(Article by Sergey Amalanov).
Why doesn't God punish bad people? If we take a closer look at how this happens, we will also get answers to the questions: “Why does God punish good people” and “Why is God punishing me.”
We can often see that a person with bad qualities, who humiliates others, or simply steals, or commits other immoral or simply disgusting acts, lives better than many of us. Does all the bad things he does really have no effect on his life? Why doesn't God punish bad people? This question often comes to mind.
We will look at this issue from two points of view.
1. FROM THE POSITION OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE
2. FROM THE POSITION OF RESEARCH ON HUMAN NERVOUS-MENTAL ACTIVITY.
"Man punishes himself"
Answer: Of course, it happens that a person punishes himself. For example, if, without listening to the parents, the child stuck his fingers into the socket. But if a child behaved like a hooligan, and his father beat him with a belt for it, then this is parental punishment. Saint John Chrysostom condemns the false teaching that God supposedly does not punish: “Tell me, you who present God as a deceiver, who in the days of Noah poured out waves over the entire universe, caused that terrible shipwreck and caused the death of our entire race? Who sent down those lightnings and thunders on the land of Sodom?” “How, tell me, are you not afraid when you utter such insolence and assert that “God loves mankind and does not punish?” (20). Indeed, the rain of fire that turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes is not self-punishment. Tsunamis, disasters and cataclysms are the actions of the hand of God. Defenders of the modernist teaching claim that this happened only in the Old Testament, but who can say that natural disasters and catastrophes happen on their own? Are periodic hurricanes, tsunamis and Fukushimas in countries where idolatry reigns just an accident? The New Testament saint, the Monk Theodosius of Pechersk, states: “If any country sins, God punishes it with death, or famine, or an invasion of foreigners, or lack of rain and other various executions” (2). His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', in one of his sermons, indicated the reasons for the tragedy of Rus' at the beginning of the twentieth century: “Our entire historical tragedy cannot be separated from the Providence of God. This was God’s punishment for our people - and the blown-up churches and broken crosses were a visible sign of this punishment” (8).
“God has no passion, so He cannot be angry.”
Answer: Of course, there is no passion in God. Orthodox teaching has never understood the wrath and wrath of God anthropomorphically. For those who distort Divine Revelation, Saint Chrysostom clarifies: “God is angry not with passion, but with retribution and punishment” (3); “...so that you, having heard about anger, would not recognize it as the action of passion, the apostle added: “the righteous Judgment of God” (4). God is All-Righteous. Those who deny the righteousness of God fall under the anathematism of the Church (see the second anathematism of the rite, read on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy). God punishes and is angry dispassionately, rejecting evil with righteous anger. According to the words of St. Augustine the Blessed, “the wrath of God is not the agitation of the Spirit of God, but the Judgment that inflicts punishment for sin” (1). St. John Cassian the Roman writes about the need to distinguish between human wrath and God’s: “So, when we read about the wrath or wrath of God, we must understand it not in a human form, i.e. in the likeness of human indignation, but worthy of God, who is alien to all indignation” (5).
"God is love, so he cannot punish"
Answer: Love does not cancel justice. Who gave the right to misinterpret the direct words of the Lord: “Those whom I love I rebuke and punish” (Rev. 3:19)? Yes, God punishes the righteous out of love: “To the pious God sends punishment out of love, and not out of anger... ...And here the truth of God is shown, which does not leave small sins unpunished, although it is combined with mercy and love for mankind” (18). But the Lord deals differently with the wicked. The same saint continues: “He pours out the wrath of His wrath on the wicked, and destroys their memory on earth, and, depriving them of temporary life, deprives them of eternal life. Such punishment befell the Sodomites who lived under Noah, Pharaoh and others.” The teaching of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, who lived in the 3rd century, also turns out to be very relevant. The great Orthodox apologist responds to false teachers who preach that God is only Love: “... in order to remove from the Father the power to punish and judge, considering it unworthy of God, and thinking that they invented a God without anger and goodness, (the heretics) said that one judges , and the other saves, unreasonably depriving both of them of reason and justice. For if the one who judges (God) is not at the same time good in order to show mercy to those who are due, but to condemn those who should, then he will turn out to be an unjust and unwise judge” (6).
The Word of God instructs parents to punish their children for their admonition: “Do not leave a young man unpunished: if you punish him with a rod, he will not die; You will punish him with the rod and save his soul from hell” (Prov. 23:13). Here we see that punishment is learning, a consequence of love and caring. Therefore, love and punishment are compatible with each other. “Enlightened by the law of God, we will learn that God, with unlimited mercy, is completely just, that He will certainly reward a sinful life with appropriate punishment” (19).
If we follow the absurd logic of humanists, then if we see a defenseless baby being beaten, then we should not hope for God’s intervention, because “He is only Love” and will not punish the villain. And since we must imitate the Lord, then we must simply pass by, not paying attention to evil... It is precisely this kind of indifferent pseudo-love that modernists teach. But God hates evil. “Let none of you think evil in his heart against his neighbor, nor love a false oath, for I hate all this, says the Lord” (Zech. 8:17). God is not some distant, indifferent being, but a Personality, a Father who loves us, who protects the weak and dispassionately takes revenge on those who offend the defenseless. “Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give way to [God’s] wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord” (Rom. 12:18).
Protecting Christians from the Sin of Schadenfreude
John of Kronstadt expressed the opinion that God does not punish apostates in order to protect other Christians from the opportunity to gloat. After all, contemplating someone else's grief and taking pleasure in the sight of someone else's suffering is in itself a sin.
In addition, immediate punishment for bad deeds in earthly life would require corresponding rewards for good deeds. Thus, people would think that after death there is no retribution or reward. And just as no material blessings can compare with heavenly blessings, so earthly suffering is nothing compared to the eternal torment of a sinful soul.
Earthly life is only a temporary stay of the soul, the main thing is that it will receive in the future: eternal bliss or eternal death.
"God loves everyone equally"
Answer: The Bible shows the opposite: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are on their cry. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to destroy the memory of them from the earth” (Ps. 33:16-17). And the words of the fifth psalm speak of God’s unequal attitude towards different people: “You hate all who practice iniquity” (v. 6). Of course, God helps both Muslims and pagans so that on the Day of Judgment they would not reproach the Creator for the fact that the Sun shone only for Christians. Rev. Ambrose of Optina: “Everyone who thinks sensibly knows that the Christian spirit and together the spirit of Christ lies in keeping the commandments of Christ. But your brother invented some other Christian spirit. How can this be a Christian spirit without Christ, and without observing the teachings of Christ? This is some kind of self-invented and, so to speak, self-made spirit, and is in no way worthy to be called by the Christian name, because it thinks it loves everyone indifferently, both Christians and Turks and pagans alike. Christ the Lord in His teaching made a distinction in this, saying in the Gospel: if anyone disobeys the Church, let him be like a pagan and a tax collector (see: Matt. 18:17). And the All-Good Lord Himself loves the righteous, but only has mercy on sinners. And true Christians, imitating the Lord, do the same: showing mercy and condescension to everyone indifferently, they show complete love only to the faithful” (16).
God works mercies for everyone, but God’s blessing remains on His people (which is the Orthodox Church): “The salvation of the Lord is, and Your blessing is on Your people” (Ps. 3:9). Those who are outside the Church are subject to God's punishment. Moreover, not because they are unbaptized, but because of their evil deeds. This is discussed in detail in the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans. The following lines also speak about the heterogeneity of God’s love: “As it is written: I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau (Mal. 1:2-3). What shall we say? Is it really not true with God? No way". (Rom.9:13).
If even among Christ’s disciples there was a particularly beloved one (John 13:23;19:26;20:2;21:7,20), then what can we say about those who are rooted in evil? Do they really claim the same love that Jesus showed His Mother and John the Evangelist? Then the specifications about the Apostle John, “whom Jesus loved,” become meaningless insertions into the Gospel, but God teaches that “all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16 ). If God loved everyone equally, then the punishment would be equal. But, we have already cited the words of St. Tikhon that there are two different types of punishment - for the righteous and for the wicked. Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) also emphasizes this: “Tell me, are all the punishments that people suffer from people the same? No, they are not the same. When a father lovingly punishes his son, he does this in order to correct him, so that he is pure, kind and holy. But when those in power punish serious criminals sentenced to imprisonment and even the death penalty, then this is completely different: here the goals of correction are no longer pursued, but only punishment, because those who deserve these terrible punishments are recognized as incorrigible” (10).
Why does God often punish the body for the sins of the soul?
Why does God often punish the body for the sins of the soul?It was a Jewish holiday, and Jesus came to Jerusalem. There is also a pool in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which had five covered passages. In them lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the movement of the water, for the Angel of the Lord from time to time went into the pool and disturbed the water, and whoever first entered it after the disturbance of the water recovered, no matter what disease he was possessed by.
Here was a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Jesus, seeing him lying down and learning that he had been lying there for a long time, said to him: Do you want to be healthy? The sick man answered Him: Yes, Lord; but I do not have a person who would lower me into the pool when the water is troubled; when I arrive, another has already descended before me. Jesus says to him: get up, take up your mat and walk. And he immediately became well, and took up his bed and went. It was on the Sabbath day. Therefore the Jews said to the healed man: Today is the Sabbath; You shouldn't take the bed. He answered them: He who healed me said to me: take up your bed and walk. They asked him: Who is the man who said to you, “Take up your bed and walk?” The healed one did not know who He was, for Jesus hid himself among the people who were in that place. Then Jesus met him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you are made well; Don’t sin anymore, lest something worse happen to you. This man went and announced to the Jews that the one who healed him was Jesus (John 14:5:1-15).
Grave evil is sin, evil and destruction for the soul; and when this evil intensifies too much, it often touches the body. We remain insensitive when our soul suffers greatly, and when the body receives even the slightest damage, we use all our efforts to cure it of its illness, because we feel pain. That is why God often punishes the body for the sins of the soul, so that from punishing the lower part the higher part will receive some kind of healing.
Thus, among the Corinthians, Paul corrected the fornicator, restraining the illness of the soul by executing the body; he stopped the evil by attacking the body, just as a good doctor, if water sickness or pain in the liver is not inferior to internal medicine, does cauterization externally. This is what Christ did with the paralytic. This is how He himself expresses it when he says: Behold, you are healthy; If you do not sin, let no worse happen to you.
What can we learn from here?
Firstly, that his illness arose from his sins; secondly, that the doctrine of Gehenna is true; and thirdly, that the punishment in it will be long-lasting, endless. Where are those who say: I committed murder in one hour, I committed fornication for a short time, and will I really be punished forever? So the paralytic did not sin for so many years as he suffered punishment, and spent almost his entire human life in continuous torment.
Sins are judged not by time, but by the very essence of the crimes. At the same time, we must also take into account the fact that, even if we have suffered severe punishment for our previous sins, if we fall into the same vices again, we will be subjected to again and even more severe punishment; and this is absolutely fair. Whoever does not become better even from punishment, as insensitive and contemptuous, is given over to even greater execution. And one punishment in itself should be enough to restrain and admonish the fallen once; but if he, not having come to his senses from the punishment he has suffered, again dares to do the same thing, then in fairness he is again subject to the punishment that he brings upon himself. If we, even here, after punishment for sins, falling again into the same sins, are already subjected to the most severe punishment, then shouldn’t we be all the more afraid and tremble in anticipation of future unbearable torment, when, even sinning, we here do not tolerate any punishments?
Why, you say, is not everyone punished in this way? After all, we see many vicious people who have good health and enjoy prosperity in the strength of their strength. But we should not rely on this, and that is why we need to mourn such people more. The fact that they do not tolerate anything here is the guarantee of the heaviest punishment there. Explaining this, Paul says: If we are judged now, we are chastened by the Lord, lest we be condemned with the world.
(1 Cor. 11:32). Here there is only admonition, there there is punishment.
Well, you say, are all illnesses really from sins? Not all, but most. Some are also due to carelessness. Gluttony, drunkenness and inactivity also produce disease. There is only one thing that must always be observed, so that every blow can be endured with gratitude. There are illnesses for sins; so we see in the books of Kings that someone suffered from a disease of the legs precisely for this reason. Illnesses also happen to test us in goodness, as God says to Job: Do you think that I have created you differently, or that I may appear truthful?
(Job 40:3)?
But why does Christ expose their sins to these paralytics? And to the one whom Matthew mentions, He says : be of good cheer, child, your sins will be forgiven
(Matthew 9:2), and to this: behold, you are healthy; to whom shall not sin.
I know that some say in condemnation of this paralytic, that he was later among the accusers of Jesus Christ, and that is why he heard such words from Him, but what can we say about the one who, according to the testimony of Matthew, heard almost the same words? And it was said to him: Your sins are forgiven; but he did not hear this for the same reason, as can be seen more clearly from what follows. The Evangelist says that after healing, Jesus found him in the church (see: John 5:14) - and this is a sign of great piety: he did not go to the market and the festivities, did not indulge in overeating and carelessness, but spent time in the temple; although he had to endure violence and persecution from everyone there, this did not in the least prompt him to move away from the temple. So, Christ, having met him after talking with the Jews, did not make any hint of anything like that; If He wanted to reprove him, He would say to him: Are you going back to your old ways, and after your healing you have not become better? But He did not say anything like that, but only warned him for the future.
Why, when healing the lame and crippled, did He not remind them of this? It seems to me that the illnesses of the paralytic came from sins, and that of others - from natural weakness. If this is not so, then through them what was said to them was also said to others. Since this disease is more severe than all others, the smaller ones are also treated through the larger one. Just as, having healed someone else, Christ commanded him to give glory to God, inspiring this not to him alone, but through him to all others, so here, through the paralytic, he exhorts all others, and instills in him the same thing that he told them. In addition to this, it must be said that He saw great patience in the soul of the paralytic, and therefore gives him instruction, as a person who can accept admonition, protecting his health with both good deeds and fear of future evils.
And look how Christ was a stranger to vanity. He did not say: Behold, I have made you well. And he said: behold, you are healthy now; sin no more. He also does not say: do not sin, lest I punish you; but only: it won’t be any worse. Both are expressed impersonally; and, moreover, shows that health was restored to him more by grace than by merit. He does not pretend that he is exempt from punishment due to his merit, but expresses that he is saved due to his love for mankind. Otherwise, I would have said: behold, you have already suffered sufficient punishment for your sins: be careful in the future. But He didn’t say that, but how? Behold, you are healthy; to whom shall not sin.
We must repeat this more often to ourselves, and when we are punished and freed from punishment, then let everyone say to himself: behold, you are healthy; to whom shall not sin. And if, while continuing to sin, we are not subject to punishment, then we will repeat the following apostolic saying: for the goodness of God leads us to repentance: but through our cruelty and unrepentant heart we store up wrath for ourselves
(Rom. 2:4,5). But Christ, not only by strengthening the body, but also in another way, showed the paralytic an important proof of His deity. With the words: “Let him not sin,” He showed that He knows all his past sins, and therefore one should believe Him regarding the future.
