Why does God allow people to do bad things and why does he let bad things happen?
.
*God is not the creator of evil and suffering
When he created the world Genesis 1:31 says: "God saw all that he had made, and it was
very good."
when God decided to create human beings, he wanted us to experience love. But to give
us the ability to love, God had to give us free will to decide whether to love or not to
love. Why? Because love always involves a choice.
When my daughter was little, she had a doll with a string in the back, and when you
pulled it the doll said, "I love you." Did that doll love my daughter? Of course not. It was
programmed to say those words. Real love always involves a choice.
So in order for us to experience love, God gave us free will. But unfortunately, we
humans have abused our free will by rejecting God and walking away from him. And that
has resulted in the introduction of evil into the world.
Some people ask, "Couldn't God have foreseen all of this?" and no doubt he did. But look
at it this way.
The good that man does, he does in accordance with God's
will, while the bad things that he does, is tolerated by God,
but does not meet with His approval. There is a difference
between what God wills and what God permits.
a parent who has repeatedly told their child not to do a particular thing–for example, run in
the house because there could be undesirable consequences like falling.
This has been said more than once. The child knows the expected behavior but chooses to
run even though they were warned about the potential consequences. The parent sees the
child running but decides to allow them to run and the child falls. Is it the parent’s fault that
the child fell? Did the parent cause the child to fall?
I hope your answer is no and that you understand that while the parent was not the reason
the child fell, the parent permitted it to happen. This is kind of how the permissive will of God
works. He allows us to exercise our free will even though He knows there will be
consequences because we chose a particular action.
But God doesn’t stop there, like the parent in this scenario, He uses the bad things that
happen to us as a life lesson. He teaches us through our experiences how to depend on
Him. And then, He uses those bad things to make us stronger;
God knew we'd rebel against him, but he also knew many people would choose to follow
him and have a relationship with him and spend eternity in heaven with him. And it was
all worth it for that, even though it would cost his son great pain and suffering to achieve
our redemption
*God promises to bring good out of all things (even the bad stuff) for those who
love Him and trust Him.
(Romans 8:28) And we know that all things work together for those who
love God to those who are called according to his purpose.
What this DOESN’T mean is that if we entrust our lives to God, we WON’T suffer.
Jesus told us so.
(John 16:33) “these things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have
peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer; I have
overcome the world.”
Tribulation means suffering, means trouble and bad things.
*Our suffering will pale in comparison to the good things God has in store for his
followers.
In Romans 8:18 we read: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing
with the glory that will be revealed in us."
Remember these words were written by the apostle Paul, who suffered through beatings
and stonings and shipwrecks and imprisonments and rejection and hunger and thirst and
homelessness—far more pain that most of us will ever have to endure.
Conclusion:
Bad things will happen in our lives, but we can choose to respond in the
right way just like Job, Paul, and Jesus. Through every bad circumstance
God wants us to rely on him and trust him.