Atheists and Agnostics often use the argument of ‘bad things happening to good people’ to try and disprove the existence of God. The reasoning is that if God is good and loves us, then why would he allow bad things to happen to people who believe, trust and love him.
However, according to the understanding of Christian theologians, the God of the universe is infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent and therefore we, mere mortals, can never expect to have any understanding of God or how he works in our lives.
The book of Job is believed to be the oldest text in the Bible which says how Satan was given permission by God to do everything he wanted to Job except kill him. Notwithstanding the fact that Job was a faithful man, his reaction is still surprising. He responded to all of the disasters that befell him by saying: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15). “..may the name of the LORD be praised” (Job 1:21). Job was not aware of the interaction between God and Satan, but he chose to believe that God was good and therefore continued to trust in him. Although it is difficult to understand or accept, Job could be our role model.
But the question still remains - why do bad things happen to good people? Biblically speaking, there are no “good” people. The bible states in Romans 3:10 that: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” God makes it clear that even those people that we would consider as model examples, by our standards, fall short of his.
Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. Shouldn’t we rather ask why good things happen to bad people? The bible also has an answer for this in Romans 5:8 which states that, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” People are by nature evil or bad but even so, God still loves us and he proved that by dying on the cross for us, taking a penalty for our sins (Romans 6:23).
Christianity is the only religion that provides mankind with a redeemer. God in his goodness reveals Himself to us in both the bad things and the good things that happen in our lives.