“. . . Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”   ~Revelation 12:12​

To answer the question, Why does God allow bad things to happen?…we must first understand that God is not a puppet master moving a bunch of human puppets around, nor is He the only power involved in all of these calamities that are occurring. Nevertheless, He tells of everything that will occur in the future through the inspired writings of His prophets. No matter what is happening He is never surprised and He has a plan for every single problem.

First and foremost, God guarantees us free will. He allows us to come to Him of our own volition. He is patient beyond anything we can comprehend. He is patiently waiting for us to wake up, one by one, and come to Him so that He can do His good work in us. And yes, God is ultimately in control. All we have to do is trust and obey Him.

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”   ~Philippians 1:6

As God’s faithful people we must be careful to weigh everything against His word—using the Bible as our only source of truth. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we choose to believe false things—when we choose the word of man or our own desires over believing and living out God’s precepts.

We must trust only His word, His perfect, infallible word, and make it our sole source of truth. We must reach out to God in everything. We must be vigilant in both obedience and prayer to receive His guidance and protection in all that we do. There is an enemy out there trying to destroy us, but we have a Power within us that can overcome all evil—the power of the Holy Spirit of God!

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”   ~1 Peter 5:8

We are God’s children, and He is our eternal heavenly Father who wants only the best for us. He will not force us to accept protection from the harm of the evil one. He will always allow us free will to choose to turn to Him, be obedient, and forego the ways of this fallen world. He is always beckoning us, through the promptings of His Holy Spirit, but we must choose to listen to or ignore Him. It’s a simple case of free will choice.

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”   ~1 John 4:4

This choice to listen, trust and obey is at the very core of our salvation. It is how we use our free will to do His will. God’s plans for us are far better than anything we could ever think of—His thoughts for us are to help us and give us a glorious eternal future.

The devil would like us to think that God wants to boss us around with a bunch of commandments to force us into submission. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. God wants us to use our free will, that’s why He gave it to us. Satan on the other hand wants to trick and deceive us into doing his bidding—following after him in sedition.

Ignoring God and rebelling against His word isn’t freedom, it’s bondage—bondage to the pain and suffering of this fallen world. By ignoring God’s word we are bound to our carnal weakness, and imprisoned by our fallen nature.

Sadly, the biggest problem that arises from ignoring the Holy Spirit is eventually we will no longer be able to hear Him. This spiritual deafening process is better known as quenching or grieving the Holy Spirit. God never stops beckoning us, we simply stop hearing Him. When we do what He is convicting us not to do, or don’t do what He is prompting us to do, we are ignoring Him, and in so doing we are quenching and grieving His Holy Spirit. Little by little, we grow deaf because we become so prolific at blocking Him out.

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”   ~Ephesians 4:30

Grieving the Spirit of God makes me sad just to think it. But when we choose to ignore Him, which means choosing to ignore His Laws and Commandments, we are rejecting Him just as much as the people did at the cross—we are crucifying Him again!

What is the Unpardonable Sin?

“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”   ~Mark 3:28-29

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”   ~Matthew 12:31-32

This unpardonable sin is mentioned numerous times in the Bible because it is of the utmost importance. Blasphemy is the act of totally rejecting God, the act of worshiping false gods or believing you are your own god. Rejecting God and His plan of salvation is the most radical rejection a person can make. It is saying I don’t want you or your rules in my life, and I don’t need your salvation.

Simply by this act of rejection, a person has chosen to go it alone, and in so doing will find themselves unable to cover their sin and will perish in the hellfire of Christ’s return. This fiery end is not a punishment for the sinner but rather the result of refusing Christ’s robe of righteousness—His covering of grace.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   ~Romans 6:23

Accepting what Jesus did at the cross is how we put on this fireproof robe, it’s how we allow God’s grace to engulf us. The following verses are a great explanation of the times we are living in and what we must do to stay the course. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-22

If we choose to rebel against God’s authority, we are then at the mercy of a merciless evil taskmaster—Satan. Satan shows no mercy to anyone. He is only out to hurt Jesus. That is his single goal with what’s left of his soon-to-end existence. Nevertheless, the devil does not get to choose our end, we do! We get to choose as to whom we will serve, the word of the living God of heaven or the evils of those seduced by Satan. The only way to make a good choice is to be informed—the only way to be informed is to read and trust the infallible truth of the word of God rather than listening to the lies of men.

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”   ~Joshua 24:15

So the ultimate answer to the question, “How can God allow all these bad things to happen?” is this… He isn’t, we are! Humanity has turned so far from God and His holy law that the things that are happening are the results of humanity following Satan rather than God. When we do so we are using our free will to turn our back on, not only His infallible word for guidance but on His hand of protection as well.

“Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.”   ~Romans 13:2

When we turn from God we leave ourselves open to any catastrophe Satan wants to dump on us. God isn’t making people die in car wrecks or linger in pain from cancer. He isn’t the one making babies die of crib death or teens die the slow death of drug addiction, Satan is!

​However, if we simply turn around and confess to Him that we messed up and are sorry, He is faithful and true to forgive us and to welcome us back into His fold.

We’ve got to stop blaming God for Satan’s dirty deeds. Just ask yourself this one question; if God was the giver of all these terrible things, why doesn’t He give cancer to Charles Manson, or leprosy to John Wayne Gacy. It’s because He isn’t the giver of these terrible things, Satan is!

​Much of what happens to us is caused by our poor choices, the results of consequence. If we eat unhealthy foods, we will get sick. If we steal and kill, we will wind up in jail or worse. It doesn’t matter which of God's laws we break, there is always a consequence in this life.

​And lastly, sometimes bad things happen because God allows them to happen for a higher purpose, a way that He can interweave some grand plan that will benefit us in some magnificent way. All we have to do is trust and obey— honor Him and He will always honor us.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”   ~Romans 8:28

God knew everything that would ever happen. He tells us through a book full of prophetic predictions exactly what is going to happen very shortly, and even how to recognize the signs of what’s coming next. All we have to do is get into His word, trust His love for us and hold on to Him. He can, and most definitely will get us to an unfathomable beautiful end, an eternal bliss beyond anything anyone can imagine.

“But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”   ~1 Corinthians 2:9

Why does God allow bad things to happen to us?

At the end of the day when we are ready to meet our maker, we must know our God intimately. We must have a personal relationship with our Creator, and allow His sweet Spirit to reside in our hearts. Then, and only then will we understand the following question and know without a doubt that the answer is fair and just.

Q: Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

A: Because He gives us free will. We get to use said free will to obey God’s instruction manual, stay within the confines of His guardrails and allow His Laws and Commandments to keep us safe…or we can choose to go it alone. We can use our free will to say NO to God’s help, guidance, and protection, try to hold our own against an evil supernatural power that we can’t even come close to defeating!

“Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.”   ~Proverbs 30:5

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