If God is good and all-powerful, why do bad things still happen?
When tragedies happen like the massive forest fire that recently wreaked havoc in the city of Fort McMurray, AB, it is inevitable that people ask these and other similar questions - Where was God? and Why did God allow this to happen? Both are valid questions that deserve a thoughtful response.
I'll begin by asking this question - what kind of world did God choose to create? While a number of models have been proposed in response to this question, many of which deserve attention, I'll briefly outline two of the most popular viewpoints - those that exist on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Determinism model
In this view, God is seen as the sole cause of everything that happens in the world - in your life and mine. The primary feature of determinism is that of unilateral control and meticulous sovereignty.
The concept has sometimes been referred to as the blueprint model whereby God ordains, decrees, and brings to pass everything that happens and nothing outside of God has any say-so in what happens.
As it relates to the problem of suffering, as the sole cause of all that happens, God is seen as the author of both the good and bad. Consequently, we can attribute all murder, suicide, war, genocide, rape, etc, to God’s all-controlling power in the world.
Slogans people typically use that portray a deterministic viewpoint are:
“Everything happens for a reason.”
“It was meant to be.”
Problems with the determinism model
- It attributes all suffering to God as the source of everything that happens.
- It doesn’t take into account the decisions and actions of other agents – human and otherwise.
- It makes any idea of freedom to be an illusion.
- It renders any form of judgment meaningless.
Love/free will model
Love is at the center of this model. God created a world in which human and non-human agents can freely decide to love and obey him, while freely loving others. However, in order for love to be genuine, it has to be free. If love is in any way forced, coerced or manipulated, it is no longer love.
In this model, people can freely choose to love God and others - or not. God cannot manipulate or determine that a person will love him because to do so would undermine the essence of love.
Love has to be free in order for it to be real. Click To TweetHowever, in choosing to create this kind of world, God also ran the risk that people could choose not to love him. God ran the risk that people could choose evil over good, because love demands the freedom to choose. And, God will not revoke this freedom just because we may choose to use it in evil ways.
Why? Because God respects the integrity of our freedom.
In this model, love lies at the center and freedom is the natural result of love.
God decided to create a world where human beings, and other agents, have the capacity and freedom both to freely love God in return and obey him or not to love God and disobey him. Such a model also entails the risk that people can choose evil rather than good - and many have.
Therefore, while we can say that God can be held indirectly responsible for the suffering in the world he created, where the possibility for suffering exists, he is not to be blamed for the actual existence of evil. That responsibility rests on our shoulders (and Satan) for voluntarily moving away from God's very best intentions for us as his creation, resulting in widespread decay and death.
We have no more reason to hold God morally responsible for the evil his creatures bring about than we do to hold parents morally responsible for the evil of their adult children...God cannot therefore be blamed for what free agents do, even though he is the one who gave them freedom (Greg Boyd, Is God to Blame? pg. 117).
To grant human beings real freedom was to grant us the awful dignity of making real choices with real consequences (John Stackhouse, Can God be Trusted? pg. 72).
Love involves freedom and freedom involves choice and choice involves the risk that people can sometimes choose to act in unloving ways, resulting in a plethora of negative consequences.
Why doesn't God intervene and change things?
This question can only be answered adequately by referring back to the original question - what kind of world did God choose to create?
If God decided to create a world where love is possible, he effectively ruled out a world in which his will can always be accomplished. In this kind of world, God cannot guarantee that his will is always done; not because he lacks the power to change things, but because of the kind of world he chose to create; a world centered on love and freedom.
God will not revoke our freedom even when we act in unloving ways. Click To TweetJesus’ most famous prayer include these words, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” To pray for God’s will to be done means that there will be times when God’s will will not be done because genuine love involves choice.
This means that God will not revoke our freedom even when we act in unloving ways. If God were to revoke our freedom every time we used it in evil ways, we would not be truly free.
But God respects the integrity of our freedom, even when we use it in unloving ways.
Were God to compel us to make only good choices, then we would not be making choices at all, but merely following God’s directions as a computer executes a program. Were God to allow us to make choices but then constantly intervene to prevent anything bad from resulting from those choices, it is difficult to see how those choices would have integrity and significance (John Stackhouse, Can God be Trusted? Pg. 72).
True freedom entails risk because love entails risk (i.e., like a parent and a child).
But, God did intervene - in Christ.
Christ suffered on the cross as though he were responsible for evil. And, his resurrection and victory over death ensures our victory as well, launching new creation then and there to be fully realized at his return.
So, God did intervene. And, one day his victory will be fully realized. In that day, Jesus will completely eradicate evil and renew all things. The consequences of sin will be done away with and the renewed creation will be unveiled before our eyes. And, there will be no more suffering, crying or pain.
Until then, we hold on to hope and we pray - "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
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