WHY DID GOD ALLOW THIS?

WHY DID GOD ALLOW THIS?
Sometimes I hear preachers say, the word “love” is used so often in this society that this word has lost its weight, its significance. Christians still tell people that God loves them, sometimes vague, sometimes specific; and some people ponder on what the words mean, and become angry, some respond with an “amen”, while there are some others just ignore what we are telling them.
Sometimes, I believe, those who respond with anger are more honest than those who say “amen”.
Once, my while my favorite preacher encountered a woman after one of his presentations. She walked straight towards him, with a look that seems to indicate that she wanted to slap him.
Then she said “Don't you dare to tell me that God loves me. If God loves me as you said He does, why did He allow me to be sexually abused by my father who was a Christian minister?”
What are you thinking? What are you feeling in your heart? Do you feel a tension in your heart, or a sense of sadness reading what had happened to this woman?
Her question is valid, isn't it? And surely I believe it does not deserve to be ignored.
I actually believe, there are a lot of people holding the same question. They wonder, if God really loves me, and I hope He does, why has He allowed so many tragedies to happen to me? A lot of them still believe that God exists, they still want to continue to believe in God, so they withhold this question in their heart, but they would not ask, dare not to mention what they are really thinking and that they are hurting, though seems as if they have ignored this concern, the question is simply buried underneath layers of other concerns, but still affecting the person's heart, mind and their daily life. They dare not ask people this very important question, and even if such a question was asked, we might tend to shun away from it; because both parties are worried that questions like this would shaken our faith.
“I want to believe th God loves me just the way you say He does, but why did God allow me to be raped.”
“I had 5 friends, and we were the best friends; and in one day, all 5 of them died in different incidences. If there was a God, I could not see how He could allow things like this to happen.”
These are genuine concerns.
The Bible actually does not promise that we will all live a wonderful life, though it has stated clearly that this world was created by God. We will all get hurt to some degree, in fact, I believe all of us have experienced hurts more than enough; though, the Bible also tells us that is not the way the world was intended to be when God was creating the universe.
One of the greatest obstacles for people to feel, and not just to intellectually know that God loves them is, they look at their lives, the things gong on in their lives, the things going on in this world, and the tragedies, they either see God as the responsible one, or they say, I can't see how there could be a God allowing all these to be happening, there isn't God. For those who still believe that there is a God, whether He allowed or caused the sad things to happen, it doesn't matter to them, they hold God accountable.
We may tell people we love them, we care for them; but if we do nothing for them, would they believe our words? Action or words, which speaks louder?
When one parent abuses the child, the other parent knows what's happening, has the power to help the child, but stands by; is there any difference between these 2 parents in the eyes of the child?
I'd figure no.
So, though intellectually, most of us Christians might know Satan is the great propeller behind all these tragedies, we don't blame Satan or the people who have chosen to do bad things, we blame God: Why are You allowing him to do this to me?
And underlying our reaction is a mindset, a way of thinking:
If God wanted to prevent something, He would or He could, if He didn't prevent something, it mens He must have wanted it to happen.
When when something bad happens to us, we ask God, “Why did You want this to happen to me? I thought You loved me!”
But if this line of thinking was true, then everything that happens in this world, God has wanted them to happen, and we would say, everything happens is God's will; and then we would say, everything happens for a divine reason or a divine purpose.
But I want to throw you a few words, and think about these words, in the context of a God of love, that these are His will, He has a purpose for all these happening.
Rape.
Child molestation.
Terrorist attacks.
Organ harvesting.
The Holocaust.
Could a God of love will these to happen for a divine reason?
If this is not true, then logically we come to the conclusion that there are things happening in this world that are not willed by God. And therefore, there isn't a purpose for these things to happen.
In the Lord's prayer, we pray, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
From this part of the prayer, we learn that God's will is currently carried out in Heaven, but it is not so on earth, or we would not need to pray that God's will to be done on earth.
Luke 7:30 “...the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel ('will' used in the stead of 'counsel') of God against themselves...”
According to this verse, is it possible for us to reject the will of God? Yes.
But, in Christian history, there was one man, who shaped Christianity, across Catholicism, Orthodox Church and even Protestant churches, like no other person but Yahshua; and his name was Augustine. He taught, nothing happens unless the divine will wanted it to happen.
Scriptures like Luke 7:30 brought to him, and he would say, in rejecting God's will, they fulfilled the will of God, because it was God's will for them to reject His will.
And this also leads to the conclusion that God wills some to be lost.
So did they reject God's will or fulfill God's will?
Why don't we just let the Bible speak for itself?
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The Bible indicates us that God wills all to be saved, Augustine, however, taught God wills some not to be saved.
Process this for a minute, and we'll come back in a few lines.
Is it possible for us to delay, to reject God's will?
Is it possible for us to prevent God's will from happening? According to the scripture we discussed earlier, it is absolutely possible.
But is it possible for us to prevent God's will from ever taking place through the ceaseless age of eternity?
Think about it.
I can sense a controversy.
Well, does God will everyone to be saved? Will there be some people who prevent that from ever taking place through the ceaseless age of eternity?
Will all be saved? Is God's will for all to be saved? Will there be some who will never be saved?
And I think the answer is quite obvious.
So there are some aspects of God's will that we can even prevent from happening through the ceaseless ages of eternity.

Now, we say God is all powerful, El Shadai meaning God Almighty, we say God is omnipotent. So can God do absolutely anything?
Titus 1:2 “...God, that cannot lie...”
So, at least, there is one thing that God cannot do; He cannot lie.
Can God make a round triangle?
Some may say yes, and I'm not going to ask you how. But look at the definition of a triangle, it has three straight sides; and if you make it round, it becomes a circle, it's no longer a triangle.
There are things that even God cannot do, yet it's not saying God is not really all powerful, it's to say, there are certain things, that by their very definition and nature, even God cannot do.
Can God make you love Him?
I'm not asking will God make you love Him, I'm asking, can He make you love Him?
Let's imagine there was a computer chip that, once installed behind someone's ear, could manipulate his brain wave so he can love the one who controls the computer chip. Imagine a man has installed this computer chip behind the ear of his wife, and he now could make his wife willing to do anything for him. Now, can you say, now, his wife is loving him? I don't think so. Because really, it's not his wife loving him, it's the computer chip, and who is using the computer chip, the man himself. So it's the man loving himself. But we learned earlier, love by definition must starts with one, and ends somewhere else, if it starts with one, and ends with him, then we cannot even call it love, because now it is not other centered, but self centered.
If God made us “love” Him, it's not even us loving Him, but He is “loving” Himself, and it's not even love now.
So God cannot even make us love Him.
To apply force to the subject of love, the source of that ove and the recipient of the love becomes one and the same, and it ceases to be love any more. God made us for love, love cannot be forced, the capacity to love requires something in order for it to happen.
It requires freedom.
2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
God has given us freedom, it's His principle. He will do anything to ensure that we are free.
Because only in freedom, can love exist. Since at the very moment He makes us “love” Him, it ceases to be love; the only moment we can love Him is when there is no force. When we can freely choose whether or not we will love Him.
But if we are free, that means, there are times when we can say No to God.
A lot of people think, God is in control of everything going on in this world, but the Bible tells us:
The heaven, even the heavens, are Yahweh's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. Psalm 115:16
So, we are the legal managers of this earth, and God has given us the freedom to choose if we will let God's will to be done on earth or not; and God respects this freedom He's given us.
Now, I would like you to imagine a scenario.
If a man controls everything his wife does, when she gets up, when and what she makes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, when she does grocery shopping, what friends she can make, he even sets up bathroom break times for her. Would you call him a loving husband?
I think not.
Another point I want to make is, for freedom to be meaningful, it needs to be irrevocable.
What does it mean?
It means, if I give you 2 options, I really really want you to choose A, but if you choose B, I can't do anything to make you choose A. All because of the freedom you have.
Ecc 9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
This verse tells us, things can go wrong, there are chances.
Acts 10:38 God anointed Yahshua of Nazareth ... healing all that were oppressed of the devil...
Yahshua healed ALL that were oppressed of the devil, and I think we can see His attitude towards all.
I can say with confidence that He wants to prevent all rapes, all murders, all child molestations, all holocausts...
But there are times that He just cannot.
One Sabbath, a lady gave a testimony, giving thanks to God because the Friday before, she prayed for her child's safe arrival back home, as it was his first time driving that long. And he arrived home safely. But another lady stood up, and walked out of the church. When the preacher asked her what was going on, she said, she, too was praying for her daughter's safe arrival, but she was hit by a drunk driver, and she was in hospital. She asked, was she so much a sinner that God would not listen to her prayers?
I don't think it's fair to have God exclusively in this picture.
Maybe the driver was drunk was because he felt depressed, he felt depressed was because he just lost his job, and he lost his job was because of the downsizing economy, which is so complex that it is affected by multiple factors.
But really, whatever God can prevent, He always will.
Remember, the earth is given to the sons of men. He has given us freedom, but freedom takes risks. And we are the residents of this earth, we can exercise our freedom to invite God to participate in what we do, or we can choose to follow Satan.
When we pray, we align ourselves with God's will, but the problem is, we are not the only residents on the earth, right now there are more people choosing to let Satan in.
That's when we need to balance out by praying, by giving God permission.
You may argue, I'd rather have a world that's secure but not risky, without all the freedom and the complications.
Well, there is a place where the people do get 3 meals a day, they have a bed to sleep in, they have a job to do, with minimal pay, they may even have a gym to work out; but they have no freedom.
What is this place?
The jail.
It's only in freedom can love be generated, therefore we can truly experience the pleasure of love.
You ask, what about the freedom of the victims?
Well, true, it's scientifically proven, a theory called 6 degrees of separation, which means, name one person in this world, anyone, would know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows you. We all do things everyday, may be good, may be bad, and they do not only affect ourselves, they affect people who we cannot even name them. And the Bible doesn't tell us that what we do to each other is always fair, but what God does is always fair.
In Daniel 10; it tells us a story of Daniel asking God for the interpretation of a vision. He prayed for 21 days, before he heard the interpretation from the angel sent to him.
We might tend to think, if by day 10 there's no anything happening, probably God doesn't want me to pray about it.
But Daniel persisted, and on the 21st day, he saw the result.
Surprisingly to us though, is, God did not wait until the 21st day to answer Daniel's prayer; He immediately sent the angel to answer Daniel's prayer, but because the enemy tried to stop God's will being carried out, it took that long for Gabriel to reach Daniel.
Imagine if Daniel stopped praying on the 18th day, Satan would have had another accusation against Daniel, telling Yahweh, Daniel doesn't need You any more, he's not interested in the interpretation any more.
A final word.
We are suffering, a lot of the times caused by other people. When bad things happen, we cannot call them good, because
Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
But the Bible does promise, God first of all is suffering with us.
Matt 25:42-45
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Never has a woman been raped, a child been molested, a man been murdered, that God was not raped, molested or murdered.
The Bible also tells us, though the bad things are bad, God can heal us, like the story of Joseph, he was sold to Egypt, his brothers meant evil, but God delivered him.
God also promised
Rev. 21:4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
It may take days, weeks, months, years or even decades for Him to wipe away our tears with His gentle hand, not to force us to abandon our emotions, but to truly experience His healing, and no matter how long it will take, we will be healed.

Finally, investors risk their investment depending on the payout, the more payout there could be, the more money they are willing to invest, to risk.
God took a risk, He gave us freedom, knowing we could misuse this freedom against Him, but He also fully knew only on the foundation of freedom, can He get our love.