NO!! God does NOT cause or “allow” bad things happen to good people. People who believe in God have a tendency to believe that every event in their lives is in some way attributable to God. This is not the case. The vast majority of the events in your life are the result of the decisions that you or other people make. Acts of nature such as earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions and even viral pandemics are simply “acts of nature” and the result of having to live on a unique planet. As you will see as you continue reading, God does not punish anyone. However, He provided us with a world in which bad things can happen to us for a very good reason. They force us to use our free will to confront them. The earthly milieu exposes us to a full range of circumstances. We evolve as souls by making choices and learning from our mistakes.
The earth is just a school, and God doesn’t do your homework for you. God doesn’t decide what will happen to you today. That’s your job! He put you here to use your free will to make your own decisions and create your own future. What counts is not what happens. It’s how it came to be and how you deal with it. Every circumstance in life presents you with a set of choices. Every cloud has its silver lining. It’s up to you whether you choose a path leading to light or darkness.
As Emanuel Swedenborg pointed out, if people were deprived of their freedom to choose between good or evil, (and reap the consequences of their choices) they would be no more than statues! Each and every soul encounters unique obstacles, deals with them in unique ways and becomes a unique specialist who returns to God with unique qualifications. That’s the point of living an earthly life.