Posted on 01/29/2021 7:14:54 PM PST by OneVike
“Why didn’t God just create us so that we would never have to experience pain, suffering, or sadness?”
After all, God has the power to make the world free of evil, yet He chose instead to make us creatures with free will. Thus, free will was the door left open for the possibility of evil entering our lives.
Then one must ask, "What's the purpose of pain, suffering? Why does God allow humans, who were made in His image, to live on a planet where evil abounds?"
Well, God could have made us perfect without the ability to sin, and we would have never known pain and suffering. Instead of being as we are, we would then be like Chatty Cathy dolls. Just pull the string and watch us do and say whatever we were programmed. Is that the kind of life you would wish to live? Well, obviously God did not think so either. That’s the short answer to why God created us with free will.
With free will came the possibility that Adam and Eve might disobey God of their own volition and partake of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Well, thanks to some coaxing from Satan, Eve ate the fruit and offered some to Adam. The first two humans that God created exercised the right of choice that God had given them. Because they didn’t obey God’s command, sin entered the universe and that sin was handed down to every human who was born of man. All of us, believers and non-believers alike, wrestle with the daily struggles of the “Adam and Eve” within us.
Christ died on the cross so that, if we believe in Him, we can have eternal life. However, just because we gave our life to Christ, does not mean we are immunized from the pain and suffering of this world. This is why so many Christians inevitably ask the question, “Why am I suffering God? Why do my loved ones suffer?” What if on the day we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were given God’s total and complete protection, so nothing bad ever happened to us again?
“Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face. Job 1:9-11Can you imagine what would happen if God did put a hedge about us on every side? Would not the people of the world who do not know Christ, say:
“So what, that you love God. Anybody would love God if He protected them the way He does you. I’m not impressed. Your God doesn’t offer me anything; I live in the real world.”
What if those who suffer, saw the way we dealt with pain, suffering, and disappointment? This is not why God allows tragedy and mishaps to come upon Christians, but as a Christian, we should take our tragedies and use them as an example of how our Father in heaven gives us the ability to live beyond our sufferings and disappointments of life. His loving mercy allows us to be free enough to learn and grow through our trials and tribulations, like the apostles did.
When I go through trials and tribulations, I try to think of someone I know who is going through worse things, and I consider how they deal with it. For me I don't have to look too far, because my wife is a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair. She has been in one since 9:10 pm Mountain time October 26, 1987. See, I know because we were in the same car that went off a 35 foot embankment. The driver died, a girl lost the use of her arm, and my wife ended up in a wheelchair.
The car we were in. Click the image if you
wish to read what I wrote about the accident
Unlike my wife, I walked away from the accident. The accident happens quite a few years before we both gave our lives to Christ, but she still has many trials and tribulations related to the accident. Seeing her dealing with the consequences of our drunken road trip gives me the strength to get through difficult times in my life. Seeing her go through things, reminds me daily that but for the grace of God there go I.
Unlike my wife and I, the Apostles did not go through trials and tribulations because of the consequences of their sins. Their trials and tribulations came because of who they followed, Christ Jesus. One day Peter and John were flogged and ordered not to speak in the name of Jesus. When they were released, they considered it worthy to be able to suffer for the name of Christ. (Acts 5:40-42) They said this because they were told by Jesus,
"Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12
James tells us that we should consider it all joy when we encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance (James 1:2-4). These and other passages describe rejoicing, not in spite of the suffering, but because of it. Remember what Paul says about not losing heart over the fact that our flesh is decaying with age and infirmities:
“because our trials will renew our spirit daily…………for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal,” 2 Cor 4:16-18.
A few short paragraphs later, Paul described the many trials and tribulations he went through. He endured imprisonments, beatings with whips and rods, he was stoned, not once but three times, and left for dead. Three times he was shipwrecked; threatened by robbers, Gentiles and Jews; attacked by wild animals; bitten by a poisonous snake; left cold, hungry, and thirsty; and suffered many other hardships for the Gospel of Christ. (2 Cor 11:23-27) Paul finished well.
People observed Paul’s faith in God as persistent, consistent, and profound. Paul was the greatest and most successful evangelical missionary preacher the world had ever seen. It was his suffering along with that of the other apostles that eventually changed an empire. Tertullian said that,“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
It's through times of struggle and hardships that we can shine the brightest and reach more of the lost if we react to our pain and suffering like Christ did. Like many, most of my suffering comes from my own selfish desires to live my life my way, instead of His way. I feel unworthy to complain about the trials and tribulations I face because of my sins. Yet, I know that regardless of the reason for my trials, He is there for me, and will give me comfort in my time of need. If one day I am honored to suffer for Him, then I will proudly stand tall and walk the walk many did before I came.
Use the comfort you get from God in your suffering as training so you might comfort others. Teach those who don’t know the Lord to lean on Him in their suffering by leaning on Him in yours. Show them how you love and trust Him. We must willingly approach our infirmities and hardships, knowing that we hold a greater prize before us after this life than this world can ever offer. That is what we have to teach the world. So ask not why you suffer, but praise God for the chance to shine and be an example as our Lord was for us.
I pray that those who have ears to hear will hear His voice and call upon the name of the lord Jesus Christ.
God allows all to suffer our fellow human’s folly. As a jew I believe this to be a truth. My opinion of course.
Eight years ago, we felt pretty dejected. I mean, we had to vote through clenched teeth but Obama beat Romney anyway. How could this happen, Lord? Four more years...we are DOOMED. Not just that, but we had NOBODY on the horizon to defeat the DNC. The Tea Party wasn't on the ascent. It looked really bleak.
If THAT wasn't bad enough, in 2015 it looked like our chief hope against Hillary was this guy.
Did you just get horrible flashbacks? Me, too.
Then, this happened...
...but even THEN we weren't sold. He's a Manhattan RINO. A blowhard. He's doing this for fun, to pump up his business holdings. He's on his third wife.
Hillary will be the end of us.
Jeb! is leading in the polls. Then a funny thing happened...Trump starts talking like a leader...a winner, someone who wants to MAGA. Then, after a speech in Las Vegas on July 11, 2015, looky what happened,..
And the ascent began,
But we STILL weren't in the clear. Billy Bush tape, MSM, polling...but then, we got a miracle.
Trump's aggregate winning margin in MI, WI and PA of 77,744 votes was 0.057% of the total popular vote, in line with Carter and Truman's wins. (btw, Biden's official margin* of 42,918 votes across AZ, WI, and GA was 0.027% of the total popular vote*, akin to Kennedy and the fourth closest since Reconstruction...even their CHEATING is demented.) All Hillary needed to do was flip half of those votes and she'd be the president.
That is VERY close...perhaps...miraculous? He's probably sick of me repeating this, but SamAdams76 wins the grand prize for Best Quote About Trump's 2016 Win: "I went to bed November 8, 2016 like I had terminal cancer, and woke up November 9, 2016 like I was in full remission."
"Thank God" is an overused phrase, but here I believe it is completely applicable. Trump gave Americans back hope, and arguable God gave us Trump. Maybe, just maybe, this disappointment is akin to the disappoint circa January 2013, when there was great weeping and gnashing of teeth. God let Obama win, but maybe without that win we'd have never gotten Trump. Similarly, Biden's win* is likely a catalyst for change, like advertisers not going woke during the Super Bowl out of fear of Deplorables, and weaponized day traders taking down hedge funds.
Let us take this time time to regroup. There is evidence that God is in control. He works on His timeline. Let's do our part.
You are correct sir. The great white throne is coming. All evil people, will experience a shock to their system, from which they will NEVER recover, not in a trillion eons.
This is what I’m struggling with myself.
The schizophrenic psychosis of our country was long planned by Christ. This social disorientation is how Christ divides to rule. He said He would bring a sword, not unity. This is because He is the central most polarizing focus of the unconscious, separating those regressing to infantilism gnashing teeth from those who will maintain a true and well oriented multifaceted identity.
Trump is now actually an impediment. Note how they define us solely nd summarily around his persona instead of the many other things constituting our identity.
This is a schizophrenia bait meant for them, not for us.
Christ will then remain the only apes starting point of identity, whereas their identity politics will be their end and final one to be dissolved, because they will reject all other abilities/identities of theirs at the profit of a meaningless label.it is a suicide.
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*
Christ will then remain the only apex starting point of identity, whereas their identity politics will be their end and final one to be dissolved, because they will reject all other abilities/identities of theirs at the profit of a meaningless label.it is a suicide.
Exactly right. Satan is the one behind all evil as well.
And while we do it, man cannot charge an omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all powerful) Being with violating His own moral standards or that of anyone else without presuming these unique attributes of deity our self
For instance, while it would be wrong to take innocent life since you would be taking something sacred that you did not give, and you may be robbing others of benefits, joy, etc., yet as the giver of life, who “loans” children to man, then God has a right to use His power to take -for His own purposes - what He gave and make that loss to work out for good.
For since God alone knows what all the effects will be of even the flap of the wing of a butterfly, then He alone know what all the effects will be of taking that life, or all the effects other sufferings in this life, and can make it all work out for Good, esp. in the light of eternity.
Meaning that all the innocent lives that the Giver of life took are and will be thankful that God did and eternity will show the wisdom, benevolence, mercy, grace and justice of God, that He knew exactly what He was doing, despite our protests - as finite souls - when they are negative.
We simply do not see the Big Picture, the intricate tapestry that only an omniscient and omnipotent Being does. Thus while we may judge events as evil now - in this sliver of time in our ignorance of what such will effect, the God of the Bible promises, and has much illustrated, that He makes all things work out for the Good of those who love Him, and this love the good. ( Romans 8:28) Glory to God.
My life is but a weaving ― Corrie ten Boom ―
He did...but it's called "Adam and Eve." They made the decision to sin and loose the Garden of Eden.
To those of us who have no clue as to humans being made of clay; ‘GOD’ seems mighty capricious.
Matthew 10: 22You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Suffering for the name of Christ is at least understandable.
Satan hates God and will go after those who represent Him.
I think what gives most people the most trouble, is the suffering that seems pointless. Things that happen seemingly at random, as *bad luck*, natural disasters, or something like health issues that seem to serve no purpose for the person suffering from them.
Not to mention most suffering is at the hands of others - even the evil among us have been granted free will.
Almost every human life ends in pain, suffering and humiliation. Calling something utterly common to man “justice” is just equivocating Joe Biden with mother Theresa.
We all face that justice. Biden has decades of being a scumbag while enjoying both the approval and praise of the world, and a never diminishing amount of power, money and influence.
God doesn’t protect man from his own decisions. He gave us will and freedom of choice, we need to live with our choices.
I am always amazed how some people will read a sentence or two of an article, then comment with something that is actually in the article. Maybe you should have read the whole commentary, then you would not have come off like you didn’t.
Thanks,
I witness and wait.
Yes, that trouble is actually addressed in another commentary I wrote about evil, and who is the author. In it I point out how evil happens to good and bad, because we live in a fallen World. One evil is actually called calamity in the Old Testament Hebrew, while the other evil is referred to evil in Hebrew.
Some translations mistakenly refer to all troubles as evil without distinguishing between calamity vs evil.
Something done to one with the purpose of pain misery or death is evil. The other like accidents as in Hurricanes, falling buildings as the Disciples asked Jesus about, and the such is actually calamity.
Some who claim God visits evil on some are refering to passages with the wrong interpreted word of evil, when is should be that God allowed calamity to fall upon some because we live in a fallen World.
I did explain in it how we cannot blame God for things that happen in a fallen World we live in, because we rejected Him, and thus rejected His protection.
As I stated to another such comment. If you had actually read the whole commentary, you would notice that is stated in the article.
I am always amazed how some are so eager to comment on the first sentence, that they never actually read the article to see if it is actually already in the commentary.
My first sentence was a question I asked rhetorically, which then I went on to answer. A common practice used in Biblical commentaries.
Submit Yourselves to God
James 4:
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”[c]
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[d] or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Boasting About Tomorrow
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
WE are so concerned about the “here and now”, our “life” on earth, a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
What do we KNOW about the “afterlife” or “eternity”? ALMOST NOTHING! Except that it is where EVERYONE will spend their afterlife. (in LIFE or DEATH).
God is concerned with your AFTERLIFE, not this life except as it pertains to your afterlife.
Your pain and suffering, how will that compare to the ETERNAL pain and suffering in hell?
Your sacrifice, how will that be weighed in comparison to an ETERNAL life in heaven with Jesus?
They are such EXTREMES they defy comparison especially with the miniscule amount of knowledge we have about it.
John 17
New International Version
Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
17 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 “I have revealed you[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of[b] your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by[c] that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by[d] the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
THIS WORLD is NOTHING! It’s a world of SIN! Ruled by the devil (satan, the evil one).
2 Corinthians 4-4 New Living Translation
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.
In the Bible Satan is called “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 16:11), which begs the question: In what sense is Satan a god and a prince?
“First, Satan is not God’s equal. Rather, according to Scripture, Satan is a finite, created being (Colossians 1:16). He was the first sinner (1 John 3:8; Revelation 12:7–9) and will one day be cast into the lake of burning sulfur for all eternity (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10; cf. 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). Thus, Christians need not fear the god of this age, for “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Furthermore, Satan, whose name means “adversary,” is the god of this age in that he is the supreme exemplar of evil. In the words of Jesus, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Indeed, all the sin of the world is patterned after Satan: “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning” (1 John 3:8). It is he “who leads the whole world astray” (Revelation 12:9).
Finally, Satan is the de facto ruler of all who willingly subject themselves to his masterful deceit (2 Corinthians 4:4; 11:3). If we do not belong to the God of the ages, then we are of Satan—the god of this age.”
https://www.equip.org/bible_answers/why-is-satan-called-the-god-of-this-age/
Don’t whine and moan, why would God allow this or that? This is satan’s world, the world of SIN. DON’T BLAME GOD!
Seek His ETERNAL world, not THIS world of sin and catastrophe. Your life here is just a mist, a wisp of smoke, here for a short time and then vanishing like you never existed. Don’t dwell on THIS life or the evil in it. Concern yourself with THE AFTERLIFE and WHERE you will spend it!
Ya know, the IMPORTANT stuff! “Why did God allow this or that” is NOT YOUR CONCERN! Actually beyond your paygrade or beyond your understanding.
Proverbs 3: 5-6 NIV
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him
Just how strong (or weak) is YOUR faith in Him?
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