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Why Do Bad Things Happen?

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 This is one of the most difficult questions to answer even for a strong Christian.  It is also one of the most frustrating things to see answered incorrectly.

 One thing to keep in mind, is that sometimes a “bad” thing happens because somebody is being punished for a known sin.  God is a loving father and like all loving fathers, he punishes us for breaking the rules.  Most people think that they are a “good” person, but the fact is EVERYBODY sins at some point and there are ALWAYS going to be consequences.

 Remember, though, a good father has LOGICAL consequences for misbehavior.  If there is a cause and effect relationship between the “bad” thing and the consequence that is the reason it happens.  This discussion is only applicable if there is no cause and effect.

#1– Our World is a Train Wreck

“And God saw all that He had made and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31

“...You are not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because if you eat from it, you will die.” Genesis 2:16, 17 

So, God made the world perfect, gave us one rule to keep, warned us about the consequences, so we chose to sin anyway.  From that point on, God’s perfect creation was forever ruined because WE chose to SIN.   Everyone likes to blame Adam and Eve, but the truth is, we all sin.

 One of the greatest gifts God gave us was free will.  If God did not give us free will, there would be no such thing as love.  We would be like robots, having to obey God.  So for God to have a relationship with us, He had to give us the ability to reject Him if we chose to do so.

Since we chose to ruin God’s perfect creation, WE created a train wreck, which is the consequence of our choice to disobey God.  In a train wreck you EXPECT bad things to happen and if somebody survives, we call them “lucky”.  So why is it that when something bad happens in this train wreck of a world, we call it bad, but if you have a great life, you are considered “normal”?

 If you survive a train wreck you are lucky.  We need to take a step back and realize how lucky we are most of the time.  God has protected us from so much carnage despite our choice to disobey Him.  He can’t protect us from everything.

 #2—Satan is in Charge

 “And the devil led Him up on a mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  The devil then said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I  give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore if You worship me, it will all be Yours.” - Luke 4:5-7 

This is very important to understand.  The devil told Jesus that the world was his domain.  If this was not true, Jesus would have corrected him right there.  But He didn’t because Jesus knew it was true.  He replied, “It is written, ‘You shall only worship and serve the Lord, your God.”

 God is not in charge of this world!  We are on enemy soil!  We are in a battle because the enemy is in charge.  In any battle there are innocent, civilian casualties.  These innocent people didn’t do anything to deserve what happens to them.  We are at WAR!

 Know the Enemy

Knowing that Satan is in charge, we should know what he is all about.   Here are some words that have been used to describe him: 

·          Satan—means adversary

·          Devil—diabolic—means slanderer, attacker

·          “Abaddon”, “Apollyon” - both mean destruction (Revelation 9:11)

·          Accuser—accuses people before God, accuses God to people, and accuses people to people (Revelation 12:10)

·          Theif—”comes only to kill, steal, and destroy”, (John 10:10a) These represent his sole desire and motive.

·          Dragon (Revelation)

·          Serpent (Genesis and Revelation)

·          Beast (Revelation)

Now, some of his traits and history: 

·          He rebelled against God and attempted to overthrow Him. (Isaiah 14 & Ezekiel 28)

·          He quickly started to attack people and ruin them. (Beginning with Adam & Eve)

·          He’s a “roaring lion seeking someone to devour”.  He’s indiscriminate in his destruction.  He doesn’t care whom he destroys, just as long as he can destroy.   (1 Peter 5:8)

·          He’s always scheming against us. (Ephesians 6:11, 2 Corinthians 2:11)

·          He presents himself as an angel of light, trying to make us think that his wrong is really right. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

·          He deceives the whole world. (Revelation 12:9)

·          He was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44)

·          He is an intrinsic liar who can’t be honest and truthful even if he wanted to.  He is deceitful to the core. (John 8:44)

·          He has the power of death (Hebrews 2:14)

 The last point is extremely important.  Satan controls death, not God.  We chose death when we chose to disobey God and follow Satan beginning in the Garden of Eden. 

We must remember—Satan is in charge of the world, but God will win in the end.  Satan will be tormented day and night forever.  (Revelation 20:10)

 #3—God is not allowed to fix what we’ve broken

 “God desires that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)

 “For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and FEW are those who find it.” (Matthew 7:14)

 A clear misunderstanding that most people have is that God is TOTALLY in charge.  Yes, God is ULTIMATELY in charge, but he cannot break the rules.  If God was totally in charge, everybody would enter heaven and no bad things would happen.

 “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19)

 So why can’t God fix what we’ve broken?

 1) It is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18)  In Genesis 2:15-17, God told Adam and Eve that if they ate the wrong fruit that they would mess everything up.  For God to be truthful about what He said, he had to let the natural consequences happen.  He told us it would mess us up, so now he must allow it to happen.  He is bound by His word and His character.

2)  It’s not about God’s power.  The book of Job is a powerful story that illustrates the struggle between God and Satan and shows us the “rules of the game”.  Basically, Satan wanted to attack Job and accused God of overprotecting Job and demanded that God back off.  The behind the scenes look shows how Satan thirsts for blood and how God protects us as much as He can.  It also shows how Job blames God and how God responds.  (Job 38-42).  It’s not about God’s power—it is about the “rules of the game.”

 Side note:  God does still protect us as much as he can.  Job lived to be over 200 years old.  Job’s life was wonderful both before and after this tragedy.  The tragedy spanned just a very small portion of his life.  Afterwards, Job was given twice his riches and had 10 more children. 

Think about Tucson—there are over 1 million people here and on any given day there are only about 50,000 people in the hospital.  That means that He’s protecting over 95% of the people in this chaotic, messed up city. 

 3)  A show of power just doesn’t work.  Think of the Israelites.  God displayed so many miraculous signs to them throughout the Old Testament, that you would think they would believe everything He said.  He laid out rules, and consequences for disobedience.  Each time a generation passed away, the next generation chose to break God’s rules.   They then had the audacity to blame God for their misery.   Having God perform all those powerful miracles didn’t help the Israelites follow God.

 God is not allowing this to happen!  His arm is being twisted by Satan because WE put Him in that position by choosing sin and Satan over Him! 

Remember Job!  God was fighting Satan every step of the way.

Source:  Tucson Community Church 

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Last modified: March 24, 2010