Brian Tamaki’s claim that the Kaikoura earthquake (and the Christchurch ones before it) were caused by sexual sins has led to a storm of controversy in New Zealand.
Is that really what the Bible says?
Tamaki stated “Leviticus 18 is God outlining the types of sexual sins that when they are practiced to a point of blatant disregard to a certain depth of perversion that the land will actually react and spew up the inhabitants. No other sin in the whole of the Bible has any connection to earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions but sexual perversions alone.”
That statement is absolutely wrong! A look at Gen 6:13 shows that violence was the main reason for Noah’s flood. Leviticus 18 refers to the driving out of the Canaanites by the invading armies of Israel—earthquakes are not mentioned at all.
A major problem with Tamaki’s theory is that places like New Zealand, Japan and Chile, on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, have more earthquakes and volcanoes than places such as Russia or Australia, clear of the intersecting of tectonic plates. It is ludicrous to assert that the increased incidence of earthquakes in some countries means that they have more sexual sins than places free of tectonic activity!
Jesus made this very plain when He affirmed that people killed by a falling tower were no more sinful than anyone else (Luke 13:4), and He also stated that God sends sun and rain equally on the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45).
Brian Tamaki is trying to apply an Old Covenant principle in a New Covenant world. In the Old Testament, God did give physical rewards and punishments to the physical nation (Israel) He was working with at the time. But in the New Covenant era, God is working with a spiritual nation scattered all over the world, and his promises are spiritual.
Brian Tamaki asserts that Gen 4:10 states that “the land speaks to God”, but the verse actually says that the blood of Abel, not the land, spoke! And Heb 12:24 adds that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Because Jesus brought a better covenant of grace, forgiveness and love!
Sadly, Brian Tamaki fails to recognise God is now working in a different way through the grace of Jesus Christ.