Were the California Wildfires Divine Judgment? Probably.

Thomas Cole The Course of Empire: Destruction

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Heb. 10:31

Sin can grow in individuals and in nations and can be internal or publicly manifest.

Herman Bavinck.[1]

The whole matter of corporate responsibility is fundamental to the Reformed faith. It is part of the foundation. It is a truth that must be preserved at all cost.

Herman Hanko

Outside social media, it is now quite rare to see Christians refer to corporate divine judgment (hereafter: CDJ), that is, divine judgment against a corporate entity, such as a family, city, or nation. The last time a prominent public figure connected a national tragedy to divine judgement was Gov. Mike Huckabee in the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, the cause supposedly being the secularization of culture. In response to the question, "Where was God?," put to him by Neil Cavuto, Huckabee implied that divine judgment was somehow involved, “We ask why there is violence in our schools,” Huckabee said, “but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?” As a hostile critic put it, “If you don’t want me [God], I won’t come. You’ll be sorry when I don’t stop someone from killing 20 first-graders, though.” The Parkland shooting, just 6 years later (2018), was comparably tragic, yet no public figure attributed it to divine judgment in any way. It appears that Christian public figures are now reluctant to draw any such connections.

            Some may view the attribution of tragedies to CDJ as antiquated, believing it has been misused, exaggerated, and -- let’s be honest -- too closely associated with the stereotypical "Bible thumper." But there are larger cultural factors that would explain its disappearance, including that modernity, at least prior to the impact of critical theory, has been emphatically individualistic. And so CDJ appears indiscriminate, affecting some who are not responsible for whatever sinfulness or depravity brings it about, such as young children, which was the implication of the Sandy Hook tragedy, and this seems morally outrageous. And as we see in the California wildfires, the detection of CDJ can appear arbitrary. Why make the wildfires of California the instrument of CDJ, but not the hurricanes of North Carolina or Florida? And which sin is it, exactly, that brought it about? Neglect of the homeless? Corporate greed? Sexual sin? Paganism? All of the above? Since God no longer sends infallible prophets to clear up this difficulty as he did in Old Testament times, isn’t a studied agnosticism a better approach?

            Despite these considerations, Christians should recognize CDJ as a legitimate theological category for understanding historical events, and so consider the California wildfires as very likely divine judgment. For ease of understanding, I will arrange my argument as a series of questions. I begin with clarifications, and then end with more extended focus on two common objections to CDJ: the problem of detection (knowing CDJ has taken place), and the suffering of innocents, those who suffer in CDJ, but did nothing to contribute to the sin bringing it about.

1. Does God judge corporately?

            The most important question is also the easiest, since Scripture is replete with instances of CDJ. The primary example is all mankind following the Fall (Rom. 5:12), then all mankind in the Flood (Gen. 6:13) and the dispersion following the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:9), then of course, Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:25), which the New Testament identifies specifically as a warning to future generations (Matt. 10:15; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7). There is CDJ against both non-covenantal nations, including Egypt (Ezek. 29:1-12), Babylon (Jer. 51), Assyria (Isa. 10:5f.), Edom (Obadiah), Nineveh (Nah. 3, which can apply to any sinful city), and Moab (Jer. 48), as well as the covenantal nations Israel (Amos 2:6f.) and Judah (Amos 2:4-5). Indeed, God judges all nations (Ps. 94:10, 23; Obad. 1:15-16).

            We must not forget that God not only judges corporately, he also blesses corporately. Christ died on the cross for all those who receive God's grace (1 Cor. 15:22). The substitutionary atonement wouldn't be possible without our corporate identity in Christ.

2. But doesn't the coming of Christ bring CDJ to an end?

            Not at all. In the New Testament, Jesus speaks of judgment against a town for refusing the Gospel, linking such judgment with that of Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. 10:14-15), and predicts Jerusalem will be judged corporately (Matt. 24:15f.; Mark 13:1-2; Lk. 21:20f.). Paul describes CDJ as on-going in Romans 1:18-32, and in Revelation we see corporate judgment against all mankind (Rev. 16:19; 18), and even against churches (Chaps. 2-3). So whatever changes the covenant of grace brings to the way God deals with corporate entities, it does not appear to include the withdrawal of CDJ.

3. Why does God judge corporately?

            Two reasons stand out. First is that God punishes sin (Matt. 12:36; Acts 17:30; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6), and by such punishment, we learn to fear him (Job 19:29; Eccl. 12:14; Ps. 58:11; Ps. 119:119). Secondly, for his own glory, that the peoples of the earth may honor him (Ps. 9:19-20; Isa. 37:20). Divine judgment reminds the wicked as well as the righteous that he is God, and that he is to be worshipped and obeyed.

I am the LORD, and there is no other,

besides me there is no God;

I equip you, though you do not know me,

that people may know, from the rising of the sun

and from the west, that there is none besides me;

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

I form light and create darkness;

I make well-being and create calamity;

I am the LORD, who does all these things. (Isa. 45:5-7)

God is honored by our recognition of his sovereign right to judge. Thus, he demands we acknowledge that what happens in history is not mere happenstance, but his direct sovereign oversight over all human history, and that we praise him for it:

For not from the east or from the west

and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,

but it is God who executes judgment,

putting down one and lifting up another.

For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup

with foaming wine, well mixed,

and he pours out from it,

and all the wicked of the earth

shall drain it down to the dregs.

But I will declare it forever;

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,

but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. (Ps. 75:6-10)

4. Isn't it presumptuous to claim to know any specific historical tragedy is CDJ?

            2 Tim. 3:16-17 declares that the Scriptures are "...profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Paul also describes civilizational decline in Romans 1:18-2:5. Is this not so that we learn to detect it? Why indeed would so much of Scripture be dedicated to predicting and reporting divine judgment if we were not to learn to apply it to our own circumstances? Even major American political figures, such as Washington[2], Jefferson[3], and Lincoln[4] believed we should attribute corporate tragedy to CDJ.

            Although many theologians assume CDJ, we'll allow Luther pride of place. In the following passage from the Table Talks, Luther understands foreign invasion as an instrument of CDJ:

On June 13, 1542, Luther despaired over the future of Germany, which, through all kinds of sins and above all through an overwhelming self-confident ingratitude in respect to God’s mercy, had earned and deserved the wrath of God. That is why the Turks, God’s punishing rod, are moving against Hungary with a great army. …Oh, Dear God, have mercy upon poor Germany![5]

5. Why would God judge corporate entities in the first place? Why not always and only individuals?

            Because we are, as Aristotle says, "political animals," that is, our good as human beings is inextricably bound up with corporate entities. The human good -- food, shelter, security, health, but also the development of our distinctly human faculties, such as our intellectual, artistic, and athletic abilities -- requires the organization and involvement of corporate entities. The greatest blessings of human experience are brought about through the organized groups we identify with corporately. The Church is itself a corporate entity. Ignoring or forgetting our membership in the body of Christ that has existed by God's gracious hand for centuries explains many of our most persistent theological pathologies.

            A key element is the historical bindingness of corporate entities. We stand in an indivisible relationship with our familial and national ancestors, the Founders of our cities and country, of our civilization, as well as the Early Church and the great theologians. Says Bavinck,

Just like every family and every nation, humanity in its successive generations is a unity, an organism to which we are related. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and have inherited their financial, moral, spiritual, and intellectual legacy, which makes our progress possible.[6]

The benefits we have accrued from these connections far exceed any disadvantages that might occur due to them. We celebrate Thanksgiving each year for the corporate blessings we've received as members of families and as citizens of a nation richly blessed by God. Why then should we find corporate affliction surprising?

6. Isn't what appears to be CDJ simply the outworking of our fallen world? Why do tragedies have to be specific acts of judgment rather than nature taking its course?

            Some CDJ is indeed "natural," such as when a foolish citizenry consistently votes for weak, corrupt, or incompetent governance, as in California. Yet some CDJ is "positive," meaning it involves primary or immediate divine intervention comparable to miracles rather than mediate or secondary causation. Luther's description of the process of divine judgment could easily be written today of the people of Los Angeles:

When God wishes to punish or desolate a kingdom, country, or people, he first removes the pious, godly teachers and preachers; also wise, God-fearing rulers and counselors, reasonable and experienced warriors, and other honest people (Isa. 3:2f.). Then the people become secure and merry, engage in all kinds of willfulness, do not seek out pure godly teaching, indeed, they despise it and fall into blindness, having no respect for punishment, discipline, or honesty; pursue all kinds of sin and shamelessness, from which comes a wild, desolate, demonic nature, which we unfortunately are seeing and experiencing now, which cannot endure long. Therefore, I worry that the ax is already at the root of the tree, that it must soon be cut down. May dear God graciously spare us, that we will not have to experience or see this misery.[7]

We see positive divine judgment most clearly in the plagues of Egypt (Exod. 7:14-12:32), the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the destruction of Sennacharib's army (2 Kings 19:35). Yet as we see from Luther's depiction, we needn't restrict CDJ only to dramatic acts of God such as fire from heaven or the turning of a river to blood. In Romans 1:24-27, God "gives over" the unrighteous and ungodly to their sins, implying that he merely needs to remove his protecting grace to enact retribution. It is always possible to explain tragedy as solely the product of secondary or "natural" causation, but the Bible doesn't permit such deistic explanations.

7. So what exactly is the difference between the wildfires of Los Angeles and the hurricanes of North Carolina and Florida that make the former, but not the latter, likely CDJ? 

            We now arrive at perhaps the chief objection to identifying CDJ: that such connections are arbitrary or even partisan. It must be acknowledged that even the most righteous group of people will be riddled with sin, so there's never been a perfectly righteous corporate entity wholly undeserving of CDJ. There's also never been a corporate entity where all are equally guilty of whatever brings the judgment, and some victims may even be "pleasing to the LORD," as we see in the death of Jeroboam's son (I Kings 14:12-13; Ps. 57:1). It’s possible that a minority is committing a sin that incurs judgment, as in Deut. 13:12f., yet it seems clear from the passage's context that the sin is spreading (v. 13). The grave warnings of Lev. 20:22f. are for what appear to be the sins of isolated individuals, but it may be that isolated sins do not typically bring about CDJ, but only widespread, condoned sins.

            So while there is certainly plenty of individual sin being committed in North Carolina and Florida, one can argue that in these states, sin isn’t being corporately condoned and promoted. Corporate promotion of sin occurs when sinful behavior is encouraged such that it is characteristic of the corporate entity, such as a family, town, or nation with an especially bad reputation, as was the case with Sodom and Gomorrah. In the case of North Carolina and Florida, one can observe from their voting patterns that at least a majority or substantial minority are typically God-fearing. What makes Los Angeles and its film, television, and music industries uniquely subject to CDJ is the role of the city and its people in promoting through the arts and their public lives not only the sexual revolution, that is, non-heterosexual and extramarital sex, but the celebration of gratuitous violence, open contempt for God and his people, the Church, and its paganism. And this is made manifest in the extreme ungodliness of their voting patterns. Leaving the entertainment industry's contempt for orthodox Christianity aside, the few isolated instances in which traditional natural law is acknowledged in any direct way tend to be entertainment designed for children, such as the wonderful film The Incredibles. Such exceptions prove the rule.[8]

            Another source of confusion is the objection that we can't know which sin may have caused the judgment to occur. Such an objection misses the point that we don’t learn right and wrong from tragedies. We know right and wrong through conscience, strengthened and refined by the fear of God and Scripture. So we infer the nature of the tragedy from what we know regarding right and wrong, and not what is right and wrong from the occurrence of tragedy. "Hard providences" also befall good people, e.g., John the Baptist, Robert Murray McCheyne, or J. M. Boyce, but we may assume from their lives that these are an act of God for the benefit of his kingdom, or perhaps training in righteousness (Heb. 12:5-6; Jas. 5:10; 1 Pet. 4:12f.). When tragedy befalls people acting wickedly (Acts 5:1-11, 12:23), it is retributive punishment, which can also be corrective. Only a corrupt conscience that doesn't know or fear God scoffs at any such connection (Ps. 1:1).

            So before we shrug off the possibility of CDJ because attribution appears arbitrary, we must ask, Are the people afflicted generally God-fearing, or are they God-hating? Do they generally acknowledge God's laws for corporate life despite frequent failure, or do they brazenly promote their violation and eagerly tolerate those who do? When tragedy befalls a devout Christian, he doesn't simply assert his own innocence, rather he first searches his conscience for insight as to whether he has wronged anyone (1 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 3:21).  Likewise, a corporate entity should "seek the face of the LORD," that is, call out to God (2 Sam. 21:1) and ask whether repentance is required.[9] The answer will be no less obvious than right and wrong, and God also promises that his Spirit will bring conviction and repentance (Isa. 32:14-20; Jn. 16:8-11).

8. Why do the innocent suffer also?

            Obviously, in any act of CDJ, some of those innocent of the sin that brings judgment suffer alongside the guilty (Lam. 2:10-11, though this may be for their own protection (Isa. 57:1-2). Here we must return to the nature of corporate entities: What we gain from our corporate existence typically far outweighs the disadvantages. Moreover, in the absence of detailed knowledge of the afterlife, which in terms of duration and quality will be unimaginably better than this one (1 Cor. 2:9), we cannot conclude that the death of any person is irredeemably tragic (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

            A final consideration is our innate depravity, which will eventually require divine judgment for us all. All tragedy is ultimately just, all blessing is an expression of God's mercy for which we should daily thank him. As all know, the suffering of the innocent, those not especially deserving of judgment, such as children, is not limited to instances of CDJ, rather as Adam's progeny, all flesh is heir to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

9. How certain can we be that a specific tragic occurrence is CDJ?

            Since direct revelation has ceased, we are now dependent on Scripture and our own fallible understanding in discerning the ways of God with man. We have no infallible prophets who speak directly for God. Yet we can make informed judgments based upon God's law and the accounts of God's actions in "the Prophets and Histories," as Luther called them (2 Tim. 3:16). This will never be more than a strong likelihood, yet strong likelihoods are sufficient to purchase insurance, have medical check-ups, change our diet, steer clear of occasions for sin -- and avoid the celebration of behavior that incurs corporate divine judgment.

[1] Herman Bavinck, Reformed Ethics Volume 1: Created, Fallen, and Converted Humanity, ed. John Bolt (Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI, 2019), 77.

[2] In his first inaugural address to Congress, Washington warns that Heaven's favor is dependent upon the nation's obedience to unchanging moral law: "…we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained…."

[3] https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/thomas-jefferson-slavery-wrath-of-god

[4] See especially this paragraph from his 2nd Inaugural Address: "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!’ If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him?” [Italics NKM]

[5]Martin Luther, Tischreden, ed. Kurt Aland (Stuttgart, Germany: Reclam, 1981), 216 (Weimarer Ausgabe 4803). [Trans. NKM]

[6] Op. cit., 61.

[7] Op.cit., 214-215 (6544).

[8] I don't mean to suggest that nothing good comes out of the LA entertainment industry. There are of course great films, TV shows, and recordings, though the number has steadily dwindled in recent years. I'm speaking of its general trajectory, which as we know has become increasingly debauched. The nadir of this debauchery has been reached with the entertainment industry's promotion of transgender ideology, which, once it reached the status of California law, has resulted in the forced removal of children from their parents and, in one case, a child's being surgically disfigured in conformance with the child's confusion against her mother's wishes, which may have contributed to the child's suicide.

[9] This insight was contributed by members of my Thursday night Bible Study, Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, Portsmouth, OH, Feb. 6, 2025.