Don't Kill Me, I'm Just the Messenger

Don't Kill Me, I'm Just the Messenger
The prophet Amos says:
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it? Amos 3:6

I have always liked the rhythm of calamity in this phrase: Shall there be calamity in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Whenever I have attempted to teach it though, calamity is what happens to me. It is difficult to face a group who refuse to admit that calamity, or evil could be the meaning of this verse.

Strong's definition is very clear on this point. So many of his definitions are a few words long, but here he expounds:
From H7489; bad or (as noun) evil (naturally or morally). This includes the second (feminine) form; as adjective or noun: - adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease (-ure), distress, evil ([-favouredness], man, thing), + exceedingly, X great, grief (-vous), harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), + mark, mischief, (-vous), misery, naught (-ty), noisome, + not please, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st) wretchedness, wrong.
Pretty much covers the territory.

It is difficult for me to grasp the disconnect for people who can count off the traits of God: Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent; but refuse to move on to the knowledge regarding His control of all things.
The secular teaching that it was the "primitive belief" of peoples of the Old Testament that calamities were the judgment of God for their sin has become the bedrock for the mindset of even Christians in modern times.
Add the sappy New Age and New Thought appropriation of the phrase "God is love" and you have an emasculated and miniaturized God who only does "good" things, and those according to our definition, not His.
So I am frustrated. And I am forced to hear continually how "Satan has been attacking me lately" as the simple password for virtually any difficulty or temptation that has been taking place in their life. Satan is given a huge amount of time and credit in church meetings, all of it reflecting his power.
Well, I sure won't resolve that problem here.

But I will reiterate, Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
No.