why do bad things happen to good people?

When confronted with this question, Jesus turned it around …

Luke 13:1-5

There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  

And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 

I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 

Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 

I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

… in essence, the question is not about why bad things happen to good people, instead it is why should good things happen to bad people?  The thing is, we have all sinned and we are all deserving of worse happenening to us.  Our only hope is to repent of our sin and turn to Jesus for salvation.

consequences

Maybe God is telling our nation something…  if only we would listen.
To those who may have doubted whether or not our nation is under judgement, consider the following…
When I read the Bible, I see a pattern in how God treats nations.  

When the both the northern kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah turned their back on God, the same pattern revealed itself each time:

1) first the people turn their back on God and seek after other “gods”
2) God then abandons the nation to sin, allowing them to engage in their wickedness to the fullest extent, so that it is obvious to all they deserve judgement 
3) then the people fall under the rule of wicked leaders
4) then they are attacked by a foreign invader
5) then they are overthrown and their wealth and property go to foreigners  
6) those that survive are forced to live in a pagan nation, under a pagan government
We are only now waking up to the realize just how far along we are in the process.
Our nation has been in the process of turning its back on God for the last 100 years.  The rejection of God was popularized and formalized back in the 1960s and has continued growing.  What we are seeing now are just “tip of the iceberg” symptoms of a larger problem of the heart.
The fact of the matter is that we are already well into steps 5 through 6 in the process.  Our wealth and property is being stolen by international opportunists.  Our children are being sold into debt slavery to foreign nations.  
Those who live in a pagan nation should only expect to have pagan leadership.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel never repented of their idolatry and they never were again a nation.  The remnant of the Kingdom of Judah repented and cried out to God in their captivity and were again returned to their nation.  Which will we be?

That is, unless we are truly on the brink of the rise of the antichrist and beast world religious and government system.  This global new world order system could not come to power with the United States as a superpower and center of Christian influence.  The agenda has always been to collapse our economy and reduce our influence in the world.

If that is the case, then it is time to look up, for our redemption is drawing nigh!

wall of separation is a good thing

The proverbial “wall of separation” is a good thing… at least as it was described by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists.

While most of the “christian” religions (Catholics, Reformed, etc) wanted a formal state enforced religion, the Baptists (and a handful of others) were well familiar with what being on the wrong side of a state enforced religion was like…

When we look through the un-doctored history of the church we see a pattern of true believers being persecuted and martyred by state enforced religions.  Christians were persecuted by the pagan Roman Empire, then by the Catholic Roman Empire, then by the monarchy and oligarchy governments that enforced Roman Catholic, Orthodox Catholic, and/or Reformed Catholic (Protestant) traditions by burning or beheading anyone that dared question them.

The persecution of the Anabaptists was still in recent memory of the Baptists, and was one of the driving forces behind them coming to America, not to establish a new state religion, but to have an assurance of being free to practice their beliefs without interference by the government.

The wall of separation was to be a “one way” wall, to keep the government from interfering with the practice of religion.  They felt that government was a bad influence on the practice of religion.  However, it was clear that the founders felt that religion could be a good influence on the practice of government.

Religious beliefs are yet another set of checks and balances to keep the government contained and in line.  Religion works best when it is at odds with the government, not in cahoots with it.

The role of government was to protect religious freedom (thought, belief, and practice), but should never be used to enforce a religious system or otherwise interfere with any other religions.

unleavened bread of sincerity and truth

1 Corinthians 5
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 
 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 
For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your glorying is not good. 
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.  Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? 
Do you not judge those who are inside?  But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
Note the following about the Corinthian Church:
1) They were tolerating sexual sin that not even an unsaved person would tolerate.
2) They took pride (puffed up and glorying) in how “tolerant” they were.  Just like in the politically correct world that says “your arrogant if you do speak out”, God says that we are arrogant if we don’t speak out…
3) By tolerating this sin in their midst (even in the “name of love”), they were supporting and prolonging the continuation in that sin.

Making people feel more comfortable in their bondage to sin is NOT loving.

In this case, instead of toleration, the most loving thing to do was to put this person out of fellowship so that he would have a chance to realize the wrongness of what he was doing and repent.