Where Is God When Bad Things Happen?
We love to say, “God is good all the time. All the time God is good.” It is a declaration of our faith and trust in God. It is easy to say when things are going well, but the mature Christian says it - and believes it -all the time, even when things are not going well. Otherwise, it is just a mantra. Trust in God’s goodness becomes for us foundational, based in fact, not just in feelings. It acts as our anchor in the storm, not just an antidote from all stormy weather.
Sometimes God rescues us from the storm. Sometimes God meets us in the storm. But even though God is good all the time, storms do come. Jesus told us they would.
John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." NASB
The angels announced that God had sent Jesus to give peace to His followers – to men with whom He is pleased.
Luke 2:13-14 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." NASB
God can and does redeem and restore all things for those who love God and are called according to His purposes. God knows how to make lemonade out of lemons.
Rom 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. NASB
So, Paul says, we should forbear when difficulty comes. We should not fear difficulty. We should not fear anything. God stands ready to give us a supernatural peace in the midst of any and all difficulties if we will look to Him.
Phil 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. NASB
But why must there be difficulty? Why do bad things happen? Forget the little and things, the inconveniences of life and the manageable problems. We get that. No pain, no gain. We cannot build muscle or maturity without some stress. We cannot be overcomers without something to overcome. We need struggle to grow up.
Rom 5:3-6 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance(KJV says patience); 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. NASB
God allows and sometimes even causes “calamity.”As loving parents, we put our kids through things that are good for them, but not necessarily fun. They think that having to get stitches (or go to school) is evil. We know that it is necessary and we have no qualms about requiring it of them. They may be “calamitous,” but they are not evil.
Isa 45:5-7 "I am the LORD, and there is no other. Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; 6 that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, 7 the One forming light and creating darkness,causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these. NASB
But what about the really bad stuff? Where is God when your 17 year old son dies? Where is God when you are told you cancer is advanced and you have only a short time to live? What about the Holocaust or Downs Syndrome? What about Columbine or radical Jihadism? Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes? Where does evil come from?
There have been many theories offered over the ages. Some work sometimes and others not at all. The pagans saw their gods were capricious and undependable, so they curried favor or tried to appease them with various offerings. They bargained with their gods. They offered everything up to and including their first born children to make the gods happy. But that is not the God of the Bible. He does not require our first born sons. He gives us His only Son that we might live. Our God does not seek appeasement. He seeks relationship. He is trustworthy and dependable.
C.S. Lewis said that all sin can ultimately be traced back to the suspicion that God is not good or cannot be trusted. All salvation is based in relationship and all relationship is based in trust. Without trust, it is impossible to have a relationship with God. The Latin root word for trust (fideo) is the same word that is translated faith. If we say we have faith in God, we must have trust. They are the same thing.
Heb 11:5-6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. NASB
When I was wrestling with whether or not God was good, dependable and trustworthy, I finally came to the conclusion that God is at least as good as I am. We are made in His image. My goodness is a reflection of His greater goodness. (My badness is a reflection of Satan’s work in my life, not God’s.) My lights came on when I read Mt 7:9-11
Matt 7:9-11 "Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 "Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 "If you then, being evil, (corrupted by sin)know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!NASB
If I would not give my child a snake for a fish or a rock for bread, why would God. I decided that God is at least as good as me.
All human institutions ordained by God are metaphors designed to teach us about God. Parenthood is a metaphor for God’s love of His children - us. Intellectually, I understood parental love at some level before I became a father, but after my children were born, I really began to understand unconditional love for the first time. I saw my own children in a whole new way and learned to love at a whole new depth. For instance, if we are in a restaurant and someone else’s kid is acting up, he needs discipline. If mine is acting up, he needs a nap. We love our children in spite of their behavior, not because of it. That’s how God thinks of us – as His beloved sons and daughters.
The Bible says that Jesus endured the cross because of the prize or reward set before Him. We are also told that because of His obedience, He sits at the right hand of the Father and at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Some people think that this was his prize or reward – to sit at the right hand of the Father and be adored. However, we should remember that He already had that and laid it down to come and redeem us. Why would He leave the right hand of the Father and being worshipped so that He could earn a reward of sitting at the right hand of God and be worshipped? The prize or reward for which Jesus died is US, God’s children, His brethren. We are the prize. He came to save us because of His love for us.
So if God does not cause evil, who does? The Church Lady on Saturday Night Live had an answer – Satan! However, she was wrong about that as she was wrong about most things Christian. Some people who do not want to accuse God of authoring evil assign the blame to Satan, but this results in a fallacy known as dualism – a principle that suggests that God and Satan are equals. Dualism that implies that the battle between God and Satan hangs in the balance, as if Satan still has a chance to defeat God.
Satan is a spiritual being but he does not have God’s attributes. He is not all-knowing or omni-present. Satan can only be one place at any moment. He is a spirit, but he is defined, not divine. The Bible tells us that he has already been defeated at almost every level. He was cast out of Heaven by Michael and his angels.
Rev 12:7-10 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. NASB
Satan was defeated again by Jesus’ death on the cross.
John 12:31-33 "Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out. 32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." 33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. NASB
Heb 2:14-15 Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.NASB
He was defeated in Sheol when Jesus kicked in its gates and took Satan’s prisoners away from him. Jesus rescued the righteous dead of the Old Testament (Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Esther, Ruth and countless others) and took them with Him to reopen Heaven for mankind.
1 Peter 3:18-22 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, …. 21 And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you — not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him. NASB
Col 2:13-15 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us {and} which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (NAS)
Satan began to be defeated by the followers of Jesus when Jesus first sent them out into ministry. We are told that the saints of God will all individually and personally defeat Satan in their own lives.
Luke 10:17-20 And the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." 18 And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you. 20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."NASB
Rom 16:20 And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. NASB
Rev 12:10-11"Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death.NASB
Satan is not the author of evil. He is just its orchestrator. All the power that Satan possesses he gets from mankind. He cannot kill anyone, rape anyone, strike anyone of harm anyone physically, but he can and does persuade men and women to do it for him.
If God is not the author of evil and Satan is not the author of evil, then who is? Who is the only other power or authority in the earth besides God? Who else besides God had the power to create? The answer is man. All evil is the result of the abuse or neglect of man’s free will.
Man was created by God as the steward of the earth. He was told to be fruitful and multiply and to steward the earth. Evil entered the world when man sinned. The wages of sin is death. After man fell, their bodies began to age and diminish – to move inexorably toward death. The divine balance in man’s metabolism began to lose stasis and bacteria proliferated out of balance. Disease came into mankind and was genetically mutated from bad to worse. Sinful man spread disease often through sinful actions. Men grew morally corrupt and began to grasp, to covet and to pervert. This resulted in murder, war, strife and its evil was progressive. It grew in size and scope. One man killed another then many men killed many others. In time millions were tortured, slaughtered and butchered by many men acting in concert with each other and with the Devil.
James 4:1-3 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Even creation itself, nature, the earth was corrupted by the fall of man, its steward. Man failed to properly care for the earth and it got out of hand. Animals grew savage, carnivorous and dangerous to mankind. Wilderness proliferated and spread thorns and thistles in every direction because there was no man to resist them. The elements were radically altered by the punitive nature of the Flood, so that the balance within nature was destroyed. Man’s selfish use of the environment polluted it resulting in an environment that is broken almost beyond repair. Paul tells us the earth was subjected to futility by the mismanagement of man and that it groans, longing for its redemption at the resurrection of mankind.
Rom 8:19-23 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
The fall of nature creates a dangerous world. People get sick and die. People are born flawed physically and morally. Airplanes fall out of the sky because of the actions and/or neglect of mankind. Cars crash because of reckless drivers and greedy manufacturers. Natural disasters occur that would not have occurred in an unfallen world and will not occur in the Millennial Reign of Christ upon the earth.
Satan, committed to the destruction of mankind, orchestrates, tempts, persuades, seduces and sells evil, but he could do nothing if man did not do it for him. When man stands against him, he is powerless to function. In the Millennial Reign, Satan is locked away for 1,000 years. He is not even allowed on the earth during that time, and yet man will corrupt himself nonetheless.
Can not God prevent man from doing evil? Can he not stop or prevent the evil things that happen? The answer is, Yes, He can. The Bible tells us that God is sovereign. That means that God either causes or allows everything. He is not powerless to prevent evil. He just chooses not to – for now.