WHY DOES GOD ALLOW THINGS LIKE 9/11 TO HAPPEN?

“Why does a good and loving God allow things like 9/11 to happen?”  It is often thought that if He is all good and all powerful, full of love and knows what we need before we ask it, why does He not do something like stop terrorists flying into buildings killing many innocent people?

 

There are a thousand answers to that question both negative and positive, but it boils down to that He must allow things like 9/11 to happen or our salvation is at risk.

 

God’s law is based on this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.  On this the whole law is based.  Therefore, to follow God freely and follow His way means we must have the capacity to love.  Ironically, we can only love to the extent that we are capable of hating.  We must have free will in this matter.  If there is no free will, if we are incapable of hating and our only choice is to love, then it is no choice at all, love is all that we can do and true love ceases to exist.  We have become puppets on a string.  We cannot choose God then because we cannot not choose God.  Our love would be empty.  We would be like a brick that remains being a brick because it can’t possibly be anything else.  What merit is there in that?

 

If we can hate just a little (mind you, I mean that we are capable of it, not that we must do it) then we can choose not hate that much, we can choose to love that amount instead in spite of ourselves.  We are capable of loving a little if we are capable of hating a little.  And how truly capable are we of loving?  We have the capability as a human race to hate so much that we are willing to fly a plane load of innocent people into a building filled with innocent people.  That we could foster that hate for long periods of time, spend countless days and hours planning destruction, and even be willing to use our own lives in the administration of our hate.

 

How much can we love?  We have the capability as a human race to love so much that we are willing to walk into a building that is engulfed in flames, debris falling everywhere, where there is chaos and death and danger of further destruction.  That we could foster love by preparing for such an event, choosing a lifestyle that focuses on assisting their fellow citizens, studying and training for countless days and hours preparing to rescue those in need and be willing to risk our own lives in the administration of our love.

 

Free will.  It has a down side.

 

But it also has an upside.

 

And for that upside to mean anything, God must allow events like 9/11.