Before I transferred to a Christian university, I took a New Testament class written by an agnostic. I was skeptical. How could I learn anything worthwhile from someone who isn't even sure of the validity of my Savior? Despite my misgivings, I stuck with the class. I am so glad I did.
In addition to studying the New Testament, we took some time to study the author of our textbook. In an interview, the author described how he initially studied the Bible in seminary as an Evangelical Christian. Throughout his time in seminary, he compared the word of God to the reality he was living in. He witnessed, as he said, "bad things happening to good people". He asked, "how can a good God allow suffering to exist in our world?" That's a big question and one that I have asked too. I've seen awful things happen to people who love and serve God. If God's own people aren't spared from tragedy, how can God be good? He wasn't able to come to a satisfactory answer, so he left the faith. How many people have left the Church for the very same reason?
The number of people who believe in God is steadily decreasing in younger generations. Take a look at the data gathered by the Pew Research Center for the Religion Landscape Study to see the trend for yourself. If we want to reach every generation for Christ, then we can't be afraid to tackle hard questions that may be leading them away from Him.
So let's dive in.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
How each of us defines a "good person" will vary, so we'll use the life of David as an example. After all, he is "a man after God's own heart" (Acts 13:22) and I can't think of a better way to define a good person than that. David's life is an interesting one. A shepherd boy, the youngest of 8 sons, is chosen to be king of all of Israel. He slayed a giant with nothing but a slingshot and his faith in God, found success on the battlefield, and was beloved by Israel. Despite the good things he did, he also faced significant hardships. Some were caused by his own sin, others sin, and the result of us living in a fallen world.
Let's take a look at the tragedies David faced and what led to them:
Bad things come from bad choices.
While it is true that David is a man after God's own heart, he is also a sinful human like the rest of us. He made some awful choices that had devastating consequences. For example, the scandal with Bathsheba. In 2 Samuel 11, David sees a beautiful woman, Bathsheba, and had sex with her even though she was married to someone else. She became pregnant by David, so what did he do? He sent Bathsheba's husband to the front lines of the war where he died an unnecessary death. With the husband out of the picture, he took Bathsheba as his wife and she gave birth to David's son. 2 Samuel 12 describes God's anger with the selfish actions of David, and the consequence of his actions is that his and Bathsheba's son died. I can't imagine a more terrible consequence than that.
How does this apply to our lives?
Our sins have consequences. Natural consequences could include your significant other breaking up with you for cheating on them, losing your job due to stealing, developing an STD from having sex outside of marriage, or losing the respect of your community for lying. You may have done many good things in your life, but they don't save you from facing the consequences of your actions.
Why would God make people capable of sin?
You may think, "God messed up when he made people. It's really his fault for making us sinful." When God made man, he said we were good (Genesis 1:31). After all, we were made in his own likeness (Genesis 1:27). If we were made good, then why did it all go wrong? Because God gave us free will. This is evident in Genesis 2 when God talks to Adam about all the wholesome things in the gardens that he may eat and enjoy except for one tree; the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eating from this tree would mean death for man. Why would God make such a tree in the first place? Because there is no freedom of choice if there aren't any options to choose from.
God didn't want to make machines that were programmed to be his friends. I can ask Siri on my iPhone to call me "the best person ever" or "best friend", but her words aren't genuine because I forced them upon her. She has no other choice than to follow her programming. God wanted a genuine friendship with us, so he gave us the option to not be his friend. Love is a choice. Unfortunately, this also means that we can make the wrong choice and so can those around us.
Bad things are brought on by other people.
Now, back to David. Not everything that happened to David was his fault. His bravery in battle and favor with God (minus the whole Bathsheba thing) ignited jealousy in the heart of the first king of Israel, Saul. His envy of David was so great that Saul made it his personal goal to kill him. This is even more shocking considering that David used to play the Lyre and sing to Saul when he couldn't sleep (1 Samuel 16:14-23), how he was best friends with Saul's son (1 Samuel 18), and the countless times David saved the kingdom of Israel. With all the good things David did, you'd think Saul would be indebted to the guy. But, of course, Saul didn't see it that way. Due to Saul's murderous plans, David had to hide out in the wilderness until Saul died.
How does this apply to us?
Remember the whole "free will thing" I mentioned earlier? Well, this also means that people can choose to hurt others. Why doesn't God intervene? Sometimes he does, like how God never let Saul kill David. And sometimes he doesn't. I don't have all of the answers. I don't know why God intervened to keep Saul from killing David but didn't keep people from killing another man of God, Stephen, in Acts 7:54-60. What I do know is that God gave us free will so that we can have a genuine relationship with him which also leaves us the opportunity to reject that invitation to friendship and act in ways that hurt people.
Bad things from a fallen world.
We live in a fallen world. This refers to the fact that Adam and Eve "fell" when they chose to go against God's wishes, eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and, subsequently, bring sin into the world (Genesis 3). David and all of us live in a world that is fallen. We have deviated from the original good plan of God and allowed sin to run rampant in our world. This means that the world can be dangerous, painful, and scary. No matter how many good things we do, it doesn't change the fact that the world we live in can hurt us.
With that in mind, I believe that God doesn't make bad things happen. He made good things, our world and people, but we chose wrong. I also don't think that he just sits back and watches bad things happen. God made a plan to save our world from the choices we made and that plan was Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.
How does this apply to the church and mental health?
I would categorize mental illness as one of those things that's cause by "other people" due to trauma or "because we live in a fallen world". It's important for us to discuss the question "why do bad things happen to good people?" because mental illness is one of those bad things that can happen to anyone.
Successful people who come from loving families can be depressed. Wise and caring adults can have PTSD from childhood trauma. It can happen to anyone and people will likely have questions like, "How could God let this happen to me?". I don't have a complete answer to this question, but I hope the points I've made opens up the conversation. Squirming away from tough questions won't get us anywhere, so let's keep talking.
What are your thoughts?
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