Why does God not intervene?

Question

When good, innocent people suffer at the hands of evil, brutal people, why does God not intervene? Why does God just let it happen and let millions of people die?
During WWII, if He somehow killed Hitler and Stalin with His intervention, tens of millions of innocent people wouldn't have died. Same for other terrible leaders, too.
What purpose is He trying to deliver by letting so many innocent people like that die? If He is trying to teach us a lesson through that, does He think it is worth the expense of all the innocent people?

Answer 1

You pose great questions. But I'm telling you that the answers will not be found here. Have you tried to talk to your church leaders? If they know the Bible, they will know how to answer your questions.

As a very young person, I asked all your question and then some. I searched and searched from church/religion to church/religion and country to country (lived in Italy since I used to be Catholic and thought I could find Truth there.....nope!). Just don't loose hope that there are answers to your questions!

Answer 2

God cannot intervene to prevent the harm done by evil people because God relinquished control and responsibility for the actions of men when He gave us free will, thereby forming us in His own image and likeness. Since God has given humans the right and power to make free moral choices, full responsibility for those choices and the results of those choices, good or bad, rests with the humans who make the choices, not with God. Free will would be utterly meaningless if God said "I give you the right to choose between good and evil, but whenever you choose evil I will jump in and make sure nobody gets hurt". If nobody could be harmed by the evil choices of men, there would really be no reason to avoid making such choices. In fact it would be very difficult to describe anything as evil, if nothing we did could cause any harm.

Answer 3

When God created Man He instilled in us Free Will Choice. Do not worry my friend there is coming a Day when everyone will have to give an account of themselves before Him. And as someone answered in one of their questions, "why don't you ask the church leaders" I doubt they even know about Free Will Choice in man. Every "preacher, teacher, minister, and the likes as they like to be called, preach salvation, salvation all the time. It is good to do so for the young Christian, (I am not talking about children, I am talking about the ones "young spiritually"), but they do not feed their "flock" the meat of Gods Word. When you are a child you need the milk of the Word, but you do grow up and you then need the meat to keep growing. It is very hard to find someone preach out of the Old Testamant because they do not know it. The Old and New Testament go hand in hand. Christ said in the Book of Psalms and I will paraphase it so you will understand it, "the volume of the Book, (the Bible) is written of me" Hope this answers you question.

Answer 4

You need to understand more of the nature of God and his plan for man... Here is an excerpt from the reference listed below...
God Permits Suffering

First, the Bible affirms that God has chosen to permit suffering. God is the designer of a plan that allowed for sin and suffering. Though God does not approve of sin and its consequences (suffering), nor is He responsible for it, it is here by His permission. In His omniscience (His full knowledge of everything), He knew that the plan He chose, even though it allowed for sin and suffering, ultimately would bring about the greatest good and glory. Nowhere does the Bible suggest that God was overcome by the power of sin; that suffering was forced into His universe against His will. No. He is the sovereign who "works all things after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11).

Result of Fall

Yet, at the same time, the Bible makes it very clear that all human suffering is the result of the Fall. Our suffering is directly related to the curse that came upon the earth as the result of sin. With sin came corruption, suffering and death (see Gen. 2:17; 3:17; Rom. 5:12; 8:20-22). This is not to say that every occurrence of suffering in our lives is direct punishment for our personal sins. This misconception causes much undue self-castigation. It was the mentality of Job's friends who did their best to convince Job that his suffering was a result of some unadmitted wickedness. It was also the popular conclusion among the Jews at the time of Christ--a view He clearly refuted (see Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-3).

Christians Suffer

Third, we come to the reality that we often find the most troubling. God has not chosen to spare even His children from the consequences of living in a fallen world. Living godly lives does enable the believer to avoid some of the unnecessary suffering that others bring upon themselves by ignoring God's moral and spiritual laws. Yes Christians do get sick and die. Christians are robbed and raped. They have accidents. They lose loved ones in fires, earthquakes and hurricanes. And it seems at times that believers suffer more than the wicked. (See the testimony of Asaph in Psalm 73.)

In addition to the natural calamities of life, believers suffer persecution because of Jesus Christ. The New Testament does not proclaim the health and wealth "gospel" that is so popular in 20th-century evangelicalism. The sooner we accept the reality that we are living in a fallen world with its suffering, the sooner we will be able to get on with living effectively for the Lord.

Perhaps at this point you are asking, Well, it sounds like the Bible teaches fatalism--whatever will be will be. So why fight it?

This is not a proper biblical perspective either. We are not expected just to take it on the chin without a whimper. The Bible urges us to do what we can to relieve suffering. We are to "visit orphans and widows" (James 1:27), "use a little wine for the sake of your stomach" (1 Tim. 5:23), " to be generous and ready to share" (6:18). We have a social responsibility when it comes to suffering.

We are also urged to cry out to God, to petition Him who loves us. We have a God "who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think " (Eph. 3:20). He is the God of the miraculous. He is able either to prevent or remove the cause of our suffering if it is His will to do so. We are also called to live wisely. Some of our problems could be avoided if we would live consistently by the principles of wisdom in the Word of God. Sometimes we are only reaping what we have sown.

Answer 5

No, the answer is NOT to be found with your church leaders. You'll just get a long rambling homily, the gist of which is that it's a test of some sort. As if a beneficient God would create the human race merely to amuse Himself by "testing" them.

Ever read the Bible? I don't necessarily recommend it, but I have to wonder sometimes whether people who call themselves "christians" have ever actually cracked it. The God depicted in its pages is not merely aloof to the sufferings of His people, He savagely and brutally tortures them Himself for every trifling misgiving.

Maybe the answer is that if God exists, He's not the temperamental father-figure orthodox religion leads us to believe He is.

Answer 6

I'm sure I will get alot of thumbs down for this..... First, people need to understand what/who God is. God is not a separate entity from us. All living things make up the God force; humans, animals, plants, earth, etc. This is the meaning of Emmanuel - God with us..... Secondly, we are living a human experience to learn that we NEED love.... not falling in the emotion of love, but love as a power..... Unforfunately, people learn the biggest lessons from challenging times. When life is so difficult, we have the opportunity to learn how wrong and unfair it is and we can become more kind, compassionate, patient, etc.......... The American poet Maya Angelou said that she thanks God when she is faced with a challenge because she knows that she is about to graduate to a higher level........ Jesus said that he did not come here to bring peace ---- yes read that again in Matthew 10:34 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword"...... We are meant to endure life's tribulations, learning and teaching simultaneously. We learn from our mistakes (sins). That's why everyone must sin. We're human - we make mistakes.

Answer 7

Because God has given us free will. We can use this will to love or fear.

Life here on earth is just a school of experience. We are all spiritual beings having a material experience. Our souls descend into matter and are learning through experience. Their is no death of the soul only material death, you, your soul continues on and may come back to learn more lessons. Eventually we will learn to lighten our hearts by loving each other which will help us return to our origins with God.

Answer 8

God has the power over death and he will resurrect all those who have died innocently. He will also undo all the bad effects of these events for the others who have suffered. He is a loving God and it is important that we learn from this time that he is allowing us to rule ourselves and Satan and the demons to cause us misery.

Answer 9

I'm sure there is a reason. The Bible gives examples of God intervening in some cases. What if He had killed Hitler, could something worse have happened?

Answer 10

Know that GOD is a Gracious, Loving & Merciful GOD.
He gave us free will.
All the harm and violence in the world unfortunately comes from those who choose their free will under the worst circumstances.
You also have to realize that Satan is real, he influences many. Many accept the disgust and sin of Satan.
Know that GOD does intervene each and everyday that the sun rises and sets. Every day that the oxygen that we breathe is abundantly available.
Often time’s people view miracles as something that is so big and easily seen. But true miracles are miracles that many do not notice. Courage, Wisdom and Understanding and most of all true Compassion in a world that is truly corrupt, are miracles.
How is that God can create us out of love and his image, Send his Son Jesus and people will not except his teachings and his purpose, but yet when things happen we are quick to blame GOD.
We all sin and fall short, and will continue to fall short because we were born into sin and live in sin. No one not anyone is free of committing sin. Often times we believe doing the right thing loving our family and friends is the right thing or a Godly thing, yet our hearts cannot show compassion to a stranger on the street. Or we may get irritated with a simple cashier who may take forever to ring you up fast enough, that’s not showing true patience. We may also, choose whom we love and do not love. Not showing unconditional love.
Think of it this way if you have children or you are a child…. The child is of age or not but they choose to do something to someone that you have explained is wrong and what the consequences may be for them, you or their selves. But yet, they still CHOOSE OUT OF THEIR FREE WILL TO COMPLETE THAT incorrect or harmful thing.
You may chastise them; you may intervene to stop them. BUT their free will of choice, enables them to do what ever they choose. Their consciences mind told them don’t do it, THAT IS GOD INTERVENING. But they still choose to do it… See GOD JUST SHOWED THEM Understanding, AND Grace. And continued to love them, because he allowed them to exercise their Free Will.
Because of sin We all make bad, wrong, or unacceptable choices. Some way or another.
That is why GOD sent HIS SON JESUS so that we may see his example of living. Through Him we are made perfect in GODS SIGHT.
When sin entered the world GOD showed his GRACE&MERCY.
He sent JESUS CHRIST. GOD knew that we could not stay on the right path and would always fall short. So GOD just asked us one easy task, TO EXCEPT HIS SON JESUS.
So the next time you hear or see cruelty do not think that GOD is not intervening because HE ALREADY HAS. But there are those who choose the free will of sin and not free will of JESUS CHRIST>

Answer 11

It's the question of centuries, and the only answer that's somewhat satisfied me is the fact that God created the universe and people and free will. He's not going to intervene everytime someone is crossing the road, stepping on something sharp, getting into danger, etc. He set the world up and gave people free will to govern their own lives and the ability to influence life for better or worse, for themselves or for others. It's been set up for US to do with it what we will. If there are atrocities the people who are outraged have free will to unite and put an end to it. Disease can be fought if people would will to spend money to further science and medicine rather than to vote for war mongers that destroy instead of create (and they do this in the name of being PRO LIFE!!!) It's our free will and we have more power than we give ourselves credit for, to change things for the better.
Thank you for asking it. I've asked this questions many many times in my life.