Why is God allowing Boko Haram to kill Christians in North East Nigeria

Recently a youth asked me this question: if God is that powerful, loving and good, why does he allow Boko Haram to destroy innocent people, why does he allow those who serve him to be killed by Islamic fundamentalists. Why does He allow evil to happen to good people?

This youth was questioning the existence of God. What was going through the mind of this youth is whether the so-called scientists are right in saying that God is a creation of ignorant cultures as a coping mechanism for issues in life they have no answer.

This person was not against God. He believes in God but wanted a faith that brings head and heart together. He wanted to reconcile his intellect with his heart but was finding it difficult because he could not answer some questions. An anti-intellectual stance by some well-meaning Christian leaders on issues that concern our faith has largely produced believers with compartmentalized lives, a people who cannot integrate their faith into everyday life.

If this question was a faith extinguisher for this youth, it could mean that several other youths do have the same doubt. For ease of instructing others, I want to give you a seven-point answer to this question.

1. First, if there is no God, there cannot be anything called evil because evil can only be known and measured against a standard of good. Apart from God and the morality that flows from Him there is no standard – and therefore no evil either. The fact that we can recognize certain things as evil is one evidence that God, the perfect good exists.

2. God created the world good but man’s rebellion at the garden of Eden brought evil. There are consequences for our rebellion against God. Sin is the origin of evil. Sometimes God shields us severally from evil in this world because of his mercy. At other times, He allows consequences of our choices to play out in this world. In the case of Boko Haram, we do not know everything about why he saves some people and allows others to be killed. The fact that we do not know these things does not mean that God does not know. We can trust Him who gave His Son for our redemption to do justice.

3. We do know however that God does deliver his people in response to faith. God’s people also have chosen to be martyred as an act of their faith. If God has not called you to be a martyr, the appropriate response to affliction is to pray and expect deliverance. The bible commands, “is any among you afflicted, let him pray” (James 5:13).

4. God has promised justice, and everyone eventually gets justice. God’s children who were killed get justice in eternity. Those who killed them also get justice in eternity. It is difficult for us to understand how eternity effectively make up for the loss we experience in this world. But God who is the author of both worlds and gave us ability to enjoy this world, assures us that we will be satisfied with his justice when it is revealed in eternity. David accepted this position when he said, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness". (Psa 17:15 KJV).

5. Those who have been killed as God’s children have not missed out. God has transported them from an inferior place to a superior place. Imagine a loving father who took his son out of a village school in Zamfara and brought the boy to live with him and school in Abuja. It may be a loss to the boy’s friends in Zamfara but not a loss to the boy or his father. Obviously, they are in a better place. Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21 NKJV).

6. Why did God allow them to die such a painful death, the youth also asked. Their death may not have been painful as many people suppose. When we imagine how they died, we are imagining a situation for which we have no grace to bear. The writer of the Book of Hebrews tells us that grace is given at the time of need (Heb 4:16). Some people who have come face to face with life-threatening situations have always wondered why they acted boldly and reasoned normally until the threat was over. Others remember how they did what was considered impossible, something they could not replicate at normal times. What happened in the two occasions mentioned above is that grace for that occasion was given to them. Many people reported feelings of great fear after the threat was over. God told Apostle Paul, “my grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor 12:9 NKJV).

7. Lastly, no one is truly innocent. The questions we are dealing with fall within the generic type that says, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The Bible says that we were born in sin. Even as babies, we were sinful human beings in small bodies. When we grew up, we added sinful choices to our sinful nature. Therefore, everybody deserves the wages of sin. The fact that good things happen to us despite our sins make us to constantly respond to God with grateful hearts. Therefore the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people” should be, “Why do good things happen to bad people”? The answer is because our God is merciful.