Musings: Why do bad things happen to good people?

[Sock Puppet]

No right or wrong answers, just share your thoughts.

[Wiener]

Maybe you should share yours first, you know a way to break the ice.   

[molmarsa]

I believe everything happens for a reason. Whether it is a test of faith, or just plain fate, there is a reason and we may never know the answers. The reverse is true also, why do good things happen to bad people?

[redcap]

The answer to your question can be found in the book of Job.

[Boo]

Being a good person isn't the same as being a person that is Saved. So maybe it should be phrased: Why do bad things happen to Saved people. Somethings that we preseve as being bad is actually for our own good.

By the way I read the book. Did you Sock Puppet? Just asking because you asked this question.

[Sock Puppet]

That is correct, redcap.

Bad things happen to good people because bad things happen. God, IMHO, is not this puppet-master up in the sky that's pulling strings and causing things to happen or not happen that many people think He is. He's much more than that. We humans put so many limits on Him. As Wiener put it, we "have a choice", sometimes the bad things that happen are because we've done something stupid which caused a bad thing to occur. Sometimes we happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is why so many people have real problems with religion--they just can't understand how a so-called "loving God" could allow such horrible, heinous things to happen like the Holocaust, the Virginia Tech shootings, the terrorist attacks, suicide bombings, tsunamis, Hurricane Katrina, the Johnstown Floods, etc.

God said to Job, "Where were you when I set the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding...Since you know."

When our limited ways of understanding fail us, faith steps in.

[Sock Puppet]

Being a good person isn't the same as being a person that is Saved. So maybe it should be phrased: Why do bad things happen to Saved people. Somethings that we preseve as being bad is actually for our own good.

By the way I read the book. Did you Sock Puppet? Just asking because you asked this question.

Yep, read that book. Been involved in lots of studies over the years. Asked myself the question many times. Asked God. Got angry with Him. Listened, heard (there is a difference between the two) and now understand. Made my peace. I hope you have.

As to your phrasing--saved people vs. good people. Well, one could make that distinction, true, but the question as it is usually phrased uses the "good" terminology, hence my use of the same.