Christian Apologetics Part 8 - Why would a good God let bad things happen to good people?

Php 1:29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him,

1Pe 1:6,7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Joh 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

The Bible never tells us that once we are saved we will no longer have to deal with suffering.  As a matter of fact it promises quite the opposite.

In this post we will not venture to discuss how to deal with these sufferings when they happen, of that many volumes are available.[1]  Instead we will look at the reasons why a good God would allow them to happen and hopefully address the question “If God allows bad things happen to good people, can He be truly good?”

It should also be noted that it is a dangerous thing to attempt to fathom the mind of God.[2]  God will do as he pleases and our attempt here is not to second-guess nor justify the actions of the Almighty.  We are simply attempting to show that God is indeed a good God and that it is not incompatible with that good nature for Him to allow bad things to happen to one seemingly undeserving.

I am aware of the plight of a woman who was severely abused, both physically and emotionally, as a young girl.  She told me she prayed to God every night to make her father stop, but he never did.  She wondered what kind of a horrible person she was that God would not protect her and this has affected her for her entire life.

In light of situations such as this, verses like Psalm 37:25  

"I was young and now I am old,
    yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
    or their children begging bread."

seem to ring hollow.

One can hardly think of the sufferings of man without thinking of such tragedies of human history as the holocaust, the Christian diaspora, and more recently, the genocide in Darfur, or the actions of ISIS.

How could a good God allow such things to happen?

I will tell you up front that I do not have all the answers.  In Romans 9:15, Paul quotes Moses who quotes God's words to him: "'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'  It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy."

Understanding that God is sovereign and can do as He chooses is not much comfort for those of us who are dealing with hardship, however, and keeping in mind the danger involved in attempting to understand the mind of God, we know that God has revealed himself to us in the Bible for a reason.  And that a part of that reason is so we can better understand Him and so that we can take comfort in his words and actions.

In this blog entry we will explore some reasons why God might allow such things to happen and how the existence of such suffering does not negate His goodness.

We will address three categories of human beings each in turn: the non-Christian adult, the Christian adult, and the child.  We will look at the Biblical explanation of certain hardships and then address those which we don’t find explicitly explained.

The non-Christian adult

Consider the non-Christian who would give you the shirt off his back if you asked, but who has never made a profession of faith and thus, according to God's word, is destined for eternity in Hell.  This person could give money to charity, could give personal time to help his fellow man, and go out of his way to improve the lives of people he has never met, but according to the Bible, there is one way to heaven and that is through belief in Christ.[3]

Christ, himself, discussing his own plight, gives us insight into to this man's paradox in Matthew 16:26:

"What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"

 All the good works the greatest person does in a lifetime are not enough to earn salvation which is by the grace of God only, through the faith of the believer (Ephesians 2:8-9).

So, what is it which causes a man to seek God and listen to His calling?  During Desert Storm I heard it said on one short wave radio station that even the atheists were praying for the safety of their loved ones “just in case”.  Surely man will seek God for many reasons, but possibly the strongest of all reasons is for help in dealing with adversity - help when they feel helpless and hopeless.[4]

So, the question then becomes for the non-believer – which is the greater injustice, allowing adversity to come into the life of this seemingly good person which could bring him to salvation or allowing this good person to continue his good fortune until his death and ultimate undoing?

I propose to you that the greater injustice is the latter and that God shows mercy on his creation when he brings them to the place where thy will seek him.

The Christian adult

Certainly, there can be some aspect of spiritual discipline involved in God’s dealing with the Christian adult as well.  Hebrews 12:7 explains that God will allow hardship as discipline for the Christian and that such hardship should be desired as it shows God’s love for us.

James 1:2-4[9] also explains that God will allow trials for the purpose of testing our faith and developing perseverance.  As we experience trials of deeper and deeper hardship we strengthen our faith and are then able to endure when the most difficult of circumstances comes our way.

In the book of Job we find that God allows unspeakable hardships to be visited on Job by Satan after a discussion between him and God.[5]  At first reading, the bargain with the devil sounds like a sadistic bet with little regard for the life of Job and Job is never given a reason for his tribulations.  Yet through Job we find a model for dealing with adversity when we can find no reason for our pain: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;”.[6]

Also in Job we find our hope for a just reward for our perseverance.[7]  Through Job countless Christians have found hope and strength and a reason to persevere.   He was unaware of the legacy he would leave for all mankind, but God had it planned all along.  Through this we find that the ways of God are right and good and just and though we may not always understand them we have no righteous alternative than to trust in them.

A common scripture quoted by some (which is generally not terribly comforting for those who are in the midst of turmoil) states “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord (Romans 8:28).”  This can be misinterpreted to give the impression God allows bad things to happen for the purpose of making good things come from it.  It is hard to understand in the throes of such suffering how it can be good.  in fact, I believe this verse is saying what Satn means for evil God can use for good. More on this later.

Having received suffering because of another person's sin, however, we can be assured that God will comfort us and that when His work is done in us, we can then comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-5[10]).  Christ did not suffer as a result of sin or of anything He had done.  Rather, he suffered so that we would benefit from his suffering.  As in all things, Christ is a model for us in suffering as he prayed "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. (Luke 22:42)"

The Child

A child who has yet to learn of the difference in good and evil and has not the understanding to choose right from wrong would not have the understanding to discover Christ through adversity.  Nor would such a child require any spiritual discipline as might a believing adult.

It is also difficult to believe that such extreme adversity as is experienced by some adults could be related to discipline or the building of perseverance.

In such circumstances we find ourselves looking for answers which are not explicitly explained in the passages of the Bible.  We need look no further than the doctrine of free will.

C.S. Lewis well explains that the freedom to choose implies the existence of things to choose between.[8]  How can a man choose to do good if he does not also have the choice to do bad?  You can’t have the one without the other.  This leads to the possibility (probability) that a man will do bad and that in doing so he will adversely affect others.

Logically, then, if God were to prevent man from doing bad that would only allow the doing of good and free will would not exist.

The abused child will often consider it his own fault that he is abused, reasoning that he would not have been abused if he had acted properly.  As mentioned above, I’ve heard a victim of abuse bitterly and tearfully cry “I must have been a horrible person for God to have allowed this to happen to me.”

Unfortunately, this is the bitter pill of the freedom of man to choose to sin.  The child is not abused because of his sin against God, rather the child suffers as a result of the sin of the abuser.  It is abominable, unjust, and wholly unacceptable, but a direct consequence of God’s conveyance of free will upon man.

This last category, although it is entitled "The Child", really is more universal than that.  When asked "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?", I have heard it said "no one is good and thus it is only God's goodness which allows us to escape the ramifications of evil in this world".  However true that is, it does not provide much comfort to those experiencing suffering and has no idea why.

In the Christian Diaspora, Christians in and around Rome endured extreme suffering.  Some Christians were placed in the arena to be torn apart by all sorts of half starved wild animals, others were boiled alive in large pots, still others were crucified.

The suffering endured by these Christians was unmatched in human history and yet, through that adversity, God's ultimate will was achieved.

Jesus told his disciples in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) to go to all the nations in the world and spread the gospel, yet years later most were still concentrated in and around Jerusalem.  When the Emperor of Rome began torturing and killing Christians, those Christians fled to regions throughout the world and they brought with them the gospel of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Although I'm sure those Christians who suffered and died and those who fled did not understand why such things were happening to them (much like Job), today we can see that the result of their suffering was the salvation of many millions if not billions of people as the Gospel of Christ was spread throughout the world.

That little girl who endured such suffering at the hands of her father confided in me years later that, as a teacher, over many, many years, she saw many students in which she could recognize the signs of abuse.  Signs that would not be recognizable by anyone who had not experienced it.

She told me that she would tell them when she could find a minute alone with them that she was there to talk if they wanted.  In this way she was able to share with those with very little understanding and even less hope, the peace, joy, and hope that is available in Christ Jesus.

Adversity enters the lives of individuals for many reasons.  Some God has chosen to reveal to us in his Word and others he has not.  Because of His giving of free will to mankind, each person is subject to the choices of others.

God never promised that life before or after salvation would be without hardships.  On the contrary, the Bible is filled with passages offering comfort for those in pain and even promises that the Christian will experience it.

People can choose to react in one of two ways when faced with such hardship.  They can either blame and reject God and live a life of bitterness or they can seek out and gain comfort from Him knowing that his eventual and ultimate reward is in Heaven.  Either way is another occasion for man to exercise his free will.

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[1]  When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Harold S. Kushner (ISBN: 978-0380603923); A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis (ISBN: 978-0060652388); For Those Who Hurt, by Chuck Swindoll (ISBN: 978-0310497219).

[2] Job 38-40

[3] Romans 10:9

[4] See the life of St. Patrick, for instance.

[5] Job 1:6-12

[6] Job 13:15

[7] Job 42:7-17
[8] The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis, Zondervan Publishing House, p20.
[9]  James 1:2-4: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
[10]  2Co 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.  For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
[11] John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, et al