Did God cause what happened to me?
By Will Bourne · Question 12
The direct answer
You should not assume that something was God’s desire simply because it happened. Christians differ over how God’s rule relates to every event, but an event’s occurrence does not by itself make it good or give us knowledge of God’s purpose.
Fuller explanation
When someone betrays or abuses another person, that person remains responsible. Saying God planned it can shift attention away from the person who chose the harm. Saying it happened for a reason can sound like an explanation while leaving the reason entirely unknown.
Scripture describes human wrongdoing, natural suffering, divine action, and God bringing good out of evil. Genesis 50:20, for example, distinguishes the brothers’ harmful intention from God’s good purpose in Joseph’s story. That passage should not become permission to assign the same explanation to every person’s trauma.
Some Christian traditions understand all events within an overarching divine decree. Others emphasize God allowing genuine creaturely freedom and acting within a world he does not determine in every detail. Both must address the fact that God permits suffering he could prevent. Using the word permission does not solve that problem by itself.
The position taken here is that we must not identify a harmful act with God’s moral approval. Even if good later emerges, the original harm does not become a good act. Gratitude for survival or growth does not require gratitude for the person’s wrongdoing.
The objection we still need to face
Are you changing the meaning of God being in control to avoid the problem?
That risk is real. An expanded answer needs to state what divine control means instead of switching definitions when a difficult example appears. This entry makes a narrower claim: we cannot infer approval or a specific purpose from the fact that something happened. It leaves the broader debate about providence open.
Scripture and its use
Genesis 50:15–21; James 1:13–17; Romans 12:9
Read these passages in their surrounding chapters alongside the explanation.