Has God allowed it?

 

Disasters happen in our world and some who believe in God think that God has allowed it to happen. Its God’s will they might say. An insurance underwriter might say it was an act of God. When an earthquake that has struck and killed many people they think to themselves, “well as God is all powerful he must have allowed that calamity to happen for a very good reason. Otherwise He could have stopped it”. – Is this you?

 

Well lets see why this is not really a statement that can hold water.

What’s the difference between God allowing something and God doing it?

If I were a policeman and I stood with folded arms while a burglary took place before my eyes and I allowed it (when I have the power to stop it) then I am wanting it to happen. If I didn’t want it to happen I had the power to stop it and could have.
Saying that God allows something is strongly saying He wanted it to happen but the problem with this thinking is that God allows free will. We do not know then if God allows something due to the free will He has given mankind or because He wants it to happen.

Any time you say God allowed something you are implying in the hearing of others that He wanted it to happen else an all powerful God would have stopped it? At least that’s the reasoning some use.

Let me challenge you there if that’s what you think. When did you last sin? Ok , whenever it was lets just say that you did. In fact the bible says all have sinned so we can’t argue against the fact.
Now lets take the reasoning that says God is all powerful and therefore must have allowed you to sin as He could have stopped you, but we know God hates sin so why would He allow something he doesn’t want if He is all powerful?

When Jesus’s disciples asked Him how to pray, Jesus started by saying “Our father in Heaven hallowed be your name, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”.

Is this not enough proof to you that God’s will is not all being done on earth as it is in Heaven?
That’s why one of the most commonest cries I hear is that if God is all powerful then why do we have so much suffering in the world.
let me tell you, you don’t have to stop believing that God is all powerful to make sense of this all.

First you have to accept that not everything that happens on this earth is God’s will. If you don’t then apart from reading Matthew 6:10 take a look around the world and tell me if fits the description.

Just as there are physical laws that God himself has put into place and allows the world to work by, there are Spiritual laws that God has put into place and one of them is that man has free will. He had that before Adam and Eve sinned as he was free to partake of the forbidden fruit. God could have stopped him but that would have broken a Spiritual law and God cant break his own laws. E.g God can’t lie. There are many other Spiritual laws, one of them is forgiveness, if we don’t forgive someone there are consequences to us spiritually. Matthew 18:21-35
You see there are two kingdoms operating on this earth. One is God’s kingdom the other is Satan’s kingdom. When we become a Christian we are translated from the kingdom of darkness to God’s kingdom of light, love and truth and justice, mercy and hope AND authority over Satan’s kingdom. There is so much to say on this subject that will detract from this topic and if you are interested then please see our article on Two Kingdoms one Earth.
If you think the devil has no power on this earth then please read Isaiah 14:12-16, 1 John 5:19, 2 Cor 4:4

Before I move on I must add that all love and all kindness and all light and all that is good on this earth comes from God. The fresh air you breathe, the smell of a lovely flower or just life. The Devil comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) and if there were no spiritual laws that’s what he would do to us. God is protecting us every day from invisible forces arrayed against us, even for those who don’t believe in God. Fuller details are in the article I referred to above.

So there is great mystery here so much so that we don’t have all the answers but this I know – God answers prayers and through prayer we can change things in the spiritual realm and physical realm, we can call God’s kingdom into action in our lives and the lives of others in such a powerful way but it requires faith and righteousness. James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Too much to go into here but I will say this: Some Christians will say that a person being prayed for must have faith to be healed but Lazarus was dead when Jesus called him out of the tomb. So whose faith was in operation then?

So when you say God has allowed this or that know for a fact that a lot of things happen in this world that God does not want. To say He allowed it is to tell the listener that he wanted it to happen. I hope now you can see why that is not so, while still believing God is all powerful, because of God’s spiritual laws, which in His wisdom He created, on Earth some things happen that he does not want.