by Cinda Smaagaard

Created on: December 15, 2010   Last Updated: December 19, 2010

God as Supreme Being is responsible for anything and everything not because God causes these, but because God allows these things to come to pass. When someone claims "responsibility" for something, we equate that with being the proximate cause or initial start to an action taking place. However, sometimes there can be more than one cause of action.  For example, but for a snowstorm, James would not have overcorrected on the ice patch and driven off the road into Jerry's barn. James' actions were predicated upon the situation he found himself dealing with at a particular time and place. Unfortunately, unlike airline pilot Sulley Sullenburger, James did not have the experience, training, emotional grip and luck to get out of trouble in time due to the external conditions beyond his control.

God is creator, so God is therefore not only creator of mankind, zebras, giraffes, rainbows and snowstorms, but of fleas, spiders, diseases and other pestilences we would prefer did not exist in this world.  When we examine how life cycles work, however, we might just see that even the lowly worm has its place in recycling and decomposition.  God creates everything for a purpose, so it is helpful to understand that what we think may be "bad" in the technical sense, may actually be for our good in the long run.  At least God does promise that "all things work for good for those who love the Lord." If nothing else, the bad things may be there simply for the search to cure or to help us appreciate the better, the nicer and the lovelier. 

We get a clearer glimpse of how God allows the bad things by reading the Book of Job in the Bible.  Job was a really great guy according to everyone, but Satan made a bold bet with God that Job couldn't hold up under the stress of so much goodness.  As a result, God allowed Job to endure incredible losses to his health, family and finances just to see how faithful Job really was over time.  Of course, Job had to explain all this trauma to his friends, who figured Job must have done something sinful to deserve so much punishment from God. 

In the end, God restored Job's family, possessions and wealth ten-fold, then explained that God can pretty much do what God wants to do. "Where were you when I formed the foundations of the earth?" God asked Job and his friends by way of reminder that God made this universe so God gets to run it.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>