My father was an RCMP officer as a young man and I listened intently as I overheard the incidents he had witnessed of untimely deaths. They haunted his dreams; they haunted mine. It was particularly hard when news reached me: a young child from our reunion accidentally falling into a well and drowning, a school friend dying of an asthma attack, a cousin dying in her crib, and a classmate's seat empty because she met with evil on her way home one night. Being young and full of life, however, I trudged forward oblivious of time passing during those long summer days and was excited for what each new school year would bring. Later on, as a high school teacher to over 200 students a year, I was always saddened that at least one of my students was lost yearly to accident, suicide, or homicide. WHY the loss? Why bring a person into the world for them to die? So pointless. The pain that parents suffer. The dread. The guilt. The fear. The anger.
Frank Hanegraaff in The Complete Bible Answer Book states that there are only three basic answers to this question: pantiesm, philosophical naturalism, and theism. " Panthiesm denies the existence of good and evil because in this view god is all and all is god. Philosophical naturalism (the world view undergirding evolutionism) supposes that everything is a function of random processes, thus there is no such thing as good and evil. Theism alone has a relevant response to the question of why bad things happen to good people - and only Christian theism can answer the question satisfactorily." He goes on to say that "Christian theism acknowledges that God created the potential for evil because God created humans with freedom of choice (my emphasis). We choose to love or hate, to do good or evil. The record of history bears eloquent testimony to the fact that humans of their own free will have actualized the reality of evil through such choices." And he says, "Furthermore, without choice, love is meaningless." We do not want to be puppets or "preprogrammed robots." God created the "potential for evil by granting us freedom of choice" and this will "ultimately lead to the best of all possible worlds" where sin will be no more.
I was reading in Job again recently and was reminded of what this poor man experienced, losing his children, his livelihood, and his health. As he sat covered in painful boils listening to his friends accuse him of having done something evil while his wife encouraged him to curse God and die, he too questioned God's actions. He replied, "Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them....They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. Yet they say to God, 'Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?" (Job 20) Job goes on to say , "I am innocent, but God denies me justice. Although I am right, I am considered a liar; although I am guiltless, his arrow inflicts an incurable wound." (Job 34)
Job's words echo the voices of many who believe they are blameless, innocent, and underserving of any terrible thing happening to them. However, Romans 3:10 states emphatically that "there are none righteous, no not one." It is God who is good and Him only but with God abiding in us we can live a life in His will doing as much good for others as we can. Job's friends bring up an important point: "Dominion and awe belong to God...How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in eyes, how much less man..." In Matthew 5:56, Jesus says that God the Father "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." So do we have a right to question the decisions of our maker?
The Lord spoke to Job out of the storm saying, "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God's, and can your voice thunder like his? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty. Unleash the fury of your wrath, look at every proud man and bring him low, look at every proud man and humble him, crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the dust together; shroud their faces in the grave. Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you."
Wow! To question the Lord God almighty, the maker of the heavens and the earth...and yet people do it all of the time. The lesson learned here, ultimately, is that we are not God. We live in a broken world brought about by sin, starting in the Garden of Eden, and only through Jesus Christ can we be saved. God is working through us to reconcile us back to Him. How shall we respond when faced with the question of bad things happening to good people? Job says "as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit...I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it..." May it ever be so for us all. Amen.