Unfiltered Insanity

I asked for some topics to help with my writer’s block, that I’m SURE you’ve noticed.  A friend, who is struggling with some horrible grief, asked me to discuss this topic.  So, I will.  I don’t know if I can adequately answer the question, but I thought I’d give it a shot.

Whether you’re a Christian or not, the thought has crossed your mind.  “If there is a God, and He’s supposed to be so good, why does He let bad things happen?”

There is an answer.  While a lot of people have a lot of differing views of this (”God is passing down judgement and wrath.”  “God is testing you.” and other human thoughts…), the simple truth is this:  We live in a fallen world created by our own choices as a human race.

For those who may not know the story of Adam and Eve, let me just toss it out there for you.  After God created the universe, He decided to make man in His own image (ability to think, feel, discern, love, and CHOOSE).  God saw that the man was lonely and created Eve to be his partner.  God let them live in paradise and gave them ONE command.  “Do not eat from this tree.”  Satan was in the garden also.  He took on the form of a serpent and deceived Eve into eating from that tree.  Then, Adam chose to eat the fruit as well.  All mankind is tainted by that first decision to defy God.  Pain and sickness entered the world and Adam and Eve were then cast out of the garden.  Then the world was doomed to repeat Adam and Eve’s original sin.  Defiance of God.  (You can read the story in Genesis 1-3)

We live in a world that is infected by sin.  Illness and disease is part of that infection.  While illness is not the result of anyone’s sin and is not a punishment of sin, it is a consequence of living in a world that is fallen.

I used to ask this question a lot.  Dealing with a life that has been so damaged by others’ sin:  sexual abuse, rape, emotional abuse, physical abuse.  I wondered what I’d done to God to make Him hate me so much that He would let these things happen to me.  The closer I got to God and the more I realized my need for Jesus in my life, I began to understand that God didn’t do these things to me, but delivered me from them. 

I’m going to give you the most common example of the Bible when discussing whether or not God is the one doling out the bad.  Job.  Job loved God and worshipped Him.  He was so strong in His faith that Satan came to God and said, basically, “Yeah, I’ve noticed Job, you’ve protected him.  Of course he loves You.”  (I’m paraphrasing, not quoting from the Bible) So God says to Satan, “OK.  His whole life is yours.  You can’t kill him, but you can do whatever you want to his life and family and possessions.  We’ll see if he really loves me and his faith is real or if he just loves me because I’ve blessed his faith.”  So Satan took away his family, his possessions, his friends, his reputation, he was given boils and sores.  Everyone told Job to curse God and all the suffering would end.  He didn’t.  He wouldn’t.  And while he was angry and hurt and in pain and questioned God, he never cursed God.  When Job’s tribulations were over, God blessed Job even more than He had before his ordeal.

Just take a look at the world around you.  Terrorism. Drugs. Murder. Bioterrorism. Abuse. Robbery. Hate crime. Hatred.  These are not the things of a God who would send His Son to die to redeem the world.  It comes from the one who was so vain that he thought he was equal to, if not better than, God.  It’s easy to blame God for the things we cannot explain.  In truth, it’s not where the blame lies.  It lies in the choices that man has made since, literally, the dawn of time.

The amazing and beautiful thing about God is that He’s given us a choice.  He’s given us the power to choose our destiny.  He’s given us the power to look beyond the sins of this world into the glory of eternity.  Suffering comes from Satan.  It comes from his influence in this world.  Not from God.  God could, in His omnipotence, deliver us all from all the suffering of the world, but then we would be stripped of our free will.  To choose God or to reject Him, which is the basic of all choices we make on a daily basis.

So long story short:  He allows things bad things in this world because He allowed us to make a choice.  The only thing we can do is seek redemption for that choice, which is now infinitely easier since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

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This entry was posted by Lisa on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 10:26 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.