Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
3 18 2026
If God Is Good… What About Rape, Murder, and Innocent Suffering?
Would you mind if we did something different today? One of my listeners, Felipe, asked me a haunting, and dark question.
“Good morning Dennis, Question … Do you believe that children getting kidnapped & raped and put into slavery are Gods plan ? People getting murdered? Children getting cancer ?
The Bible tells us Satan is here to steal , kill & destroy. Don’t you think the bad things that happen are because God allows Satan to wreak havoc on earth ? Or because God constructs these things as a plan for our life ?
Where does free will come into play ? If I wanted to I could go drink & drive & kill an entire family in an accident. Romans 8:28 says God will work all things together .” And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. Could it be perhaps God works things out after Satan is allowed to wreak havoc on our lives? After a child is raped & beaten for 8 years of their life ? After the family is killed by a drunk driver?
Just digging deeper into the cliche I’ve been opposed to for most of my life”. Felipe
Felipe, that’s a very honest question you’re asking. One I have heard spoken many times over my seven score years. I used to call on an oncologist to sell the doctors’ insurance.
I once had to enter a cancer ward of young children. I could not stop crying.
It emotionally crushed me, and I couldn’t understand how a human…we call a doctor,
could endure such raw and emotional pain by facing these young innocents and
their emotionally scarred parents every day. So, the last thing I want to be is defensive.
The Bible does not avoid that tension, and the best answer is not a cliché
but requires us to dig deep into His word and offer a careful, humble explanation of what Scripture actually says. Not what I think. I know there are many more qualified to answer this question.
But, I think the best thing for me is to separate; what God desires, what God permits, and what God ultimately redeems. Those are three different things biblically.
First, the Bible never teaches that the evil acts of men—rape, murder, abuse, trafficking, or cruelty toward children—are God’s desire or moral will. In fact, Scripture repeatedly says the opposite. In James 1:13, we are told God does not tempt anyone with evil. Evil comes from the fallen desires of the human heart. Likewise, Ezekiel 18:32 says God takes no pleasure in death. When Jesus spoke about children, He warned that harming them brings severe judgment (Matthew 18:6). Their day will come!
So the Bible is very clear about this: evil actions are not God’s heart.
What Scripture does explain is how evil entered the world. In Genesis 3, humanity chose rebellion against God. That moment fractured creation. From that point forward, the world became a place where sin, death, disease, violence, and corruption exist. Human free will was not removed. In fact, it is exactly that freedom—combined with a fallen nature—that allows people to commit terrible acts.
God created humans capable of love, but real love requires real freedom. The tragic flip side of that freedom is that people can choose evil. When someone kidnaps a child, abuses another person, or murders someone, that is not God programming that act. That is a fallen human will choosing darkness.
Scripture also says there is a spiritual enemy working in the world. Just as you shared, Jesus described Satan’s nature in John 10:10: the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The Bible presents a world where human sin and spiritual evil intersect, amplifying suffering.
But that still leaves the hardest question:
If God is good and powerful, why does He allow it at all?
The Bible does not give a simple philosophical answer, but it does give a narrative answer. God is currently allowing human history to unfold while He works toward a final restoration. Scripture describes creation itself as groaning under the weight of sin in Romans 8. This chapter is important because it honestly acknowledges suffering while pointing toward redemption.
When Romans 8:28 says that God works all things for good, it does not mean that the evil itself is good or that God planned the evil act. It means God is able to redeem even the worst things humans or Satan does. The classic example in Scripture is Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery—pure evil. Yet years later, Joseph says in Genesis 50:20: “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
Notice the distinction…Humans intended evil…God redeemed the outcome.
People often cite young innocent children being abused or dying with cancer as the creation of a good God as their reason for not believing in a God who could allow that.
Isn’t the cross of Jesus the greatest example of that principle?
The most truly pure, innocent, holy being, sacrificed in the most unjust act in history—
the execution of the sinless Son of God—became the means of salvation for the world (Acts 2:23).
Evil was real, but God transformed the result.
We love to quote Romans 8:28 — ‘God works all things together for good.’ But that verse sounds very different in a hospital room… at a graveside…
or when you’re staring at evil that makes your stomach turn.”
Still, when we talk about children suffering, we must be careful not to sound detached or throw out some verse to dismiss it. The Bible shows that God is not indifferent to that pain. Jesus wept at human suffering (John 11:35). Scripture says God is near to the brokenhearted (Psalms 34:18). And Jesus also said the kingdom of heaven belongs to children (Matthew 19:14).
In other words, God is not standing coldly outside of suffering. In Christ, He stepped into it.
The Christian hope ultimately rests not in explaining every tragedy now, honestly my friend,
there is SOooo much I do not understand and could never articulate, but this I do know.
I trust God… I trust God’s promise that evil will not have the final word.
How many things in life do we not understand, or can’t comprehend or even fathom, and Satan will use them to not just disparage God and His love but like you said, to bring confusion, doubt, and even hatred for the unexplainable when He told us emphatically, Satan has come to corrupt, distort, kill and destroy everything good and holy. The Bible ends with God wiping away every tear and removing death, pain, and injustice forever (Revelation 21:4). Judgment will come, evil will be accounted for,
AND what was broken will be restored.
So the honest biblical picture looks something like this:
• God created a good world.
• Humanity chose rebellion, and the world fell.
• Free will and spiritual evil now produce terrible suffering.
• God does not desire those acts but allows human freedom for a time.
• Through Christ, God entered our suffering and began redemption.
• One day, He will fully judge evil and restore creation.
Until then, believers live in the tension described in Romans 8: suffering now, glory later. And even with that, there are tears in my eyes as I write this. But, I believe we cannot allow our focus to be on the ugly, vile, and unredeemable acts of mankind, but to keep our eyes on the risen Lord. Peter walked on water until he took his eyes off of Jesus. That is what we must do, my friend …How? By the power He gave us in sending the Holy Spirit to abide in us. The Bible tells the story of a war that began in Eden and will end in eternity. Right now, we are living in the middle of it.
The prize Scripture in Romans 8 points to eternity with God, where justice is complete, and healing is final. That doesn’t minimize the horror of what happens in this world, but it does say this broken chapter is not the final story. He IS risen, and the rest will unfold in His time, and we will meet in the sky, in the twinkling of an eye, to live in Glory with our King and Savior.
I pray that helps you, in clinging to the end of the story and not getting caught in the valley of sin and despair. Jesus was and IS the victory when all is said and done.
Blessings,
Dennis
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