Sunday 10 February 2013

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

This is a record of my current best understanding of this long-standing question, answered from my perspective as a disciple of Jesus.

To fill-in the implied sub-text of the question: Does God allow bad things to happen to good people?  Or, even, does God even cause bad things to happen to good people?  I think yes to both.

I think that sometimes God actively causes bad things to happen to good people in order to teach them a lesson.  But He does so with love, and in their best interest. Indeed, it's precisely because He loves them that He does it.  Spare the rod spoil the child.  And it pains Him to do so.

Aside from that, I think that God passively allows bad things to happen to good people.  Could He intervene?  Absolutely yes.  So why doesn't He?  Because He has given us free will.  Free will means that people can choose to do bad things to other people.  And anyway, if God did intervene, where would He draw the line?  Would He stop a dagger stabbing someone?  What about a bullet?  How about a dose of poison?  A cigarette?  Doughnuts?

But what about those bad things which seem to just happen, apparently unattributable to the actions of bad people?  Does God also passively allow these bad things to happen to good people?  Absolutely yes.  Although a more accurate way of putting it would be not that He allows it, but that He doesn't stop it,
despite being able.  But why doesn't He intervene?  Well, it's more appropriate to consider the question, "What would happen if He did intervene?"  How would that work, in practical terms?  A coach-load of children about to fall from a mountain road due to a tyre blow-out.  An Alpine village in the path of an avalanche.  Cancer.  Surely it would be acceptable and entirely appropriate for God to intervene in cases such as these?  Free will has no bearing here, right?  Maybe so, but where would it end?  Would He drain the ocean to stop a swimmer drowning?  Warm the climate to reverse a mountaineer's hypothermia?  Position a huge pile of straw to cushion the landing of a jumbo jet with engine failure?  Seriously, it would be a truly weird world - utterly impractical & unworkable.

I think that sometimes God actively causes bad things to happen to good people to punish them.  But He does so only as a last resort, having tried to dissuade them from incurring His wrath by warning them of the consequences of their wrong choices.  And it pains Him to do so.  How does this differ from teaching them a lesson?  Punishment is to deter others, to inspire fear, to give assurance of His integrity and consistency.

I've been discussing at what happens to good people, but is there such a thing as a bad person?  Yes, I think so.  People who know the Gospel and yet repeatedly and persistently refuse to turn away from sin and towards God.  Does God passively allow bad things to happen to these bad people?  Absolutely yes.  He sometimes even writes them off, allowing them to indulge in sin.  Does God actively cause bad things to happen to these bad people?  No, I don't think He does, per se.  But I do think He does sometimes cause the destruction of bad people, as a last resort.  But this is like killing part of Him, and He hates it more than anything.  Some of those bad things which seem just to happen, apparently unattributable to the actions of bad people, serve this purpose.

I don't have the energy to add Bible references, but I believe what I've written to be Biblically justifiable.  I may add the references when I have the energy & time.

No comments:

Post a Comment