No, it is not right even to think such a thing, and it is a gross slander on God to say it. Jesus was very explicit on that subject. (See Luke 13:1-5.) The tower of Siloam had fallen and had killed eighteen persons and Jesus was told of it. He took occasion to disabuse his hearers' minds of the idea that accidents were to be regarded as punishments. There was another case in which the question was put to him directly. He was asked who had sinned, a blind man or his parents, that he was born blind, and he answered, neither (John 9:2,3). The whole book of Job is devoted to the subject. Job's friends thought that his affliction was punishment for hidden sin. God himself interferes to reprove them. It is a wicked and a cruel thing to add to the affliction of a bereaved family by suggesting that their loss is a punishment of the dead or the living.
