By Rev. Mark Creech
RevMarkCreech.org
When I was a boy, my grandparents and others of their generation taught me something few children hear today. If a thunderstorm arose, we were to find a quiet place in the house, sit still, and show reverence, for the Lord was speaking in the thunder.
I’m not saying this must necessarily be taught to children today, though I don’t think it would hurt them. Instead, it would probably help. My point is that in those moments of flashing light and rumbling skies, our elders heard something more than meteorology; they heard majesty.
The psalmist wrote:
“The voice of the Lord is over the waters; The God of glory thunders; The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; The voice of the Lord is full of majesty” (Psalm 29:3-4).
There is nothing quite like the sound of thunder in the natural realm. It can be distant and murmuring or sudden and explosive. It can shake windows and make the bravest heart tremble. The sound carries a sense of awe – an unmistakable reminder that some powers in this world lie wholly beyond human control.
Today, of course, such thoughts are quickly brushed aside in favor of a scientific explanation. Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by friction between particles in storm clouds. We can measure its voltage and predict its strikes. But as Charles Haddon Spurgeon once warned:
“Modern wise men will have us believe in laws and forces and anything or nothing so that they may be rid of God. Electricity of itself can do nothing; it must be called and sent upon its errand, and until the Almighty Lord commissions it, its bolt of fire is inert and powerless. As well might a rock of granite or a bar of iron fly in the midst of heaven as the lightning does without being sent by the great First Cause.”
Spurgeon’s observation is as accurate now as it was in Victorian England. We live in an age that worships the mechanism but forgets the Maker. It reveres the laws of nature but refuses to acknowledge the Lawgiver. In countless ways, the modern world strives to be “rid of God.”
What began as a humble search for understanding has become a secular creed. Many scientists, and their passionate disciples, treat science as omniscient and self-sufficient, insisting that everything must be explained without reference to the Divine. We are told that life emerged from chaos, the mind is nothing more than matter, and morality is nothing more than a set of evolved animalistic instincts. With such a worldview, the thunder is not the voice of the Lord but a random accident of atmospheric physics. The result? The Almighty’s wonder, glory, and power are reduced to data, and reverence to mere curiosity.
In rejecting the Creator, many have turned to worship creation itself. While rightly concerned about stewardship, the modern environmental movement often crosses into idolatry. The planet is personified as “Mother Earth,” and humanity is cast as her most significant threat. The angels that cry in Revelation 14:6-7, which command, “Fear God and give him glory,” have been replaced by “Save the Earth and reduce your carbon footprint.” There we have it, worshiping “laws and forces” – a religion with no throne, only cycles and systems, and very often, its conclusions are wrong.
Where earlier generations bowed before the Majesty of God, ours now bows before the mirror. Personal autonomy has become the highest virtue. Truth is no longer discovered; one’s self declares it. Biology must yield to identity; morality must submit to desire. This is the oldest heresy in the world – the devil himself, who comes dressed as “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), promises the same that he did to Adam and Eve, “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Like all idols, self becomes a cruel master, promising liberation but delivering loneliness, confusion, devastation and death.
Having cast out heaven’s King, people seek salvation in earthly powers. The state becomes the new messiah, pledging to eradicate poverty, cure disease, and legislate paradise. Government can coerce people to behave a certain way, but only God can make them good. In Spurgeon’s words, men now believe in “anything or nothing,” as long as it frees them from accountability to God.
Political and Social Leftists often boast of being on the ‘right side of history,’ as if time itself could judge between good and evil. Nonsense – only God can. Every new ideology and invention is hailed as evidence that humanity is evolving – supposedly getting better and better. Yet progress without righteousness is merely advancement in rebellion. A race that cannot govern its passions and live within God’s order will not be saved by its technology, but more likely destroyed by it!
Again, “laws and forces” may describe the howof creation, but only God explains the why. Electricity and every other scientific discovery exist because the Almighty ordained and employed them. The lightning does not leap without His command, and the thunder does not clap without His permission. The tragedy of our age is not that we know too much about nature and the environment; it is that we cannot hear the voice of the Lord in it.
My grandparents may not have understood the physics of the storm, but they understood something infinitely more profound. When the heavens flash and the dark clouds roll in thunderous majesty, the Creator reminds His creatures that He still rules and reigns.
In our high-tech, hyper-rational world, may I suggest sitting quietly once more, turning off the noise, folding our hands, and remembering that the thunder still belongs to God. In fact, it all belongs to Him, and none of it, not one little thing, operates without Him. And everything He does, whether understood or not by our puny minds and wayward hearts, is good and worthy of our implicit trust.
