One of the most popular questions that troubles the Body of Christ is “why do bad things happen?”. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why did God allow bad things to happen in the first place? If God is good, and he created the Earth, why do bad things even happen?

These questions all plague the minds of individuals everywhere. In the Church, out of the Church, it doesn’t matter.

These are the questions that I hope to answer today. Of course, we can never know truly why these things happen, at least on this side of Heaven. However, I do believe that we can give an educated guess based on scripture and the character of God that satisfies the question.

Adam and Eve

To begin to unravel the thought-provoking question, we best start with the origin story of man.

As we all know, God created the world and all its inhabitants in the first 6 days. He created the light and the dark, the moon and the sun, and the oceans and valleys. He made the animals, the plants, the mountains, and so much more that we get to see and observe today. On the 6th day, he created man in his image, Adam, and placed him in charge of the Garden of Eden. He was to tend to the Garden and give names to the animals that the Lord made. This was good.

Eventually, the Lord decided that it wasn’t good for man to be alone, and made from Adam’s rib, a woman, Eve. They were one flesh and one marriage. This was good.

Then, as we all know, the enemy came in the form of a serpent and ruined everything.

The Introduction of “Bad”

Adam and Eve were told one thing they cannot do. They can eat of any tree, but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent came to Eve one day and asked her a question.

“He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:2-5).

Something that is overlooked here is what the serpent actually did. He infiltrated the mind of Eve not by convincing her to do something bad, but by questioning what God actually said. Then he got her to commit sin by telling her that she can be like God.

In the Garden, Adam and Eve were practically little gods (notice the lowercase “g”). They had dominion over the animals, the plants, the garden itself. In fact, they even had dominion over themselves, with free will. They also walked with God according to Genesis 3:8. But Eve was still tempted by the thought of being God. She wasn’t tempted to do drugs or commit adultery. She was tempted to pursue being like God.

In other words, pride, or self-centeredness, was the original sin. Disobedience was just a cause of that pride. Therefore, self-centeredness was the introduction to bad for mankind.

Think about that as we continue.

Kicked out of Eden

After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, as we all know, they get kicked out of Eden, and no man enters again. That is, because it was made for only good. The Lord was literally walking around in the garden. There was no way that the humans would be allowed to stay after committing such sin.

From there, the two now had a knowledge of good, and evil. They became conscious of their own nakedness and became ashamed. Their own self idolatry and free will made it possible for them to do this. In fact, their dominion over themselves in the sense of free will caused them to sin the first place. So, one question of ours is answered. Bad things happen because of free will and man’s own pride.

Why Does God Allow Bad to Happen?

Our next reasonable question would be, “why did God give free will?” After all, if he knew that there was a possibility for sin, why did he give free will in the first place? Why did he allow bad things to happen?

This answer should be simple and is linked with Adam and Eve once again.

In the Garden, the two were able to walk with God. They had deep, direct relationship with him. Adam and Eve were just as close to God as many of us are with our earthly parents. They had that close of a relationship with one another. This is shown in Genesis 3:8, as it is shown that “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day”. That sure sounds like a close relationship to me, for God to casually walk around them.

So, it was clear that there was a close relationship between God and the first humans. Then, when they sinned, there was a separation.

Then, as we look onto the Israelites and their purpose, we can see that God is after a relationship once again. Not only does he want the Israelites to be his people so that he can bring the Messiah through them, but he also does it so that he can commune with his people.

David, the man after God’s own heart, eventually built a tent for the Spirit of the Lord to reside in. God loved David dearly.

He sacrificed his only begotten son so that all of us could have salvation, and commune with him through his Spirit.

He wants relationship with everyone. God wants to be our friend, and our father. Could he have any of that if he made us all to have no free will?

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

So, we’ve come to realize that:

1. God is a good God, who wants relationship with people.
2. We, as humans, have free will and cause bad things to happen.
3. Sin and bad things entered the world because of man, not because of God.

This brings us to another question. Why do bad things have to happen to good people? Why does a great person have to get hurt by a bad person? This is another popular question that is quickly answered with an unpopular answer.

There are a few facets to this question. The first is that free will allows us to be bad people in the first place. God doesn’t change our sin nature for us, we have to allow him to.

Secondly, he doesn’t just stop bad things from happening because of free will. If a bad person was getting ready to hit a good person, God won’t intervene by sending lightning to their hand and making it fall off. That would go against his character and limit our free will. He does do something to help, but we’ll get into that later.

Finally, we must realize something. We, as sin natured beings (since the fall of Adam and Eve), are not good people. It is natural for us to want to sin; it is practically written in our DNA. We are not good people, not good enough, and won’t ever be in ourselves. But through the Spirit, we are able to be good, and able to do good things.

So, the answer is simple. Bad things happen to “good people”, because we are all bent towards sin, and God always intervening would limit free will and obstruct his character.

How Do We Stop Bad Things?

While all the questions we’ve been discussing are the more popular ones, I believe this is the question we should be asking. How do we stop bad things? How can we make them stop happening? This helps us think in terms of a solution to the problem, rather than focus on the issues. After all, God is a good God, he doesn’t want bad things to keep happening. He wants good things to be happening. So, there is surely a solution and answer to that question.

I believe that the answer can be broken down into one thing, but many parts of that one thing.

As ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20), we are the solution to the problem. The influence that we can have through Christ is enough to bring people to salvation, bring healing and restoration, and completely change lives. However, there are so many ways that we can bring solutions. Let’s get into it.

We Can Pray

This is so powerful. Prayer is one of the most powerful ways we can impact any situation.

Here are a couple scriptures that are just so powerful about prayer:

“”Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”” (Mark 11:24-26).

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.” (Psalm 120:1),

“Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14).

These verses show us a major aspect of Christianity. The Lord is a giver, and wants to give to his children, thus when we pray, we can ask, and be confident we will receive.

This doesn’t just go for blessings like financial prosperity and health, but for even greater things. We can pray and ask for great things for others. We can pray for safety and protection. Salvation is something we receive through a decision and a prayer. There are so many things that we can pray for.

One of the reasons why these verses are all so powerful because they show that not only is prayer great for asking and receiving, but it’s great for saving.

The last verse is my favorite. To put it in perspective, the chapter talks about angels, and their sort of status. The last verse tells us that we can send out angels to help minister to others for salvation. So, we can really pray and believe for great, supernatural assistance when witnessing to others. Through prayer, we can help others inherit salvation.

We Can Exercise the Gifts

I want to have a whole series on the gifts of the Spirit at some point, but it’s important to discuss shortly here. The gifts of the Spirit are found in 1 Corinthians 12. They are:

• The Word of Knowledge
• The Word of Wisdom
• The Gift of Prophecy
• The Gift of Faith
• The Gifts of Healings
• The Working of Miracles
• The Discerning of Spirits
• Different Kinds of Tongues
• The Interpretation of Tongues

Those are the gifts of the Spirit, and they were freely given to us with the Holy Spirit. Of course, we have to use them the right way, through the Spirit, but we have already been given these gifts.

Exercising these gifts is a great way to share the gospel, teach, lead, or basically do anything good for the Kingdom of God. It is also a free gift from God, and a way that we can connect with God, so it’s even more vital that we do this.

We Can Be a Light

The entire mission of Lighthouse Teaching is built around the idea that we are the light of the world, and thus should act as such. We should live as such in fact.

Being a light and a reflection of Jesus in our communities and such brings good things, because walking in good works is one way that we are the light of the world.

The four ways that we fulfill the mission of Lighthouse Teaching, or ways that we are able to be the light of the world is:

1. Crucifying the flesh
2. Walking in step with the Spirit
3. Serve through love
4. Restore in a spirit of gentleness

It’s so important to do good works, so that we can start to see some change, and so we can bring people to Christ. Reconciliation with Christ is the greatest thing in the world, and doing these things, being a light, helps us to do that. Not only for ourselves, but for others.

Final Thoughts

As a quick refresher, bad things happen. They happen and it really sucks that they do happen. However, we should not blame the Lord for them, but recognize that it is on us. Free will gave us the chance to sin and do bad things, but without it, there would be no true love and true relationship with Christ without it.

However, we can prevent bad things from happening by stepping into the walk that the Lord has for us. We were created to walk in good works, and God already prepared them for us. A few ways that we can stop bad things from happening and bring upon good things is by praying, exercising the gifts, and being the light of the world.

An important thing to remember is that we can totally choose to focus on one thing over the other. Instead of focusing on the bad and the questions, look at the good and the answers. God is not a bad God, he is a good God, so we should focus on the good of him, not the bad of us.

Lastly, we were created for good works, but only through the good God can we do good works. Don’t strive in yourself to do good things or to not do bad things, but rest in Christ and do such things through the Spirit that lives inside you, not the flesh.

Have a great week!