I believe in God, but how do you explain all the SUFFERING in the world?

Question

Why is the world so unfair? I have sturggled with this question for a long time. I have even discussed it with non believers. Why is it that there are people suffering in multiple ways, famine, disease, war, list goes on.......and places exist where we throw food everyday?

Its true its hard to find one definite answer. I have read the old testment, and people were suffering starting then. My question is why is it that life is so harsh on certain groups than another? Don't say how can we know happiness with out pain because a whole lot of us are not in those situations I have mentioned. I agree with "we should take part in helping" point of views. Thanks

How do you bring nonbelievers to accept God with this issue?

Nowhere in the question does it say I blame God. I don't. I am seeking to understand.

Answer 1

If it was Adam’s decision to disobey God that brought sin into the world, why do we ALL have to suffer punishment?
If we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that Adam is a fair representative for all of us. If a perfect person in a perfect place decided to disobey God’s rules, none of us would have done better. Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” We all inherit Adam’s sin nature. We all sin, so we all deserve to die and suffer eternal punishment in hell. We must understand that not one of us is innocent before God. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Not one of us is worthy to stand before the Creator of the universe because we would each bring a sinful, rebellious nature into His presence.
In the beginning God completely sustained His creation without blemish. That’s why it was perfect. He held every atom together in a perfect state. He kept the planets in their orbits. He kept animals from tripping and breaking their necks. He did not allow people to suffer and die.
Deuteronomy 8:4 gives us a little glimpse of how things might have been in the original creation. “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.” God is omnipotent and perfectly capable of sustaining and protecting his creation.
When Adam sinned, however, the Lord cursed the universe. In essence there was a change and along with that change God seemingly took away a little bit of his sustaining power and allowed things like suffering and death into His creation. Now He permits bad things to happen—and this is a reminder that sin has consequences and that the world needs a Savior. Romans 8:22 says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”
God took pleasure in all of His creation ("http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=revelation+4:11&version=NKJV"), but He loved people most of all. He allowed the created universe to deteriorate so we would see the consequences of our sin. If we did not see the consequences of our sin, we would never see that we need salvation from our sin, and we would never accept His offer of mercy for our sin. Most people easily recognize that there is a problem in the world. This can be used to show them that there is one who has overcome this problem of death and suffering—Jesus Christ.

Answer 2

I am reading a book called Prayer: Does It Really Matter? In the book, the talk specifically about this topic. There is no definitive answer, but the book made some very valid points:

1) Since God is not hear on earth, Christians are called to do his work. Thus, many of the world's travesties are a result of our bad behaviors, selfishness and evil tendencies.

2) God has no part in evil. That is the devil's doing. So, we can not blame God for anything evil.

3) The bible says we should not question God. And, we must trust that God will use every situation for His good.

Answer 3

Here are a couple of "articles" written by "gotquestions.org" regarding suffering and "bad things." Please read them. This website is filled with clear explanations of many issues from a Christian viewpoint. They are intelligent, well thought out, and are not "accusitory" as some like to accuse Christians of.

I don't like to cut/paste too much, but these articles may just give you the answers you've been searching for "for a long time." I do hope this helps!!!!

As for throwing food, this has to do with the safety of the public food supply and has nothing to do with famine. There is a wonderful organization called "Second Harvest" (see site below) that does it's best to "recover" as much food as "legally" possible to help feed the hungry.

Have a blessed day!

Answer 4

Who says God has to be responsible for all of it? Who says that God didn't just put everything in motion at the beginning and then just let it go at its own pace.

God doesn't need to be all-knowing, all-loving, or all-present. God just needs to be the most powerful being in the Universe to actually be God.

And when you think about it... what if this is the best that there is? We're looking at a small piece of the overall puzzle called reality. But what if this is the best it can be, in the grand scheme of things? There has to be bad alongside good, and there has to be at least somewhat of a balance. Maybe things are different somewhere else for all the people that suffered unnecessarily and all the people who prospered when they shouldn't have. We simply don't know.

Answer 5

Everyone agrees this life is tough a good bit of the time. There is also a good bit of joy, but most of the problems are caused by ourselves. God says this isn't heaven; our blessed hope is future. Paul said all of creation groans waiting for our redemption. It's really not that long of a time to be here even if you live to an old age. So we need to suck it up and do what we can to help alleviate the suffering of a few.

Answer 6

The suffering in the world is a consequence of sin. If nobody sinned, there would be no suffering.

When Adam obeyed Satan, he gave the authority he had to the devil; that is the reason there is so much evil in the world. Jesus Christ came to overcome that, and by his death and resurrection he set us free. But as long as there are still people who don't accept Jesus, and who don't obey God, suffering will continue... while there are promises of success and protection for the believers.

For instance, if we loved each other, and if people weren't greedy, as the Bible commands us to be, there would be no wars, don't you think so?

Answer 7

no, God doesn't work in mysterious ways, he isn't the one causing this.1 john 5:19 says the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.the devil does exist and holds power over this earth, for now at least.I'm sure u know the account in Genesis about the creation of the first human pair, well the serpent that seduced eve into eating the fruit was Satan, revelations12:9 calls him the original serpent.when Adam and eve disobeyed god they therefore said they could govern themselves better than god could.however when Satan did this he questioned gods right to rule his creations.this question had to be answered.
So, he gave us a chance to rule ourselves, obviously, we haven't succeeded. Right? We have gotten ourselves into wars, we have squandered the earth's resources, therefore people are starving, etc, etc...,

Answer 8

Because that is the price of "free will". This is also a realm where the forces of "cause and effect" rule...believe it or not, reincarnation IS a fact of life, and people reap in their future lives the karma they pile up in their current lives, unless they consciously undertake to achieve 'enlightenment' and ally themselves with "God" in order to "pay back" or balance their karmic debt and thereby evolve beyond the need to repeatedly incarnate again and again. You may think of this earthly realm as a sort of 'testing ground" or even a "hell realm".."hell" is not under the ground or some sort of abstract concept, hell is right here among us, as you have seen for yourself. God simply lets us be, until we ourselves make the effort to move towards God...you will note that the areas of greatest suffering are brought about by HUMANS THEMSELVES...and then we have the NERVE to turn around and blame "God" for bringing it about!

Answer 9

God has given us free will and we have screwed up a lot of things with it. God will let us be human and make human mistakes and it is our choice how we live our lives. As for things that we have no control over in this lifetime, we did in the past. Do you believe in past lives. Do you believe that we had a hand in our own 'fate'. Ever think our lives were written out by ourselves and God way before we entered this world? Maybe like the feeling of dejavu??? Give it some thought...the answer is in yourself.

Answer 10

All pain is to be offered up for the glory of our Lord. How can we expect to go through life without pain, when our Savior endured such a painful death for our redemption? Know too, we do not suffer alone. Our Lord joins with us in our suffering, and will deliver us from it. Someone has already said this, but it deserves being said again, "Only through suffering, will we ever know true joy."