Salvation.

Why does God allow people to do bad things?

Why does God allow people to do evil?

Why does God allow people to persecute His saints?

Even Jesus was not spared a humiliating death on the cross.

Why?

The answer, in the end, is simple:

God does not condemn or punish anyone.

There are reasons why people do bad things.

There are reasons why people do evil.

Ultimately their motivation is fear.

And it was fear that motivated the Pharisees and the Romans to crucify Jesus.

"'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.'"  Luke 23:34 (NRSV)

These were Jesus' words on the cross.

He forgave his killers.

God did not save Jesus from death.

And this is because it is God's Will that they be saved also.

No one will perish.

Even the most heinous of sinners will be saved.

Ultimately He will enlighten them.

So God's chosen ones, His saints and prophets, may experience persecutions, even torture and death, that their persecutors, their torturers and even their killers, may be saved.

So love your enemies and pray for those who abuse you that they also may be saved and experience the overwhelming Love of God.      

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

Photo Credit: Jen Skingle Flickr via Compfight cc

(The image has been slightly modified.)