If God is all-powerful and completely good, why are there so many bad things in the
world such as war, famine, disease, and death?
Answer: God created everything to be good. Read Genesis 1:18, 1:24, and 1:31
“Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way.”
God made Adam and Eve, their bodies were perfect so that they would not get sick or
die. God placed them in the Garden of Eden which had everything that they needed.
They didn’t even have to work. “The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden
to tend and care for it. But the LORD God gave him this warning: "You may freely eat
any fruit in the garden except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you
eat of its fruit, you will surely die." God walked with them in the Garden and everything
was perfect.
In chapter 3 we see that Adam and Eve were tricked by the serpent or Satan,
God’s enemy, into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a
result, they were removed from the Garden of Eden, sickness, death, famine, and war
came into being as the result of human sin. “When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire
human race. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone
sinned.”
Satan was once an angel who also had the freedom to choose. He was very powerful
and beautiful so he chose to rebel against God. He also led other angels to rebel
against God and become the enemies of God. These former angels are known as
demons.
You may ask, “Why did God, who knows everything, create angels and people to have
free will when he knew that some of them would disobey him and as a result all of this
suffering would enter the world?”
Imagine that a rich man let you live in a palace that he had built just for you. Inside of
the palace there was plenty of food and it was very comfortable. You might imagine that
this would be perfect. You wouldn’t have to worry about anything, you could just play
and relax all day. One day, you discover that the doors of palace are locked and you
cannot go outside. Suddenly, you would feel like you were in prison. You would no
longer be happy with the palace or with the rich man because you would be missing
something- freedom. God created us to worship him and to love him. Jesus said, `You
must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is
not to say that God needs anything from us because he is complete but he does want us
to love him. It is impossible to love someone unless you have the freedom not to love
them. If someone points a gun at me and demands that I say to them, “I love you,” the
fact that I say the words would not mean that I really love them. Worship without freedom
is also meaningless.
You may ask, “Okay, so God allowed sin to happen because he needed to find out who
really loves him, but why doesn’t he stop evil from happening today?” God is a very
patient God. He has given us many warnings in the Bible that we should stop rebelling
against him and accept Christ as our personal savior so that we can avoid his future
punishment of sin. In the future he will stop all sin and evil but now he is just giving us
time to change our minds about sin and repent. If every sin were punished immediately,
no one would be alive because we are all guilty of sin.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Answer: There are no good people because we are all sinners. “For all have sinned;
all fall short of God's glorious standard (Romans 3:23).” Many of the bad things that
happen to us are because of the sin of Adam and the sin that is common all humans.
For example, disease and death came from the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden.
Still, some people suffer because they are doing good. In Hebrews 11:35 and many
other places we see this. We also see that when we suffer for doing good, we are
placing our eyes on the rewards of heaven instead of earth. It is much like a mother
being willing to suffer the pains of childbirth in order to have the joy that the child brings.
Unlike other religions who have gods who do not understand our suffering, we have
Christ. Jesus Christ, the only one to ever live a sinless life, suffered a lot in his life and
then he was beaten and nailed to a cross. His suffering was for a higher good because
by it He purchased our salvation.
Many times our problems in this life produce better results in the end. “Dear brothers
and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when
your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your
endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything
(James 1:2-4).” Sometimes God may allow suffering into our lives to train us for greater
service to him. When athletes are training for competition, they often have to work very
hard and there is some pain that comes with their training. However, as they continue,
they become stronger and stronger. God does not allow suffering in our lives just
because he wants to see us in pain but because he has some higher reason that we
may not understand now. Sometime in the future, if not in this life, when we get to
heaven, we will likely understand why we had to go through hard times.
This may provide little comfort for someone who is in the midst of suffering but we must
also never forget that we have a personal relationship with God. We can talk to him
about our pain. He will be there for us to comfort us. If we feel angry with God because
of our suffering, we should pray that God will help us to let go of that anger which would
pull us away from him. Even though God has done nothing wrong by allowing suffering
in our lives it is natural to feel angry with him during hard times. It is important to forgive
God during these times so that we can have a close relationship with him.
