You ever see madness on the news and just ask yourself, “why?”
Well if you have, you’re not alone.
Most people don’t understand how bad things happen in the civilized world we live in—I know those news anchors don’t.
But fortunately for you, I do know why.
The answer to your question is found in the Bible. But no one holds the Bible as truth anymore, so I can understand why people are lost.
Well in this post, I’m going to layout exactly why bad things happen, and show you the only real solution there is.
Now because of the nature of this article, I will use some Christianese here. I try to stay away from terms that only believers are familiar with, but it will be impossible to explain all this without doing so.
The Fall
You’ve probably heard the story of Adam and Eve before, but just in case you haven’t, I’ll make a long story short here.
First, God made everything in the world (Gen. 1:1). Adam was created during this time and Eve was created later on. They were the first humans.
God made humanity in His image which means that humans have many of His traits (Gen. 1:26-27). We have the ability to reason with freedom of thought and will. We have personalities and emotions. And at that point, humans were morally good and innocent.
Everything was right in the world. Adam and Eve lived in harmony with God, with each other, and with animals. Work was a gift that didn’t involve harsh toil. And there was no sickness, disease, or violence (Gen. 1:31).
But this all changed after Eve was deceived by the lie that she could “be like God”. And after she accepted that lie, both she and Adam chose to disobey Him (Gen. 3:4-6, Gen. 3:17-19).
This act of rebellion brought a new nature into the world—a sin nature.
What It Means For Us
So what does that have to do with us?
It means everyone in the world is born with that sin nature.
Sin is any form of rebellion against God and any action that falls short of His perfect character (1 John 3:4).
Since everyone is a descendant of Adam and Eve, we’ve all inherited that sin nature, just like you inherit genetic traits from your parents (Rom. 5:12).
And with that in mind, you should have an idea of why bad things happen in the world.
Bad things happen because people are inherently bad (Rom. 3:10-12, Rom. 7:18-21, 1 John 1:8).
You don’t have to look far to understand this truth. You see evidence of it in young children.
Children don’t have to be told to lie, cheat, or be violent. Their parents have to teach them the importance of being honest, fair, and peaceful.
Bad influences like peer pressure are so strong because they encourage others to do what they’re already inclined to do.
That’s why laws exist in society. Our authorities have to encourage the will to do good, and discourage the natural will do wrong (Rom. 13:3).
If we didn’t have a system that punished people for doing wrong, all kinds of craziness would go on.
There’s a problem with simply following laws though. For one, laws don’t cover the more personal forms of our flawed nature. They don’t cover our little white lies and the hurtful things we say behind people’s backs.
Another problem deals with the nature of the laws themselves—those laws are made by flawed people just like you and me.
And while everyone has a general sense of right and wrong, our sinful nature taints our moral compass as well. Some of what we call good is actually bad. While some of what we call bad is actually good.
But the biggest problem with our laws is that they don’t have the power to change people—they only influence behavior. And without the ability to change people, we’re in the same position we started in.
It doesn’t matter how civilized society gets or how many laws we institute, the point here is that all people will still be sinners. Not just because we do bad things, but because of the very nature that inclines us to do them (Mark 7:21-23).
Technically there’s no such thing as a good person (Ecc. 7:20). There are only people who haven’t given in to the more destructive parts of our nature (Gal. 5:19-21).
You can try your best to be a good person, but you’ll always be flawed in that sense. An elephant can act like a giraffe all it wants, but that elephant will always be an elephant.
You can’t change your nature simply by acting towards an ideal.
The Solution
If we’re all a bunch of bad people, then what’s the point right? How can anything truly good happen if we’re powerless to change ourselves?
Good question.
That’s where Jesus comes in (John 3:16-17).
Because Jesus was born of God through a virgin, he didn’t inherent the sin nature that all of us have. This meant He was divine and fully human at the same time (John 1:14, Phil. 2:6-7).
He was sinless, perfect, and innocent.
When Jesus allowed Himself to die on the cross, He paid the penalty for the sins of the world (Rom. 8:3). Then He rose again 3 days later proving that He conquered death.
Anyone who believes on Him and His sacrifice for us is given eternal life after leaving this world. And they’re spared from the punishment that’s justly given to those with a sin nature.
You don’t have to do anything else to receive that life because Jesus already did the work. All you have to do is believe (2 Cor. 5:21, Rom. 4:5).
A Change of Heart
So that covers eternity, but how does that change affect us in this world?
This is how.
Those who believe aren’t just given eternal life. God works within them now and gives them a new nature during this time on Earth (2 Cor. 5:17).
A lot of Christianese is involved in this process, but I usually refer to it as a heart change—it’s the process of being transformed from the inside out.
People who have had this heart change still have a sin nature, but they now have the means to control it (Gal. 5:24).
They don’t do good because it’s what society expects of them or because they want others to see them as a good person. They do good because they now have a genuine desire to do so. They’re no longer controlled by the part of themselves that’s naturally inclined to do bad (Rom. 6:5-6).
And if you’ve ever heard someone say that a person needs Jesus, this transformation is what they’re (unknowingly) referring to.
When someone believes on Jesus and trusts in the work He did on the cross, they’ll start to display the traits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—all of which are actions that result from the change within (Gal. 5:22-23).
And as they mature, they’ll reflect more of the likeness of Christ Himself, similarly to how Adam and Eve initially reflected the goodness of God (Rom. 8:29).
And That’s Why
So there’s your answer to what’s wrong with the world.
This is probably as deep as I’ll go into theology here, but I hope I kept things simple enough for you to understand.
It’s important to remember that no pastor, no politician, and no amount of protesting can change hearts. Only God can do that.
People can limit outward displays of our fallen nature, but only God can solve the root of the problem.
So as always, I encourage you to accept God’s solution if you haven’t already. But if not, at least now you know “why”.
-Drew
P.S. This is pretty much Christianity 101, which is why it’s so surprising when other churchgoers don’t share this worldview.
But if you’d like to read more about this, the book of Romans covers everything here in more detail. And if you’d like to read more from a source outside the Bible, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is a very good read.
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