If God Is So Loving, “Why Does He Do and/or allow Bad Things To Happen To Good People?”
Incorrect assumption Number #1 Is “God Is The One Doing”
The Three Reasons Bad Things Happen
1. The Fall (Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden)
2. The Enemy (Satan)
3. The Choices We Make (Free Will)
1. The Fall
Short over view of the Fall:
God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden. He told them they could eat of any tree in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He warned them if they ate from that tree they would be separated from Him. They chose to eat of it anyway. Because they disobeyed Him and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they were separated from God and misfortune and adversity came into the earth.
And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden [of Eden]; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Die means spiritually separated from God and eventually physical death.
Genesis 2:16-17
They were deceived by Satan and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Because they ate from the tree God told them what would happen: “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:17b-19
And subsequently they had to leave the Garden of Eden. The curse is still here today.
Cursed means misfortune and adversity. Since man is made from the dirt he will have misfortune. God is love and does not cause bad things to happen to people.
2. The Enemy
Satan (the devil, the thief) does Not discriminate. He shows No mercy In Any Situation
Jesus speaking: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]”
John 10:10 AMP
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
1 Peter 5:8-10
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:8
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11
3. The Choices We Make (Free Will)
The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s;
But the earth He has given to the children of men.
Psalm 115:16
I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
Deuteronomy 30:19
“Love” Is Only Love When It Accompanies Free Will
Love Cannot Exist Outside of Free Will, love has to accompany Free Will
Example: “You Cannot Force Someone To Love You”
Before the ‘Fall’ man only knew good. After the ‘Fall’ man knows about good and evil and consequently can choose to commit good and evil acts.
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Incorrect Assumption Number #2 is “Man Is Good Without God“
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 3:23
The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
Jeremiah 17:9-10
The Born Again Believer
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
Once a person is born again their new spirit is no longer separated from God. However, the body still dies.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT
Definition of Love
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 corinthians 13:4-7
God is love! There is nothing we can do to cause Him to love us more or love us less. Therefore He can not cause bad things to happen to people.
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17 NLT
This is how you can get saved (born again) and have enteral life. (Jesus mentions ‘born again’ in John 3:1-8)
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Romans 10:9-10 NIV