God caused it

A friend posed this question

 I think he also said that God does such things (as the holocaust) because that's what it takes to get our attention. I've also heard (from other speakers) that God doesn't cause those things but He will use them for His glory. Which camp do you agree with?

This was my response.

Food for thought, Deut. 32 is mostly the "Song of Moses"

a song that Moses was to teach the children of Israel, (a brother put it to music and you 

can locate it here....     http://www.zcpress.org/music/the-song-of-moses/     )

With the point in mind that God wants His people to know and memorize this song, let's look at verse 23 

At this address it is displayed in every English translation, and the meaning is clear.  NIV

“I will heap calamities on them
    and spend my arrows against them."

That is God talking, not man's opinions.  

We are slow learners and God know that so He says the same thing from

another angle in verse 39

"‘See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and give life.
I have wounded and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can deliver from My hand."

You will note that verses like these do not leave a lot of "wiggle room" for the

"God does not cause those things..."  crowd.  And please, please, please, note

that I am not ripping scripture out of context and I am not taking 45 minutes to

explain why, when He says, "I have wounded" that that is not really what He means.

The first Bible I ever owned, i would write down scriptures that spoke of God's discipline

of His children and it wasn't long before the inside front cover of my Bible was filled with

references.  It is a "theme" in the word of God.  

Isaiah 45:7  "The One forming light and creating darkness,

Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am the Lord who does all these."  (God describing Himself, not out of context at all)

Hannah's song of Thanksgiving 1 Samuel 2:6  “The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to Sheol and raises up."

God thundering against the wicked in Psalm 50:22  "“Now consider this, you who forget God,
Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver."

Psalm 51, the ultimate prayer of repentance, verse 8  "Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice."

Lastly Amos 3:6  If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble?
If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?

So now I will sit quietly and wait for anyone to find the scriptures that say God does not

cause "those things" but uses them for His glory.  I have read the whole book more than

14 times but I may have missed them.