Why Does God allow evil things to happen?

Why has God allowed sin? Why did He allow Adam and Eve to sin? Why did God allow the Holocaust? (The Jewish people have been asking this questions since it took place.) It is always more difficult to deal with this issue when it becomes personal. The answer to this question is not simple. Proverbs 1:7 says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…”This kind of wisdom is “truth”- the real view of what life is all about. We call it reality. It must be seen from God’s perspective, not our twisted and distorted way of thinking because of our sin nature. We do not think like God! (see Isaiah 55:8-11).

 

1. All of our mental struggles are caused by our faulty view of God and man. According to the Bible, God is holy, pure, merciful, and good. Man is sinful, bad, evil, and unforgiving. In our sinful way of thinking, we always have a tendency to blame God for the pain and sin in our world. For example: some blame God for what their mother did to them. However, they need to realize their sinful mother did this, not God. God did not create their mother, or any of us, as robots, whom He can directly control. He created us in His image with a mental capacity to make choices. God knew Adam and Eve, and all of us, would choose to sin. He warned Adam of the consequences of his disobedience. (Genesis 2:15-17) However, note that the Bible states that Jesus is the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”(Revelation 13:8) This simply means that God had a divine purpose and plan in place before He created the heavens and the earth in the beginning of time. All of His decisions, plans, purposes, words and thoughts are perfect and good. This is at the heart of the very person of God. Therefore, we cannot blame God for the sins of our world. We are all a part of a fallen world. God is good. Because of man’s sin, our world is evil and broken. We suffer because of man’s sin. Therefore, we should not blame God, but man.

 

2. But, why does God allow man to sin? Please notice that the major purpose behind everything is the glory of God. That is why sin is described as falling “short of the glory of God.”(Romans 3:23) God created everything to glorify Him. So, how can God allow evil to enter His creation to glorify Him? That is the big question. Here’s the only answer that seems to agree with the entire message of the Bible. We have been created as creatures of comparison. We talk about someone being tall, short, skinny, fat, dumb, intelligent, pretty, ugly, etc. When we make these kinds of statements or think this way, we are comparing people to our own mental standard. The nature of God is the real standard of what is right and wrong! So, how could we ever measure our infinite God up against any finite thing that is the opposite of who He is unless He allowed it to come into existence? God allows the darkness of sin in order for us to see how glorious (good) He is! Illustration: Do you know that an artist always paints the backdrop of a painting before he paints the major point of his focus in the foreground? In God’s divine plan for His creation, He had to permit sin (darkness) to form a backdrop for all of human history, so He could display His glory (light) to all of mankind. Everyone knows that a burning candle shines the brightest in the darkest environment. Application: If people do not see the spiritual darkness of their world (everyone around them) they will not be able to see the glory of God before them. The Lord wants us to focus on His glory, not the darkness of the backdrop of our lives. Only God’s revelation, the Bible, can pull back the curtain of reality and help us to see all of this!

 

3. This point is very painful for us to accept. Why does God allow us to personally face wickedness and even death? Read Romans 8:28 and 1 Corinthians 10:13. When a person becomes a believer, he develops a relationship with Jesus and learns the truth behind these two verses. The Lord is at work in the background of our lives. His purpose is never to destroy, harm us, or cause us to live in defeat. He allows us to face difficult things to drive us to Himself so that we can be saved and have a relationship with Him. God is running a rescue mission on earth and rejoices when people come to Him. (Luke 9:56; 15:10; 19:10) We don’t like to face the real fact that we all deserve to go to hell. We are not good people. (Read Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-18) We are all running from God. (Romans 3:11) However, it is God who pursues us. (Luke 19:10) Look what the Father did to Jesus to save us. (Read Isaiah 53) Who do we think we are? Are we better than Jesus? Do we think that we are too good or important for the Lord to guide us through some horrific things on this earth – both before and after we are saved? It is very humbling to realize that He allows things to happen to us for a reason and purpose. And, that reason and purpose is for our good and His glory! He did not create or save us so He could bless us, but so that we might glorify Him!

 

4. If we must point our finger at someone in the spirit world who has had a part in the wickedness of this creation, we need to point it at Satan, not the Lord! (Read John 8:44; 10:9-11) Satan and his demons are behind much of the murder, hate, wickedness, etc, of this age. None of this flows from the holy and pure throne of God!

 

What about all of the human suffering and death due to natural disasters? Some have pointed to Isaiah 45:7, where the Lord declares, I “create evil.” The word translated “evil” in the KJV is not moral evil, but should be translated as “disasters.” It is true that God is behind all of the actions of His creation. He creates and releases all natural disasters. (Read Psalm 147:8.) God cannot be charged with creating moral evil. He only creates everything as being good. Notice after each creation day, the Lord declared all that He created as being“good,”(Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31) If God were to be responsible for moral evil then He would not be holy. The Bible repeatedly declares that God is holy. This means He is infinitely pure, good, perfect and righteous. There can be no evil in God. If evil can be found in God, then He ceases to be the God that He declares Himself to be in the Word of God.

 

How can God be good when He sends natural disasters that cause death and human suffering? As mentioned before, God does create natural disasters for His purposes, which are always good. Because God is holy, He must judge sin. He has declared, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” (Romans 12:19) A study of the Scriptures reveals that God uses natural disasters as a form of His holy and righteous judgment. The Tribulation Period is the ultimate example of this. The book of Revelation makes it clear that the horrific judgments at the end of this age flow from the throne room of God. He is good, but His goodness is tempered by His holiness.

 

Why does God allow bad things to happen to His own children? Both in the days of the Old Testament with Israel, and in this age of Grace, with the church, it is apparent that the Lord allows bad things to His own children. Why? While we cannot always understand this, we must agree with the Word of God that declares: “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Suffering and death are sometimes the will of God for His own children. (1 Peter 4:12-19; Revelation 6:9-11) Sometimes God uses tests and trials to make us more mature in our faith. (1 Corinthians 10:13) Sometimes He uses difficult times to discipline us for our sin (Hebrews 12:7-11), and sometimes it can bring us to the ultimate sin unto death. (1 Corinthians 11:30)

 

We must realize that the Lord loves us and is pursing us to have a relationship with Him. When people sin against us, we must not blame God. We need to recognize that the one sinning against us is responsible for our injury. However, we must recognize that the Lord has allowed it for His purposes. We need to forgive those who sin against us and move on with our life for the glory of God. We must remember that forgiveness is based on mercy, and not justice. None of us deserve to be forgiven. However, we must forgive like God forgives, and that is always based on mercy without any limits! (Read Ephesians 4:22-32) This is want it means to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”(2 Peter 3:18)

 

 

by Mike Wingfield- www.ptnews.org

 

 

 

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