Someone asked the question " If God is good and real why does he allow so much bad". I answered the question in short as it was a passing conversation; however, various forms of this question has come up again and again so I wanted to spend a few moments addressing this concern. Really this is an age old question, and I can not began to fully dive into its complexities, but I will just devote a few short paragraphs and my opinion. In this blog and in my book I try to be as transparent as possible, and I will answer give my answer to this great question the same way.
Frankly, I struggled with this question for years. Perhaps I should put some emphasis on it via multiple consonant ... YEARRRRSSSS. Okay that felt more realistic. To be frank my biggest question on this did not come while I was an abused child, as someone might initially think. See, as a child I thought God did not love me, so I did not really even believe I have the audacity to question God with why did bad thinks happen. My question more came along the lines of "Why don't you love me too?" To be honest the struggle came after becoming a Christian and figuring out God does love me, so than naturally next step- " well Gee God -um I think I am owed an explanation."
The answer to this was not fully satisfied in me until about a year ago weeks after I wrote the book "Yes Girl He Loves Me. You must understand to some extent the spiritual side of the battle. We were born into a war. There is an enemy (Satan and his army) actively working for our destruction whose mission is to kill, steal and destroy. Yes, there is a God, but there is also a devil, who wants nothing more than to see to our demise. It is not a matter of who has more power between the two, because of course God is stronger- hands down, but in this war- man (humans) were given free will. With that an ability to choose to do evil or good. God showed me, that He saw when I was being abused, He hurt when I hurt, He was disgusted and angry, but God cannot rain fire from heaven on the offenders when someone is hurt, or strike down dead the perpetrators of hideous crimes with each offense. God was awesome enough to give us free will in which evil doers choose to inflict evil, but everyone will come under judgment for there crimes, because God sees all.
So in short- Devil + Man Free Will = lots of bad things happening to undeserving people, but yes, God is good...soooo...sooo...good, and evil on earth does not subtract from his awesomeness.
Frankly, I struggled with this question for years. Perhaps I should put some emphasis on it via multiple consonant ... YEARRRRSSSS. Okay that felt more realistic. To be frank my biggest question on this did not come while I was an abused child, as someone might initially think. See, as a child I thought God did not love me, so I did not really even believe I have the audacity to question God with why did bad thinks happen. My question more came along the lines of "Why don't you love me too?" To be honest the struggle came after becoming a Christian and figuring out God does love me, so than naturally next step- " well Gee God -um I think I am owed an explanation."
The answer to this was not fully satisfied in me until about a year ago weeks after I wrote the book "Yes Girl He Loves Me. You must understand to some extent the spiritual side of the battle. We were born into a war. There is an enemy (Satan and his army) actively working for our destruction whose mission is to kill, steal and destroy. Yes, there is a God, but there is also a devil, who wants nothing more than to see to our demise. It is not a matter of who has more power between the two, because of course God is stronger- hands down, but in this war- man (humans) were given free will. With that an ability to choose to do evil or good. God showed me, that He saw when I was being abused, He hurt when I hurt, He was disgusted and angry, but God cannot rain fire from heaven on the offenders when someone is hurt, or strike down dead the perpetrators of hideous crimes with each offense. God was awesome enough to give us free will in which evil doers choose to inflict evil, but everyone will come under judgment for there crimes, because God sees all.
So in short- Devil + Man Free Will = lots of bad things happening to undeserving people, but yes, God is good...soooo...sooo...good, and evil on earth does not subtract from his awesomeness.