Does God let bad things happen?
Often in my prison ministry, someone will ask the age old question: Why does God let bad things happen to good people?
One time in particular stands out to me. A lady reluctantly came to my Bible study one morning several years ago. Her roommate had encouraged her for weeks and she finally showed up. But she had almost a defiant attitude. She was suspicious of anyone telling her what to think about the Bible.
After I told her about the group and our current focus on studying all the women in the Bible, she blurted out: I have some questions.
She had grown up in a church which would not allow her to ask questions. She was told what to believe. If she asked questions or doubted their doctrines, it meant she had no faith. She just had to accept whatever they said.
That never set well with her.
So I simply said, “What questions do you have?”
I had no idea that would unleash such a torrent of questions over the next couple of years.
She asked: Why does God let bad things happen?
Her very first question was the one we’re talking about today: Why does God let bad things happen to good people?
She had seen plenty of bad things in her life. And apparently her church had told her God either sent those bad things or allowed them without trying to stop them in order to teach her to trust Him more.
This reminded me of the church I grew up in. The same question had come up. The assumption was that when something tragic happened to good, faithful Christians, it must be God’s will and He was trying to teach them something.
I had rebelled against that answer at the time and I could see this lady rebelled against it as well.
I took a deep breath, not sure how I was going to say. But God put the words in my mouth.
I said something like: “First of all, that may not be the right question to ask. But how you answer the question depends on what your concept of God is?” She did a double take.
I didn’t give her a direct answer
I went on: “If you think of God a wrathful and vindictive man up in the sky hurling thunderbolts every time you make a mistake, you will answer the question one way.
“If you think of God as a benevolent presence that rarely, if ever, intervenes in your life but is there for moral support, you will answer the question another way.
“But if you think of God as a living being who loves you and is always ready, willing, and able to help and heal, guard and guide, protect and provide for you, then you will answer the question in a completely different way.”
Nobody was expecting that response, especially not her. I didn’t actually give her an answer, but put her in a position to think for herself. It was probably the first time anyone had ever allowed her to think for herself on a question about God.
In the weeks and months that followed, she asked question after question. I rarely answered them but we looked at people in the Bible for answers and talked about how your perspective and preconceptions can shape how you interpret the Bible and how you find answers to your questions.
When she was released two years later, she was a different person. She had reestablished connection with her family. She had accepted responsibility for her crime and made effort to reform. She was hopeful for her future for the first time in years, and her faith in God had been strengthened.
And all this was in large part because I didn’t answer those hard questions with a definitive answer, but invited her to read the Bible and think for herself.
Why does God let bad things happen to good people? is the wrong question
So, if you think I’m going to answer that question for you: Why does God let bad things happen to good people? you are mistaken. I’ll share my perspective.
There’s no way to cover all the possible ways to answer this question or all the Bible verses you could quote to justify those answers.
But what I told the lady in prison is true for you and me. First of all, it is not the right question to ask.
Now you may be thinking: But James, I really want to know: Why does God let bad things happen to good people?
I hear you, but the question makes the assumption that God does let bad things happen to good people and you’re trying to figure out why.
A better question to ask is simply: Does God let bad things happen to good people? Those are two very different questions.
Your concept of God important
But with either version of the question, your concept of God will largely determine your answer.
Going back to what I told the lady in prison, if you think of God as a wrathful, angry being, ready to punish any tiny disobedience, it’s not hard to imagine such a God sending trials and tribulations even to good people just to show then who is in charge or to teach someone a lesson.
However, when you see God as infinite, divine Love, it’s hard to see how He could send or let evil come to His faithful children.
If you’re like me, this raises even more questions. You may be wondering: Hey James, what about all the times in the Bible when bad things did happen to good people? Didn’t God let those things happen? I’m thinking about Job. The Bible says God let Satan do terrible things to Job.
Does God let bad things happen to Job?
Hey, I’m glad you brought up the book of Job. There are some powerful lessons in it about what it means to be faithful to God under all circumstances.
Here again, most people want a definitive answer, but depending on your perspective you will see things differently.
In fact, not all Bible scholars agree about what’s going on in the book of Job. Many believe it is a literal story about a real man in history who suffered terrible calamities because God had a conversation with Satan and gave Satan permission to take away Job’s wealth, family, and even his health.
If you take this story literally, you believe God let bad things happen to Job to see if he would be faithful and to prove to Satan that he was. End of discussion.
What kind of God would make a deal with the devil?
But that interpretation reveals what your concept of God is. What kind of a God would make a deal with the devil like that? What kind of God would need or want to put his children to the test like that to prove their faithfulness? Was God not already 100% sure of Job’s loyalty? Why would He need to prove this to Satan?
If God allows Satan to do all those terrible things to Job, or anyone, it basically amounts to God approving of what’s going on, giving the devil power and authority. If that’s your concept of God, then that’s what you’ll end up with.
When Satan tried to get Jesus to go along with his plans, Jesus flatly refused and sent Satan away. What kind of a God would be influenced by Satan’s schemes for Job and then go along with them?
If Satan can attack us with God’s permission, what hope do any of us have?
Well, surprisingly, some people find this way of thinking oddly comforting. If God allows evil things to happen to them, it frees them from any sense of responsibility. The cause of the evil is beyond their control.
Is Job a real person or a metaphor?
Other Bible scholars believe the book of Job was written more as a metaphor and a theological discourse to wrestle with the idea of why bad things happen to good people. And the only way they could explain it was that God let Satan wreak havoc in Job’s life.
Now, as a side note, many Bible scholars also point out that the word for Satan in the book of Job is not used as a proper noun, but just the word for an adversary.
So, I’m not telling you how to read the book of Job. You need to do your own research, and look at more than one perspective. Don’t just find things that support what you already believe. Read widely and look at different perspectives. And always ask: What concept of God do these different perspectives convey?
Looking through the eyes of Jesus
And as you’re pondering how God is depicted in the book of Job or anywhere else in the Bible, the most helpful thing I’ve found for getting a clear sense of who God is and what God does, comes from filtering every description of God’s nature and how He operates in the world, through what Jesus reveals to us about God.
The Old Testament describes some pretty graphic scenarios where God commands the Children of Israel to kill innocent women and children. The people who wrote the Bible believed that’s what God told them to do. They saw God as vengeful, full of wrath toward His enemies, demanding and taking pleasure in their destruction.
But how does that view of God hold up to what Jesus shows us about God’s nature? If it was truly God’s will for innocent people to be slaughtered, Jesus would have promoted the same approach. And there was plenty of opportunity for that.
Just as in the Old Testament times when there were foreign powers that occupied and defeated Israel, so in the New Testament times, the Romans occupied the land of Israel.
If it had been God’s nature and will to destroy foreign enemy forces, Jesus would have overthrown the Romans and rid the land of them. And that’s exactly what the Jews were expecting the Messiah to do, defeat the Romans Old Testament style. But that’s not what Jesus did.
No one in the Old Testament understood God’s will as perfectly as Jesus did. No one perceived His nature the way Jesus did. The writer of Job did not know God as well as Jesus did? Whose concept of God are you going to believe?
Struggles and persecution
Jesus said we would have struggles in this world, and that we would be persecuted at times because we follow him, but he added,
…be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33 KJV
Sometimes we stop at the part about being persecuted, but Jesus reminds us that he has overcome the hatred, materialism, and limitations of the material world. His victory over the world’s evil dissolves the effect of those persecutions.
Paul was persecuted and suffered many hardships because of his faith in Jesus. Was God allowing bad things happen to him? From one perspective you might think that’s exactly what was going on. But from a higher spiritual perspective, Paul’s faithfulness to Christ was a challenge to the world’s evil and it flared out at him in the attempt to destroy him. But it was actually evil that was being destroyed.
This is true of Jesus as well. When he was hanging from the cross taking his last breath, it looked as though evil had defeated Jesus. But from a higher spiritual perspective, it was Jesus who was defeating death and sin.
God does not allow evil; He destroys it
Paul comments on this phenomenon in
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18 NIV
Paul could see the bigger picture that God was not allowing evil but destroying it.
If you think of heaven as some distant destination instead of a present reality, which Jesus said was at hand and within us, you will focus on all the evil in the world, and wonder: Does God let bad things happen to good people?
Here’s where it’s important to remember Jesus’s promise that
…the kingdom of heaven is at hand, Matthew 4:17 KJV
and
…the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21 KJV
Are you aware of God’s kingdom here and now?
When you are aware of the presence of God’s kingdom here and now, you see things from a different perspective. You see the bad things that happen not coming from or allowed by God but being exposed and destroyed by God.
If Jesus wanted us to believe God allowed evil things to happen to test or teach us, he would have told us. Jesus never said God allowed bad things to happen to people to see if they were faithful. God already knows what’s in your heart.
There is no evil in the kingdom of heaven. There never has been and there never will be. To the degree you are conscious of the kingdom of heaven here and now, you will experience less evil in your life, and the evil that does show up is being exposed for its destruction.
From Earth’s perspective, evil may run rampant all over you and it may feel like God allows it. But from heaven’s perspective, evil has no power to harm you.
What bad things do we let happen?
Perhaps the question is not, Does God let bad things happen, but do we?
What bad things do you let happen? This question needs an answer on an individual level as well as a collective one.
If you’re at a party and your friend has had too much to drink, but you allow him to drive home, who’s responsible if your friend has an accident? You can’t say God let that happen. You did.
The same is true on a collective level. If an organization or a community or a government allows immoral behavior among its leaders, you can’t say God let that happen. The group as a whole did. We can’t blame God for our own shortcomings and what we let happen.
How will you answer the question: Does God let bad things happen?
Why does God let bad things happen to good people? I don’t believe He does. But don’t believe that just because I say so. Study the Bible for yourself. Ask yourself what your concept is of God who would do such a thing.
Look at God through the lens of what Jesus revealed God to be. Hold up all the different opinions on this topic up to this light of Christ. Then you’ll see more clearly and find an answer.
Jesus came to do the will of God. He did not come to let the devil have power in our lives, but the exact opposite.
…the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8 NLT
Does God let bad things happen to good people?
The more closely you follow Jesus and embrace his promise that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and within you, the more freedom from evil influences you’ll experience. And you’ll find the answer to this question.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Photo Credit: Jon Tyson
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
John 16:33 KJV
33 be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Romans 8:18 NIV
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Matthew 4:17 KJV
17 …the kingdom of heaven is at hand,
Luke 17:21 KJV
21 …the kingdom of God is within you.
1 John 3:8 NLT
8 …the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
