Why does God let bad things happen to good people?

Question

But then again is anybody really a good person?

If it is to test us is that not very cruel?
God is supposed to be a loving Father type figure why would he test us so?

Answer 1

All people, christians and non-christians grow old and die and many die from unforeseen circumstances. The reason bad things happen to anyone, is because of God's enemy, Satan the devil. He challenged God's right to rule over the earth and said that humans do not need God and could rule themselves independently without God's help. God is answering Satans challenge by allowing man to try to live without his interference. Satan also said that humans would discontinue serving God if he( Satan and his demons)) were allowed to cause them pain and suffering. There have been and still are many who are proving Satan to be a liar, who love and serve God faithfully, despite whatever persecution Satan brings upon them.
What has been the result of man ruling man without God intervening? Suffering and injustice, wars, crime and hatred.
God has promised to soon rid the earth of all those things and to destroy Satan and all who follow him. Satan will lose the challenge and be proved a liar. By remaining faithful to the end, we show that we are on God's side and prefer his rule over man's.
We need a righteous ruler who will be just and merciful. Human rulers can do nothing for us. (Psalm 146:3)
Look what Psalms 37:9-11 promises us--" For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."
Soon the meek who inherit this earth will be under one government that will last forever. (See Daniel 2:44) No more will we have to put up with imperfect human rulers who can never bring an end to injustice, crime, terrorism or death itself. God's government will do all that and more.

Answer 2

Many theories have been put forward. Some say it is a test, some say a punishment, others say it is a way to let us truly experience life, while yet more say it is a simple pummelling of us into submission.

Assuming you're talking about an all-powerful, infallible and loving God (while I personally understand it to be an impersonal and less potent entity, most people don't share my views), perhaps the most acceptable way of looking at it is that it is an unfortunate consequence of God's refusal to play favourites in a world where some humans are less empathetic than others. He doesn't step in when good people are harmed because such actions are a lesson for those who do the harming.

That is little comfort to those who prefer to live a good life, and is in sore contrast with God favouring those who follow his path. Perhaps the reason why it sounds more reasonable, though, is that it encorporates deliberate inaction; arguably the most appropriate stance to attribute to a perfect personal God in the modern world.

Answer 3

The Bible states that in the begining, every thing was good, there was no sin, no suffering and no death. When man chose to disobey God, sin came inot the world and Sin brings about suffering. Ther problems that we see today arent the product of a God sitting in heaven throwing lightining bolts at us, we brought this condemnation upon ourselves. Why does God let these things happen? he lets them happen now because if he came back and dealt with al sin at this very moment, all unregenerate siners would perish in a puff of smoke. God isnt wiling that any should perish, so he is patiently waiting hopoing that we will repent (turn from our sins) and turn tward him.
You posed a wonderful question, "are we good people?". The word "good" is so relative that a Robber could say hes a god person because he hasnt rodded a bank in three months, or a rapist because he hasnt raped in five years. The Defininton of ":good" given to us by God is not relative, but rather the word good means "moral perfection." lets look at a few of the Ten Commandments to see How we do on Judgement day when judged by Gods standard.........

Have you ever lied (even once--fibs, white lies, etc.)? Ever stolen (anything--the value is irrelevant)? Jesus said, "Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart." Have you ever looked with lust? If you have said "Yes" to these three questions, by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving, adulterer at heart; and the BIble says "he who hates his brother is a murderer" Have you ever hated someone? Beariing in mind that Nothing you’ve ever done is hid from His holy eyes. Will you be innocent or guilty on the Day of Judgment? Listen to your conscience. You know that you will be guilty, and the punishment for your sin is an eternity in hell. That should grealty concern you because you love your life. but theres good news, God sent His Son to take our punishment: "God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He was bruised for our iniquities. Jesus then rose from the dead and defeated death.
Your own so-called “goodness” can’t get you into heaven any more than mine could. Jesus is the only way to Heaven. He is the "Door," the only "mediator." There is salvation in no other name and If you will repent (forsake your sins) and place your faith and trsut in Jesus as you would trust a parachute, God will forgive you of all your sins past, present and futer and he will grant you the gift of everlasting life.
God Bless
WDJD

Answer 4

I suppose, to give a christian-friendly answer..... because "God" is flawless and faultless... and thus nothing he does can be "bad" in any way.... which is precisely why it is ok for him to commit genocide at regular intervals throughout the old testament. He makes the rules and is the exception to all of them.


THAT would be the logical conclusion I'd reach based on the rest of stuff christians preach.
The really funny thing is that this question and its subsequent responses from religious people should prove that christians cannot even use logic nor reason when its in their favour.... which isn't often.

They should be glad that despite my antitheistic attitude, I insist on being fair when it is due.

Answer 5

Being a "good" person, why does that make me more special than anyone else? If you, as a non-Christian, are going to suffer cancer, why am I so much more special as not to?
We are all God's children and although I know he has helped me in my life, I do not feel as though I am the "chosen" one. We're all on this earth to learn.
And you're right - what is a "good" person really? I havne't met many "bad" ones. We're all in it together, suffering the consquences of living on this planet.

Answer 6

Your right no one is we all have our faults!!!
But God is not in my understanding, automatically involved in our lives. As many philosophers have said and argued passionately for, the freedom to make choices belongs to no one except individuals, so for God to force his way into our lives would be tantamount to being a dictator and would be very "Un-Godlike" behaviour.
God does not reserve a right to control our decisions or stop the consequences. So that means that as autonomous beings bad things can happen to us and we take the consequences, weather seen or unseen, of thousands of actions every day. We are autonomous beings who live alongside God (and may be helped by God without us knowing) but we are accepting all the responsibility for our decisions/actions and consequences until God is involved.
Even then one cant expect all the bad things to end (as if you led a false and charmed life), but you can know that the worst and most hurtful decisions you have made are removed from you spiritually and Jesus has taken the blame in the most painful way possible.
Could you imagine being shot by police/killed by authorities when you had done nothing wrong? That is what Christians believe was planned by God for Jesus, and the agony of choosing to die and not hiding himself away from the authorities when he was a wanted man by all the religious leaders, is what made Jesus sacrifice so valid and complete in dealing with all our self destructive ways. Its kind of like one righteous life for many imperfect ones, but the righteousness of Jesus life and who he was, Gods son, meant God was able to use his life as a perfectly adequate sacrifice to cleanse our minds and hearts. I am NOT saying that Christians are perfect, but that we is how we believe God comes into our lives!

Answer 7

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

I do believe that would be cruel if it was a test honestly I don't think God makes anything good or bad happen to a person I think we do it to ourselves, in my opinion God is here to help guide us down the right path in life when we need it not to do good or bad to us again we do that to ourselves.

Answer 8

We have to take the good with the bad, God lets us live life, we make choices because he's given us free will to do so. If the choices are bad ones, and (we perhaps forgot or didnt bother to pray for guidance and wisdom) then we live with the bad consequences. Sometimes bad things happen with or without our choice in the matter, but these are growing pains in our lives, without these, we'd never learn or grow stronger and enriched inside. We'd remain empty shells just going through the motions day by day.

Answer 9

To test us , would be much of a test if you got handed a dollar bill for every good thing you do and a kick up the pants for the bad ,could be other reasons too

Answer 10

We live in the world we created. God gave us the chance to live in His world. That's the heart of the Adam and Eve story. There's God's way and then there's everything else. If you're not living God's way, you're not following the intentions of why we were created. If you live in a broken world, bad things are going to happen to you.