Bad Things—rsaxvc (Flickr.com)

Reasons for Bad Things

The Bible helps us see that there are at least four reasons why bad things happen.

Reasons  one for Bad Things Our Personal Sin.

This explains why there is so much moral evil in the world.  In order to understand this, we need to go back to the first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis.  We read here that God created Adam and Eve in His image.  That doesn’t mean they looked like God, but instead that they were given the ability to make rational choices.

God did not create evil.  Rather, He created the possibility of evil when He created human beings.  We have actualized that potentiality.  God gave Adam and Eve some moral parameters and very clearly told them what they could and could not do.  But they chose to defy and disobey His standards.  Ever since that day, every one of us have been born with that same ability to make choices — and with the same rebellious bent for sin.  We can make decisions that either build others up, or tear them down.  In other words, our actions often have a direct impact on other people and that is why bad things happen.

Luke 13:1 tells us about a group of people who came up to Jesus and asked Him why Pilate murdered some men and women while they were worshipping in the Temple.  After killing them, he took their blood and mixed it with the blood of their sacrifices.  Our entire country asked a similar question after Larry Gene Ashbrook went on a shooting spree at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas on September 16, 1999, killing seven people. Both groups of worshippers were murdered because of the sinful choices made by two different men separated by almost two centuries ­ Pontius Pilate and Larry Ashbrook.

You may wonder at this point why God doesn’t step in and prevent people from doing bad things to others.  He could have made Timothy McVeigh have an accident before he arrived at the Mura Federal Building in Oklahoma City.  Except then we’d be robots.  You see, our freedom gives us the ability to hurt others.

Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a best-selling book several years ago called, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.”  His title is deceiving because the Bible says that there’s no such thing as a good person.  God’s image has been tarnished.  We’re good stuff that has gone bad.  We’re a defaced masterpiece.  A rebellious child.  We’re not just imperfect people who need to grow.  The Bible says that we’re rebels who need to lay down our arms.

When sinful people make decisions, God allows them to play out — and sometimes those consequences result in some bad things happening to you, and to others.  I am not suggesting that we always suffer in direct proportion to our sin.

In Luke 13:2, Jesus addressed this when He says,

“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?  I tell you, no!”  

Why do bad things happen a discussion with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz Washington Post

‘Why do bad things happen a discussion with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Washington Post. Apr. 25 2012 Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz discusses the notion of free will. Amanda Castroverde The Washington Post Correction Clarification AP Top Stories 1 04 AP Top Stories 1 05 SuperFan badge holders consistently post smart timely comments about and more.…

Tomorrow we will take a look at Reason Number two of why Bad Things Happen