08.10.07
Why Do Bad Things Happen to “Good” People?
Let me re-arrange the title and ask you, “Why do good things happen to “bad” people?
Modern Chrisitanity has everything turned around. We do not start with the true teaching that all men and women deserve nothing short of hell. That is to say, we deserve nothing short of being tormented day and night beyond the comprehension of our carnal minds for an eternity. There has only been one man that has ever walked on this earth that did not deserve hell and that man, was Jesus, who is the Christ.
I bid you, find me one man, if you can, that “deserves” anything less than eternal punishment from a Holy God. We have all sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of our God and the wages of our sin is “death”.
I propose that if a man TRULY understood this teaching, then he would consider anything short of this punishment as “mercy”, an act of kindness, perhaps even “grace”.
If the Lord cast me in hell, I would have no response except “God is good, God is just, I am getting what I deserve.” And if He allowed me to set just one foot outside of hell while the rest of me burned, it would be an act of mercy on His behalf.
So you see, starting at this point, puts everything in its proper perspective. What “calamity” has come upon us in this present day that we can compare to what we actually deserve? There is no comparison for a man in whom the Lord has revealed the sinfulness of his sin.
Now, come let me reason with the one who professes faith in Christ, and says “God doesn’t want these things to happen”.
May I ask you, is God sovereign? That is to ask, isn’t He in COMPLETE control, or not?
The word sovereign means: independent of all others; supreme in power, rank, or authority.
Does it escape you what is written in God’s word:
1 Tim 6:15
15 which He will bring about at the proper time - He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; NASB
If God is sovereign, and He is, then all the calamity that happens in this present evil age happens with His full knowledge and with His permission. Tell me, was Job taken captive by the devil before God allowed it? What has ever happened since creation that has been outside of God’s control, that He could not have stopped, or intervened?
What some have done, is created a God in their minds that is nothing like the God of the bible. This God in their mind does not create evil or calamity. In fact, I once witnessed a poor minister who, before a crowd of 1,000, put a talking point before us all, which read “God does not create calamity (evil)”. My heart sank, because He must not have been talking about my God. For my God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has said:
Isa 45:7
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
KJV
In which God he was talking about that does not create evil, I do not know, but he certainly was not being faithful to the revealed word through the prophet Isaiah.
If you are reading this article and your heart has sank because the god of your mind has been crushed, then I rejoice in part, not in your ill feeling, but in the destruction of your idol, this god that you have made up in your mind. Perhaps now you might see the living God and fear Him and fall upon His Son with strong tears yearning for mercy and now you may live.
Consider yet another place in Scripture:
1 Sam 16:14
14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.
NASB
Now please answer me plainly, from whom does the infallible words of my God say the evil spirit came? Yes, it was from Yahweh, the LORD.
1 Sam 16:15
15 Saul’s servants then said to him, “Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you.
NASB
C.S Lewis once wrote, and I am fond to remember:
“This God of ours is no tamed lion.”
How many men, women, and children, both young and old, and animals alike, did God horribly drown in the global flood? How many famines have been brought upon the people by God, Himself?
Consider this passage about a pestilence:
2 Sam 24:15
15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time; and seventy thousand men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.
NASB
In the beginning of this article, I wrote that we deserve nothing short of hell and if you have read to this point then you should be thoroughly convinced that the True Living God is mighty and “terrible” as the Scripture says that He is. But I also want you to know that God is also merciful. The punishment of hell that you have deserved has been paid for by another, that is Christ. He did not have to pay your price for your debt, but He did. It is a free gift to those who repent and believe in His message. It is a gift to those who follow after Him with all their heart, mind, and soul. We do not make up who He is in our minds and follow after false idols but I testify that He will replace your heart of stone with a heart of flesh, He will change you from the inside out, you will then hear the voice of the “Good Shepherd” and you will be a “sheep” of His flock.
He says:
John 10:27-29
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
NASB
I beg you, accept the free gift today. Today, if you hear His voice, feel His calling, repent and believe.
But if you refuse I wonder how you will escape God if you neglect so great a salvation?
For the Truth of my King
RSS
Doug Edwards said,
August 13, 2007 at 12:07 pm
You hit the nail on the head. The devil is huggng us to death.
King'sKid said,
August 22, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I agree with you wholeheartedly, in fact I have made some of the same obeservations as you have.
Most Christians think that when Jesus returns “everything will be love”, but the Bible speaks of “the wrath of the Lamb”:
Rev 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Rev 11::18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
And it speaks of “ruling with a rod of iron”
Rev 19: 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Why will this be necessary, if THERE IS NO LAW only grace??
I suppose people do not want to think about these scriptures, most prefer to believe “Once Saved Always Saved”, 1Cor 9: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Is it safe to say that Paul did not subscribe to OSAS?
Keep his body under subjection from what? Sin!
What is sin?? 1 Jhn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (KJV)
Or “we are not under the law but under grace” even though Jesus clearly
states in Mat 5:17 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.(KJV)
17 “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter Or not one iota; or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. (NLT)
…Until all be fulfilled–-all the prophecies about Jesus have not been fulfilled. Therefore, the laws that were given are still in full effect.
Today’s “Christians” are not Christ-like, in fact, mention obedience to God’s Laws (not Moses’) and you had better run for cover.
God bless you
justawitness said,
September 9, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I was told by the Holy Ghost once that we have it wrong. We aren’t the way we are because the day is the way that it is, the day is the way it is because of the way we are.
TruthofmyKing said,
September 9, 2007 at 10:38 pm
All of your comments are so true! Thanks for helping me take this message to the world.
May God save you and keep you.
For the Truth of my King