Some time back a member of one of my former congregations submitted the following questions to me and asked that I respond. This person said that these are the kinds of questions that they are regularly asked about the Christian faith. My assumption is that all of us hear these kinds of questions from time to time, so I want to share both the questions and my brief answers with you. The answers are not entirely complete because the issues that were raised are complicated and require a certain amount of background in Biblical/Christian concepts that not everyone has. Let’s just say that it’s a start.
1. Why are there bad things in this world if God is such a caring, loving God?
We live in a broken world…nothing is the way God created it (or intended it to be) including the people who populate the world. There are things that we call “bad” (like natural disasters) that are really “neutral” (not bad or good.) They are a consequence of what we know as “natural law.” There are rules that govern the way the world works and sometimes we can be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Why would God let us be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Because He loves us enough to give us a free will. If we are being asked to choose to love God then we must have the freedom to choose to not love God. If we are being called to trust God then we must have the freedom to not trust God. If God were to step in every time we made a poor decision then he would (in effect) take away our right to choose.
In the same way, our freedom to choose to do right means that we have the freedom to do wrong and much of the suffering that we see in the world is a direct result of people choosing to do the wrong thing. Our greed and our hatred create indescribable suffering in the world. It is our fault. God came to the world (in the presence of Jesus) to change us and consequently change the world.
The conversation continues...
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