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Dr. Eugene Underwood

Why Bad Things Happen To Good People



There are things that are unjustly done by Lucifer but God in his great foreknowledge allows it that righteous seed may fall to the ground to produce a greater harvest that he might not otherwise be able to.

Firstly you had the unjust death of John the Baptist: Matthew 14 1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,


2 And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.


3 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife.


4 For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.


5 And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.


6 But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.


7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask.


8 And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.


9 And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.


10 And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. Secondly the unjust death of James: Acts 12 1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.


2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. Then thirdly you had the unjust death of Stephen: Acts 7:55-60 55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,


56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.


57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.


59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.


60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. You see, an unjust balance is an abomination to God. When the devil unfairly attacks it is an unjust weight and God gives a divine recompense.   If you look closely at each one of these men's deaths, you will see that after they died they became seed and God did great things in the church afterword as divine recompense. Let me give you an example. Look at verses 57 and 58 again. The reason the bible mentions Stephen's clothes was because clothes represent mantels. The mantel of Stephen fell back down on Paul and Paul finished his works and ministry. This is a spiritual Law: when someone leaves unjustly their works and ministry will be continued by someone else. Revelation 14:13 13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.

So you see they still receive rewards for their works.   The bible gives 4 reasons why something bad can happen to good people.   Luke 13:1-2 1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.


2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? Notice the first reason is when a person dies or is martyred for the work of the Kingdom and the occult or false religion is involved.   4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? Now the second reason that bad things can happen to good people is there is a curse in operation in the earth that was released because of what Adam did, and because of that, accidents can happen. I am not talking about when we do something wrong and we open the door to the enemy, this is when something in the natural has simply been overlooked and the enemy attempts to exploit it. Most of the time Faith will overcome all these things but on those rare occasions when it looks like faith has failed but it really has not the victims are able to receive their largest triumph something they could not do here, and that is in heaven. Hebrews 11:36 36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:


37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;


38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.


39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:


40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Luke 13:6-9 6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.


7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?


8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:

9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. The third reason is, if a person is lazy or fails to do their job with excellence they could open the door to the curse. This is why there was not anything in the field even after three years. This is another reason why proverbs talk so much about being diligent and not slothful. Bro. Hagan tells a story about a man who worked in a power plant. After he was trained he was told after he does his rounds and comes in from the outside he was to make sure he always had the floor mat in place before he threw the switch in the plant, you know, to make sure he was grounded. But there was one time he forgot to stand on the mat and it fried him. Now I mean no disrespect but he became slothful in his duties. Yes he forgot but that is not something you want to forget and it is the same way in other aspects of life; it will come back and bite you. He said when they brought him into the hospital he was singing "Bringing in the sheaths; we will come rejoicing bringing in the sheaths." Bro. Hagan also made the statement that some church people said the Lord took Bro. so and so home; his comment was he noticed God doesn't take half as many when he notices that they obey natural human laws. His point was the man would have still been alive if the mat was in place.   10 And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.


11 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.


12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. The fourth reason is there are demonic spirits that try to attack us in this warfare that is going on. Notice this woman was in church. I want to give you one more truth, why some Christians are allowed to suffer so badly in death with sickness and disease. I will use my mother as an example. I was talking to a respected man of God one time while we were attending a meeting at a good friend of mine's church in St. Louis. I said to him you know my mother died of cancer and the lord told me something that I just don't hear anyone talk about. When I found out my mother had it I would call her and try to encourage her to believe God with me for her healing. She would agree with what I said then turn right around and tell me "but it was put on me." Well I would repeat it to her again because I did not believe one moment that God put that on her not knowing at the time that is not what she really meant. Even if she didn't fully understand it herself, which i knew she didn't, she tried to explain it to me the best way she could. So to speed the story along, by this time she is bed ridden and I flew to Memphis to be with her and I laid upon her floor in her bed room for three days and nights, talking to the Lord about her; and he opened my mind to something I already understood but had not connected to her. You see I had always prayed that my mother would come into the fullness of the spirit and grow more spiritually before she left the earth but, because of my mother's lack of knowledge of the word and of spiritual things, this was the only way the father could do it. So he permitted the sickness in her life. By the way, the first signs of this problem showed up in her life seven or eight years earlier in another part of her body but she told no one and, most likely, a simple operation could have dealt with it. But in her own simple way she says to me, "it was put on me", but she could not tell me why. But while I was lying on the floor Holy Spirit spoke and said, "All suffering can be redemptive", if the people of God would cooperate with him and allow it to be such as with Job.

There is a law where one's flesh is destroyed when they are in sin and the sickness will drive them back to God such as the man in 1 Cor. 5 that had his father's wife. But there is also another law where God permits one's flesh to be attacked that brings great pain and suffering in their life to ready them to step into glory at a greater degree and level of Glory that they would otherwise have not had, had they continued on in life the way they were going. He made her suffering redemptive; it brought forth for her a more exceedingly eternal weight of glory. Look what Paul said: II Corinthians 4:17-18 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

That word glory also represents light which in heaven also represents level of maturity when it comes to the saints of God another reason why martyrdom and suffering will greatly increase in the last days.


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