we were given free will but it seems we were not given freedom...why are there people suffering in this world its not their free will to suffer...children born without arms and legs, sexually abused children, rape victims etc. its not their free will to choose what happened to them....so again may i repost the question of my friend who asked a while ago with modifications...Why is there good and Evil?I God Loves us why does he allow suffering in this world? why does he allow the suffering of the innocent...?why not eliminate evil and suffering to make this a better world?
2006-06-28 03:47:04 · 14 answers · asked by Ineed 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Furthermore why do we keep on blaming it on eve? Come to think of it just because eve was tempted then all generations will suffer? doesnt God care about this suffering children this children born without hands and feet?this rape victims etc. just because of what eve had done? where is the Love there why is he just watching all the sufferings in this world??
2006-06-28 04:09:16 · update #1
Furthermore why do we keep on blaming it on eve? Come to think of it just because eve was tempted then all generations will suffer? doesnt God care about this suffering children this children born without hands and feet?this rape victims etc. just because of what eve had done? where is the Love there why is he just watching all the sufferings in this world??
2006-06-28 04:09:28 · update #2
Well actually humans were given a chance at have a perfect world with no evil or suffering. However, because humans were given free will they (Adam and Eve) chose to disobey God. For a little analogy for why God allows suffering, take this story for example...
Your daughter is trying to thread a needle and every once in a while she pricks herself with the needle. You could go rush in and thread it for her, but if you wait just a little bit and does it herself, she will run over to you with a big smile and say Daddy/Mommy look what I did all by myself!
You let her do this by herself because it teaches this child that she has the ability to do things on her own. It builds character, and this is the same reason why God allows suffering and certain unfortunate events. He knows we can handle certain circumstances and that it will make us a better person, a better Christian.
Does he want to watch us suffer? Absolutely not, when we're hurt and feeling all alone, He's right there with us crying for our pain. Just like when your mother/father let you date someone even though they knew that he/she would break your heart. They didn't want you to suffer heartbreak, they wanted you to learn and become a better person.
Though I can tell you some good news, one day all evil and suffering will be eliminated. Here's God's promise to all believers of Christ, "He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4.
2006-06-28 04:04:36 · answer #1 · answered by Erin 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Children are born in this world with disfigurments and there is disease and whatot because Adam and Eve sined. When they ate the forbinden fruit they brought sin into the world forever. God could take it away, but that is not his plan. When a parent gives birth to a child that child will also bear the burden of the parents sin until they are baptized. I guess it is easy for me to say this because I don't have a "bad life," but as long as you believe in Christ you'll be fine. You may suffer for the time you are on Earth, but look how much Jesus suffered when he was hung on the cross and the time leading up to that. If there was no evil and no suffering why would peope need God...they would turn away from him and they may not believe...maybe they would believe maybe they wouldn't. I am not one to tell you for sure. All I know is what has been explained to me about this issue...hope this has helped...May God Be With You
2006-06-28 10:58:52 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Free will has nothing to do with the suffering in the world today. I have said this before in another question... thing is there is suffering in the world today because Satan's still hanging around. Well, why doesn't God just blink him out of the picture? Because he leveled some very serious charges to Eve, saying that mankind doesn't need God and we can get along without him. So then God says... ok, well let's see... he is giving Satan time to prove him wrong, that's all. Eventually God will say, 'ok, that's enough... you're wrong and you know it and I think we've pretty much proven that.' And at that point evil and suffering will be done away with. It's all told in the Bible, hon:)
I hope this helps!
2006-06-28 10:58:47 · answer #3 · answered by ~Donna~ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the angel who became Satan(meaning resister)the Devil (meaning slanderer) tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying Jehovah,he raised issues that needed to be answered.Satan implied that God was holding something back from Adam and Eve and Satan also implied that man didn't need God to direct and govern him.Satan said that Adam and Eve who become "just like God,knowing good and bad".
You must also remember that billions of angels would have been watching these events unfold.Of course,Jehovah could have simply destroyed the first human pair and started again,but the questions would remain and eventually more doubts would have surfaced.
So in his wisdom Jehovah is allowing sufficient time to prove whether or not Satan is a liar and man cannot govern himself successfully.
Also,when Adam and Eve disobeyed God,they lost the opportunity to live forever.Instead they began to age and eventually die.As offspring of Adam and Eve,we all inherit this imperfection,and so we all suffer,grow old and eventually die.
The pain and suffering we see around us today is not Gods fault.His purpose was for man to be a perfect creation,to live forever in a garden paradise.
There is much more to say,but I would suggest to you if you need more answers please go to your local kingdom hall of Jehovah's Witnesses who can provide you with Bible based answers to your questions,and they would even conduct a free home bible study with you if you so wished.
2006-06-28 12:09:29 · answer #4 · answered by lillie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because this world is not our home, our home is with Him. This is already been tarnished with sin; that is why he is gone to prepare a place for us - John 3:16. Why would you settle for here when you can have heaven. He didn't say that he will save us from tribulation, in Revelation and all through the Bible history most of the times God saved His people through the tribulation not from it. God's people were enslaved and many were born in slavery, they didn't have a choice because of some other selfish human who is sinful. We cause most of the problems because of selfishness, if we were kind, the amount of money used to fund wars could eliminate poverty and hunger but because of greed and selfishness of mens hearts we are curse. But God gave us hope hope apart from this world. Why would you rather this world when you have a mansion in the sky it baffles me? I don't expect it to get better down here, Revelation and Matthew 24 says it will get worst. Satan is to be blamed not God. He was the bastard who started all this rebellion thing and we are here now because he tricked Eve. I can't wait for God to come and give him what he deserves.
2006-06-28 10:54:32 · answer #5 · answered by Damian 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why does everyone expect God to do work for them?
It's up to us to do the work.
It was always up to us and we screwed things up when we disobyed and did what we weren't supposed to do. One simple little task and we screwed it up, so God set us free and left us on our own.
Technically we can do close to or almost anything God can do, look, we invented the A bomb. We can wipe the Earth out tomorrow, all you have to do is push all the buttons and set them off at once.
What we don't have is the wisdom, largely because we were denied the Tree of Life, so we don't live forever and would then be able to become as God.
It's been 6,000 years since Moses. That means God's at least 6,000 years old. Wouldn't you say God has an edge on intellect, morality, understanding.
Free will is our excerise in Playing God.
2006-06-28 11:03:05 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Suffering itself brings about good--this sounds weird, but think about this--if everything were easy, who would try hard to do anything? God gives us all personal challenges to work through to strengthen our souls. There are gifts of the Holy Spirit that we are meant to acheive in order to use to bring about our personal salvation and then the salvation of others. Maybe you are being called to help alleviate the sufferings of others. Ask anyone who has worked in missionary work about how it helps them grow and how they touch the lives of the people they help.
It sounds harsh, but God loves us so much that he allowed evil into the world. Without temptation of the Free Will to choose evil, we would not be able to choose good by rejecting evil.
I agree the world would be a much better place without it, but would there be a point to life? We would all be in heaven (the Garden of Eden) with God having a happytime if it weren't for Satan and the existence of hell--but that gives us something to look forward to and work good deeds to acomplish.
We should all work hard to make the world a better place, after first securing our own place in heaven.
2006-06-28 11:02:20 · answer #7 · answered by CatholicMOM 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We are the ones who brought this on ourselves. When
Adam made the decision to sin, he chose a life of pain and suffering rather than his life of perfection and innocence. We make our choice every time we sin or do something wrong; we choose the ill effects of the evil we do. We have freedom to choose; we also have a sin nature from Adam that influences our choices. If God eliminated evil and suffering, He would have to eliminate their causes. Therefore, we would not exist.
2006-06-28 10:53:29 · answer #8 · answered by megansheart 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God created perfection (Gen 1).
God gave people authority over creation (Gen 1)
Humanity disobeyed God (Gen 3).
The Fall damaged the perfection of creation (Romans 8:20).
So, the world is not working as God intended due to sin. Suffering etc is not God's idea but is due totally to sin.
God associates with our fall by coming as Jesus. The death of Jesus can restore the relationship and eventually God will restore the perfection of creation.
Until then God lives with us and suffers with us in a hurting world.
2006-06-28 10:56:50 · answer #9 · answered by hippoterry2005 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is just. Satan challenged God long ago by opposing Him, stating that man does not need God to help them. Satan felt that if man were free to do what they wanted they would worship Satan, rather than God.
God was in heaven with angels looking on, some were friends of Satan, others were loyal to God. God told Satan that he would give him a couple thousand years to prove his theory. His only guideline was that he could not just kill man, but he could manipulate and lie to prove his point, as these are Satan's ways.
At the end of the couple thousand years (not our thousand years - different timeline), God will remove evil (as you suggest) and there will only be righteous living on the face of our planet, still with free will.
God is giving Satan rulership over Earth to prove his point - that man will worship Satan not God if he can do whatever he wants to do. Those of us who worship God, feel that we need Him in our lives. For those reasons, there is good and evil and it also explains why suffering exists, not that God allows it, but Satan creates it.
God is Love and therefore has nothing to do with that. We just have to do our best to make a better showing than Satan.
2006-06-28 10:59:44 · answer #10 · answered by gravelgertiesgems 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋