Why would God allow tragedy?

[Katieb123]

Earlier this year, my best friend passed away after a two year battle with Ewing's Sarcoma (Bone Cancer) at the age of 18. He didn't choose that, nothing he could have done would have allowed him to live longer. Why would a loving God allow him to suffer? Why wouldn't he step in and heal him, when we know he has the power to do so? I prayed every day for a miracle, and heard nothing in return. Why would God even let cancer exist?

A few months after the passing of my best friend, a classmate of mine that was the same age died in a car accident. It was a freak thing, he couldn't have done anything better. He was a boy of such faith. He trusted God with everything in his life, and I can't help but wonder why God would repay him by ending his life a day before he was supposed to graduate.

My class graduated with 2 empty seats. Why didn't God intervene? Every single one of us has been impacted and changed from this. Maybe I've started to appreciate life more, but that doesn't change the fact that those two people died, and I can't accept that they died so the rest of us could learn something. Their lives are just as valuable as mine.

God had the ability to stop these things, because God can do anything, so why didn't he? If you have any answers, or anything to help this make a little more sense, I would absolutely love to hear form you. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and I'm sorry it was a little depressing.

 

[sun rise]

@Katieb123 , I don't know if my own understanding will help or not. But maybe it could. When I was searching the only answer I found to your questions was reincarnation. I could not believe in a loving God without it. With it, I could accept that I did not see the entire picture of how a person's life fit in to a series of lives.

The facebook group "Lights of Kabbalah" had this posting:

"Our souls reincarnate to attain actualization and individuation. Each subsequent incarnation articulating another element of soul.

Each incarnation we are a completely different person with a completely different purpose and Tikkun (correction/healing). With each life, we are meant to articulate a specific element of soul that has yet to have been expressed and manifest in this world.

Life is a Book and we are its Authors. Moment to moment we write and rewrite OUR own story."

Rav DovBer Pinson
​

My friends and I like to say that someone has "completed his work" when someone "drops his physical body" to express this.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I don't believe in a God that has any interest or control over human (or any other) life. My experience tells me that everything that happens in life is a product of causality.

Why did your 18 year old friend suffer and ultimately die of Ewing's sarcoma? Why did your best friend die in a car accident? I can answer that intelligently, as I don't personally know you or either one of them. But I am confident that both you and they took something invaluable away from the experience.

What I can answer is that after years of contemplating the death of my daughter (DSRCT) and my brother (motorcycle accident) is that everything happens for a reason. It's my understanding that we are all experiencing relative reality together and share experiences, and we all take something away from such experiences to help us better understand what we are and why we experience. We take something away from every experience, whether in celebration or in mourning. Such experiences lead understandings that ultimately lead to liberation.

 

[Terry Sampson]

This isn't an answer, just a feeble attempt to say: I see your grief:

11 When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.
12 When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.
13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

 

[Ellen Brown]

Earlier this year, my best friend passed away after a two year battle with Ewing's Sarcoma (Bone Cancer) at the age of 18. He didn't choose that, nothing he could have done would have allowed him to live longer. Why would a loving God allow him to suffer? Why wouldn't he step in and heal him, when we know he has the power to do so? I prayed every day for a miracle, and heard nothing in return. Why would God even let cancer exist?

A few months after the passing of my best friend, a classmate of mine that was the same age died in a car accident. It was a freak thing, he couldn't have done anything better. He was a boy of such faith. He trusted God with everything in his life, and I can't help but wonder why God would repay him by ending his life a day before he was supposed to graduate.

My class graduated with 2 empty seats. Why didn't God intervene? Every single one of us has been impacted and changed from this. Maybe I've started to appreciate life more, but that doesn't change the fact that those two people died, and I can't accept that they died so the rest of us could learn something. Their lives are just as valuable as mine.

God had the ability to stop these things, because God can do anything, so why didn't he? If you have any answers, or anything to help this make a little more sense, I would absolutely love to hear form you. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and I'm sorry it was a little depressing.

The reward is in the life after this one. I am sorry for your pain. We must surrender ourselves to a Creator that knows all.

 

[FooYang]

Any God that allows tragedy is an EVIL God not worth worshiping, who doesn't exist.

 

[Enoch07]

Why would God even let cancer exist?

Because we (humanity) asked for it. Cancer, diseases, viruses, mental illnesses, mutations etc all came along with free will. When we chose to have free will we gave up most of our protection God had granted us in free wills place.

God had the ability to stop these things, because God can do anything, so why didn't he?

He won't interfere with free will unless asked to by the person afflicted. Your friend must have valued their will over their physical life.

 

[Terry Sampson]

Any God that allows tragedy is an EVIL God not worth worshiping, who doesn't exist.

LOL! How can a god who doesn't exist be evil, pray tell?

 

[leov]

Earlier this year, my best friend passed away after a two year battle with Ewing's Sarcoma (Bone Cancer) at the age of 18. He didn't choose that, nothing he could have done would have allowed him to live longer. Why would a loving God allow him to suffer? Why wouldn't he step in and heal him, when we know he has the power to do so? I prayed every day for a miracle, and heard nothing in return. Why would God even let cancer exist?

A few months after the passing of my best friend, a classmate of mine that was the same age died in a car accident. It was a freak thing, he couldn't have done anything better. He was a boy of such faith. He trusted God with everything in his life, and I can't help but wonder why God would repay him by ending his life a day before he was supposed to graduate.

My class graduated with 2 empty seats. Why didn't God intervene? Every single one of us has been impacted and changed from this. Maybe I've started to appreciate life more, but that doesn't change the fact that those two people died, and I can't accept that they died so the rest of us could learn something. Their lives are just as valuable as mine.

God had the ability to stop these things, because God can do anything, so why didn't he? If you have any answers, or anything to help this make a little more sense, I would absolutely love to hear form you. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and I'm sorry it was a little depressing.

physical world is not our home, accidents is kind of side effect of free will or workings of natural laws.

 

[SalixIncendium]

physical world is not our home, accidents is kind of side effect of free will or workings of natural laws.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that such events are "accidents?"

 

[leov]

How did you arrive at the conclusion that such events are "accidents?"

OP says that one case was a car accident another sickness which is because things follow natural path .

 

[SalixIncendium]

The OP is attempting to understand these circumstances. Reinforcing the premise that these are "accidents," in my opinion, won't help her to understand the purpose.

 

[leov]

The OP is attempting to understand these circumstances. Reinforcing the premise that these are "accidents," in my opinion, won't help her to understand the purpose.

we call them "accidents" , karma? sometimes yes, but not always. main reason is that our physical vehicles can be damaged and destroyed.

 

[SalixIncendium]

we call them "accidents" , karma? sometimes yes, but not always. main reason is that our physical vehicles can be damaged and destroyed.

Without reason? Without cause?

 

[lostwanderingsoul]

God allows tragedy because humans have chosen to ignore God. God gave rules to live by and if everyone followed those rules there would be much less pain and tragedy in the world. But people deciced to ignore those rules and so they must pay the price. God does not cause tragedy, man does.

 

[SalixIncendium]

God allows tragedy because humans have chosen to ignore God. God gave rules to live by and if everyone followed those rules there would be much less pain and tragedy in the world. But people deciced to ignore those rules and so they must pay the price. God does not cause tragedy, man does.

Where were you to tell my daughter, a faithful Christian, that she ignored God while she was dying?

Tell me how you could have saved her life.

Tell her dad why she paid the price.

 

[Deeje]

How did you arrive at the conclusion that such events are "accidents?"

"I have seen something further under the sun, that the swift do not always win the race, nor do the mighty win the battle, nor do the wise always have the food, nor do the intelligent always have the riches, nor do those with knowledge always have success, because time and unexpected events overtake them all." (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

 

[Deeje]

Where were you to tell my daughter, a faithful Christian, that she ignored God while she was dying?

Tell me how you could have saved her life.

Tell her dad why she paid the price.

As one who has also suffered loss, I understand your confusion, just as I understand the concerns and questions of the OP @Katieb123

Humans chose to invite suffering and death into their lives in the beginning, despite God's attempts to protect them from evil things ever entering their lives.

Their choice affected all their children because they chose another god and obeyed him instead of the Creator. By allowing them free will (which was originally given as a gift) God wanted them to use it to the betterment of themselves and others, but satan abused his free will and influenced humans to do it too. He promoted a self focused life, doing only what benefited themselves......Misery, suffering and death have resulted ever since.

If God intervened to prevent the natural consequences of man's disobedience, we would never have benefited from the lesson.
The fact that we can suffer in this life and still maintain our faith is proof that it is possible to put the blame for all tragedy at the feet of the one who actually caused it......it wasn't God, but his inadequate rival....puffed up with his own importance....with no regard for their eternal welfare.

This life is not permanent .......so death is not permanent either. (Revelation 21:2-4)
Death to the Creator is something easy to reverse. Like waking someone from sleep as Jesus raised Lazarus. (John 11:1-46)

The healing and resurrection miracles of the first century were merely a demonstration of what was to come in the future when God's kingdom "comes" to rid the earth of all God's opposers.

Those who have lost loved ones in death will see them returned to life and reunited with their loved ones.

There is nothing fair about life in this world that is ruled by God's enemy, (1 John 5:19) but telling intelligent creatures that obedience to God is for their benefit is often not enough.....they have to experience the consequences of their choices for themselves. Experience is the best teacher....but it did not need to be so. God never intended for us to suffer at all.

We all have the opportunity to prove that the devil is a lousy ruler and god.....by our response to his evil influence in this world.....we can become part of it...or we can live our lives as God approves, in spite of the wickedness demonstrated in this world.

Understanding what God is doing, and why he has handled things this way, is very important because the devil will twist the truth and make it appear to be all God's fault. How many people think so? Sad.

 

[atanu]

Earlier this year, my best friend passed away after a two year battle with Ewing's Sarcoma (Bone Cancer) at the age of 18. He didn't choose that, nothing he could have done would have allowed him to live longer. Why would a loving God allow him to suffer? Why wouldn't he step in and heal him, when we know he has the power to do so? I prayed every day for a miracle, and heard nothing in return. Why would God even let cancer exist?

A few months after the passing of my best friend, a classmate of mine that was the same age died in a car accident. It was a freak thing, he couldn't have done anything better. He was a boy of such faith. He trusted God with everything in his life, and I can't help but wonder why God would repay him by ending his life a day before he was supposed to graduate.

My class graduated with 2 empty seats. Why didn't God intervene? Every single one of us has been impacted and changed from this. Maybe I've started to appreciate life more, but that doesn't change the fact that those two people died, and I can't accept that they died so the rest of us could learn something. Their lives are just as valuable as mine.

God had the ability to stop these things, because God can do anything, so why didn't he? If you have any answers, or anything to help this make a little more sense, I would absolutely love to hear form you. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this, and I'm sorry it was a little depressing.

I could palpably sense the pain.

Since this thread is placed in Biblical debates, I thought it best to link here an article of David Bentley Hart on the subject of evil and pain, the twin issues that make us deeply question God on one hand and on the other impel us to take refuge in God as well. The questions of pain and evil are most difficult to answer rationally.

Tsunami and Theodicy: Haiti | David Bentley Hart

The article is difficult to read, as most of Hart’s writing is. But to me, Hart only pierces the issue and shows light, from Christian point of view.

In summary, Hart says, that there is no significance in the pain and suffering of the worldly existence, but there is ultimate solace in God’s promise “Behold, I make all things new” —- assurance that there will be no more pain.

I quote two significant paragraphs from the article below:

Simply said, there is no more liberating knowledge given us by the gospel—and none in which we should find more comfort—than the knowledge that suffering and death, considered in themselves, have no ultimate meaning at all.
...
We can rejoice that we are saved not through the immanent mechanisms of history and nature, but by grace; that God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that He will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature, but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, He will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes—and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, and He that sits upon the throne will say, “Behold, I make all things new.”​

...

Best.

 

[leov]

Without reason? Without cause?

Why without?