How Can A Loving God Allow Pain And Suffering?

While there is a lot we cannot know about God, there is a lot that we can know.   We can know what God reveals about Himself. Consider the following points:

• God does not have any joy in seeing any person suffer.
• God is absolutely just, and there will be no suffering in vain.  Every person will see, in the end, that everything is fair, just, and right.
• All suffering has a part in working out God's ultimate plan. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground that God doesn't know about. Every hair on your head is numbered. There will be a day when we understand, as God does, the purpose for every bit of suffering and sorrow of every person.
• In the light of the glory that shall be revealed in the faithful, all the sufferings of the present are insignificant.
• In the light of Hell, all the pleasures of sin are insignificant.
• It is part of the human condition that humans want to assume that anything they don't personally understand must make no sense or that it must not be true. This, however, is only an illusion.  The natural mind is totally rebellious against God and cannot understand spiritual things.  If you or I think we can analyze these types of things or come to an understanding by intellectualizing them, we are just stuck in our own prideful fantasy.
• God understands the entire situation and is ultimately in control.
• If there were no sin on earth, there would be no suffering.
• If there were no sin on earth, there would be no death.
• When Adam sinned, that put Satan in charge on a temporary and limited basis. Yes, Satan is real.  God will even use Satan to bring about His ultimate plan.
• God has a plan by which He will turn all of this around.  That plan is being executed by God through a remnant who are learning to be obedient to the Spirit of God.
• God's heart breaks for people with pain and suffering.
• God has disappointment with us and is saddened by our rejection of Him.
• Much of the suffering is a reward for not loving and obeying God, or not worshipping and respecting God, or not believing God, or not receiving God's free gifts.
• Some suffering is for other purposes, such as tempering the faith of the faithful, or bringing those who have been born to maturity, or filling up the cup of iniquity of those who cause suffering, or for purposes we may not fully understand yet.
• God would have all to be saved.
• As in Adam all die, so in Christ, shall all be made alive.
• Beyond all of this, God does not look at things the way that we do. He understands what is going on, while we only see from our limited viewpoint.  He sees the end from the beginning. God knows exactly what He is going to do and how He is going to do it.

I am reminded of a recent trip to the dentist. While the dentist was cleaning my teeth he said to me, "I do not believe in God." Now this dentist knows what I do for a living and how important my faith is to me, yet for numerous reasons (one main one being his hands were in my mouth) I uncharacteristically remained silent, allowing him to explain; "How can God exist and still allow all the suffering and pain in the world?" I remained quiet until he was finished (and of course put his drill away) and told him that "I do not believe in dentists." This confused him greatly so I clarified for him that if there are dentists in the world, how can so many people have broken, infected and missing teeth? He answered me "I cannot help anyone who does not come to me to have their teeth fixed." That reply is the same for faith. He cannot help people until they come to Him in repentance and faith, accept Him in their lives and ask Him for help.

Family Research Council

If God Is A Loving And All-powerful God, Then Why Is There Suffering?

The author, Ehrman, claims that he can't believe in God--and Ehrman's error is obvious. Ehrman ignored the overall explanation in Genesis and went to specific examples in Job, the Prophets, and the Apocalypse.  Having ignored the basics in Genesis, it’s not surprising that Ehrman came up with the wrong answer.

‘Depending on what part of Job you read, you get one set of answers. If you read the Prophets, you get a different set of answers. If you read apocalyptic literature, you get still a different set of answers … Finally, because I became dissatisfied with all the conventional answers, I decided that I couldn’t believe in a God who was in any way intervening in this world, given the state of things. So that’s why I ended up losing my faith.’  Ehrman

Death is the result of human sin.  That is the story of Genesis.

A more intelligent question might be this: why the all-knowing God allowed sin.  He knew that Adam and Eve would sin?

The answer is that God had his purpose, and He knows exactly what He is doing.  He intends to bring the creation, not to what it was, but to something that it could have never attained had it never fallen away. 

God gave His Son, Jesus, as the only way to be redeemed from sin.  His plan is not fully revealed.  We do know, however, much about His plan.  God has revealed much of His plan in Scripture, but even the part that He has revealed is beyond the ability of many Christians to accept of grasp.  Our finite minds would certainly not be able to comprehend the fullness of what God has in store for us.  We can see that the splendor of the new heavens and the new earth far exceed the splendor of the first.

What should I do when trouble comes?

Nahum 1:7 The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

Psalm 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Romans 6
1   What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2   God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3   Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4   Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5   For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6   Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7   For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8   Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9   Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10   For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11   Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12   Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13   Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14   For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15   What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16   Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17   But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18   Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19   I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20   For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21   What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22   But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23   For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Did Billy Graham's Daughter really tie school violence to people who want God out of government and out of the schools?

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11). 

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.  She said,

"I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" 

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc., I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, And we said OK. 

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school... the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.  And we said OK. 

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he's talking about.  And we said OK. 

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave.  The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.).  And we said OK. 

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents.  And we said OK. 

Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school.  And we said OK.  

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs.  Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.  

Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body.  And we said OK.  

And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet.  And we said OK, they're entitled to free speech.  

Then the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex.  Let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes.  And we said it's just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.  

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. 

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Interestingly, snopes.com makes it look as if this story were not true, but if you read their entire article, you will see that their headline is a bit deceptive . . . as headlines often are.

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