Why does God allow natural disasters and disease?
Free will might explain murder and war, but nobody chooses an earthquake, a tsunami or childhood cancer. If God designed the world, he designed one that kills innocent people by the thousands. That looks like either cruelty or absence.
Natural evil is the hardest part of the problem of evil, and Christians should admit it. But several things help: a stable, law-governed world is necessary for meaningful life and choice; many of the same processes that cause disasters also make Earth habitable; Scripture teaches that creation itself is 'subjected to futility' and groaning; and Jesus shows God's posture toward sickness and storms. He healed, calmed the sea, wept, and promised a renewed creation.
What Scripture says
19The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. 23Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Creation is 'subjected to futility' and groans like a woman in labor, waiting for renewal. Natural suffering is real and temporary.
17And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground— because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
After human rebellion the ground is cursed. Human alienation from God disrupts our relationship with the created order.
1At that time some of those present told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2To this He replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this way? 3No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Jesus denies that the eighteen killed by the tower of Siloam were worse sinners than others. Disasters are not a scorecard of guilt.
1Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth, 2and His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.
Jesus rejects the assumption that a man's blindness was punishment for his or his parents' sin.
35When that evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us cross to the other side.” 36After they had dismissed the crowd, they took Jesus with them, since He was already in the boat. And there were other boats with Him. 37Soon a violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped. 38But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?” 39Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm. 40“Why are you so afraid?” He asked. “Do you still have no faith?” 41Overwhelmed with fear, they asked one another, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
Jesus rebukes the storm. The Creator is not indifferent to nature's destructive power.
23Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them.
Jesus' ministry was marked by healing every disease. Disease is an enemy he came to overcome.
1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2“Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge? 3Now brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me. 4Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it? 6On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone, 7while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 8Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, 10when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors, 11and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
God answers Job's suffering not with an explanation but by revealing the vastness of his wisdom over creation.
1Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him.
In the new creation the leaves of the tree of life are 'for the healing of the nations' and there is no more curse.
The case
The hardest part of the problem
On All Saints' Day, 1 November 1755, an earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of Lisbon, killing tens of thousands, many of them at church. Voltaire wrote a famous poem mocking the idea that this was part of the best possible plan. Every generation has its own Lisbon: tsunamis, pandemics, famines, childhood leukemia.
Moral evil can be traced to free choices. Natural evil cannot be traced so easily. Christians should not rush past this. Scripture itself lets Job, the psalmists and the prophets protest. But there are serious considerations that, taken together, show natural evil does not refute God.
1. A world with dependable laws
For free, responsible creatures to exist, they need a stable environment. Fire must reliably burn so we can cook; water must reliably flow so we can drink. C. S. Lewis argued that a shared world of fixed natural laws is the necessary stage for creatures to interact, choose and love (The Problem of Pain, ch. 2). But the same fire that warms can burn, and the same water that sustains can drown.
If God intervened every time natural processes threatened harm, the world would become unpredictable. Nobody could learn cause and effect, take precautions, or bear responsibility for their actions. A dependable world is a precondition of a moral one.
2. The same processes that harm also sustain
Many processes that cause disasters are part of what makes Earth habitable. Scientists such as Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee (Rare Earth, 2000) argue that plate tectonics, which causes earthquakes and volcanoes, plays a major role in recycling nutrients, regulating climate over long periods, and building continents. Weather systems that produce hurricanes also distribute heat and rainfall. Viruses and bacteria, a tiny fraction of which cause disease, are essential to the ecosystems we depend on.
This does not make a particular disaster good. It shows that "just remove the harmful parts" is not as simple as it sounds.
3. A creation that is groaning
Scripture does not call the present world simply as it ought to be. Paul says creation was "subjected to futility" and is in "bondage to decay" (Romans 8:20-21), groaning for its liberation. Genesis connects human rebellion with a disordered relationship between humanity and the ground (Genesis 3:17-19). Christians differ on the details (see below), but all agree the world is not yet what God intends it to be.
4. Natural evil is not a verdict on its victims
When a tower in Siloam collapsed and killed eighteen people, Jesus refused to say they deserved it (Luke 13:4-5). When his disciples asked whose sin caused a man's blindness, Jesus said neither his nor his parents' (John 9:3). The Christian has no business telling disaster victims that God is punishing them. Jesus' response was to turn the question toward everyone's need for God.
5. Watch what Jesus does
If you want to know God's attitude toward disease and destructive nature, watch Jesus. He healed the sick, touched lepers, raised the dead, and rebuked a storm as though it were an enemy (Mark 4:39). At Lazarus's tomb, knowing he was about to raise him, he still wept (John 11:35). God is not a detached engineer pleased with his machine's casualties. He grieves, and he acts.
6. The answer we don't have, and the one we do
Like Job, we will not in this life see all of God's reasons for any particular tragedy. When God answered Job, he gave no explanation, but he gave Job himself (Job 38-42). The Christian claim is not that we can account for every earthquake, but that the God who made the world has entered it, suffered in it, and will renew it.
| Response | What it explains |
|---|---|
| Stable natural laws | Why harm is possible in a world fit for free creatures |
| Life-sustaining processes | Why hazards are woven into a habitable planet |
| A groaning creation | Why the world is not as it should be |
| Jesus' ministry | How God regards sickness and disaster |
| New creation | Why natural evil is not final |
Why it matters
Christianity does not promise a life free of natural suffering in this age. It promises something deeper: that the God who calmed the storm is with us in it, and that one day creation itself "will be set free from its bondage to decay" (Romans 8:21). Until then, Christians are called to do what Jesus did: weep with those who weep, heal, rebuild, and serve.
Word study
greek · “futility, frustration, emptiness” · Romans 8:20
Paul says creation was subjected to 'futility', the same word the Greek Old Testament often uses for the 'vanity' of Ecclesiastes. The world does not reach its intended goal; it is frustrated. But Paul adds that it was subjected 'in hope'. The frustration is not the end of the story.
“But what about…?”
Why couldn't God make a world with plate tectonics but no earthquakes that kill people?
Perhaps he could, but every such alternative would require either constant miraculous interventions or different physical laws whose consequences we cannot trace. A world where God constantly suspended the laws of nature would be unpredictable, and in an unpredictable world we could not learn, plan, or take responsibility for our actions.
Are disasters God's judgment on particular places?
Jesus explicitly rejected that reasoning (Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-3). The Bible does record specific judgments, but we have no warrant to read God's verdict off the evening news. Jesus' point was that we all need to repent and that the suffering of others should humble us, not make us feel superior.
Didn't animals and disease exist long before humans sinned?
Christians answer this differently depending on how they read Genesis and the age of the earth. See the related entry on animal suffering and the 'Christians differ' note here.
If God can heal, why doesn't he heal everyone now?
Jesus' healings were signs pointing to the coming kingdom, not a promise that no believer would ever be sick in this age. Even those Jesus healed, like Lazarus, later died. Full healing belongs to the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42-44), and Christians still pray for healing now.
Where Christians differ
Go deeper
- book · 2013Walking with God through Pain and SufferingTimothy Keller
- book · 1940The Problem of PainC. S. Lewis
- book · 1977Where Is God When It Hurts?Philip Yancey
- book · 1966Evil and the God of LoveJohn Hick
- book · 2000Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the UniversePeter D. Ward & Donald Brownlee
Sources (3)
- C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (1940), ch. 2, on the necessity of a stable, law-governed natural order for free creatures
- Peter D. Ward & Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth (2000), on plate tectonics and Earth's habitability
- Voltaire, Poem on the Lisbon Disaster (1756), written after the earthquake of 1 November 1755
Related questions
If God is all-good and all-powerful, why is there evil?
The argument assumes that a good God would never allow any evil for any reason. But a good God might allow evil if it is the cost of something very valuable, such as creatures who can freely love. Even many atheist philosophers now grant that God and evil are not logically contradictory. And Christianity does not stop at an argument: God entered our suffering in Jesus, defeated evil at the cross, and promises to end it for good.
Why do animals suffer if there was no sin before humans?
Christians answer this in more than one way, depending on how they read Genesis. Some hold that there was no animal death before the Fall; others accept an ancient earth and look to different explanations. Common ground is substantial: God cares for every sparrow, the Bible celebrates wild creatures as part of God's world, animal pain may differ from human suffering in important ways, and Scripture promises that creation itself, not only humans, will be liberated and renewed.
Why would God allow children to suffer?
This is the objection at its most painful, and Christians should feel its weight rather than explain it away. Scripture does not treat children's suffering lightly: Jesus welcomed children, warned of terrible judgment on anyone who harms them, and wept with the grieving. We do not know God's reasons for any particular child's suffering, but we know his heart toward children, we know he will bring perfect justice, and we know he promises a restoration in which no child's suffering is wasted or forgotten.
Aren't miracles impossible because they violate the laws of nature?
Laws of nature describe what happens when nothing outside nature acts. They cannot tell us whether something outside nature exists or ever acts. If God exists, a miracle is not a broken law but a new cause entering the system. Hume's argument assumes experience against miracles is 'uniform', which is the very thing in question. Whether a miracle happened is decided by evidence, not ruled out in advance.
This entry is a draft and has not yet been theologically reviewed.