John Martin - The Great Day of His Wrath - Google Art Project

Divine retribution is

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon an individual or group, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a deterrent to a particular action or beh ...

of a person, a group of people, or everyone by a

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

in response to some action. Many

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

s have a story about how a deity imposed punishment on previous inhabitants of their land, causing their doom. An example of divine retribution is the story found in many religions about a great

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

destroying all of humanity, as described in the

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...

, the

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Vedas FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...

, or the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

(6:9–8:22), leaving one principal 'chosen' survivor. In the first example, the survivor is

Utnapishtim Uta-napishtim or Utnapishtim (, "he has found life") was a legendary king of the ancient city of Shuruppak in southern Iraq, who, according to the Gilgamesh flood myth, one of several similar narratives, survived the Flood by making and occupyi ...

, in the Hindu Vedas, it is Manu, and in the last example, it is

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

. References in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

and the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

to a man named Nuh (Noah) who was commanded by

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

to build an ark also suggest that one man and his followers were saved in a

great flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeva ...

. Other examples in Bible history include the dispersion of the builders of the

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...

(Genesis 11:1–9), the destruction of

Sodom and Gomorrah In the Abrahamic religions, Sodom and Gomorrah () were two cities destroyed by God for their wickedness. Sodom and Gomorrah are repeatedly invoked throughout the Hebrew Bible, Deuterocanonical texts, and the New Testament as symbols of sin, di ...

(Genesis 18:20–21, 19:23–28) ( Quran 7:80–84), and the Ten Plagues visited upon the

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ians for persecuting the

children of Israel Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanite populations and other peoples.Mark Smit ...

(Exodus, Chapters 7–12). In

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, the goddess

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Oly ...

often became enraged when her husband,

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

, would impregnate mortal women, and would exact divine retribution on the children born of such affairs. In some versions of the myth,

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; ), also called Gorgo () or the Gorgon, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her wa ...

was turned into her monstrous form as divine retribution for her vanity; in others it was a punishment for being raped by

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

. The Bible refers to divine retribution as, in most cases, being delayed or "treasured up" to a future time. Sight of God's supernatural works and retribution would militate against faith in God's Word.

William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (; born August 23, 1949) is an American Analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher, Christian apologetics, Christian apologist, author, and theologian. He is a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University and at the T ...

says, in Paul's view, God's properties, his eternal power and deity, are clearly revealed in creation, so that people who fail to believe in an eternal, powerful creator of the world are without excuse. Indeed, Paul says that they actually do know that God exists, but they suppress this truth because of their unrighteousness. Some religions or philosophical positions have no concept of divine retribution, nor posit a God being capable of or willing to express such human sentiments as jealousy, vengeance, or wrath. For example, in

Deism Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin term '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...

and

Pandeism Pandeism, or pan-deism, is a theological doctrine that combines aspects of pantheism with aspects of deism. Unlike classical deism, which holds that the creator deity does not interfere with the universe after its creation, pandeism holds tha ...

, the creator does not intervene in our Universe at all, either for good or for ill, and therefore exhibits no such behavior. In

Pantheism Pantheism can refer to a number of philosophical and religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arisesAnn Thomson; Bodies ...

(as reflected in Pandeism as well), God ''is'' the Universe and encompasses everything within it, and so has no need for retribution, as all things against which retribution might be taken are simply within God. This view is reflected in some pantheistic or pandeistic forms of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

, as well.

Buddhism

The concept of divine retribution is resolutely denied in

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...

did not endorse belief in a

creator deity A creator deity or creator god is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatristic traditions separate a ...

, refused to express any views on creation and stated that questions on the origin of the world are worthless. The non-adherence to the notion of an

omnipotent Omnipotence is the property of possessing maximal power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as ...

creator deity or a prime mover is seen by many as a key distinction between Buddhism and other religions, though precise beliefs vary widely from sect to sect and "Buddhism" should not be taken as a single, holistic religious concept. Buddhists do accept the existence of beings in higher realms (see

Buddhist cosmology Buddhist cosmology is the description of the shape and evolution of the Universe according to Buddhist Tripitaka, scriptures and Atthakatha, commentaries. It consists of a temporal and a spatial cosmology. The temporal cosmology describes the ...

), known as ''devas'', but they, like humans, are said to be suffering in samsara, and are not necessarily wiser than us. The Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior to them. Despite this, there are believed to be enlightened devas. But since there may also be unenlightened devas, there also may be godlike beings who engage in retributive acts, but if they do so, then they do so out of their own ignorance of a greater truth. Despite this

nontheism Nontheism or non-theism is a range of both religious and non-religious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in the existence of God or gods. Nontheism has generally been used to describe apathy or silence towards the subjec ...

, Buddhism nevertheless fully accepts the theory of

karma Karma (, from , ; ) is an ancient Indian concept that refers to an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called ...

, which posits punishment-like effects, such as rebirths in realms of torment, as an invariable consequence of wrongful actions. Unlike in most Abrahamic monotheistic religions, these effects are not eternal, though they can last for a very long time. Even theistic religions do not necessarily see such effects as "punishment" imposed by a higher authority, rather than natural consequences of wrongful action.

Abrahamic Religions

"The wrath of God", an anthropomorphic expression for the attitude which some believe God has towards sin,Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ), article ''wrath of God, the'' is mentioned many times in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

Hebrew Bible

Divine retribution is often portrayed in the Tanak or

. * Genesis 3:14–24 – Curse upon Adam and Eve and expulsion from the

Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (; ; ) or Garden of God ( and ), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2–3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31.. The location of Eden is described in the Book of Ge ...

; Disobedience * Genesis 4:9–15 – Curse upon Cain after his slaying of his brother, Abel * Genesis 6–7 – The

Great Flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeva ...

; Rampant evil and

Nephilim The Nephilim (; ''Nəfīlīm'') are mysterious beings or humans in the Bible traditionally understood as being of great size and strength, or alternatively beings of great power and authority. The origins of the Nephilim are disputed. Some, ...

* Genesis 11:1–9 – The confusion of languages at the

; To scatter them over the Earth * Genesis 19:23–29 – Destruction of

; people of no redeeming value * Genesis 38:6–10 – Destruction of Er and Onan; wickedness in the Lord's sight * Exodus 7–14 –

Plagues of Egypt In the Book of Exodus, the Plagues of Egypt () are ten disasters that the Hebrew God inflicts on the Biblical Egypt, Egyptians to convince Pharaohs in the Bible#In the Book of Exodus, the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of th ...

; to establish his power over that of the gods of Egypt * Exodus 19:10–25 – Divine threatenings at

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai, also known as Jabal Musa (), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is one of several locations claimed to be the Mount Sinai (Bible), biblical Mount Sinai, the place where, according to the sacred scriptures of the thre ...

; warn that the mountain is off limits and holy * Exodus 32 – Plagues at the incident of the

golden calf According to the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, the golden calf () was a cult image made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai (bible), Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as "the sin of the calf" (). It is first mentio ...

; disowning the people for breaking his covenant with them * Leviticus 10:1–2 – Nadab and Abihu are burned; offering unauthorised fire in their censers * Leviticus 26:14–39 – Curses upon the disobedient; divine warning * Numbers 11 – A plague accompanies the giving of manna in the wilderness; rejecting his gracious gift of heavenly food and failing his test of obedience * Numbers 16 – The rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram – Their supernatural deaths and the plague that followed; insolence and attempting self-promotion to roles they were unworthy of holding * Numbers 20:9–13 – Reprimand of

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

at the water of Meribah; disobeying the Lord's instruction, showing distrust and indifference in God's presence * Numbers 21 – Murmuring of the people and the plague of fiery flying serpent; spurning God's grace * Numbers 25 – Whoredom with the

Moab Moab () was an ancient Levant, Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by ...

ites and resulting plague; breaching God's covenant through sexual immorality and worshipping other gods * Deuteronomy 28 – Curses pronounced upon the disobedient; another divine warning * 1 Samuel 6:19 – some/many men of Beth Shemesh killed; Looking into the

Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, was a religious storage chest and relic held to be the most sacred object by the Israelites. Religious tradition describes it as a wooden storage chest decorat ...

* 2 Samuel 6:1–7 – Uzzah struck dead; Touching the Ark of the Covenant * 1 Kings 11 – God promises to tear

King Solomon King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...

's kingdom from his son except for a single tribe; Building altars to other gods for his wives * – sending trials to the just man

Job Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...

New Testament and Christian thought

The New Testament associates the wrath of God particularly with imagery of the Last Day, described allegorically in as the "day of wrath". The wrath of God is mentioned in at least twenty verses of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. Examples are: * –

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

declares that whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son, or in some English translations, does not believe the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. * – Ananias and his wife Sapphira are struck dead for holding back some of the proceeds after selling a piece of property * – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. * – Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. * – Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." * – Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. * – For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to withstand? * – So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. * – Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God was finished. * – From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

suggests that the final illness and death of

Herod the Great Herod I or Herod the Great () was a History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman Jewish client king of the Herodian kingdom of Judea. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea. Among these works are the rebuilding of the ...

was an example of divine punishment for the slaughter of the innocents after the

birth of Jesus The Nativity or birth of Jesus Christ is found in the biblical gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew and Gospel of Luke, Luke. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Palestine, in Herodian kingdom, Roman-controlled Judea, th ...

Matthew's gospel The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah ( Christ), Jesus, his resurrection, and his mission to the ...

mentions Herod's death in passing.

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

gives a more vivid portrayal of his condition and demise. Heinrich Meyer observes in his consideration of John 3:36 that the wrath of God "remains" on anyone who rejects belief in the Son, meaning that the rejection of faith is not the trigger for God's wrath, it is there already. Their refusal to believe amounts to a refusal to allow the wrath of God to be lifted from them.

Quran

* : People of Nuh who were drowned in the flood. * and : Ād (people of Hud) who God sent a stormy cold wind against them for seven nights and eight Days successively, which killed them all. * :

Thamud The Thamud () were an ancient tribe or tribal confederation in pre-Islamic Arabia that occupied the northwestern Arabian Peninsula. They are attested in contemporaneous Mesopotamian and Classical inscriptions, as well as Arabic ones from the e ...

(people of

Salih Saleh or Salih () is a prophet mentioned in the Qur'an who prophesied to the tribe of Thamud in ancient Arabia, before the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The story of Salih is linked to the story of the She-Camel of God, which was t ...

) who killed the miraculous Camel, so God sent against them only a blast and all died. * and : Sodom and Gomorrah, who because of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

, God turned the town upside down and rained on them stones. Previously when they asked Lut to leave his guests to them in order to commit the shameful act, God blinded their eyes. * : People of Ibrahim that had divine retribution after denying Ibrahim. * and : Dwellers of the Cities of Median and Aikah, whom denied prophet Shuaib and in selling didn't give full measure and weight with justice, so an earthquake and blast hit them and killed them all. * : Pharaoh's people were punished by Years of drought and shortage of crops, and also God sent upon them all sorts of Calamities: The flood, the locusts, The lice, the frogs and the blood, a Succession of Clear Signs representing Allah's Wrath. * Pharaoh and his people, which God Drowned them in the sea, because they Belied his Signs and Miracles and Were heedless about them. * : Korah was punished due to his extreme arrogance by being swallowed by earth along with all his great material wealth. * and : 70 chosen Israelites who asked for visiting God, and were seized with a thunderbolt, and then were raised to life after death. * and : Companions of the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...

who became apes, because of breaking the rule of Sabbath and fishing in that day. * and :

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

, when they revoltingly persisted in what they had been forbidden, Lord announced that He would send against them those who would impose the worst torment on them until Resurrection Day. * and : the wrongdoers of the

changed The word which was stated to them, for an irrelevant word, so God sent Down upon them a plague from the heaven due to their evildoing. * : The

breaking their covenant, whom God cursed them and made their hearts Hard, so they change the words of Torah from their right places and have forgotten a part of the Message That was sent to them. * and : People of Yunus(

Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...

), whom When they saw the symptoms of Torment, believed God and obeyed him, so he removed from them the Torment in the life of this world. Because Yunus wasn't patient enough and left his people before God tells him to do so, a fish swallowed him; and after he admitted his wrongdoing and glorified God, God accepted his repentance and released him from the fish's belly. * : People of Sabaʾ(Sheba) whom because of their ingratitude, God afflicted them with a violent flood arising from a broken dam, and destroyed their productive gardens and dispersed the people. * and : People of Tubba whom were punished by God after denying their prophet. * and : Companions of the Rass that rejected their messenger, so they became subject of Devine torment. * : Owners of the burnt garden, whom because of not giving to the poor, an Affliction fell upon their garden from your God, And the garden was turned into a black Barren land. * : The owner of a beautiful garden, whom because of his arrogance and denial of the day of resurrection, an Affliction fell upon their garden from your God, And the garden was ruined on its trellises and its fruits were all destroyed. * : People of Ya-Sin: After they belied the messengers and killed the believer, there was a single and sudden Divine Outcry and they all became silent and Motionless corpses. * : Companions of the Elephant who were stoned by birds, because they wanted to destroy the

Kaaba The Kaaba (), also spelled Kaba, Kabah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaba al-Musharrafa (), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and Holiest sites in Islam, holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Sa ...

Alleged modern examples

Since the 1812 Caracas earthquake occurred on

Maundy Thursday Maundy Thursday, also referred to as Holy Thursday, or Thursday of the Lord's Supper, among other names,The day is also known as Great and Holy Thursday, Holy and Great Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries. is ...

while the

Venezuelan War of Independence The Venezuelan War of Independence (, 1810–1823) was one of the Spanish American wars of independence of the early nineteenth century, when independence movements in South America fought a civil war for secession and against unity of the S ...

was raging, it was explained by royalist authorities as divine punishment for the rebellion against the Spanish Crown. The archbishop of Caracas, Narciso Coll y Prat, referred to the event as "the terrifying but well-deserved earthquake" which "confirms in our days the prophecies revealed by God to men about the ancient impious and proud cities: Babylon, Jerusalem and the Tower of Babel". This prompted the widely quoted answer of

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...

: "If Nature is against us, we shall fight Nature and make it obey". While some Orthodox Jews believed that the Holocaust was divine retribution for sins, this argument has many critics. In contrast, many Germans at the time believed that the bombing of Germany was divine retribution for the November pogrom, although seeing the bombings as divine retribution became less popular after the war. The

1953 Waco tornado outbreak A deadly series of at least 33 tornadoes hit at least 10 different U.S. states on May 9–11, 1953. Tornadoes appeared daily from Minnesota in the north to Texas in the south. The strongest and deadliest tornado was a 1953 Waco ...

was regarded by some people in the local African-American community as divine retribution for the lynching of Jesse Washington over thirty years prior. Various Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders claimed that

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

was God's punishment on America, New Orleans or the world for any of a variety of alleged sins, including

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

sexual immorality Immorality is the violation of moral laws, norms or standards. It refers to an agent doing or thinking something they know or believe to be wrong. Immorality is normally applied to people or actions, or in a broader sense, it can be applied to gr ...

(including the gay pride event Southern Decadence), the policies of the American Empire, failure to support

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, and failure of black people to study the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

.NPR
Pastor John Hagee on Christian Zionism.
September 18, 2006. The 2007 UK floods were claimed by Graham Dow to be God's punishment against homosexuals. Televangelist Pat Robertson stirred up controversy after claiming that the

2010 Haiti earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (departm ...

may have been God's belated punishment on Haitians for allegedly having made a "pact with the Devil" to overthrow the French during the

Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution ( or ; ) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolution was the only known Slave rebellion, slave up ...

. Yehuda Levin, an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, linked the earthquake to gays in the military via an alleged

Talmudic The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

teaching that homosexuality causes earthquakes. Levin posted a video onto

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

the same day as

2011 Virginia earthquake On August 23, 2011, a moment magnitude scale, magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of the U.S. state of Virginia at 1:51:04 p.m. EDT. The epicenter, in Louisa County, Virginia, Louisa County, was nor ...

in which he said, "The Talmud states, "You have shaken your male member in a place where it doesn’t belong. I too, will shake the Earth". He said that homosexuals shouldn't take it personally: "We don’t hate homosexuals. I feel bad for homosexuals. It’s a revolt against God and literally, there’s hell to pay". Chaplain John McTernan said that Hurricane Isaac, like Hurricane Katrina, was God's punishment on homosexuals. Buster Wilson of the American Family Association concurred that statement. McTernan also said that

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

may have been God's punishment against homosexuals. In addition,

WorldNetDaily WND (formerly WorldNetDaily) is an Radical right (United States), American far-right news and opinion website. It is known for promoting fake news and conspiracy theories, including the false claim that former President Barack Obama Barack Obama ...

columnist William Koenig, along with McTernan himself, suggested that American support for a

two-state solution The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. It is often contrasted with the one-state solution, which is the esta ...

to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to the hurricane. Malaysian politician

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi Ahmad Zahid bin Hamidi (; born 4 January 1953) is a Malaysian politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Rural and Regional Development (Malaysia), Minister of Rural and Regional Devel ...

said the 2018 Central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami was "God's (Allah) rage against homosexuals in Indonesia because they were allowed to living in Indonesia". Orthodox rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said the brutal

2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

was "God's tribunal on Turkey and Syria since they were considered anti-Jewish like former

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

because their support for

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

". Iraqi Shia cleric

Muqtada al-Sadr Muqtada al-Sadr (; born 4 August 1974) is an Iraqi Shia Muslim cleric, politician and militia leader. He inherited the leadership of the Sadrist Movement from his father, and founded the now dissolved Mahdi Army militia in 2003 that resisted ...

said the brutal 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was "God's (Allah) rebuke against Turkey because weak response against the holy book (Quran) burning by right wing extremist groups in Sweden".

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

officials said the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake was "God's (Allah) rage against Turkey for renounced Sharia laws, replaced it with unbeliever (Kuffar) laws and enforced it, adopted unbeliever lifestyles, declared war against ISIS and allied with the army of unbelievers (

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

)" in their propaganda narrative.

Rebuttals

Orthodox rabbi Shmuley Boteach denounces such claims since they carry the implication of

victim blaming Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them. There is historical and current prejudice against the victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, such as ...

, writing that "For many of the faithful, the closer they come to God, the more they become enemies of man." He contrasts the Jewish tradition, which affords a special place to "arguing with God", with an approach to religion that "taught people not to challenge, but to submit. Not to question, but to obey. Not how to stand erect, but to be stooped and bent in the broken posture of the meek and pious." Speaking about the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Boteach said "I utterly reject and find it sickening when people believe that this is some kind of punishment from God – that really upsets me." A

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest, James Martin, wrote on Twitter in response to

that "If any religious leaders say tomorrow that the hurricane is God's punishment against some group they're idiots. God's ways are not our ways."

Notes

References

External links

* R. G. V. Tasker
The Biblical Doctrine of the Wrath of God

Gili Kugler, When God Wanted to Destroy the Chosen People: Biblical Traditions and Theology on the Move
* W. L. Crai
True Love: The Doctrine of Divine Retribution
* Herbert W. Byrne
The Wrath of God
(2005 ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Divine Retribution Christian terminology Attributes of God in Christian theology Relationship between Heaven and Mankind Punishment Supernatural legends Divinity Retribution