a story on the news the other day a group of teens raped a women in her home and made her little son join in. He was forced to help rape his own mother. Children starve daily and are molested, people are robbed, beaten, people die in such pain and suffering. I hear alot of everything happens for a reason, God gives you no more than you can handle. We have free will if free will causes this we would be better off without. I want to know how can people handle being raped or starved. If children are going 2 die young why let them be created. Life seems to be more of a curse than a gift to me. When a parent knows that their child is being harmed they do everything to remove that child from the situation and if they dont they are just as guilty. I feel we would be better off not existing. I cant help but feel angry. Do we believe because it makes us feel better.I would like to hear other views about God. IF YOUR GOING TO BE RUDE DO NOT REPLY!
2007-07-20 12:27:32 · 26 answers · asked by correy j 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You have not lost biblical faith in God. Your faith has been revealed to be misplaced. You had put your faith in a deity who would, in a deterministic fashion, prevent evil people from exercising their free will; who would make this life comfortable for undeserving sinners; who would not allow there to be the red warning flag of suffering in this fallen world to wake us up to our need of salvation; and who would give us heaven now. God has nowhere misled us in the Bible about the fact that this is a fallen world filled with suffering. Our eternal hope is his promise of heaven. In the meantime we are to be his change agents effecting good and helping the suffering in his name. Our feel-good, postmodern society insists that God must make everyone feel happy right now or he is not God. Faith in such a being is not biblical and will fail when tested by the realities of life. I think your loss of that pseudo-faith is a good thing. Perhaps now you can reconsider whether or not you wish to have faith in the God of the Bible.
2007-07-20 12:41:27 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Correy -- you have a kind heart, and I do not see how any person who can be called "good" could fail to be angry about the sorts of things you mention.
I believe that we live in a world where there is both good and evil because that is the fate of people who are intelligent to see part of the truth, but are limited, in that we cannot know everything. If we believe Genesis, this is a choice mankind made, because our human representatives (Adam and Eve) decided that blissful ignorance was not good enough! They wanted to know good *and* evil, just as God does.
I think that there is some value to understanding how many awful things even the least fortunate of us have been spared -- and I think God does too, because why else would He have ever given an option that wasn't ultimately good?
God has promised us that, in the end, all things will work out for the good of those who love Him, and that all tears will be wiped away. And the Bible also says that He knows of our suffering and sadness, and even keeps our tears in a bottle. What we have lost will be restored, and many times more.
Why good and evil? Because it humbles us and "grows us up".
2007-07-20 12:59:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some worry that asking such a question means that they do not have enough faith or that they are showing disrespect for God. Remember, the Bible teaches that “he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) God hates wickedness and the suffering it causes far more than any human does. (Isaiah 55:8, 9) Why, then, is there so much suffering in the world? WHY SO MUCH SUFFERING? People of various religions have gone to their religious leaders and teachers to ask why there is so much suffering. Often, the response is that suffering is God’s will and that he long ago determined everything that would ever happen, including tragic events . The Bible says: “Far be it from the true God to act wickedly, and the Almighty to act unjustly!”—Job 34:10. Do you know why people make the mistake of blaming God for all the suffering in the world? In many cases, they blame Almighty God because they think that he is the real ruler of this world but the Bible teaches that the real ruler of this world is Satan the Devil.: “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) Satan is hateful, deceptive, and cruel. So the world, under his influence, is full of hatred, deceit, and cruelty. A second reason why there is so much suffering is that, mankind has been imperfect and sinful ever since the rebellion in the garden of Eden.(Ecclesiastes 4:1; 8:9) A third reason for suffering is “time and unforeseen occurrence.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11) It is comforting for us to know that God does not cause suffering. He is not responsible for the wars, the crimes, the oppression, or even the natural disasters that cause people to suffer. Still, we need to know, Why does Jehovah allow all this suffering? If he is the Almighty, he has the power to stop it. Why, then, does he hold back? The loving God that we have come to know must have a good reason.—1 John 4:8. A VITAL ISSUE IS RAISED To find out why God allows suffering, we need to think back to the time when suffering began. When Satan led Adam and Eve into disobeying Jehovah, an important question was raised. Satan did not call into question Jehovah’s power. Even Satan knows that there is no limit to Jehovah’s power. Rather, Satan questioned Jehovah’s right to rule. By calling God a liar who withholds good from his subjects, Satan charged that Jehovah is a bad ruler. (Genesis 3:2-5) Satan implied that mankind would be better off without God’s rulership. This was an attack on Jehovah’s sovereignty, his right to rule. Adam and Eve rebelled against Jehovah. In effect, they said: “We do not need Jehovah as our Ruler. We can decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.” How could Jehovah settle that issue? How could he teach all intelligent creatures that the rebels were wrong and that his way truly is best? Someone might say that God should simply have destroyed the rebels and made a fresh start. But Jehovah had stated his purpose to fill the earth with the offspring of Adam and Eve, and he wanted them to live in an earthly paradise. (Genesis 1:28) Jehovah always fulfills his purposes. (Isaiah 55:10, 11) Besides that, getting rid of the rebels in Eden would not have answered the question that had been raised regarding Jehovah’s right to rule. Remember that the rebels in Eden were not the only ones involved. Millions of angels were watching. (Job 38:7; Daniel 7:10) How Jehovah handled the rebellion would greatly affect all those angels and eventually all intelligent creation. So, what has Jehovah done? He has allowed Satan to show how he would rule mankind. God has also allowed humans to govern themselves under Satan’s guidance.—Jeremiah 10:23. WHY SO LONG? Why, though, has Jehovah allowed suffering to go on for so long? And why does he not prevent bad things from happening? Well, consider two things that the teacher in our illustration would not do. First, he has not stopped Satan and those who side with him from trying to prove that they are right. In the thousands of years of human history, mankind has been able to try every form of self-rule, or human government. Mankind has made some advances in science and other fields, but injustice, poverty, crime, and war have grown ever worse. Human rule has now been shown to be a failure. Second, Jehovah has not helped Satan to rule this world.He is not supporting Satan's way of ruling by simply fixing things right away. We can be glad that he has not acted sooner, for his patience has given us the opportunity to learn the truth and to serve him. (2 Peter 3:9, 10) Meanwhile, God has been actively seeking sincere worshipers and helping them to endure any suffering that may come upon them in this troubled world.—John 4:23; 1 Corinthians 10:13.
2016-04-01 04:20:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you want to read a good book on suffering, read "When God Weeps" by Joni Erickson Tada. She is truly a person who can speak to the issue of pain and evil. Another good book is N.T. Wright's "Evil and the Justice of God." The question one really has to ask is whether God's main goal in the world is for us to be happy and safe. I will admit that there have been trite explanations for evil. However, I do think that evil is an aberration to how life is supposed to be. Evil is an aberration that entered the world that God created. To be honest, the problem of evil is not a problem of someone else. It is a problem within me. I too have evil inclinations. This is the evil that God has worked to correct by first of all making his own son die innocently by means of crucifixion. Evil is something that God has allowed but also faced himself.
There are times when evil is frozen. I remember when the twin towers fell. I was amazed at the number of people who were in some way deterred from making it to work that day. However, I also know that some perished on that fateful day. I don't have an answer as to why some were spared and others were not. Maybe our question should be how we ever experience safety and peace in this life at all. Maybe any inclination of peace and serenity is a work of God's hand.
2007-07-20 12:44:36 · answer #4 · answered by seminary bum 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I have asked the same question many times, I am a diabetic, have had two kidney transplant, two hip replacements. lost both big toes to gang green and now have a torn disc in my back that makes it hard to get around, I see on the news everyday people killing people, but I don't think it is God that is making these things happen, I do believe there is a devil and all the bad things are his doing, it might sound lame but it is what I believe, I will not lose my faith in God, I feel lucky that I received not one but two transplants when I needed them and that I am able to pay for all my medicine and that I can still walk, I do believe that someday we will know why these things happen to us. I don't know why people rape and kill, that is something I will never understand but I will not give up faith in God, there has to be an answer to these things and one day we will all know.
2007-07-20 12:37:09 · answer #5 · answered by Beth 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I went through the same thing. I feel the same way. I personally went through things that I could not handle. I lost myself in alcohol to numb the pain, but it didn't work so I stopped drinking. I was lost in a pit of despair and could hardly take care of my two beautiful children. That's when I realized that you will be given more than you can handle in your life. I purposely sought out a religion that worked for me. I do not believe in the war god anymore. Reading the entire Bible actually did not help at all. It made me believe less. I am so sorry you are at this place it is a horrible place to be. Research other religions. Find what feels right for you, regardless of what others tell you.
2007-07-20 12:34:17 · answer #6 · answered by StormyC 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If these are your true feelings (and you are not trolling) then you're in a bad place right now.
My advice is not to worry about the purpose of life. Don't blame God for this, whether he is real (as you think) or not (as I think). Whether there's a God or not, these things happen. The only thing that you can do is help where you can. You can't change the world, but you can change you own little corner of it: and if enough people think the same way, we'll have a better world.
2007-07-20 12:34:22 · answer #7 · answered by Citizen Justin 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Satan said the same thing---Skin for Skin Man only serves
You God because You bless them-----Take blessing away and Man will curse You--That is what Job"s better half said,His Wife, curse God and Die;I wonder where these words came from.Man has had 6000 yrs to learn to Govern,all
atempts have ended in Failure; Now comes the 1000 yr Reign of Christ from Temple Mount ,He will rule with a rod of iron;The events you describe shows the Depravity of Man;and will bring instant judgement,no appeals of slick Lawyers or placing blame on someone else;
2007-07-20 14:00:10 · answer #8 · answered by section hand 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not saying this to be rude, but just to give you an example. What if people said "Correy J has the opportunity to help feed the children, but he doesn't." Are you a bad person for not feeding the children? I seriously doubt it. Yes, it is a terrible thing these men did, but you can't blame that on God.
You can't lose your faith, you can only lay it down and walk away from it. Remember back when you first came to God, remember how you felt? Despite what you have heard here, is that something you really want to give up?
2007-07-20 12:47:18 · answer #9 · answered by Sykopup 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Dear bro\sis, I feel with wt u r feeling now. God is not cruel . He loves u more than u can imagine. All those ppl ho were hurted by such bad ways r not His sons and daughter . U r His son , so never b afraid . Never b worried . But put every very thing in His hands . He is very honest to care abt ur life and never let u pass by such cruel , bad situations . I heared a TV program an hour ago abt raping in the street. I felt God was telling me not to b afraid . He cares of my life . We r not left for coincidences . Dear ...... Afraid not.
Good luck!
2007-07-20 12:36:54 · answer #10 · answered by cleopatra 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋