Article: Why Do Bad Things Happen? (Photojournalism's Version) - a podcast by Christopher Stephens

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A question that many of us ask ourselves on a consistent basis.  Why does God allow evil things to happen?  Why did God allow Hurricane Katrina?  Why does God allow church shootings?  Why did God allow my Christian mother to suffer and die?  Why did God allow my heart to be broken?  Why did God allow a stray bullet to kill a child?  Why did he allow me to go through divorce?  Is God good if He allows for bad things to occur?  Is God real if everything is so bad?

 

 

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    In Genesis we see very clearly stated by God that everything is “Good”.  And I believe that to be the truth.  When God created ex nihilo (from nothing), His creation was good.  The earth was organized neatly with waters separated above and below, the landforms existed among the lower waters, and God placed created things in their proper ecosystem.  As a matter of fact, there did not even seem to be a need for irrigation according to Genesis 2:6 as God had created the earth the water the whole surface.  God then forms man and woman.  Nothing is unbalanced or lacking.  But something went wrong.  Sin happened.  I know that it does not just happen, but the repercussions of sin caused not only changes for humanity but for the whole world!  Suddenly, the existence of labor pains come into effect (Gen. 3:15), the ground is cursed (Gen. 3:17), and death enters the world!

 

    The problems and questions above are not new and Christians have struggled with them for centuries!  When you wonder about the issues stated above it is called Theodicy.  It begs to ask the question “How can there be a good God when there is evil in existence?”.  Rest assured that God is still good.  He does exist, but so does our existence and creation in its fallen state.  Sin not only altered our humanity but also the world.  The creation was affected.  We are living in an unbalanced and chaotic state and sin was the catalyst.  We have been studying theodicy and the problem of sin in my pursuit of a MDiv and they shared with me some amazing explanations of this topic.

 

“Suffering, pain, and death are not natural and to reckon them as “part of God’s plan” is anathema to genuine Christian thinking.  These are the workings of chaos, disorder, and the Enemy, and the world is in bondage to those things until Christ becomes All in All.”  -Andrew Gass

 

“We must understand that the world actually did fall, and they are principalities and powers that we are dealing with that are anti-God.  So that is Hart’s conclusion.  We must recognize that the world is in bondage to sin and darkness.”  -George Williams

 

    We must understand that tying God to evil or as a participant in the fall of the world is problematic.  Let us never utter the words to a person who has lost a loved one, “God needed another angel!”  People die not because God wants more angels but because sin brought death to humanity, chaos to the world, and a barrier between us and God before Jesus’ sacrifice.  God is still a good God. In His allowance of free will He showed His goodness. Would we not be robots if we HAD to obey with no other option? What is even better is the fact that once we sullied things God had a path for our salvation that predated the world! Let’s dialogue a bit on this.  Leave a comment with your thoughts below.

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