“How could a loving God…? This question has been completed in as many ways as there are hurting people and varies according to the life experience of the individual. They have asked, “How could a loving God allow my friend to suffer?” “How could He let my parents divorce?” “How could He allow earthquakes, floods, and droughts to torment already suffering people.”? “How could He allow crime, poverty, child abuse, and disease”? “How could He condemn anyone to a terrible place like hell?”
Let’s establish some things right from the start. First, there is only one true God and He really is loving. Second, He is sovereign. This simply means that He is in complete control of all creation. So, If God is loving and sovereign, then why do these horrible things happen?
The short answer is that nothing in this world is as God intended it to be. He created perfect, sinless people and placed them in a pristine, untainted paradise. He created them to love Him, but love that is not chosen is not love. Therefore, He gave them free will and allowed them to choose Him or reject Him.
The keys to our topic are the words “Choice” and “Consequences.” God gave man the choice to obey and be blessed or reject Him and not be blessed. The Bible says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” Romans 5:12.
God has built consequences into the laws of the universe. If you step off a cliff, you will fall, touch a flame, you will be burned, violate His holy laws, and you will pay a price. People die because sin has entered the world, and sin brings death. Parents divorce because one or both do not follow the instructions God gave them in His Word, natural disasters occur because our world was judged at the great flood and it now behaves erratically, and people go to hell not because God sends them there but because they choose to reject Christ’s offer of forgiveness and in doing so reject God. Heaven and Hell are corresponding opposites. The Bible says that all good gifts come from God. Heaven is wonderful because God, who is good, loving, and kind, is there. Hell is awful because it is the complete absence of God, which means it is the complete absence of good. All that is left is evil, bitterness, and suffering. When people reject God, they get exactly what they have chosen: eternity without God, and that eternity is a place called Hell.
Choice and Consequences. Crime, weather, divorce, tyranny, and despair are the consequences of a world that has rejected God. You can begin to change this world by listening to the call of God on your life. His desire is that you ask him to forgive you for your sin and trust Christ as your Savior. Do this today and begin to see life the way God intended it to be!