Evil and God's Will

So where was God when all these people were dying at VT?

Was it His will that they all die?

One of the hardest to understand paradoxes of belief is the goodness of God and the horrible wickedness we see in the world. We do not help ourselves when we say all that happens is God's will. That is not true. If all that happened was the will of God then there would be no such as thing as sin. God's will will be done one day, but not today. God did not want those people murdered and He is not happy about it.

So if He is all powerful why doesn't He do something about it?

One day He will but this is not that day.

God does not want us to be mechanical men who just do His will without a thought or complaint. He wants sons and daughters and that means we must be moral free agents. If there is no choice then there is no morality. The existence of choice means that the there is a possibility of evil, or even intense evil, otherwise there is no morality, merely a clockwork universe.

What happened was a consequence of free-will. But without free-will creation becomes a mere machine. Perfection of Heaven will be available to those who choose it of their own free-will. Those who chose evil will lose out on perfection. It is their choice.