So we have only two possible answers for the question of natural disasters. Either God or Satan is responsible. Before we look at specific scriptures to determine which answer is correct, let’s think further about those two possible answers.
If Satan is the one who causes natural disasters, then either God can or cannot stop him. If God can stop Satan from causing natural disasters but doesn’t, then He again bears some responsibility. The disaster never would have occurred without His permission.
And now on the other side. Let’s assume, for a moment, that God can’t stop Satan, but He would like to stop him. Is that really a possibility?
If God can’t stop Satan from causing a natural disaster, then either Satan is more powerful than God, or Satan is smarter than God. This is, in effect, what adherents to the “Satan gained control over the world at Adam’s fall” theory are saying. They claim that Satan has a legal right to do whatever he pleases on the earth because he stole Adam’s lease. Now, supposedly, God would like to stop Satan but can’t because He must honor Adam’s lease that Satan now possesses. In other words, God was too stupid to foresee what would happen at the fall, but Satan, being more intelligent than God, has now gained power that God wishes he didn’t have. Personally, I’m not about to say that Satan is wiser than God.
If the “Satan-Gained” theory were true, we would want to know why Satan doesn’t cause more earthquakes and hurricanes than he presently does, and why he doesn’t target large populations of Christians. (If you say “because God won’t let him target populations of Christians,” then you’ve just admitted that Satan cannot operate without God’s permission.)
When we narrow it down specifically, the only two possible answers to our question are these: Either (1) God causes earthquakes and hurricanes or (2) Satan does with God’s permission.
Can you see that regardless of which answer is correct, God is the one who is ultimately responsible? When people say, “God didn’t send that hurricane—Satan did with God’s permission,” they are not totally letting God “off the hook” as they might hope. If God could have stopped Satan from causing the hurricane, regardless of whether He wanted to or not, then He bears responsibility. Human rebels may be the ones to blame because of their sin (if the hurricane was sent by God or permitted by God as judgment), but still, it is foolish to say that God is in no way involved or responsible.
