If God is a God of love then why...?

When it comes to questions about Christianity and the Bible by far the most common question asked is the one we are dealing with today. It usually comes top of the list, indeed it is so common that I have seen it in almost every evangelistic question and answer booklet that I have ever looked at. We have heard it often over the years in College Class. Indeed, in the first seven questions we have been asked this year, it has cropped up twice. It is expressed in many ways but the sentiment behind it is always the same.

It goes something like this;

"If God is a God of love then why do bad things happen, why is there suffering, why is there death, why there is hell etc?" The assumption here (and questions usually have assumptions) is that, because God is a God of love, then he must always make everything go well in the life of his creatures. If that is a true assumption, then the question is a very hard one to answer. But, is that a correct assumption? No! Therefore the question is easy to answer.

Why would God always make everything go well in the life of his creatures, regardless of their behaviour? Not even the most loving parents would think that is a good way to raise their children. The key oversight of the questioner, is focusing on just one of God’s attributes, in this case 'love' at the expense of the others. God is not just a God of love. He is holy too, and perfectly just. If someone was to kill a judge’s family and the judge sent that person to prison, would it be fair to say to him, ‘Why did you do that, you are not being very loving?’

The wrong assumption is essentially saying to God, "Why don’t you act as if nothing is wrong?" But there is something wrong, the sin of mankind. It is always interesting to me to notice that this question is often asked, but another, opposite one, never is. Namely, "If God is a God of holiness, then why does he allow good things to happen and how can he allow anyone into heaven?"

Now, of course, the question of suffering is not invalid. Even Christians sometimes struggle with it. But God gave us a whole book of the Bible to give us an answer- the book of Job. This is not an exposition of that book, but in short, the lessons regarding this question are;

-God allows suffering and death for different reasons, but in the end, all is to the glory of God

- Sometimes it is for a warning or a chastisement to the non-believer, in order to save them or punish them

- Sometimes it is a trial or test of faith for the believer, in order to strengthen them and make their graces shine before a godless world, even so the angelic world may witness how God helps in time of trouble.

The essential lesson of Job is, "I am God, you are Job- trust me."

Even when you cannot trace God’s hand (in the events of life), you should always trust his heart.

In Romans 8:28 it says

All things work together for the good of them that love God

'All things' includes all good and bad things.

The full answer is largely rooted in what happened to man from the beginning see http://waytoshiloh.com/multimedia.html Evolution refuted 4

For a fuller treatment of this subject we recommend -The grand demonstration by J Adams