Jesus gives life to the laws of nature - not evil angels. Disease cannot do anything in and of itself. It does not have the power to act independent of Jesus. Disease can do what it does because Jesus does what He does. Everything in nature would cease to act if Jesus ceased to give it life. In the case of Job, evil angels were permitted to manipulate the forces of nature. Tragedy followed. Nevertheless, evil angels cannot give life to the forces of nature. Only Jesus can give life to nature. Disaster happened because Jesus empowered nature to respond to the actions of evil angels.

MM: Jesus gives life to the laws of nature - not evil angels. Disease cannot do anything in and of itself. It does not have the power to act independent of Jesus. Disease can do what it does because Jesus does what He does. Everything in nature would cease to act if Jesus ceased to give it life. In the case of Job, evil angels were permitted to manipulate the forces of nature. Tragedy followed. Nevertheless, evil angels cannot give life to the forces of nature. Only Jesus can give life to nature. Disaster happened because Jesus empowered nature to respond to the actions of evil angels.

Asygo: The fact that people, even bad people, and diseases and disasters exist means that God has not stopped doing what He does. If God really stopped, as some suggest He does on occasion, everything would cease to exist. All these "bad" things require God's power to be "continually exercised."

APL: Is it God's will we have hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods? Is that what God desires? Is not this planet a demonstration of what will happen when if sin were allowed to reign? These things are NOT God's will. The point I understand MM to be saying however is that nature works the way it does ONLY because of God, and if there are hurricanes, earthquakes and floods, it is because that is God's will. I hope I am misunderstanding him.

So again, yes, it does seem that he means that when people are sick, Jesus directly and intentionally caused them to get sick.

You are mistaken.

Why is Jesus willing to permit evil angels to cause trouble?

What would happen if evil angels refused to cause the trouble Jesus is willing to permit?

I agree with you Jesus permits evil angels to manipulate the forces of nature to cause disorder, disease, death, and disaster. However, I'm not sure if you agree with me the laws of nature act accordingly because Jesus continues to sustain them. Nor I am sure if you agree with me Jesus establishes limits and works to ensure evil angels do not exceed them. Please comment on these two points.

The Saviour in His miracles revealed the power that is continually at work in man’s behalf, to sustain and to heal him. Through the agencies of nature, God is working, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us alive, to build up and restore us. When any part of the body sustains injury, a healing process is at once begun; nature’s agencies are set at work to restore soundness. But the power working through these agencies is the power of God. All life-giving power is from Him. When one recovers from disease, it is God who restores him. {MH 112.1}

Sickness, suffering, and death are work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer. {MH 113.1}

The words spoken to Israel are true today of those who recover health of body or health of soul. “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Exo_15:26. {MH 113.2}

The desire of God for every human being is expressed in the words, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 3Jn_1:2. {MH 113.3}
He it is who “forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.” Psa_103:3-4. {MH 113.4}

When Christ healed disease, He warned many of the afflicted ones, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” Joh_5:14. Thus He taught that they had brought disease upon themselves by transgressing the laws of God, and that health could be preserved only by obedience. {MH 113.5}

The physician should teach his patients that they are to cooperate with God in the work of restoration. The physician has a continually increasing realization of the fact that disease is the result of sin. He knows that the laws of nature, as truly as the precepts of the Decalogue, are divine, and that only in obedience to them can health be recovered or preserved. He sees many suffering as the result of hurtful practices who might be restored to health if they would do what they might for their own restoration. They need to be taught that every practice which destroys the physical, mental, or spiritual energies is sin, and that health is to be secured through obedience to the laws that God has established for the good of all mankind. {MH 113.6}

...

Let it be made plain that the way of God’s commandments is the way of life. God has established the laws of nature, but His laws are not arbitrary exactions. Every “Thou shalt not,” whether in physical or in moral law, implies a promise. If we obey it, blessing will attend our steps. God never forces us to do right, but He seeks to save us from the evil and lead us to the good. {MH 114.2}

APL, who do you believe upholds the laws that give the forces of nature life and enables them to act? I suspect you believe Jesus is the source and sustainer of everything. I am certain you do not believe evil angels are the source and sustainer of the laws of nature that run and regulate matter, molecules, plants, animals, people, etc. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

The depths of the earth are the Lord's arsenal, whence were drawn weapons to be employed in the destruction of the old world. Waters gushing from the earth united with the waters from heaven to accomplish the work of desolation. Since the Flood, fire as well as water has been God's agent to destroy very wicked cities. These judgments are sent that those who lightly regard God's law and trample upon His authority may be led to tremble before His power and to confess His just sovereignty. As men have beheld burning mountains pouring forth fire and flames and torrents of melted ore, drying up rivers, overwhelming populous cities, and everywhere spreading ruin and desolation, the stoutest heart has been filled with terror and infidels and blasphemers have been constrained to acknowledge the infinite power of God. {PP 109.1}

The bowels of the earth were the Lord's arsenal, from which he drew forth the weapons he employed in the destruction of the old world. Waters in the bowels of the earth gushed forth, and united with the waters from heaven, to accomplish the work of destruction. Since the flood, God has used both water and fire in the earth as his agents to destroy wicked cities. {1SP 84.3}

In the day of the Lord, just before the coming of Christ, God will send lightnings from heaven in his wrath, which will unite with fire in the earth. The mountains will burn like a furnace, and will pour forth terrible streams of lava, destroying gardens and fields, villages and cities; and as they pour their melted ore, rocks and heated mud, into the rivers, will cause them to boil like a pot, and send forth massive rocks, and scatter their broken fragments upon the land with indescribable violence. Whole rivers will be dried up. The earth will be convulsed, and there will be dreadful eruptions and earthquakes everywhere. God will plague the wicked inhabitants of the earth until they are destroyed from off it. The saints are preserved in the earth in the midst of these dreadful commotions, as Noah was preserved in the ark at the time of the flood. {1SP 84.4}

Those majestic trees which God had caused to grow upon the earth, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the old world, and which they had used to form into idols, and to corrupt themselves with, God has reserved in the earth, in the shape of coal and oil to use as agencies in their final destruction. As he called forth the waters in the earth at the time of the flood, as weapons from his arsenal to accomplish the destruction of the antediluvian race, so at the end of the one thousand years he will call forth the fires in the earth as his weapons which he has reserved for the final destruction, not only of successive generations since the flood, but the antediluvian race who perished by the flood. {3SG 87.1}

I was shown that the judgments of God would not come directly out from the Lord upon them, but in this way: They place themselves beyond His protection. He warns, corrects, reproves, and points out the only path of safety; then if those who have been the objects of His special care will follow their own course independent of the Spirit of God, after repeated warnings, if they choose their own way, then He does not commission His angels to prevent Satan's decided attacks upon them. {14MR 3.1}

We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner, works in him a change of character, and makes it more easy for him to transgress again. By choosing to sin, men separate themselves from God, cut themselves off from the channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin and death. {1SM 235.2}