2020-12-14 Engage Students - Why does a good God let bad things happen

The speaker addresses the question of why bad things happen if there is a good God. They explore the idea that if God interferes with every bad action, it would contradict the concept of personal freedom. They discuss the solution of Jesus taking on the punishment for evil actions, allowing humans to have the option of a new nature and the guidance of God's Holy Spirit. They acknowledge that Christians are not perfect but strive to follow the example of Jesus. The speaker believes that a good God does not interfere when bad things happen in order to maintain personal freedom. Hey guys, today I'm tackling a question for our ENGAGE students that has been asked by many people to many people who are much smarter than me. Um, this is not a all-encompassing answer. This is my attempt to explain a very complex concept in a simple introductory fashion. That question, in various forms, boils down to If God is a good God, if there is in existence a good God, why do bad things happen? We're just going to assume for the basis of this question that you and I, for the basis of argument, both believe that there is a God. An intelligent designer who has created everything. I believe this. We're going to assume for this discussion that we all agree on this point. So, how can he be a good God when bad things happen? This is a big, big question, and I want to try and make this not too controversial here. They say the two things you shouldn't talk about is religion and politics, but I'm going to make a political analogy for just one minute. Don't think on it too hard. But, oftentimes, as people who believe in the idea of freedom, we ask a very different question. I would argue the opposite question when it comes to things like government. We say, if the government is good, why does it interfere with my personal freedom and choice? In my opinion, these two questions are opposite ideas. On one hand, we ask, how can God be good if he doesn't interfere? But, on the other hand, we ask, how can government be good if it interferes? We say that infringement others make on our freedom is wrong. We believe that as a principle. And yet, the only solution to God allowing all these bad things, based on the original assumption the question makes, is for God to entirely override personal freedom to impose his will. Now, different denominations of Christianity may differ slightly on their answer to this. So, I'm not giving you a definitive answer that all Christians agree on. I'm giving you the answer of how I see this question. And then we can open that up for discussion. I think, if God overrode our will, our question would become, how can a good God control everyone and not allow freedom? What he does for one, he must do for all, or he's a God of favoritism. You might say to me, no, no, no, no. He just needs to override the freedom of evil people. But the thing is, if he overrides that freedom of evil people, he's going to override the freedom of all of us. Because Romans 3.23 says, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us are evil without God to direct us. Okay, that's not saying that you haven't done good things in your life. Even if you don't believe that, let's just say people are basically good, not basically evil, okay? Even if you believe that, you would have to be willfully ignorant to say there is a single person on earth who has never done something wrong. We can all agree, even if it was the most innocent of white lies or incidental gossip, we've all done something wrong. So then you might say, well, no, Chris, just the evil above a certain threshold. That's what God needs to intervene in. Well, who decides the threshold, right? So if God is a good God in this argument, then he would have to decide the threshold. If he is a good God, then he'd have to decide the threshold of what is evil enough for him to intervene on, right? And a purely good God would have to have a perfect standard of goodness. He would define it because he is good, right? Anything in his will would be good, and anything outside it would be bad because he would be goodness, the goodness itself, right? So this means if a good God interferes when bad things happen, if that's our assumption, that a good God interferes when bad things happen, then he would have to interfere every time anyone does anything bad. Anytime anybody does anything outside his will, which means we would all lose all free will and freedom of agency because if he is good, and then the definition becomes what is outside of what he wants is now not good. And if he's a perfect God, his standard is any wrongdoing whatsoever. That means every time something bad happened to any measure or degree, he would have to intervene and interfere, which means you and I would lose all agency of free will. At least that's how I look at it. So what's another solution to this puzzle of if God is good, why do bad things happen? Well, a solution where God doesn't need to override our freedom or control us. That's what we want. We still have an agency and free will, but he's not overriding that. He's not overriding that free will, but he still can stop that evil. So enter Jesus, right? God coming in the form of a human to say, okay, humans, you messed up. I'll take the punishment that justice demands for evil actions. So he comes, he dies on the cross to take the penalty. But as God, fully man, fully God, he can't stay dead. So he rises again to give us the option of new life. He took on the penalty that he didn't deserve so that we can have the freedom that we didn't deserve. So now a good God has made the option for us to have a new core nature, to no longer be evil at the core. In other words, we do bad things, right? That's something that we desire, right? So he's given us a new core nature, his own spirit, that perfect spirit. So it's not one of evil, but by accepting Jesus, by allowing his Holy Spirit to guide us to what is right. We still are going to make mistakes, okay? This doesn't mean that Christians are perfect. I'm a Christian. I am not perfect, okay? Don't look to me for your standard of everything you should do. You know, a lot of people say like, oh, Christians are so hypocritical. They hold people to a standard that they can't always rise up to. I'm telling you right now, I cannot rise up to the standard of perfection of Jesus, and I'm not asking you to either. That's where we aim. We aim for the best, right? If you want to become the best basketball player in the world, are you going to look up to the pros, or are you going to look up to Jimmy down the street? You're going to look up to the pros, but, you know, you're not going to get necessarily to be the best basketball player in the world, but you're going to get a whole lot further by looking to the pros than the amateurs. So I'm an amateur. Look to the pro, which is Jesus. So we still make mistakes, but we will have a change of desire toward good, and through God's grace, be able to enter into his kingdom, heaven, where there is no evil. But he did this by giving us a choice and maintaining our freedom without him having to interfere or to force goodness on us. So why does a good God not interfere when bad things happen? Because you wouldn't be a good God if you did. That's my perspective. I'm looking forward to hearing yours. God bless, and stay awesome.