Why does God allow tragedy? Why do innocent babies suffer? Why the caprice of tornado, hurricane or typhoon? Why, if there is a God, does He allow wars, and crime, and automobile accidents? These questions have perplexed the greatest theologians for centuries – yet the answers are simple.
by Garner Ted Armstrong
“When he was hit by a car, my mother prayed to you to let him live, but you wouldn’t. My little brother was only two years old,” wrote Peter to a newspaper advice counselor, “and he couldn’t have sinned so bad that you had to punish him that way…you could have saved my little brother but you let him die. You broke my mother’s heart. How can I love you?”
Peter’s grief was genuine. So was his perplexity over the goodness of God whom he had heard from his parents, and the evil of the terrible accident that took his brother’s life.
His young mind simply couldn’t accept it. Tommy was dead. But mother had prayed. And God – the God he had heard of who helped people, and who was good and merciful, had let Tommy die.
If He was God, He had the power to stop Tommy from dying, didn’t he? And Peter’s mother had fervently asked Him to, hadn’t she?
Well then – why had He let Tommy die?
Answer Unavailable?
The newspaper columnist had no answers. He simply replied, “Suffering of innocent people is something we cannot understand.”
But is there no answer, then?
What about the millions who died in the Nazi torture camps? The tens of thousands in Nigeria? The millions on all sides during World War II? And what about the untold, unknown, unwritten calamities that have befallen human beings since time immemorial – whether infant mortality, accidental death, murder, sickness, or war?
Are human beings, then, just like animals – subject to the vagaries of weather and nature, to the passions of other humans, and to caprice?
Or is there a God who could prevent human suffering if He so chose?
Many theologians assume the answer is unobtainable.
But why should it be?
If there is a God, and most (certainly not all) theologians profess to believe in God, then would not that God leave a glimpse of His purpose, His plan, to His own creation which He loves?
Wouldn’t God have revealed the answers to human problems if He truly seeks to relieve such problems?
God is Blamed
It’s a commentary on human nature that we tend to congratulate ourselves for our success, and blame God for our failures.
If we fail, if a loved one is hurt, we wonder why God “allowed” it to happen. When we triumph, we can think of many reasons why we did.
One atheist (if there really is such a thing) expressed a rather common attitude.
“If I had power to fashion the universe and ‘remake it nearer my heart’s desire,’ there would be no blind, no deaf, no dumb; there would be no crippled, and each child born would live free of disease and possess a mentality capable of withstanding all the rebuffs of life. There would be no deaths by accident. There would be no earthquakes, cyclones, or tornadoes. Unless and until such a condition comes to pass, when we may live free from disease, sorrow and suffering, there is no God in this vast universe worthy of homage.”
At least, so thought a professed atheist.
And the turned-off youth of today? They, too, wonder.
Millions of teens, having seen the blatant hypocrisy of much of professing “Christianity” – the “do as I say, don’t do as I do” generation of once-a-week listeners and “never-doers” – have simply rejected the traditional “mainstream” of “Christian thought.”
Trouble is, they think that by rejecting many of the more commonplace religious denominations, they have automatically rejected the Bible, and Christ, and God,
Not so.
But teens wonder, too. Do conditions in this nuclear-armed, overpopulated, polluted, war-sick, disease-ridden, tragedy-filled world indicate any successes whatever for the traditional “Christian” struggle?
Or doesn’t it frankly look like Satan wins all the battles?
During World War II, a young German soldier wrote to his home pastor from Stalingrad:
“In Stalingrad, to put the question of God’s existence means to deny it…I have searched for God in every crater, in every destroyed house, on every corner, in every friend, in every foxhole, and in the sky. God did not show Himself, even though my heart cried for Him.
“If there should be a God, He is only with you in the hymnals and the prayers, in the pious sayings of the priests and pastors, in the ringing of the bells and fragrance of incense, but NOT in Stalingrad.”
And so a youth, caught up in the shock of war, searched through traditional avenues for God, and couldn’t find Him.
“The Invisible God”
What about the claims of the atheist? Would a world “nearer our hearts desire” without suffering and death be the only proof of a “God worthy of homage” in this vast universe?
The greatest question in all this is “Does God Exist?”
Is there a God?
If so, can you prove it? Is God a personal being, who hears, and answers prayers?
What is His nature, if He exists? Is He a loving, merciful, forgiving God, who is interested in preventing tragedy? Does He protect humans? Does he STOP wars?
Science proves there is a God. It is absolutely unshakable – the ONLY intelligent answer. A creation demands a Creator. Life demands a Lifegiver. Power, energy, force – all demand a source of power. Design is not through randomness or caprice, but by a Designer. A great Sustainer keeps it all working. Laws require a Lawgiver. And God has not left this world without a witness. He has given His Word.
And the Word of God, the Bible, stands proved.
God’s Word is the handbook about human nature, the book that explains about life and the way it should be lived.
While it sounds utterly impossible, the answers to the perplexing questions of youth, the bewilderment of Peter, the frustrated anger of the soldier at Stalingrad, and the cynical atheist, are very plainly revealed in God’s word!
God explains why He permits accidents, sickness, murder, and wars! He plainly reveals why humans suffer and shows why He does not prevent it.
What are the Causes
of Human Trouble?
But first, what caused little Tommy’s death? Why the problems? Why war? For every effect there is a cause.
That’s a living principle. There must be causes for effects – action to bring about reaction.
Why was the little boy struck by the automobile? Perhaps the answers are simple, if tragic; perhaps they’re very involved. First, what about Tommy’s training? Had he been taught never to run into the street? What type of discipline had he received during his young life? What about protective fences? What about speed restrictions in the neighborhood? An automobile was involved. But automobiles are not constructed by men whose whole purpose is the safety of other human beings.
Assembly-line production––with built-in obsolescence, huge engines and flimsy bodies in ever-changing shapes––does not demonstrate carefully hand-crafted machinery that is totally safe. Perhaps the automobile had defective brakes. Perhaps the driver had been drinking or was under the influence of drugs. Even heavy doses of smog can markedly slow down a motorist’s reactions in an emergency. So can pain killers, like aspirin. And, strange as it may seem, even an argument at home could have so affected the driver of the auto that he was driving angrily, at unreasonable speed!
So there were many, many unknown factors involved in the accident that killed little Tommy. Let’s ask little Peter’s question again––and see specific answers.
Peter asked God (or challenged God because his mother had asked) to remove the effect of perhaps many, many voluntary human actions. Were two boys chasing one another? Had Tommy run into the street to retrieve a ball? Was he actually attempting to see how close he could come to the car? (Very real cases are on record of such pranks; and one, of which I know personally, resulted in the death of a child).
The causes could have been myriad.
Peter’s letter didn’t list any causes for the accident. Perhaps Peter’s mother could have removed the cause. We’ll never know for sure. But suppose more diligent training could have literally prevented Tommy from ever running into the street? It’s possible, you know.
Suppose Tommy had been told to remain in the back yard, away from a busy street––but that he had never been disciplined when he disobeyed? Suppose his foray into the street was a childlike act of adventurous rebellion?
Human emotions always cloud facts. Bereaved loved ones, seeing only the immediate, terrible consequences of an accident, are stunned with heartsick moroseness. They are filled with feelings of pity and sorrow. They see the effect––the pitiful body of a dead child. But the causes?
Most of us remain blind to them. I must realize, in writing this article, that some human minds will simply remain closed to the logical answers to little Peter’s questions––that pity, (and perhaps even a measure of self-righteous indignation, which helps some to continually upgrade themselves, spiritually) will so cloud the mind that no matter what the causes, God will remain “guilty,” in some minds.
But what if the driver was drunk?
God could have prevented such drunkenness, couldn’t He?
Yes, He could.
But how?
The Atheist’s
Better World
The answers are found in the obvious mistakes in the thinking of the cynical atheist, who would “remake” the world nearer his heart’s desire.
How would he do this?
He would remove the effects of human action––of free moral agency, of free choice.
He would demand there be no blindness, deafness, dumbness; no cripples, no disease, and no death by accident. He would insist each mind be mature, normal, stable, able to withstand all the rebuffs of life.
He would, in short, insist man be allowed to continue breaking natural and spiritual laws––continue living the way that causes all these human miseries. Yet he would insist on removing the effects of free human action.
In short, he would advocate the abolishing of the penalty for sin, while leaving the sin itself.
Again we must ask, “Why blindness, deafness, dumbness? Why crippling accidents, sickness, accidental death? Why wars?”
The answer?
Man is a free moral agent. He is free to choose his own way of living, free to act contrary to the interests of others, free to act contrary to his own self-interests.
One common cause of congenital blindness, deafness, and other deformities is venereal disease. The atheist said nothing about the prevention of venereal disease––only that he demands the effects of human sin be removed, that humans be allowed to be as wretchedly disobedient to the laws of God as ever, but that the penalties for these broken laws be removed.
Accidental deaths? He would remove them.
How?
He didn’t say. But let’s think of the many, many ways in which people die accidentally. Drownings, auto collisions, accidental shootings, falls, airplane crashes, accidental poisonings––these and a host of others take their fearsome toll each year.
But let’s be practical. Does the atheist, then, propose that God suspend His laws each time a person breaks them? Humans can’t breathe under water. When people foolishly stand up in boats or overload boats, or when children play on steep banks of rushing rivers, or when old craft, poorly maintained, flounder, does the atheist expect God to immediately rescue each person caught in such an act––that God remove the penally for foolish actions?
But how would God do this?
Let’s wonder together…
The Cigarette Battle
Take cigarette smoking. It’s been proved beyond the remotest shadow of a doubt that it is not only continually injurious to your health, but that it could kill you with lung cancer, heart disease, or emphysema.
So a man, driven by his lust for the sensation of nicotine in his bloodstream, reaches for a pack of cigarettes. Suddenly, he is repelled by an invisible, irresistible force. His hand stops just short of his shirt pocket. He can’t believe it. He is trying desperately to reach into is own shirt pocket, and he simply can’t! He tries the other hand. Same result. Soaked with perspiration, he struggles with all his power to get that cigarette package out of his pocket. He bends over and jogs up and down. The shirt is open and the cigarettes fall out. He tries to reach for them. But he can’t. He is stopped by some unseen hand––some invisible force.
He throws himself to the floor, trying to seize the package in his mouth, trying to get a cigarette into his mouth without using his hands. But he is unable to get near the package. He can crawl around and around it, but never get quite close enough! An invisible hand keeps him away.
He screams for a friend. But the same thing happens, again and again. God has stepped in and has begun to live this man’s life for him. Now he can’t smoke. He wants to, desperately! But he can’t.
He throws himself into mindless tantrums. Screaming out against the unseen force, he curses, rages, shrieks, and strains against it until his eyes are crazed, his breath comes in sobbing gasps and he froths at the mouth.
But to no avail.
After days, and finally weeks, he is a mindless cur. He snivels, looks furtively about, and surreptitiously attempts every conceivable ruse to obtain a smoke. It takes months, and finally, though his whole mind and body has suffered through his senseless rages, he no longer has the cigarette habit. He is now conquered, in that one direction.
God has stepped in.
Do you see? You could apply this same example to any of the harmful human actions possible. Unless God Almighty steps in to force humans to do what they ought to do instead of what they wish to do, humans will continue to follow the way of human nature––of greed, vanity, jealousy, lust, strife, competition, racism, hatred and total self-seeking.
Prevent Accidents?
The atheist said there would be no more accidental deaths. Then the same, strange, invisible force would have to immediately interfere to prevent accidents.
Imagine the scene at the neighborhood bar.
John, the harried businessman, has procrastinated about going home to Martha, his constant nag.
He needs bolstering. In this case, booze.
But he’s already had one, and his reflexes are already being affected somewhat. Two martinis and he could be very slow in an emergency on the highway. Three, and he could be dangerous. Four, and he could be deadly.
Headed toward the neighborhood where John sulkily sips his drink is Mary and her three little children. Mary doesn’t observe too many rules. Her seatbelt is not fastened. Two of her smaller children play in the back of the station wagon, and her oldest daughter sits in the front seat. She, too, has left her seatbelt unfastened.
The seemingly fateful enactment of human tragedy––the moment when John lurches from the bar, starts his engine, and careens into the street, races down the block and runs the stop sign––the moment when Mary and her family drive confidently through the intersection––continues to approach.
But wait.
John is just about to drink that third martini.
Suddenly a strange, irresistible force stays his hand. It boggles his mind. He simply can’t drink that martini, no matter how hard he tries.
And so, the same wrestling match with an invisible, spiritual straightjacket occurs.
Mary, too has found that a powerful challenging voice has commanded her to fasten her safety belt. She resents it. How could such a voice speak out of nowhere? And who does He think He is?
Of course, the National Safety Council, the slippery streets, her own lack of good driving habits, and her love and concern for her children should be voice sufficiently audible for her to obey. But not Mary. She’s a free moral agent, a free spirit. She’ll do as she chooses. And besides, its been a long day shopping and she’s in a hurry.
Do you see?
Only if God were to step in and live people’s lives for them would accidents be prevented.
The atheist didn’t know what he was asking for. He was requesting a world with a zombie-like populace, shuffling about in mindless obedience to myriad laws that would govern all human behavior.
But if God were to impose such restraints on humans, what then?
Very likely, He would be faced with a continual battle––a constant stream of hatred, invective, curses of screams and anger. He would be faced with a decision: whether to destroy His creation and begin again, or to beat human kind into submission––with the end product a mindless, dutifully obedient organism, without thought, without reason, without intellect, and totally devoid of character.
What is Man?
The Bible narrative reveals that God created Adam––man––in the very image and similitude of God. He imparted to Adam mind power, limited ability to think, plan, reason, and to create.
The Genesis account further quotes God as saying, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them [meaning all mankind, and not just Adam] have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Later, it is revealed the God made man a “living soul.” The Hebrews word is nephesh and is used five times in the first chapter of Genesis for lower life forms before ever being used to connote man. In Numbers 19:11, the same word appears in the words, “dead body.” Yet the English is rendered soul. Millions have mistakenly embraced the pagan doctrine of “immortality of the soul” without ever researching some of the simplest truths of the Scriptures. God reveals that “…the Eternal God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).
Notice, man is not said to possess a “soul” within himself, but to BE a soul. And soul means earthy, temporal, transitory, fleshy, and subject to death.
Herein is one of the most vital points of the entire question of “Christian” philosophy.
The major religions can be said to be decided on each side of the concept of what is man.
Many believe man is possessed of some “inner goodness” within himself. That is, that there is some innate “godlike” quality within mankind. Most of the Oriental religions assume inner goodness in man.
The basic “Christian” approach is an inner evil in man, hence the need for a Savior, a Redeemer, to expiate the evil acts of mankind, and to return him to his former state of “goodness.”
And, shocking as it sounds, both concepts are in error.
Professing Christians assume Adam fell.
But Adam didn’t fall from any perfect state. He merely exercised his God-given right of free choice and made the wrong decision!
Adam was created human. HE was not immortal, but flesh—“Dust though art, and unto dust thou shalt return” (Gen. 3:19). He had human nature.
Prior to being influenced to disobey his Maker, Adam was “neutral” toward God. He did not resent God as yet. There was no hostility evident in the conversations in the garden (Genesis 2nd and 3rd chapters).
But once Satan had influenced Adam––once Adam had exercised his own free moral agency to make a wrong decision––hostility toward God entered.
Adam could have argued, “God, you KNEW we could lose our wonderful home (the Garden), and that our lives would be filled with work and sweat (Gen. 3:19), and that our children would eventually record the first murder (Gen. 4:8). YOU could have removed these consequences of sin; you could have prevented Cain from killing his own brother; you could have made life easy for us, with no bad crops, no bad years, no sickness, no heartaches, no anxieties and worries.”
And God could answer: “No, Adam YOU could have prevented all these consequences of sin! Remember, I told you not to bring these things upon you. I told you you would surely die, that your mortal, human body would be subject to death (the DEATH––Rom. 6:23) if you disobeyed my commands. I allowed you free choice, but I commanded you to make the right choice. I wanted you to be the one to make the decision!”
God could answer that His great love for Adam, His desire to see a human being rise higher and higher toward the very God plane through building right character, was the reason why God left the choice to Adam.
Free Choice
Notice what God said to our forefathers. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15).
God places before each of us a choice.
We may choose to obey the laws of good eating, exercise, sleep, and clean thinking and we will be automatically blessed because of the laws which God has set in motion. And we may choose to break those laws, ignore their existence, and suffer physical debilities, handicaps, sickness, and early death!
Most fat people were not force-fed.
You “are” what you eat. And God has laws involving foods, believe it or not. For more information on God’s dietary laws, call now for our free booklet, “To Eat, or Not To Eat?”
You may choose to train your children God’s way, according to the loving conditions of Scripture, and according to the examples of God’s Word, and they will be greatly blessed––their lives protected and preserved.
But then, you are also free to choose the way of modern “child psychology,”or the current way of “situation ethics” and permissiveness which encourages disobedience in children, and which is a direct cause of much youthful rebellion of this age.
For the most part, men and women have chosen the line of least effort in child rearing, and our enormous problem of juvenile delinquency is the direct result of a cause. The cause? The unwillingness of man to obey His creator.
Proof? To suggest to a modern family they should actually look into the Bible to see how to rear children is proof enough. Snorts of ridicule, disdain, and anger are the usual reply.
God said, “…I command thee this day to love the Eternal thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Eternal thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it… I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore CHOOSE life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deut. 30:16-19).
God says choose.
He reveals we are creatures of free choice in relationship to Him, and to His laws, that we are free moral agents.
God commands us to make the right choice––but He will not force that right choice upon us.
Little Tommy was as yet too young to make serious choices for himself and should have been protected with the safeguard of loving discipline––first, perhaps a protected place to play, and second, protected with the removal of all those other causes of the accident. Just like that young boy––whose decision to run into the street was only one tiny part of the whole “choosing” situation which resulted in his death––each person must choose.
The whole society has chosen.
The fruits, the evidence of that choice are all around you.
Man has always chosen the way of disobedience. The way of vanity, jealousy, lust, and greed. He has deliberately chosen the way of competition and strife, believing it the best way.
In momentary triumph, he congratulates himself.
In failure, he blames God.
God Keeps Hands Off
Humans act unreasonably.
But then, human nature, with the Satanic influence of this age and this society, is most unreasonable.
Humankind wants God to “keep his nose out of our business” and not interfere in our daily lives. To be met with the “invisible spiritual straightjacket” described earlier would absolutely enrage most humans.
Still, even though feeling animosity toward God, and resenting His laws, we want God to suspend the penalty for breaking His laws!
God says, “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”! (Rom. 8:7.)
Humans resent God’s way––the only way to achieve “goodness.” Goodness of character and good things happening all thought life.
Human nature wants to “appear” as “good,” it wants to think of itself as “good,” but it doesn’t want to DO that which is good! It wants to be “good” and to have good results, without living in a way which produces good!
God is not presently interfering in a powerful way with this world.
The horrible consequences of man, living man’s chosen way, are self-evident.
Crime, divorce, horrible disease epidemics, war, pollution, utter immorality, venereal disease––all are effects of man’s own choices, his own bull-headed, stiff-necked determination to live contrary to God’s laws and insist God remove the penalties.
But only when man has learned the bitterest of lessons, only when human beings can look back over the entirety of blood-stained human history and say with deep conviction, man’s way is utterly evil, will God step in and rescue man from himself.
It is a heartbreaking shame that little children must suffer for the consequences of careless, sinning parents, neighbors and sometimes even grandparents. But God warned us it would be this way. He spoke of allowing the consequences for sin to be visited from the fathers “…upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (Ex. 20:5).
YOUR Freedom of Choice
Yes, God allowed little Tommy to die. He allowed World War II. He allowed more than 50,000 Americans to be killed in automobile accidents last year.
And He allows you to make every decision for yourself.
He permitted each of the parents, neighbors, and friends of Tommy to contribute to his little personality. He permitted whatever sequence of events that led to Tommy’s trip into the street.
He allowed the automobile to continue on the path chosen for it by its driver.
That is to say, He does not step in and impose His will on any people at any time.
Frankly, you don’t want Him to. You would strongly resent the sudden imposition of the will of God into your daily, private life.
God makes available to you the way of life which causes happiness, success, rewards, excitement, fun, good health, and eventual eternal life. He commands you to choose to live that way.
But He doesn’t force you to make the right choice.
God will allow you to choose life––or he’ll allow you to choose death. The choice is yours.
