Do Bad Things Just Happen?
The Rev. Lou Tiscione, Pastor
Weatherford Presbyterian Church (PCA)
The question could be worded differently. We are often surprised when faced with bad circumstances. It could be stated, “Why did this evil thing occur?” Or “Why didn’t it occur?” based on the Fall from which we live in a world broken by sin. I suggest that we can think through this reality biblically.
First, what constitutes a bad thing? Too often our tendency is to find an answer by comparing our circumstances with others who seem to be immune to so-called bad things. We look around us and see random acts of violence and disease. Our conclusion might well be that those acts and conditions are bad. In such a response, we set ourselves up as the deciders of what is bad. To make the issue more accurate, the term evil is a better and more comprehensive description of “bad things.”
The problem with finding an answer by comparing individuals or circumstances in establishing a frame of reference is that it is arbitrary. To discern what evil is, we must have an absolute standard of that which is good. Evil is not rightly based upon one’s personal view. After all, what might be evil for one person might be good for another.
An alternative view was expressed and taught by an American philosopher and college professor, Joseph Campbell. He once said, “I know that good and evil are simply temporal aberrations and that, in God’s view, there is no difference.” Campbell also said, “My general formula for my students is “Follow your bliss” (“The Power of Myth”, Anchor Books, 1988).
Campbell was simply explaining his view rooted in our age of relativism, which is held by many in our culture. For example, evil like beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Second and conversely to moral relativism, all men know intuitively that there is good and there is evil; they are not matters of individual perspectives. We all have a moral standard imprinted upon us by God. We are made in the image and likeness of God. He imprinted on us the reality of good and evil. Jesus said that God alone is good (Luke 18:19). Therefore, the standard of good is absolute as it proceeds from God. We know evil because there is good. Evil is anything that falls short of God’s goodness. We can look at behavior and determine whether it is good or evil because we can hold that behavior up to the light of God’s revelation. Anything that falls short of God’s glory is bad or if you prefer, evil. God has revealed to us what is good. He has given His word which is good, right, and true. Now to the question, “Do bad things just happen?” We look to God’s word. As Jesus said, God alone is good. All things rest upon the revealed proposition of the sovereignty of God. God rules all things absolutely. There is nothing outside of the rule of God, nor is there anything that can occur outside of His rule. Either God has ordained everything that happens or He is not God!
What saith the Scriptures? “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come (Lamentations 3:37-38)? And “God makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). And, “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law” (Romans 2:12).
The Confessional doctrine of our church states, “God, from all eternity, did … ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established” (The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 3, Par. 1).
Note that God is not the author of evil, for God is altogether good. Yet, He is sovereign over all things and by secondary causes He has factored into His good plan things that are evil.
Things just don’t happen! God has ordained them all. Our certain hope in the midst of evil is that God will work all things together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
Our hope in the face of evil, including disease, is that the God who loves us has promised to combine everything good and bad for our ultimate good and His glory.
