17 Aug 2005 - Who REALLY destroyed New Orleans?

Dear Editor,

How many folks can identify with the hopeless humanity of New Orleans
and the Gulf Coast?  How many times in our lifetime have we experienced
a sense of hopelessness?  Tens of thousands of folks have suddenly been
thrown into frightening reality.  This sudden nightmare is real to too
many people Many want to return home but there is nothing to return to.
There may never be a place to return to.

To them, there is no destination and no future.  What part of that
tragic hopelessness have we ever experienced?  Convicts housed on an
Interstate on-ramp?  People, able and disabled, warehoused in a sports
arena.  No plans for there future survival or betterment.  This event
borders on the apocalyptic.  We shrug when we hear of similar tragedies
in places like Bangladesh.  But when it comes to our survival, it
suddenly becomes much more relevant.  Many people fault God for not
intervening in the affairs of man, including meteorological events that
kill untold millions.

Most folks, Christians included, forget what God's word says about the
"prince of the power of the air":   "Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience:  There is no way we can discount Satan's power.  Praise
God, Satan's power is limited and his time is near.  God may very well
have allowed Satan to strike our Gulf Coast.  We have no way of knowing
what His plan may have been.

God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  He may have also
allowed the "prince of the power of the air " to have his way with
Katrina.

Suddenly, on July 7, 1692, the pirate haven of Port Royal, Jamaica,
disappeared beneath the waves of an earthquake.  Meanwhile, the Salem
witch trial justices sentenced Bridget Bishop to death by hanging, the
first official execution of the Salem witch trials.

Anyone who has failed to recognize that God is trying to get our
attention is horribly out of touch with reality.  God's Word clearly
says:

Derick S. Hartshorn
Conover, NC