Question: “How is suffering caused by natural disasters the result of sin?”

Good question.

Firstly, the way the Bible puts it is “creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”.

So how is all of creation bound by death and decay? It is the result of the original sin. What happened with the original sin is, in part, revealed by the sudden realization by Adam and Eve, that they were naked: “Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.” then: “At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.”. The change seems subtle, even pointless, but is actually profound. It changed everything. The next time GOD showed up they hid! They started making excuses! Adam tried to blame Eve! they were clearly different! But that is just the tip of the iceberg, the part we can see! So what is below the surface? Well we were created as immortal beings, in the image of GOD, when we fell into sin, we sort of became like a caricature of GOD, still in HIS image, but distorted, corrupt.

Secondly, the universe is not said to have changed at all, so the phrase “the pains of childbirth” means that the universe is somehow not suited to this new, distorted, mortal people. This would fit with the premise that we were created immortal, GOD said we would “surely die”. So without sin, we would not have died. We were thus above the everyday events of the world as we know it, we would have been unaffected by storms, earthquakes, volcanoes, even celestial events, not even by the sun eventually becoming a red giant then a white dwarf. So it is not that natural disasters are a result of sin, as us suffering under those “natural disasters” is the result of our fall from immortality.

Of course that dovetails with the idea that without experiencing the results of sin, and evil, we could never understand how bad it is, thus could not comprehend the goodness of GOD.

This does make the fall inevitable, necessary to perfectly complete our development.

That is why GOD made a way that anyone can be redeemed, indeed eventually transformed into a new, divine immortal. Those that accept this, obey (as best they can), and follow HIM, will, when the time comes, no longer have any temptation to sin! They will have GOD in them, and HE will have them in HIM!

Accept HIM as your LORD, be redeemed, and receive HIS glory!