Does God make bad things happen?

There is an age old question born out of our human experience – “Why do bad things happen to good people”. There have been many papers written and sermons preached that have attempted to answer this apparently simple question. But simple it isn’t, in fact it remains as one of life’s most puzzling questions. So for me to write something even approaching a definitive answer would be most audacious.

At its core, this is a deep, theological question and I will not even try in a short article to address all of the issues that this question creates. However, I am glad to share some of my musings in the hope that it may help some who face this question.

Before I can ever hope to find clarity on this issue, I must first consider my own concept of God

What is your concept of God?

When we talk about evil and suffering we have to begin with a just concept of God. Too often I hear people attempting to answer the question of evil by simply saying “it is the will of God”. Now I realise that the issue of God’s will is in itself, a huge and often divisive issue, however to ascribe all evil to God’s action and will is to declare that we have a concept of God as one who sends suffering, pain, cancer, road crashes, terrorists, extreme storms, diseases like AIDS, babies born with deformed bodies or brains and so on. This concept of God is one that sees God as mean, nasty and cruel who engages in actions that, if undertaken by anyone other than Him, we would see as morally bankrupt and intrinsically evil by nature.

When we see the God of the New Testament in this way, I feel that we create a truly distorted concept of God’s nature.

Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” If having God for us means that He will impose all of these terrible things on us, we probably don’t need anyone to be against us! (the old saying – “with friends like that, who needs enemies?”)

Jesus said to His disciples “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”. The Bible describes Jesus as the “visible image of the invisible God”. So our concept of God must be built on what we see in Jesus – we see and understand the nature and character of God by looking at the nature and character of Jesus. So what was Jesus like, how do we see His character? Was He cruel, mean spirited? Did He delight in seeing suffering, sickness and death? Or was He compassionate and kind, forgiving, healing, full of grace and kindness? I find that a very easy question to answer. So how can I have a concept of God that is so opposed to the character and nature of Jesus? In my mind, I simply can’t; therefore the glib, blanket statement that, when I see the emaciated body of a starving child in Africa, or the murderous acts of terrorism that have become far too commonplace, I must simply understand it as God’s will, doesn’t satisfy me at all.

So my concept of God must have an impact on this question of evil – the bad things that happen to good (and bad) people.

The next thing that impacts my understanding of this question, is what I understand evil to actually be. This understanding would take a long paper on its own, but I’ll be as brief as I can.

I think that evil falls into 3 categories. First of all, there’s natural evil. That’s the impersonal, external, physical evil that encompasses diseases, natural disasters; the kind of thing that came from a fallen physical world – that stems from the cursed creation that commenced at the fall of Adam and Even in Eden. It can be tiny bacteria or a tidal wave, a virus or volcano. Since the fall, humanity and indeed, all of nature, have had to live with the consequence of sin’s entry into a perfect creation.

Secondly, there's moral evil. Moral evil is internal, wickedness, sin, transgression, iniquity, whatever term you want to use for it. It is a disposition, a propensity in every human life to act in ways that breach God’s standards. It is an attitude, it is a course of thinking, speaking and conduct that dominates all of humanity.

Then there is spiritual wickedness, supernatural evil. This is the type of evil that is basically perpetrated by demons, fallen angels, the associates of Satan.

So without doubt, one must concede that there is evil. Evil is massive, ingrained in all of nature, it is systemic, it is everywhere across the globe, and we face it on a daily basis.

God has created a world where predictable cause and affect rules apply. Apples fall down from trees as Franklin famously noted; there is a point (zero degrees) where water will become a solid – these are natural laws and we simply learn to live with an understanding that if we do “this” (cause) then “that” (effect) will happen.

Natural laws are totally impartial. No matter where we are, who we are or what we are doing, these natural laws of cause and effect apply to us. When the natural laws are operating, devastation may occur to a city or region. A tsunami or a bushfire doesn’t stop at each house or fence line to determine whether the people who own or are sheltering in this property are Christians or not, are good moral people or people who are evil to the core. The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.

So we have laws of cause and effect, but fallen man learns how to use these laws for his own purpose – be it good or evil. Using the same technology, man can harness nuclear energy to provide power that supports life in one city yet use the same knowledge to build a bomb that will destroy life in another.

OK, I’ve checked my concept of God and my understanding of what evil is. So now I need to consider the nature, the character of man.

The simple and sad reality is that the nature of man became flawed, sinful and selfish; people hurt others, hurt themselves and constantly make poor life choices. Sometimes, the choices that other people make, have a negative effect on us. Simply, the reality seems to be that most of the evil in the world is caused by people; and most of the evil we experience could be prevented by human choices and different priorities.

I believe that God’s will and desire is that we love and take care of one another, but the choices that the fallen and flawed nature of man makes doesn’t give us such an ideal. Why do we have wars? Because fallen men make bad choices. Is there enough food in the world to end starvation in third world nations? Of course there is, but fallen men make bad choices and choose to waste food rather than sending it to places where there is great need – and in some case when food is sent, fallen humanity steps in and prevents it from getting to where it’s needed because of political or economic sanctions, civil war etc.

So, in reality, most of the suffering in the world is caused by human beings making bad choices. Much of the world’s suffering could be eliminated if choices and decisions that reflect God’s Kingdom, will and purpose were made, rather than those that simply demonstrate the fallen and flawed nature and state of humanity.

OK, so what do I conclude? Evil and suffering are not part of God’s plan for this planet or its inhabitants. They are the effect that came from the cause that we know as “The Fall”(Adam and Eve). Death (and the associated elements of pain and suffering) entered into the world by the sin of just one man. Ultimately, God will intervene, judge all people and then destroy the earth as we know it and create a brand new replacement for it. But until that happens, the consequences of the Fall are borne (arguably not necessarily equally) by all of humanity.

That’s hardly a comforting answer, I know; it may even leave a degree of hopelessness in the heart. BUT (as the man with the steak knives said) THERE’S MORE!

Jesus said Jn 16:33 “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”

So how is it that, in the face of all this evil, Jesus could tell us to take heart? Please note that Jesus is not saying to take heart because we’re about to escape from this world. He says be of good cheer right in the midst of all that the world can throw at us. He’s saying that right here in the middle of all of the sin and evil that the world produces daily, His people can take heart.

You see, we belong to a kingdom ruled by an all-conquering king, so no matter what we see around us, we can be assured that we are in Him – that’s our Kingdom place, that’s the place from which we do life, we are in Him and He has overcome all of the evil from every source, whether it stems from the natural, the supernatural or simply the heart of fallen man. I believe that the church has somehow lost the reality of the Kingdom, of our place here and now. Somehow, the Kingdom has been hived off to some future age that we are waiting to be ushered in.

Jesus spoke more about the “Kingdom of God” than any other teaching….but I think that it’s still a concept that is unclear to many Christians.

Jesus' teaching ministry was absolutely centred on the Kingdom, but not just on a future kingdom, something that would come at the end of the age or even on the eternal state of the Kingdom, rather His teaching was centred on the statement that He made “ Luke 17:20-21The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

His was a message to ordinary people like you and I, that we could live in and experience the Kingdom here and now in our own natural life and then on into the eternity that awaits us. He came as the long promised Lamb, to rescue humankind from sin’s destructive loss and the kingdom of darkness into which sinful man had fallen and to redeem us. Christ is not going to ultimately, eventually overcome the world and establish His kingdom, no, He has already done it. He HAS overcome – this is why we can take heart, this is why we can, as the KJV puts it “be of good cheer” in the midst of a fallen world.

Be encouraged, neither death nor life nor angels, nor demonic rulers, nor spiritual powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor anything else in the whole of creation can separate us from the love of God that we have found in Christ our Lord. The world will continue to produce its troubles, evil may abound but where sin and evil abounds, grace more greatly abounds.

Just take heart and remember you live in Him and He has overcome the world – we’re Kingdom people.