How can a good and loving God allow death to reign in this world? This question seems to come up a lot. Why does God let people die? Doesn’t He care? I hear people say they don’t believe in God because if He existed, He wouldn’t allow bad things such as death to occur. God is good, after all. Death is bad. A good God would not allow death which is bad. Therefore, there is no God.
O contraire, ye who hath little understanding of who God is! Consider this: death is actually the best thing that could have happened to man next to Jesus’ saving death on the cross. Here’s why: remember what happened in the Garden of Eden? God gave Adam and Eve permission to eat of any tree in the garden except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of this tree God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat. He said, “When you eat of this tree you shall surely die.” Well, we all know the story. Satan deceived Eve, she ate of the tree and Adam followed. Thus, sin entered the world.
SIN entered the world. Let’s think about that for a minute. Murder. Theft. Vandalism. Hatred. Slander. Gossip. Drunkenness. Adultery. Fornication. Debauchery. Selfishness. Etc. And along with sin came PAIN—the big four letter word. No one likes pain. It is the consequence of sin. Thus, we live in a world filled with sin and lots of pain. This is why God exiled Adam from the garden. Not only did the garden house the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but it also housed another tree, the tree of life. We don’t hear about this tree very often, but it is very important. You see, if Adam and Eve would have eaten of this tree, they would have lived forever and that in their fallen state.
“Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:22-24
Death is actually a great act of mercy from our heavenly Father. That He would care enough to not allow us to continue on forever in a world filled with great horrors and heart wrenching pain, speaks to the goodness of the God that He is. God is good. He loves us very much. Therefore, He allows us to die that we may be free from this wretched life. And assuming we have embraced His goodness and loved His good way, we will live forever in the loving arms of our Father and know peace and fulfilling love like we have never known it. If we reject Him, then He allows us to be separated from Him for all eternity. God is more than fair. If we want nothing to do with Him in this life, then He gives us our heart’s desire in the next—eternity without Him.
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