Why-if there is a benevolent God who loves everyone-do horrible things happen to totally innocent people?

Question

The "free will" concept clearly has no bearing on these events...so why is it that everything good/positive that happens is ascribed to "god'-and everything bad that happens is ascribed to "something else" (even be it the hapless victim his/herself)...this makes NO sense at all! I feel that the ancients were on the right track-viewing human events as simply the result of moves made upon the gods' chess board...

Answer 1

First, in part
because we live in a sin cursed broken world

Second, in part
God is not only loving and benevolent... that is one aspect of his Character God is complex and can have complex desires. Desires for justice and mercy at the same time.

Third,
God is in fact only benevolent when his wrath is satisfied... then only his loving intentions remain... and this only happens for people who glorify GOd leaning on the work of Jesus on the cross believing for eternal life.

Answer 2

1) begged question on free will. It does have a bearing just not the one you think.

2) begged question again that everything good is ascribed to god and everything bad is ascribed to something else. First, did you see the headlines on 9/11 "why God why?" and take a look at your own question.

3) You assume that this world is all there is. God is far more concerned about you in eternity than he is here in time. However, that does not mean he is not concerned with you here in time. He is truly saddened by suffering. He made a provision for it in His son so that you would not suffer needlessly for all eternity.

4) Suffering here is given meaning only by God. Without him suffering is meaningless. With Him then as you suffer you gain maturity and understanding and grow to be able to assist others through their suffering.

5) Now on to the free will. It is free will that brought suffering into the world in the first place. With it God gave provision to find meaning and relief both here and eternity.

Answer 3

This question always brings a smile to my face.

Do you think it's odd that after performing a query of the both the KJV and the NIV Bibles, the word "benevolent" was not found.

No results were found for benevolent in the version(s):New American Standard Bible.
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No results were found for benevolent in the version(s):King James Version.
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The bible doesn't teach us that God is all benevolent, but it does teach us that God is:

just, faithful, loving and keeps His promises, etc.

And He, the verys same God explained His faithfulness even to His own Words right in the beginning of the book in Genesis. Do as I say or I will bring my wrath upon you. (It's His show, and it is just the way it goes)

Also, God searches the contents of the heart, the inner places that people like you and I can't see.

So, in some cases what may look innocent to us, God may not agree. And He never promised anyone a life free of trials and tribulations, or to live forever in their earthly bodies.

To me the text in the Bible plainly states, that God should not be viewed as exclusively benevolent. Because He is not.

Answer 4

This is one of the most common questions of any thinking individual. The truth is that all of us are here to be tested to see if we will live according to every word that comes forth from God. In order for us to be tested, there has to be choices to make and hardships to face. Plus, there is opposition in all things good provided by the adversary, Satan. Thus, many times, innocent people are hurt by the bad choices of others. Evil is always encroaching on the good. God could protect us from all the evil, but then we would not learn anything from our mortal experience. Mortality is a test where we learn from our experiences and if the test has an answer sheet beside it, then the test taker learns nothing. It is not the pedestrian's fault when a drunk driver speeds through the red light and crushes the pedestrian. The driver's bad choice impacted the pedestrians life in a very finite way. The pedestrian graduates to the spiritual realm of existence and the driver will have to answer for his/her very bad choice to drink and drive and to ignore the red light. This is a simple example but the principle can be extended to nearly all seemingly unjust situations. Do soldiers who are forced into military service really want to shoot other people? Mostly not. Did the soldiers start the conflict? Certainly not. The wicked designs of the country leaders that started the conflict will one day have to answer for the very bad decisions they made that caused so much harm and misery to so many people.
Rest assured that God is just and will recompense good for good and evil for evil. The wicked will not get away with their wickedness for ever. The good and innocent that have to suffer for the bad acts of others, will be blessed in the eternal realms. I know that doesn't give a lot of comfort in the here and now but it helps.

Answer 5

I do not know any totally innocent people. Most people blame God when things go wrong and say how can God let this happen. Things that happen due to weather I can understand you questioning, but most things happen because a person(s) makes a decision (freewill), unfortunately your freewill may have a negative effect on someone else such as a spouse or child.
My question to you is what do YOU do when something bad happens to others? Do you help them, do you understand they are going through a tough time, do you open your heart, home, pocketbook, etc to them? Or do you nod your head and say "Why does God allow bad things to happen to people?"

Answer 6

Because God is trying to prove a point to the Angels, Humans and Satan, one that Satan himself brought up in the Bible. That is: Why shouldn't the angels and humans have the right to govern themselves? So, God is allowing a time frame for this to happen. While this is happening, "bad things WILL HAPPEN to good people." Its inevitable. The reason God is allowing us time for us to rule ourselves is to prove "once and for all times," that we are not capable of it. That we need his guidance and foresight to stay out of trouble. However, if he had shot satan down, all the angels would have thought, "hmm, maybe he had something there . . ." However, now, 6,000 years later, a history full of misery, the point is clearly made, we cannot direct our own footsteps, much less rule ourselves. The NEXT time someone questions Gods right to rule, he can quickly stamp it out and say, "look, it was given a chance and it never worked." Our suffering is to basically prove a point, once and for all time.

Even the scriptures say a day will come when this time of suffering will "never be brought to mind."

Answer 7

What you've stated is the Problem of Evil. It's a very powerful argument against the existence of God.

Many people would say that evil only happens because of free will, though: you can't dismiss it so easily. That if God didn't give us choices, we'd just be robots, and what would be the point of that?

Some people deny that evil exists. Everything we see is part of God's plan, which we can't know. Overall, the ultimate plan works out for good.

However, I'm with you: the existence of bad things throws a big monkey wrench in the idea of an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient God.

Answer 8

I can't in this small space resolve millenia of debate about free will vs. God's sovereignty. But the question, "why do bad things happen to good people" might be a bit misleading. If we say, "all have sinned" (Rom 3.23), then who is out there that doesn't deserve exactly what they get when something "bad" happens to them? A good question to ask may be, "why do good things happen to bad people" (like me)? The answer is short, simple, and contradictory to my understanding: "God's grace."

If I don't like how my brother treats me, I can go to my mommy. If I don't like the way my mommy treats me, I can go to the police. If the police don't treat me well, I can go to the Supreme Court. And so on. But what if I don't like how God runs the show? God can do whatever he wants to whenever he pleases. Nebuchadnezzar puts it another way in Daniel 4.35: "all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” "

Answer 9

I think you are mistaken when you say good things equate to god and bad things are "something else." When a flood, hurricane, or tornado destroys your house, car, etc, it is covered under insurance as an "act of god." Clearly, those are not positive things.

"Act of God or act of nature is a legal term for events outside of human control, such as sudden floods or other natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible. This does not protect those who put others in danger of acts of God through negligence, such as a camp counselor who instructs a group of children on a hike to stand under a tree to escape a lightning storm.

In the law of contracts, an "act of God" may be interpreted as an implied defense under the rule of impossibility, i.e., the promise is discharged because of unforeseen, naturally occurring events that were unavoidable and which would result in insurmountable delay, expense or other material breach. In other contracts, such as indemnification, an act of God may be no excuse, and in fact may be the central risk assumed by the promisor, e.g., flood insurance or crop insurance; the only variables being the timing and extent of the damage. In many cases, failure by way of ignoring obvious risks due to "natural phenomena" will not be sufficient to excuse performance of the obligation, even if the events are relatively rare, e.g., Y2K problems in computers. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, §2-615, failure to deliver goods sold may be excused by an "act of God" if the absence of such act was a "basic assumption" of the contract, but has made the delivery commercially "impracticable.""

Answer 10

I like to think of the world as a clock. God made this clock and wound it up and it sits in his workroom keeping time. Sometimes God has to take out a few cogs to clean it, sometimes his cat might knock it over.

A cog is just a cog man, and a cog can't see the clock and a cog can't know why it is being taken out of the clock or why there is a new cog that is bigger or shinier.

We all have our parts to play even if we don't know what they are.

edit: or maybe god is just a jerk and likes to shake up the clock like a little kid playing with an ant farm.