Quote:
Originally posted by Toya
Why does god let bad things happen to good people?
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What is your definition of a good person?
The Bible says that nobody here is good, we're all sinners, but I understand your question. To answer your question you need to know what sin is.
The bad that you see in the the world is the result of sin. God is good, holy, just and righteous, and his will is too. Sin is everything contrary to that. When God created the world, it and everything in it were perfect and sinless, even Adam and Eve. In other words, everything and everybody followed God's will. But God also created Adam and Eve with freewill. Why? Because he wanted a real, authentic relationship with them, and true love requires a decision, it isn't forced. God wanted Adam and Eve to choose him, he never wanted them to experience suffering or pain, but true freedom demands an option to both choose him or reject him. When Adam and Eve decided to disobey God, they introduced sin, or man's will, into the world. In other words, they introduced, evil, death, pain, suffering, sickness, etc. None of that existed when they were in God presences, but all of that naturally followed when they were no longer in the presence of God. Since we are all descendants of Adam and Eve we too have free-will, and like with Adam and Eve God will honor our choices. Man decides to murder, rape, steal, lie, etc. If God stopped everybody, he would be forcing his will on them. And he's made it clear that he won't violate your freedom to choose.
With that said, a day is coming when God will put a stop to all the evil, wickedness, pain, suffering, death, etc. Those who choose God will be with him in eternity, or heaven, and those reject God will be eternally separated from him, or in hell. Notice how the choice is ours? Our death seals our decision, because while our flesh is temporary, our spirit is eternal. The only thing stopping him from doing it right now is his great love for man, even though most hate him. He desires to save as many people from being eternally separated from him (or going to hell) as possible.
Since God is Holy and Just he cant tolerate sin. If he did, he wouldn't be holy and just. So anybody who has sinned against God does not deserve to be in his presence, meaning they don't deserve to go to heaven, meaning they deserve to go to hell. But because God loved us so much, he made a way for man to be redeemed: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."(John 3:16). But again, he's given man the choice. And while he doesn't want them to suffer (like he didn't want Adam and Eve to suffer), he'll owner your choice to either choose him or reject him.
