blame
Christianity in a Nutshell
Is God to Blame for the Bad Things?
When Terrible Things Happen
Terrible accidents and natural disasters happen all the year round, even at Christmas. Although there is a lot of beauty in the natural world, nature can be very cruel. If a tsunami happens at Christmas, is it God being cruel to the very people He created, or is it the earth's crust cooling down and tectonic plates moving, causing an undersea earthquake?
People do horrible things to each other for a wide variety of reasons. Much of the trouble in the world is of human making, not God's. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone, yet people starve. Food could be distributed to everybody and the starving could be educated and helped to support themselves. Sadly, there is not enough will and motivation to make it happen.
Ebola was an African problem of little interest to the rest of the world until it suddenly looked as if it might break out of Africa.
Wars don't just happen. They are started by people and they can be stopped by people.
Why should God get the blame? It's just not fair.
If God's Holy Spirit is the force for good at work in our world, should we be surprised that the Bible tells us that there are also dark, evil forces at work too? Jesus tells us that Satan is the enemy. He is constantly on the lookout for ways to bring misery into our lives. Many people believe in God, but say that Satan is imaginary, a medieval superstition. That's a bit like a battery with a + at one end but no - at the other end. But Jesus also tells us that one day good will defeat evil and there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
