January 26 2018 – Click here to listen
I’m still hearing various people question God, with the age old question as to why a good, loving God would allow bad things to happen to good people. There is one instance in human history that I can think of, whereby I feel sure that no one questioned God about this issue even though the same difficult circumstances that we face today existed.
There were two parents who had a son who was just a great kid, he was obedient and good. He tried to do everything by the book, yet was brutally murdered. If this happened to some of us, we would be devastated with our loss, and in our mourning might ask the question, “why do bad things happen to good people?”; we might even dare to take an extra step and ask, “how could a loving God allow such things to happen?”. These particular parents, however, knew full well why this happened; they knew it was not God who was to blame, but themselves. The boy’s name was Abel and the person who murdered him in a fit of jealousy was his brother Cain; the parents of course were Adam and Eve. The Bible calls Abel righteous, so there is no question that he was good.
I would imagine that as Adam and Eve mourned the loss of their righteous son it was particularly grievous to them. You see it was their fault. There was no death, hatred, evil, or the like until Eve deliberately disobeyed God and convinced Adam to do likewise. They lived in a virtual paradise right up until they disobeyed God. They had been warned by a God who cannot lie, not to disobey His command to not partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, warning “you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”. They were directly responsible for bringing this curse upon humanity. Here is what God said to Adam after He had sinned against God: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; All the days of your life both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.” This curse has been passed on to all of humanity right up to today.
God did not bring death upon the world, mankind did. We were warned in no uncertain terms what the consequence of our actions would be, but did not heed His advice. God has since prepared a way to defeat death, evil, and satan once and for all and allow for our reunification with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. He again is warning in no uncertain terms that those who do not accept Jesus as their savior, that the ramifications of “their” actions, will “surely be” eternal separation from Him in Hell. God’s word is holy! I have no doubt that He will deliver on His promises. He cannot be holy and righteous unless He does tell the truth EVERY time. No one should look up to God from Hell and question why a loving God would allow them to end up in that horrible place. You will be in Hell if you disobey God and reject His only Son, Jesus Christ just exactly as He has warned. Make no mistake about it, without Jesus, you WILL go to Hell, and you will have no one to blame but yourself. You have been duly warned.
God is good – All the time!
______________________
John 3:17
For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him
might be saved.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!