Why do you believe in a God who wants you to suffer?

Question

If God is all-powerful, that means any time anyone suffers, God could have prevented it if He wanted to. Even if you think some greater good comes from the suffering (e.g. preserving free will, or learning a lesson), God could have accomplished that good thing without anyone suffering. (Or is that beyond God's powers? Too difficult for Him?)

It's also no argument that people bring suffering on themselves by turning away from God. Plenty of faithful people suffer, and so do small children who are too young to understand God. Whatever good comes out of their suffering, God could have made it happen without them suffering if He wanted to.

That means God wants you to suffer, for no other reason than just to make you suffer. Either that, or He is unable to prevent it. Do you really want to worship a God like that? Why?

Please note: if you say something like "so that we can have free will" or "because suffering shapes and builds our character" you have neglected that God could do either of those things without causing any suffering. I know I'm harping on this point, but some of the answerers still don't get it.

Answer 1

Suffering happens, it's a fact of life. god however, is just a figment of people's imaginations & doesn't have anything to do with anything.

Answer 2

Your questions is VERY GOOD, I'm gonna give it 5 stars!

If God had been all-powerfull, good and merciful as he has always claimed to be, he surely would have made his creation free of any suffering, no doubt about that! If you want to create a virtual world in your computer, a world that is supposed to be free of any suffering, free of illnesses, of wars and of death, you will make an appropriate programme that DOESN'T ALLOW any problems to appear. I'm not even talking of a programme that would instantly react to problems and anihilate them before they create greater dammage - no, I'm talking about a programme that DOES NOT KNOW OR RECOGNIZE PROBLEMS!!! Look, if you know the meaning of the word "strangle", that's because it's in your brain-programme. and it's just a matter of time, when the first strangling would take place. But, if NOONE EVER HEARS about "strangling", and if muscles are created so as NOT TO BE ABLE TO KEEP ON CONTRACTING UNTILL A PERSON DIES - well, in such a case NO STRANGLING WOULD EVER BE POSSIBLE, IT WOULD EVEN NEVER BE KNOWN!!!

And there's one more thing.

When God created the first couple, didn't he at the same time create all those receptive points on human's skin, that react to pain? Now, the question is, WHY would he have to create them AT THE BEGINNING, when there was still neither pain nor death present? Why hadn't he made them LATER, after people fell into sin? The answer is: HE CREATED THEM IN ADVANCE E X A C T L Y BECAUSE HE INTENDED TO HAVE A PAINFULL AND SUFFERING WORLD!!!

God is NOT good, mercifull or protective. He is SADDISTIC.

But, one thing you should know: He is saddistic NOT because he WANTS to be so, but because IT'S IN HIS NATURE!!! He can't be different than that.

Answer 3

I don't think God is to blame for suffering in the world. According to Scripture we are responsible for all the bad things that happen in this world. The greater question to ask is why does anybody deserve any kind of goodness/happiness in this life? The Bible says we rebelled against everything that was good when we chose not to trust God. If that were the case then I would suggest that it's a miracle that we are able to experience the good things in life.

Answer 4

Who are we to question God? I just know that my belief is that everything happens for a reason. And I have the faith and trust in God to believe He is doing what is right. I don't agree with the events of the world and I wish everyone could be happy and safe with no fears. But, maybe that is why He has suffering on Earth, so that when you become saved and guaranteed a spot in heaven, you will see what a real World is like. Thanks for the question and have a super day!!

Answer 5

Suffering tries and tests us. Job, a perfect man, was tested and tried by Satan. Job’s friends assumed his suffering was a result of sin, but the scriptures tell us he “sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”

Suffering is universal; how we react to suffering is individual.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh wisely cautioned: “I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable”

Edith Hamilton observed: “When love meets no return the result is suffering, and the greater the love the greater the suffering. There can be no greater suffering than to love purely and perfectly one who is bent upon evil and self-destruction. That was what God endured at the hands of men”

Jesus Christ, who by far suffered the most, has the most compassion—for all of us who suffer so much less. Moreover, He who suffered the most has no self-pity!

When Jesus and His disciples passed a man who was blind since his birth, His disciples queried, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

“Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him”

I do not believe our Father in Heaven causes the tragedies and heartbreak in our lives. But as the “works of God” were made manifest in the healing of a blind man, so also the way we face our personal trials may manifest the “works of God.”

Answer 6

Hi, I am a Christian and I want you to know that your question is a valid one. The answer to it is very simple, however, even
though Scriptural, I have to warn you that the deeper level in
which Paul taught, is not often taught in the Churches; in fact, I have found only one Church in over 30 years who does teach from the original manuscripts. If you bear with my being wordy, I promise a full and common-sense answer:
The Scriptures teach of three Earth Ages. Not a different Earth, not a different terrafirma, but three AGES. One that was, the second which is the one we live in now, and one final Age to come, that people generally call the "eternity".
(you can read of the three earth ages in 2peter Chapter 3 of
your regular Bible.
It is taught that back in the first earth age, we were all basically happy; in fact, God asks Job if he recalls when there was a time that all of us sang for joy together in one accord. Then Satan rebelled, wanting the throne and position reserved for Christ. A great war began, and a third of our people followed Satan. Also, a great many of the people remained neutral - they didn't care as long as it didn't affect them (whats new, huh?), and then there was a group who remained loyally on Gods side, and Satan was defeated.
God could have just destroyed those who followed Satan, but quite frankly God wasn't all too happy with those who stayed neutral, either - so at this point, a few things happened: first
Satan was judged and condemned to perish. Also, those who stayed loyal to God were named his "Elect" or "Election"; sometimes this is tranlated as "Saints" in Scripture. These loyal ones were also judged and found innocent. God formulated a plan for the redemption of His
people.( Remember, this is all back in the FIRST EARTH AGE, before you read of Adam and Eve, etc...).
God decreed that He would destroy that AGE that was, and bring in a second Earth Age, where each soul would come thru in the flesh one time, born of woman, to make an ultimate decision of who they would follow. In order that the plan work,
two things had to be true:
First, each soul must have complete freedom of will to make decisions, WITHOUT THE INTERFERENCE OF GOD IN THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE. And second, since there is no use in being able to choose between good and good, we needed a comparitor in place. This is why although Satan was condemned to perish, he is still not destroyed: God is using him as our comparitor. After all, the controversy is between Christ and Satan.
Each day that God sees children being raped and good innocent people being murdered, his anger builds and builds.

But the answer to your question is that God PROMISED ALL OF US that he would not interfere. He keeps that promise
but one day the fullness of all that anger thats building day by day is going to be poured out from a large-mouthed cup,
unmixed with anything that mediates - right onto the heads of those who are the enemies of God. Nobody is getting away with anything. Every single thing a soul does or says is being recorded for the great Judgement. It is written that all of us
were present and in agreement to the plan.

God does not wish anyone to suffer and of course he is fully able to prevent it. This flesh life for many is a final chance
at making things right with God. You see that sin did not enter into the world with Adam and Eve - sin entered perhaps this AGE with their sin, but certainly that was not the first sin -
This is a life and death decision many make in this life, and
God has shown his fairness just by allowing this opportunity.
Yes, I very much want to worship "a God like that".

Answer 7

god gave us the greatest gift which is free-will. If he stopped and made all our choices for us then we would be only mind-less robots. God couldnt have been all-loving if he didnt give us free will. By giving us this give he knew he would be risking us making huge mistakes but for us he took that risk. In the end we are responsible for our actions and god only guides us through conscience etc. even though he has the power to make decisions for us.

Answer 8

We should all stop reproducing so no one will suffer, I wish my mom had an abortion so I don't have to suffer.

Answer 9

Christian teaching is clear that suffering is supposed to be a good thing. Personally I do not choose to be a Christian so it is not my thing, but FWIW, here is St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, in his "Spiritual Exercises", 1541:

"The third kind of penance is to chastise the body, that is, to inflict sensory pain on it. to do this, wear a hair shirt, or wrap cords or iron chains on your body, or scourge and wound yourself."

Another way to inflict pain on yourself in order to attain the grace of Christ through suffering, is to wear a cilice. This used to mean wearing a hair shirt, as St. Thomas More did, but today a cilice is usually a spiky ring which is worn on the thigh for at least two hours a day. Mother Teresa wore one. This kind of cilice is popular among members of Opus Dei. You can see a photograph of one if you go to the Wikipedia entry on "Cilice."

But however deplorable it is to glorify infliction of violence on your own body, even worse is to inflict violence by irreversible surgery on a baby just a few days old and unable to give its consent. It is shameful that parents will do this on their baby boys for the sake of forcibly making them members of a religion the baby did not choose. It is undeniably a painful process in most cases, an embarrassing barbarism that should not continue in our time. Nobody has any right to allow needless painful surgery on another who has not consented to it. would a loving parent put an itchy hair shirt or a spiky metal cilice ring on the baby "to bring him closer to God"?

Answer 10

personaly i would have trouble worshiping a God that prevented me from having character. it is the good and the bad i have experienced combined that has made me who i am. if the bad never happened i would be a shallow lifeless person.