I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a very common question: “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” or for the atheist, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

I would take the person asking to the same conclusion, but would likely approach it a bit differently depending on who is asking.

For the atheist, I would ask on what do they base their judgement of good and bad? In a world where we are nothing more than the result of millions of years of chemical reactions, there is no such thing as good and bad. Morality makes no sense, other than “survival of the fittest.” There could be no universal “good” or universal “bad” in their worldview. So ultimately, to the atheist, it should not matter what happens to anyone.  In fact, their version of natural selection requires that the weak, sick, or otherwise undesirable ones should die off, leaving the strong and healthy ones to continue the species.

For anyone who believes in a god, I would ask “What do you believe is the origin of suffering and death?” Because the answer to that reveals who they think God is, and what is man’s relationship to God. Anyone who believes in millions of years (whether they claim to be Christian or not) has an invalid view of God. I can say that because in that worldview, the fossil record shows suffering and death before man came on the scene. Therefore, man cannot be blamed for those things, and the only one who could be blamed is the god who started it all. So that god is not seen as loving, or caring, or even holy or righteous in their eyes.

But the God of the Bible is emphatically and repeatedly described as a just and holy God, intolerant of evil, yet loving toward his creation and particularly mankind, whom He created in His own image.

So now, let’s consider where suffering and death really came from. According to Genesis chapters 2 and 3, when God created Adam, he only gave him one rule: Don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Then God formed Eve, the first woman, and she was deceived into eating the fruit of that tree – and Adam did so deliberately. The ensuing punishment from God for this evil (remember, He is totally holy and righteous, and cannot tolerate evil in His presence) was that man should suffer and die. This was one of the greatest acts of love God could have done, because had He not demanded death for our sins, we would live forever in a sinful state. But in His great plan for us, he sent His own Son to take the ultimate penalty for all our sins, defeat both sin and death, and restore us to a righteous condition before Him.

Now for the answer to the question, “How could a good a loving God allow suffering and tragedy?”  First of all, no one is “good” in God’s eyes. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” and “No one is righteous, no not one.” The Bible makes it clear we all are destined to die (physically) for our sins. (For it is appointed for man to die once, and after that to face judgment.) So the question being asked is the wrong question in the first place. The better question is “Why has God not destroyed us all already?” – That is what we deserve.  For the Christian, death is merely the transition into the presence of God.  Like Paul in Romans 7, we look forward to that day.  Jesus made it clear that tragedy is not tied to specific sins of specific people, however, tragedies are tied to our sinful condition and the judgement God imposed on the original sin. Tragedies result in bringing us into God’s presence, fully restored and free from sin. People who die in tragedies (or any other way, for that matter) who have not believed in Jesus as the Son of God, will be cut off from God for eternity. But those who believe in Him will be covered by the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, and will be ushered into God’s presence for eternity. This is why it is so urgent to spread God’s message of forgiveness and restoration.

So when bad things happen, there is a strong element of love from God, in bringing those dear ones to Himself. It is hard on us, yes, because we love them and miss them. But ultimately, we all will die and go to meet our Maker. Personally, I am looking forward to that day on one hand, but longing to stay in this life with my loved ones as long as I can.

Frank

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2016 at 11:14 am and is filed under Deep Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.