, given these thoughts, I don’t fear what God will do.

Fools among us call on their God as they understand him to punish or destroy people who are doing wrong! Well, that would pretty much be all of us.

Those who don’t believe God exists will blame climate change, Donald Trump, or some other catastrophe du jour. They are never inclined to change their minds.

If God exists and wants to get our attention, would He bless us with everything we could ever want? Probably not, because if we had no needs, we would not need God. If we rebel against God and He really exists, then He would probably give us stressful times of overwhelming needs to draw our attention back to Him. In that case, who is truly to blame? We’re playing moral blame games in an amoral world.

Contact Daniel L. Gardner at PJandMe2@gmail.com.