The lightning-bolts-and-thunder side of God

Interviewer: There is an aspect of Your nature that we haven’t touched on in these interviews, the lightning-bolts-and-thunder side. There are accounts in the Bible of You causing the earth to open up and swallow the wicked, raining fire and brimstone on cities, even flooding the earth and killing all but a handful. This is all pretty terrifying for us mortals. How are we to reconcile this side of You with the kind and gentle side?
God: If I had sat back and not intervened so harshly, the results would have been far worse. The people involved had caused so much harm and hurt and suffering to others. I have to judge evil, else I would not be just.
Interviewer: This side of You is most evident in the Old Testament. Have You changed over time so that You don’t do things so violently now?
God: I have changed My tactics, but My nature remains constant.
Interviewer: Tactics? That almost sounds like You are waging a war.
God: I am. There is a very big and violent war being waged for the hearts and souls of men. But this violence is in the spiritual realm. My battle is with My ancient adversary for the souls of humanity-and that battle is conducted over and within each person.
Interviewer: So You don’t do these big cataclysmic things like You did in days past?
God: Man does a pretty good job of that all by himself.
Interviewer: But what about the Battle of Armageddon, or this hiccup, where the Devil starts a war all over again? That’s pretty physical, isn’t it?
God: Man initiates these conflicts by choosing to follow the Devil in the flesh, in the form of the Antichrist, or by choosing to rebel with the Devil in the hiccup we are talking about. When man has stepped so far out of line as to destroy himself, the planet, and many other people, I must step in to put things back in line. These wars only occur because of the choices of man.
Interviewer: Nevertheless, the big natural disasters such as earthquakes and killer storms, these are not caused by man. People even call them “acts of God.”
God: No, not all the time, although the intensity of the storms often has something to do with man’s damage to the environment.
Interviewer: Granted. But are these natural disasters Your “judgments” or are they just the natural course of events?
God: They are the course of nature. However, I do take advantage of these events to bring about results that I wish. But you cannot conclude that every disaster is some sort of judgment from Me.
Interviewer: But what about the good people who are killed in these disasters?
God: Those who die in events such as mudslides, hurricanes or earthquakes are often believers who go on to a better Home. Many are poor people who deserve more than the injustices and inequalities of man’s world, and so I sometimes take the surprising tack of using disasters to free My children from horrible surroundings, and bring them with their entire families to Heaven. There are many reasons for disasters, many of which will not be known until you arrive in Heaven and go back and look at the entire situation when such a disaster occurred from My vantage point.
Also, it is often in times of great peril that I can show My power through miracles of protection. These calamities often provide an opportunity for the noblest attributes of people to come to the fore, in acts of heroism, charity, or kindness. Disasters are bad, but through them good things can come. We have covered this ground before.