For the people who don’t believe in God, many of them think God does not exist because bad things happen. But God’s ways are above our ways(*v1). We cannot even fathom how God thinks for he knows everything in this universe and Heaven all at once. God knows all our thoughts. God knows how any event affects other events. We don’t even know God’s goals for humanity other than the salvation of it. What we can surmise is if salvation is important enough for God to die on a cross for us that he wants it to have a maximum impact. I think there’s a possibility that all people can be saved through Jesus. Yet, if there are some who are saved and some that are lost, God would want the number lost to be minimized. One way I could see people being lost is if they rejected Jesus when they met him and asked to live apart from God. So if this was the case, it could be God’s goal for humanity to make sure few people came to this point. Only with God can we live a fulfilling afterlife. Without God, there is bound to be suffering in the afterlife. As such we’re looking at a situation involving infinite suffering in the afterlife vs. infinite happiness in the afterlife. Infinite suffering in Hell is worse than any amount of finite suffering on Earth. So right there, God may do virtually anything on Earth in order that the maximum number of people may be saved.
What then can save people? Acceptance of Jesus Christ saves people. If a man accepts Jesus as his LORD and savior, that person goes to Heaven. Acceptance of Jesus as LORD involves repenting of sin and resisting future sin to the best of one’s ability. What then can bring people to acceptance of Jesus Christ? This is hard to answer. People come from all walks of life. There is no right answer for every person. God must be guiding us all simultaneously to understand that love is good and to the love that comes from him. Death is bad, yes. Yet one person’s death may bring another person to think about death and ultimately come to Jesus. One person’s finite suffering could prevent another from having infinite suffering. This is even a portrait of the cross. Jesus suffered and died such that we can all have a way to live forever without suffering.
God is doing things in such a way to do best for humanity. God can’t satisfy everyone. If a Baseball pitcher prays to strike out a player, and the batter prays to hit a homerun, how does God appease both of them? I guess he doesn’t intervene and instead gives them really large salaries to compensate(jk) But it touches on that what helps one man may harm another. You may want to hit a lottery jackpot, but so does everyone else. Who should get the money? God may or may not even care about trivial matters like this, and if he does, theres no way for a man to tell who should get the money. Sure one man may think another man more or less deserving of getting the money, but there’s no way to ultimately know how everything will change for the better as a result. We can’t see how everything affects everything else. God’s ways are above our ways.
Some people may think God should stop evil doers from committing evil in their tracks. This would completely change reality so the grand plan of redemption could not have taken place. Also even if redemption could take place, would any evil person ever think he needed it? Afterall, no evil being could have ever done anything evil for God would have stopped them. If no evil took place, why do they need forgiveness? Also what if evil beings were condemned for attempted evil, how would they ever get a chance to be forgiven?
-Jim Sager
*v1 Isaiah 55:8-9 GNT “My thoughts,” says the Lord, “are not like yours, and my ways are different from yours. 9 As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and thoughts above yours.”
Victor Nunez adds:
Sometimes people question where God was during x event or x tragic occurrence. The answer is He is always there with us through good and bad times. We have to ask, “Where was God when Jesus was suffering and dying for us on that cross?” He was always there, but he let it happen because there was a greater plan unfolding. He was literally suffering in order for mankind to have hopes in being able to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior to be saved from eternal suffering. This is one prime example that basically demonstrates no matter what hardship or trial we may be enduring, in the end God’s will needs to be trusted even when it is difficult or doesn’t make sense to our finite minds.