Why do bad things happen to good people? In our previous two episodes, we’ve been considering some very difficult questions for which, in my more than 40 years of being in the ministry, and more than that of being a Christian, I’ve never come up with a answer or read an answer or heard an answer that fully satisfied me. I get some degree of understanding, but not as much as I would like.

Of course, that agrees with what Paul said. Paul said, “We’re looking through a glass darkly or dimly.” That is, imagine that that’s our perception of things. We don’t understand or see everything. It’s not all clear to us. We’re looking through a glass that’s fogged over, and we can make out some stuff on the other side of that glass, but we can’t see as much as we want. This is one of those questions. Why do bad things happen to good people?

Good People?

Well, first of all, we’ve got to question about the ‘good people’ part, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23).

Very few of us could say, “I deserve better treatment.” No, we’re all getting better treatment than we deserve, okay?

If it wasn’t for the mercy and grace of God, you and I would have been french fries a long time ago, and we often take that mercy for granted.

The Example of Job

But why do bad things happen to good people? The primary example of that happening would be Job. He was the best person on the earth, according to God Himself, and some very bad things happened to him. It was to test him to see if he would serve God and love God even if God didn’t bless him. That’s quite a test. Something to think about when we suffer difficulties, because some people do give up on God when they face difficulties. “Why is God allowing this?”

Think of all the Christians down through the years who have suffered martyrdom or imprisonment or severe persecution for their faith. They all have to at least have the thought, at some time or another, “Why, God, if you love me, are you letting me go through this?” Paul had to reassure some of those Christians, saying, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God, the love of Christ: persecution, tribulation, distress, peril, all those things, nothing can separate us from the love of God” (see Romans 8). And you have to believe that when you don’t feel like it.

If God allows you to go through difficulties, or face tests, it doesn’t change the fact that Jesus died for you, and God loves you, and He may be testing you. That could be a possible reason why bad things happen to good people.

How to Respond When Others Suffer

There’s a passage of Scripture in Luke 13.

Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him [Jesus] about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. – v. 1

We don’t know the details of that event, but there were people from Galilee who came to Jerusalem to make some sacrifices, and somehow, they wound up being slaughtered by Pilate with their sacrifices. And it wasn’t Pilate himself, it was obviously his soldiers, or somebody under his authority.

And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? – v.2

Well, no doubt, if Jesus’ audience had been entirely honest, many of them would have said, “Well, yes. God is sovereign. God controls everything. Why would God ever allow such a terrible thing to happen to these people if they didn’t deserve it? And obviously, they’re worse culprits than the average person. We don’t know what their sins were, but obviously their fate reveals that they are bad guys, and they got what they deserved.”

A False Assumption

Well, Jesus, the Son of God, God in the flesh, says to that assumption, “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (v. 3).

But He doesn’t answer the question. Just like He didn’t answer the question (fully, in my understanding) why the man was born blind that we read about in our previous episode and reading from the story in John 9. “No, I tell you.” But then he goes on to warn everybody, “But, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Wow, that’s what Jesus said during a time of calamity. “Let it be a warning to those who survived. Repent of your sins. Turn to the living God with a living faith.”

Jesus didn’t stop there. He goes on to cite another example that would’ve been on everybody’s minds.

Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? – v. 4

If Jesus’ audience would’ve been honest, many of them would have said, “Yes, God’s sovereign. This couldn’t have happened apart from His sovereignty, and so, God is fair, God is just, God is the judge. Obviously, these 18 guys must’ve been deserving of the Tower of Siloam.”

Well, Jesus goes on to say the same thing. “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (v. 5).

The Danger of Judging What We Don’t Understand

Here’s one message. You think they’re worse culprits? No, you’re all equal culprits in God’s eyes. Don’t be assuming that because you were spared, that you weren’t deserving of the same fate.

Now, we don’t know why the Tower of Siloam fell onto 18 guys. Sounds like, obviously, there was chance involved in it. Why would a tower fall on people? Were they building the tower, constructing it, and there was some flaw in their building technique, and a big rock was dislodged, and that caused the collapse of this thing on 18 of the guys who were working? Or were 18 men just standing there in the shade of that tower, and there was a slight earthquake that caused that tower to fall?

Jesus doesn’t give us the answers. He just says, “Let that serve as a warning to you that death can come unexpectedly, at any time, and there’s no formulas here. And I’m not going to give you a formula. I’m not going to even give you insight as to why, but it does happen.” Let’s face it. Around the world, there are accidents, there are natural disasters and so forth, and we do find evidence in Scripture, yes, that some of these things can happen as a result of God’s judgment. He takes credit. “I’m judging you.”

But in these cases here, maybe we shouldn’t be asking why bad things happen to good people, but the exact opposite. Why does anything good happen to anybody? Because we’re all bad. Okay? This is, again, a Little Lesson, and that’s a big question. Thanks for asking it.

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If God knows everything, why do we have passages in the Bible that say things like, “God tested so and so in order to know all that was in his heart”?

Today’s question is a great one because we have passages in the Bible that talk about God testing people in order to find out what was in their hearts. One example that stands out early in the Bible is when God tested Abraham and it actually says God tested Abraham. He told him to go sacrifice his son, Isaac, up on a certain designated mountain. When Abraham lifted his arm to slay his son, the Lord stopped him of course and said, “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Genesis 22:12).

So what’s going on here? If God knows everything, why is He testing people? And why is He saying things like “now I know”? Well, the truth is that God does know everything that there is to know, but if there’s no outcome in some kind of incident involving free moral agents, if there is no choice ever made, how could God know that? It’s not something that can be known because it never happens.

Let me put it this way. Say you ask God “What will be the final score in the game today between the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Penguins?” Well, God would say, “I don’t know,” because there is no game today between those two teams. So, it’s an unknowable thing. There’s not going to be any outcome in the future so there’s nothing for God to know.

So foreknowledge is not quite all that it’s cracked up to be. Let me give you another example. This sometimes helps people to understand this concept. Let us say that you had an amazing ability to predict the outcome of every football game played this football season. And before every single game you announced, “The final score will be,” and lo and behold you were right every single time the entire football season.

That would be amazing and maybe, just maybe, they would say the next season, “Why should we even play these games and risk the injuries and so forth and go through all of the trouble it takes to play these games?  Let’s just gather everybody in the stadiums. We’ll gather the two opposing teams and then we’ll bring you out onto the middle of the field and we’ll ask you who would have won this game today? Because you’ve hit it 100 times out of 100 in the last season and you have this ability to foreknow the future, tell us now. Who would have won the game today and what will you say?” Well, you have to say, “I don’t know because the game isn’t going to be played. And so there is no final score to know and so there’s no final score to foreknow.” You got it?

Okay, great. So when God says, “Now I know,” we can safely assume that He knew, foreknew, long before but the knowledge of the outcome became available to be known and to be foreknown at the outcome. Now, when I’ve explained this, I’ve found that a certain percentage of people can get it and a certain percentage just can’t get it no matter what I say.

But think about what would have happened if God would not have tested Abraham with what is obviously a very serious test. “Go sacrifice your son.” This is a huge test. And the New Testament says that Abraham actually believed God was going to raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). But nevertheless, this is still a huge, huge test. If God had stopped Abraham as he was loading up the donkey with firewood, getting ready to start on the journey, He wouldn’t know for certain whether Abraham would have changed his mind en route to the place of sacrifice, because there’s that possibility, you see?

God could have said “now I know that you certainly are looking like you intend to do this.” But Abraham could understandably change his mind between now and the time when he lifted up his knife to actually slay his son. And so God left him alone all the way to the last minute and then He stopped him and said, “Now I know. There’s no debate as to what’s in your heart.”

And another interesting point revolving around all of this: people think that God knows what’s in our hearts by looking with some kind of X-ray glasses, that He can look down in our hearts and say, “Yes, that person loves me”. Well, maybe God could do that and can do that, but the way that God finds out what’s in our hearts is by looking at what we do. By our actions. That reveals what’s really in our hearts. We sometimes say things like, “Well, we don’t know what’s in their hearts,” this person who just did this horrible dastardly deed, “we don’t know everything that’s in their hearts”. But Jesus said, out of the heart arise all these evil things. Adulteries and murder and fornication and so forth (See Matthew 15:19).

So we know what’s in the heart of the murderer. Murder. We know what’s in the heart of the adulterer. Adultery. And guess what, so does God because He watched him. And this is just the edge of the subject that really is fascinating when you begin to study Scripture. I wrote a book on it that covers a lot of the ramifications of it called “God’s Tests”. You can read it for free here.

Why does God allow some of these things? Well, part of the reason, no doubt, is because He’s testing people and He has to test them to know what’s in their hearts, because God has a plan one day to have a kingdom. That kingdom is only going to be full of people whose hearts are His. The most important thing is to make sure that your life reveals that you love God with all of your heart.

Thanks so much for joining me. Hope to see you next time.

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