Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen?

Sometimes kids ask the best theological questions.

I don't know if you have children. If you do, maybe you've heard the same questions my kids have been asking, like, Dad, why does God allow bad things to happen? And they'll get specific. They'll say things like, well, you know, why would God create Satan if he knew he was going to be evil? Or why did God allow Adam and Eve in the garden if he knew that they were going to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Of course, we can think about it in that way, you know, in the distant past, but even in the present. For many of us, this is a pressing question, either because we turn on the news or in our own lives. We experience great suffering, great trials, and we wonder, God, why did you allow this to happen?

That's what we're going to be talking about. Why does God allow bad things to happen? So first, at the outset, I think that we just need to be honest and say, from the perspective of the theologians, I think that the greatest minds who have approached this question, we want to be careful that we don't give the sense that, oh, there's always a real simple answer here. You know, the reason this catastrophe happened or this person was struck with this disease or whatnot.

Well, let me tell you exactly why that is. We don't always know why certain things happen, why certain kinds of suffering are experienced. We need to affirm, we need to recognize that we don't have the perspective that God has. We don't know what he knows. We're limited in our understanding and our perspective as human beings.

And so we have to approach this question with a great amount of humility. Nevertheless, the Bible says, and Christians throughout history have affirmed this, that the God who knows all things and has permitted evil is not the author of evil, and he's also purposed to conquer it fully and finally. I want to give you a couple of quotes that I love especially. The first one is from Thomas Aquinas. Here's what Thomas said. In other words, Thomas Aquinas is saying, you know, sometimes God in his providence works good through the evil actions of men and women. Here's another quote.

This is St. Augustine. He said, God would in no wise permit evil to exist in his works unless he were so almighty and so good as to produce good even from evil. Now, one of the stories I think that illustrates this the best in all of the Bible is found in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis. It's the story of Joseph, a story that you might be familiar with. Joseph was a young man who was sold into slavery by his brothers. He experienced years and years of suffering, I mean, abandoned by his very own family.

His parents thought he was dead. He experiences all of this, and later in his life, he's described at the end of the book of Genesis, he's reconciled to his brothers. He actually ends up saving their lives, and they're concerned because they know what they've done to him.

They're afraid, well, maybe he's going to get payback. Maybe he's going to execute vengeance upon us because of how we treated him. Listen to what Joseph told his brothers in the book of Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20.

Isn't that beautiful and amazing to think? Joseph now, later in his life, is able to see God's good purposes through the evil that had been planned against him by sinful men, his brothers there in particular. It's important for us to understand that though we don't always have the answer to the problem of suffering, why am I suffering in this situation, we know that God can work in and through suffering.

That's one of the things that I would want to say to you, especially you if you're going through something difficult right now, a particular kind of pain or suffering. God is good, and he's able to work in and through these circumstances for your good as well. St. Paul says this very clearly in the book of Romans, in Romans, chapter 8, that God is able to cause all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. What's so remarkable about that passage is in the context of what Paul is saying there, all things refers to great kinds of suffering.

We're talking hunger, persecution, homelessness. Paul says through all of those things we're more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loves us. God is able to work through suffering. I want to give you three New Testament passages that make this point very clearly. The first one is in James, chapter 1, verses 2 through 4. James said, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Here's another one from the book of Romans in Romans, chapter 5. This is verses 3 through 5. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

One more, my personal favorite, 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 16 through 18. So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. I bring up those three passages for you, especially if you're going through something right now, to cling to, because they state so clearly that through our suffering, one, we can still experience joy if we're able to grasp that God is working in and through this. God is producing something in me that's far more precious than the suffering itself, certainly, and it doesn't mean that the suffering is good or okay or that we should celebrate the suffering.

No, we celebrate the God who is able to work in and through your suffering and in your life. Lastly, I think in no place in the scriptures is this more clearly exhibited than in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a sense in which the gospel is the answer to human suffering. We don't always know why God allows a particular kind of suffering, but we know that God has entered into our suffering and that the Son of God, the eternal Son of the Father, assumed human flesh, humanity for us and for our salvation. In that humanity, he suffered and died.

He experienced abuse and abandonment. He is the God who can sympathize with us in our weaknesses, in our trials, in our sufferings, because he knows, Jesus knows what it is to suffer according to the will of God. Acts 2, right after Peter had preached an amazing sermon on the day of Pentecost, and he's calling people to repentance, he says this, verse 23, This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. What an amazing picture of that same principle that we saw in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, that God can work through the sinful actions of men, a great salvation for his people. And that's precisely what he's done for you and for me through Jesus. And so take heart, even in our suffering, God is with us. At Sola Media, we produce theological content that applies the riches of the Reformation to the modern church. Our work is only made possible thanks to the generosity of thousands of supporters across the globe. Thanks to our Sola partners, who give generously every month, we can confidently pursue our mission to come alongside the church and produce resources for Reformation. But to continue our pace of publishing, we need your support. Would you consider joining many others and giving monthly as a Sola partner? This month, if you become a partner, we'll send you a complimentary copy of Michael Horton's book, Ordinary, Sustainable Faith in a Radical Restless World. In an age marked by burnout and sensationalism, Paul says that the Christian life looks like learning to live quietly, minding our own affairs and working with our hands. To get a copy of Michael Horton's book, Ordinary, and to learn more about what it means to recover this kind of Christian living, simply head over to solamedia.org forward slash partner and help us reach even more people with the riches of the gospel. That's solamedia.org forward slash partner.