Search It Out · The way we see it
Does God cause the bad things that happen?
Faithful Christians differ on this question. This is where Come Find God lands and why, and how others read it.
Our answer: No. God is sovereign, but he isn't the source of evil. Evil comes from sin, the devil and a broken world, and God works to bring good even out of what he never wanted.
"Everything happens for a reason." "God took him home." People say these things to comfort each other, but they can leave a grieving person afraid of God. Let's see what the Bible says God is like.
What God is like
James 1:13: When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.
James 1:17: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
1 John 1:5: And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
God isn't tempted by evil, and he doesn't tempt anyone. Every good and perfect gift comes from him. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. A God who quietly sent evil into people's lives would have darkness in him.
Look at Jesus
John 14:9: Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Acts 10:38: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.
John 10:10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.
"Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." And what did Jesus do? He went around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil. He drew the line himself: the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy; he came so we could have life to the full.
Where evil came from
Genesis 3:17: And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Romans 5:12: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
1 John 5:19: We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.
Death entered the world through sin, and the ground itself was cursed when humanity turned from God. John says the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. Much of what happens on earth is not what God wants. That's why Jesus taught us to pray, "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
Good out of evil
Genesis 50:20: As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.
Romans 8:28: And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. Years later he told them, "What you intended against me for evil, God intended for good." Notice who intended the evil: the brothers. God didn't need their sin, but he turned it into the saving of many lives. Romans 8:28 promises the same: God works in all things for the good of those who love him.
The hard verses
Isaiah 45:7: I form the light and create the darkness; I bring prosperity and create calamity. I, the LORD, do all these things.
Amos 3:6: If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?
Job 1:12: “Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
The KJV of Isaiah 45:7 says God "creates evil." The Hebrew word ra' is broad. It can mean moral evil, but it also means disaster or trouble, and here it's paired with shalom (peace, well-being). So modern translations say "calamity": God's judgment on nations, like the fall of Babylon that Isaiah 45 is about. And in Job, it is Satan who strikes Job, within limits God sets (Job 1:12; 2:6).
So, what did we find?
God is not the author of your pain. He grieves with you, he is stronger than what hurt you, and one day he will wipe every tear from your eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4).
Where Christians differ
Many Christians in the Reformed tradition believe God ordains everything that happens, including evil, without being the author of sin. The Westminster Confession (1646) says God "from all eternity did... freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin." They point to Ephesians 1:11, Genesis 50:20 and Isaiah 45:7. Both sides agree that God is good, that evil is real and wrong, and that God will one day end it.
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain).
More Bible studies and word studies · Come home: how to know God