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Any time something disastrous happens people always ask,"Where is God in all this?" or "Why can bad things happen when God is good?" It is perfectly natural to ask questions like this. Where you cross the line is when you get angry at God for anything he does. God is loving and does everything for the best of us. We cannot tell what God is optimizing for, but we can reason that he wants the maximum amount of people to make it into Heaven. One man's finite suffering on Earth may result in another man getting to Heaven. The best thing for one person may not be the best thing for another person. Jesus suffered and died at the hands of sinful men when he didn't do anything wrong. Jesus paid the price on the cross such that others can get to Heaven. Jesus went through an ultimate injustice, but it was according to God's redemptive plan to save sinners. This is the ultimate example of bad things can happen to good people in order that something good can happen from it.
Mortal man often times makes mistakes trying to perform something for the greater good, but God who knows all perfectly performs acts which help the greater good. People may run into problems in this life that they don't understand, but in the process of their problems, others may turn away from evil. The thing is that there is no way for us mortals to know how one thing in the world affects everything else. Sure we can strategize to lead our daily lives, but there is no way of determining how our actions changes everything around us. Yet God does know every last detail of every atom in the universe and how they interact. I call the phenomena of one thing changing all others"The Affect Effect", and only God understands it completely.
The Affect Effect is much like The Butterfly Effect. If you have not heard of The Butterfly Effect before, it deals with a paradox of time travel. If someone travels far enough back into time and changes anything even a minor detail such as the flap of a butterfly's wings, the change will propagate across time so history will turn out different. Just as a butterfly's flapping of the wings can change how history unfolds, any one thing can put an influence on other things in ways man cannot understand. I watch hockey, and something routinely talked about is the fan effect on games. The numbers prove that teams do better at home games than away games, and some people have attributed this to the fans cheering. Is there anyway to directly link one fan's cheering to a player scoring a goal? Of course not, but the players do hear the fans so the fans can affect the players. We can figure out how some things immediately affect others, but we can't figure out everything especially when measuring the spiritual.
God knows how running you out of hot water for your shower will keep you alert later. God knows how keeping you in traffic and late from work may keep you from being in an accident. God knows how putting you in an accident may save someone else from Hell. Now, of course, always pray when you get in a vehicle you won't have an accident just as Nehemiah prayed not to have a safe journey to Jerusalem. Everything happens according to God's purpose. For some, it is a chance to get saved, and for others it may be condemning evidence that will go with them into Judgment Day. I always like to look positive though and that God loves all men and wants us all to be saved. Still there may be those who rebel against God's rule, and these beings don't even have to be human, they may be spiritual. Those who rebel against God's rule need to be separated from God's saved people or they may continue to hurt them. This life is not the end. This life is like a seed that sprouts into our next life in Heaven which lasts forever and has many pleasures with no suffering. Luke 20:38 GNT
"He is the God of the living, not of the dead, for to him all are alive." So if you miss a loved one, don't worry, they're in God's care, and you'll see them down the road.
For now though one may go,"If God knows how everything works, and we can't tell how our actions affect anything, how then are we to act?" The scripture teaches us how to act. We're supposed to be good and loving to all others even people who are hateful to us. We should work to help the poor. God says he'll reward us in the next life for all the extra effort we do to follow his will. This is why we're supposed to keep on trying and striving in this life even we have no other reason for living. The work and love we put forth to others when we really didn't feel like it will result in God's praise and rewards. There is nothing we can imagine to gain that comes close to the rewards that God can give. God knows our hearts and minds better than we know ourselves, and God can reward. We're to act like a proper Christian. This is a lifestyle that is not always beneficial to ourselves, but it is a lifestyle we can understand if we study the Bible.
I brought up the idea that God is maximizing for the number of people to get into Heaven. I have shown that the strategies for getting more people in Heaven are not exactly the same strategies for having us lead a life of happiness and pleasure. But what if God is working towards something even greater than getting everyone in Heaven? I can't fathom what that could be, but God's thoughts are above my thoughts. We cannot be sure of God's ways, but we know his purpose is good. Because we cannot be sure of God's ways, there is no way for us to accuse God of taking the wrong course of action in any particular situation. A mortal's accusation against God is like a judge that only heard one person's testimony then fell asleep through the rest of the case. Because the sleepy judge doesn't know all the facts, they can't make an informed judgment on the case. There are so many things man does not know about God and his actions. In the Bible, the book of Job has God explain all his many wonders that Job doesn't understand. Job had enough sense to drop his case against God upon coming into his presence. I wish more people would have enough sense to stop accusing God when they don't have all the information available to them.
-Jim Sager
Related articles about suffering:
Why does God allow suffering
Why does God allow suffering, part 2
Debunking Epicurean fallacy