Why do bad things happen to good people? Unless you make a concerted effort to seek God personally and study the Bible, there will never be a satisfactory answer to that question (it is a tough one even for those who do have faith). If anything, it's the perfect excuse to seek God rather than write Him off. The Bible actually makes it quite clear that faith in Jesus Christ and in Christianity does not guarantee a good life, but a perfect eternity. Our 80 or so years on earth is rather insignificant compared to forever - but what we do with that blink of time is enormous in the big scheme of things. One has to understand that man has been granted free choice in all earthly matters including moral behavior. Unfortunately, that means evil will exist and bad things will happen. Life is only meaningful because we have the right to choose...the ability to learn from mistakes, the chance to succeed, and from time to time - experience pain and suffering. The difference between being programmed for goodness and choosing it is precisely what makes being good significant. The brutal truth of the matter is - In God's view, even the best person on earth today still has sin in his life. The only person that lived an earthly life without sin was Jesus Christ, yet even he suffered a horrible death - in order to give all sinners a chance at forgiveness and eternal life.
An Excerpt from When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner
"Life is not fair. The wrong people get sick and the wrong people get robbed and the wrong people get killed in wars and in accidents. Some people see life's unfairness and decide, 'There is no God; the world is noting but chaos.' Others see the same unfairness and ask themselves, 'Where do I get my sense of what is fair and what is unfair? Where do I get my sense of outrage and indignation, my instinctive response of sympathy when I read in the paper about a total stranger who has been hurt by life? Don't I get these things from God? Doesn't He plant in me a little bit of His own divine outrage at injustice and oppression, just as He did for the prophets of the Bible? Isn't my feeling of compassion for the afflicted just a reflection of the compassion He feels when He sees the suffering of His creatures?' Our responding to life's unfairness with sympathy and with righteous indignation, God's compassion and God's anger working through us, may be the surest proof of all of God's reality."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/theology/badthingshappen.html
http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_murder.htm
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id=14139
12 comments:
I do look forward to your Sunday Posts. Thanks for sharing. The hummingbird touched me...
Matthew 6:25-34
New International Version (NIV)
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Our life here on Earth may just be the training period for the ever after. So we must be careful just how we train.
God? There are really only two options.
1. He can not prevent evil, and therefore is not God.
2. He can prevent evil but chooses not to, and therefore he IS evil and unworthy of worship.
What I wonder about is why people ask that question, but never ask, "Why are all these good things happening to me?" When good times come they never stop to reason why or thank God, they just expect that they deserve it, but God is always blamed for the bad things in life. When more often than not, the bad times are a result of the life that person has lived and the damage they have done to their bodies. Not always, but I would say the majority of times. My dad is a prime example of the "not always." He was a clean living man that lived to be 50 years old. Never touched a drop of alcohol in his life, but because of ulcerated colitis that he had as a teenager, he died with a liver that looked like an alcoholics. When met at the post office one day he was asked, "Why are you having to suffer like this?" His response, "Why not me?" The Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust. Good and bad times come to ALL people, but those that are serving God and looking with longing for His return and an eternity in Heaven find that the hard times are easy to endure with Christ by their side.
I believe God loves me warts and all so I don't dwell much on the reasons things happen. Fact is there are cultures out there that cry when you're born and celebrate your death.
" Life is only meaningful because we have the right to choose...the ability to learn from mistakes, the chance to succeed, and from time to time - experience pain and suffering. The difference between being programmed for goodness and choosing it is precisely what makes being good significant. The brutal truth of the matter is - In God's view, even the best person on earth today still has sin in his life."
I wonder if those of us with "strong" faith, would have such a conviction if we were not living a "priviledged" life? If we lived on the streets, and out of garbage bins, would we have the faith and belief we have living in our comfy homes, with a fair dose of mod cons?
I reckon that those unfortunate, underprivileged street dwellers, who Believe, and live according to the Lord's will, probably have the strongest faith of us all.
Thanks for another thought searching post.
It matters not what you or I believe the truth will prevail!
We may have free will, but would a Christian also acknowledge that "not a sparrow falls" without God's knowledge? Therefore, God is responsible for both the good and bad things that happen to a person. I don't think that God is "outraged" when bad things happen, the way we are, since by definition he knows before they happen. Yes, I think Christians would have to acknowledge that it all flows from God. Very old testament.
Blessed by your words. Thank you!
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