The question of why God lets bad things happen is one of the biggest questions impacting both intellectual debates about the Christian faith, and deeply personal struggles amongst people who undergo suffering. What can we discover from Scripture?
One thing we can know is that suffering, ‘bad things happening’, are the consequence of curse of the fall. The result of the sin of Adam and Eve, and the sin amongst all humanity since then, is suffering in this world. Adam was told that the ground was cursed because of his sin, and that his work would be painful (Genesis 3:17-19 and Romans 8:18-22).
In the Bible, many bad things were allowed to happen to the man Job. God allowed Satan to bring suffering into Job’s life, because he wanted to show that Job would stand firm and be faithful to Him. But Job wasn’t given this insight; he, like us, questioned why God allowed so many bad things to come into his life. Job didn’t know why God let bad things happen to him; but he remained faithful. (Job 1:8-12, 22; Job 2:3)
Jesus told his followers that they would undergo persecution and trials, just as he did (John 15:18-16:4). We also know that God uses the bad things that happen to us as discipline; like a father disciplining his children, for our good, so that we may share in his holiness, and so that later on a harvest of righteousness and peace may be the result (Hebrews 12:10-12).
Another result of suffering and trials is they lead to the development of perseverance, hope and a refined faith in those who undergo them (1 Peter 1:6-7 and James 1:2-4).
That’s what I’ve been thinking. Why do you think God lets bad things happen?
To make a comment, click the speech bubble to the right of the title of the post (above) or leave a comment below.
The Rev 