Perhaps the question most often asked by church people involves why good people suffer the same as bad people.  The thinking is that, if God is good, and if He cares about good people as it says in the Bible, why do church people suffer the same as everyone else?  Why do wars, floods, sicknesses, plagues, economic failures, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, droughts, fires, blizzards, accidents, etc. affect those who profess God in the same number and to the same degree as those who do not profess Him?  As is always my bent, I will answer the question by using God’s Word–the only source of Truth regarding such matters.  And as is the listener’s and reader’s bent 99.9% of the time, His answer will be neither appreciated nor believed.  I hope you are one of the .1%.

As I have noted in previous postings, two Old Testament passages perfectly answer the “good people–bad things” question.  In Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 the Almighty answers the question with graphic bluntness and clarity that anyone can understand.  In this study, as in all Biblical studies, we must bear in mind that He is talking and writing to PEOPLE WHO ARE CALLED BY HIS NAME THEN AND NOW.  Recall that the Old Testament was recorded and preserved for believers who would be living in the final days of this world (1 Cor. 10:11).  We are living in the final church era which Jesus addressed in Revelation 3:14-20.  Biblical signs prove that today’s Catholic/Protestant organization comprises the Laodicean Church era–the end-time generation that will usher in the return of the Messiah.

In Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 we find God speaking through Moses to His Chosen People then and now.  Through the prophets He continued to speak to the descendants of the early Israelites whom He had rescued from Egyptian slavery, to whom He had given His Law, for whom He had miraculously provided manna, quail and water, whom He had protected for 40 years as they wandered in the Sinai wilderness, and to whom He would eventually give the land He had promised their forefather Abraham, an area many times the size of modern day Israel.  The Promised (Holy) Land is comprised of the land mass between the Euphrates and Nile Rivers, an area many times the size of the area called Israel today.

I emphasize these facts to remind the reader of how important the descendants of Abraham are to the Lord.  Today they number in the hundreds of millions and are found mainly in the world’s “Christian Nations” and are known as “Gentiles,” many of whom comprise what is known as “the church.”  Today only three of those nations–the United States, Britain and the Jews of the Middle East–are Biblically known as “Israel.”  As was the case anciently, there are many biological Gentiles within God’s spiritual family because they have become spiritual Israelites.  See the series titled Who and Where is Israel Today? for more information on this subject.

The question is, why are the vast majority of those people, numbering over two billion today, subjected to the same curses from God as are those who have no relationship with Him?  Let us turn to Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 for the answer.  I will present both chapters together in summary form for the sake of space and time.  Please study both chapters carefully and prayerfully with an open heart.  They answer the “why” question much better than I can.

In the first 13 and 15 verses of those chapters respectively God promises His people (then and now) that if they will repent of their sins, turn from their evil ways, obey and serve Him with all their hearts, that He will give them good weather so as to increase their sources of food and wealth; He will give them peace, safety and protection from their enemies who will fall before them; He will respect them and multiply them; He will establish His covenant with them, establish His tabernacle among them, walk among them and they will know that He is God. He promises to bless them in the cities and in the field; to bless the product of their hands; to bless them when they come in, go out, rise up and lie down. He will make them a holy people who are feared by all other people; He will make them the head and not the tail; they will be above and not beneath.  Such are the promises of God to those who obey His Law and serve Him in love and worship.

However, God promises to curse those same people if they do not obey Him, if they worship other gods (self, money, things, entertainment, pleasure, etc.).  He warns His chosen people that He will curse them in the city and in the country, curse the fruit of their bodies and the fruit of their land.  He will curse everything they put their hand to do;  He will send upon them cursing, vexation and rebuke.  He will make pestilence (various diseases) cling to them.  The heave above them will be as brass and the land beneath them will be as iron.  He will withhold rain from them.  He will cause them to be defeated militarily.  Birds and beasts will consume their bodies.  He will smite them with mental illnesses and fear.  He will destroy their families.  Strangers living among them will consume the fruits of their labors.  Their work will amount to nothing.  In summary He said: “All these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed because you did not harken to the voice of the Lord your God and keep His commandments.” It is impossible to answer the “good people–bad things” question any more clearly.  See Would God do That?

Another passage of Scripture, this one found in the New Testament, speaks to the same issue–why “good people” are cursed exactly like “bad people.” In Mark 10:17-22 we find a rich man running to Jesus, kneeling before Him in reverence, calling Him Master and asking Him what he must do to be saved.  Note that this man was wealthy.  He could have gotten an audience with the high priest in the Temple in Jerusalem, and possibly did.  But he knew that the man called Jesus of Nazareth was the only One who could answer his question.  He knew that whatever Jesus said would be right, that He was a man sent from God bearing His Truth.  Some interesting facts come out of this encounter.

Jesus told him that in order to be saved he had to “… OBEY THE  COMMANDMENTS” (THE LAW).  The man then replied, “I HAVE OBEYED ALL OF THEM ALL OF MY LIFE.” Upon hearing this,  “Jesus LOVED HIM.”  Jesus was immediately filled with a special love (agape) for him BECAUSE HE KEPT THE LAW.  The man was telling Jesus that HE DID NOT SIN.  In that “sin is the transgression of the Law” (1 Jn. 3:4), to keep the Law means to not sin.  Upon seeing all of the rich man’s clothing, jewelry, servants, etc. Jesus knew that, though he did not knowingly sin, the man harbored a deadly spiritual disease.  He said to him, “One thing you lack.”  There was ONE aspect of the man’s life that spelled trouble for him–lust–he wanted for more.  Knowing how hard it is for a rich man to be saved, Jesus told him to sell everything he owned, give the proceeds away, and follow Him.  Note it: ONE THING WOULD PREVENT THE MAN FROM INHERITING ETERNAL LIFE.   The man knew that Jesus had told him the truth.  He went away sad because, having heard the Truth, he could not embrace it.  Church people–good people–hear the Words of God and, unlike the rich man, do not believe what God says.  They go away mad, not sad.  I spiritually shutter when I hear people blaming Adam for their inevitable sins.  This man was a descendant of Adam and Jesus was telling him he had to STOP SINNING.  PERIOD, if he was to have any chance at salvation.  Why won’t religious people hear the voice of God’s Son?  The answer is that their god (Satan) won’t allow them to hear Him.

The answer to the question in the title is this: Those who appear to be good people are, in the eyes of God, not good because they deliberately sin, believing that they are saved and can defy His Law–rebel against Him–with impunity.  Like the rich man, they will one day stand before Him and with joy in their hearts and will tell Him what wonderful works they had done in His name.  To them He will say, “I never knew you; depart from me you who WORK INIQUITY”–LAWLESSNESS.  MODERN WORKERS OF INIQUITY CALL THEMSELVES “SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE” AND BRAG ABOUT THEIR FREEDOM TO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS AND REMAIN ONE WITH GOD.   THE REASON “GOOD” PEOPLE ARE CURSED ALONG WITH “BAD”  PEOPLE IS BECAUSE, IN THE EYES OF GOD, THEY ARE ONE IN THE SAME.  Sin is sin, whether committed by the churched or the unchurched.  The wages of both churched and unchurched sin (Rom. 6:23) is spiritual death now and physical death later.  The “gift of God” (Rom. 6:23) is His grace which would enable them to be forgiven of their past sins, but only if they STOP SINNING.  The “promise of God” is the Holy Spirit whose power would enable them to overcome Satan’s temptation to sin.  Jesus said in no uncertain terms that WE ALL MUST OVERCOME SATAN in order to join Him in paradise (Rev. 3:21).  Why will people not listen to Him?

The “good people” to whom “bad things” happen, who fill church pews on Satan’s Sun god Sabbath are good only in their own eyes and in the eyes of their religious peers.  The church’s concept of “good” is the opposite of God’s concept of “good.”  The “good people” whom Satan has lured into his religious trap have been deceived into believing that they can continue to sin and still receive the reward which God has reserved only for those who follow Christs command to “Sin no more” (Jn. 5:14; 8:11).  Satan has deceived them into believing that this is impossible due to Adam’s miracle sin transfer system.  NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF SATAN.  Unfortunately, the Counterfeit Church has done exactly that, which is why they are cursed by God the same as their unchurched counterparts.  In reality, their sins are more egregious than those of the unchurched because they have the “oracles of God” which gives them an “advantage” (Rom. 3:1,2).  The advantage Bible owners have is that WE HAVE GOD’S WORDS IN OUR HANDS.  The reason Bible owners are cursed is because they neither believe nor obey what they have in their hands.  L.J.