Why does God let bad things happen?
Almost everyone who has watched a war, a hospital ward, or a funeral has asked the same thing: if God is good and God is strong, why does He let this happen? The writers in this collection do not dodge the question — they trace suffering back to its source, then show what God is doing with it, and what He has already done about it at the cross.
Where the pain came from
The first answer is not about God's character but about the world's choice. One writer, facing the same question during a war, points back to the beginning:
J. T. MawsonGod is good, ten thousand times ten thousand voices bear witness to His goodness, but the world as such has rejected God, and despised the riches of His goodness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that His goodness would lead them to repentance (Rom. 2:4), and has chosen to follow Satan, the adversary, instead of God. In Eden Adam listened to the voice of Satan and turned his back on God, and by that act of disobedience sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
Consequences we brought on ourselves
Much of what we call unexplained suffering is simply the harvest of what was planted. A commentator writing in 1916 put it bluntly — and then asked why a good God would let a child feel the burn at all:
A. J. PollockWhy does God allow a child to burn its finger when it thrusts it into the fire? To teach it to avoid fire in the future. To avoid a recurrence of the pain. To avoid a greater catastrophe. The child knows no better, and yet it has to learn its lesson.
But this principle can be pressed too far, and Job's friends pressed it. The mistake is to make it the whole story:
William KellyIt is a positive principle of God's righteous government that evil never can be indulged in without bringing on it the solemn dealing of His hand, though room is left for the distinct working and even suffering of grace. It is true, not only in the future, but also in the present, that one reaps as one sows. But is it the sole or the whole truth? Is God limited to His government? In no way. That was where Eliphaz and his companions were wrong.
Permitted, but never out of His hands
Some try to protect God's goodness by limiting His power. Commentators here reject that trade:
Alfred E. BouterIn 1983 a famous Rabbi in the US, Harold Kushner, published a book about the problem of suffering. In it he suggested that we should not blame God for sufferings (which is right); then he goes on to say that God is good, but that He cannot help it when evil happens to His people (which, of course, is a wrong thesis)... God not only allows adverse circumstances, He is even in full control and uses them to form believers in His school.
The same holds even when the pain is caused by human cruelty:
Leslie M. GrantBlessed is that faith that looks far deeper than the surface of things, to see that every bit of trial and affliction, though it may be caused by the grossest wickedness of men, is under the perfect control of our God and Father, being the very thing our own souls need to form them in the pattern God has planned.
Not punishment — correction
Trouble in a believer's life is often read as anger. Commentators say it is more often a father's hand, and they describe what it is prying loose:
Edward DennettLike vines, our poor hearts send out tendrils in all directions, winding themselves around this and that object; and then the Father permits trials or persecutions, or it may be sickness, to come in and snap these ties to objects other than Christ, and by the discovery of Himself and His love to us in these dealings of His hand, He seeks to wean us from everything that might hinder our progress, and to draw us more fully to Himself.
The charge of indifference, answered
If God does nothing about evil, He can be accused of not caring. The cross is offered as the standing reply:
James BoydSin is seen to be that cursed thing that God cannot tolerate, but the thing He must condemn wherever it is found. He can never now be charged with indifference to sin... The cross has vindicated Him against every charge of being indifferent to sin.
Why evil is still running
The obvious follow-up is why He hasn't stopped it yet. The delay is read as mercy, not neglect:
F. B. HoleThe reason for the long waiting time is not slackness but patience. The second coming will mean the striking of a tremendous blow in judgment. This, though necessary, is no joy to God. He does not desire that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
What stays unexplained — and how it ends
Honesty about the limits of our understanding runs right through these writers:
An Outline of Sound WordsIt is not always possible for us to understand why He should allow wicked men to persecute and kill His saints and His servants. We do know that God allows these things for the purifying of His people, and that all His actions towards His own are in the perfection of His love and wisdom.
The final answer is not an argument but an ending — and note who does the wiping:
Walter ScottIf He wipes away every tear, then He removes every cause and occasion of sorrow. The tear-drop will never again glisten in the eye.
Summary
- Cause. Suffering entered when the world turned from God in Eden; sin came in, and death with it. God is not the author of the trouble.
- Control. He does not merely fail to stop evil — He permits it and governs it, using even human wickedness to shape His people.
- Correction. For believers, trials are usually not punishment but a Father's pruning, snapping the ties that bind the heart to lesser things.
- Cross. The charge that God is indifferent to evil dies there; He condemned sin in His own Son rather than tolerate it.
- Conclusion. Judgment is delayed only by patience, so that people may repent — and it ends with God Himself wiping away every tear.