If the God of the Western Bible is All-Loving and Powerful, Why Doesn't He End Suffering?

Question

There seems to be only two possibilities: Either he isn't "willing" to end suffering, in which case he is not all-loving and therefore is not God; or, he isn't "able" to end suffering, in which case he is not all-powerful, and therefore is not God.

Why, in fact, is he the "cause" of so much, if not almost all, of the suffering mentioned in the bible? It is especially noteworthy that if one reads the bible as it is printed, without the teachings of the church, it might become apparent that the story (whether truth or fiction) is of a messiah who came to save those who had been taken captive "by" the OT God, "from" the OT God. How ironic that the caucasian community embraced the teachings and "salvation" not meant for them, and were then pulled into the belief in a God who had said he wanted nothing to do with them because they were not "His Chosen Ones".

Enviro -- Where did I use the word "hate"? You are presuming to know what I really believe about this?

Adam -- Yes, I understood that when I posted the question -- just wanting to put forth the challenge nonetheless. I actually do believe there is an answer to this, but it isn't what Christians will post. :-)

Enviro - I'm also sorry for you that you don't, since it's your own word.

Answer 1

It will end soon. And suffering isn't the fault of God, as much as it is men and mankind.

Everything is done in accordance with it's time and the time for suffering, death, disease and sin to end will occur when Jesus returns.

The purpose of Jesus's death wasn't to deliver us from God, but to deliver us from ourselves.

I am sad for you that you hate God and hate yourself.

Answer 2

Why do people always want to blame God? Who is actually letting the children starve to death? Who is torturing people? Its we as humans that make that decision. When you have Governments in the USA and in Europe that pay farmers NOT to grow food you begin to see where the problem really is.

People continually claim the world is overpopulated and that we are running out of food to feed the growing population. Do some research about how much food DOESN'T get planted each year and you'll see we should have plenty of food for the entire world - Governments just don't want to give it away to the needy - they'd rather pay farmers not to grow it.

God gave humanity free will, humanity then chose to use that free will to reject God, and all of his commands about how we should love each other and care for 'widows and orphans'. He allows us to choose for ourselves how we treat each other, and we as a whole choose to look after number one and to hell with the rest.

Your reading of the Old testament is faulty. If you do a closer reading you may discover that every bad thing that happened to the Israelites in the OT was a result of choices THEY made. You'll also note that God ALWAYS gave them warnings to turn from sin before anything bad happened (read the prohets).

You will also find on reading the old testament, that there are solid rules about living with other humans - about respect for other people, no stealing, no murder, imagine if humanity actually followed these principles!

You say that Christ came to save us from God? Its clear to me that he came to save us from ourselves.

God bless.

Answer 3

The subject is complex. However, each human's suffering has been limited to about 70-80 years.

The timing, the various prophecies concerning the world must be right.

The Bible speaks about destroying those that ruin the earth. This has only become possible in recent human history. Even a hundred, 150, 200, years ago, the earth was quite pristine.

The heavenly court case had to have proof that we humans are ruining the earth so that the inability of humans to govern themselves becomes conclusive.

This proof needed to be presented before God's theocracy would be forcing the conditions to come to an end. It is only in the last few years that the global warming having been due to human intervention has been admitted. Even one or two years ago, on Yahoo a lot of people pooh-poohed this idea.

Answer 4

As suggested by some other answers, but not mentioned specifically, you are missing the BIG PICTURE.

Suffering on earth lasts, at most, about 120 years for any given individual. *Life* (or "after-life", if you prefer) extends eternally. I cannot say for certain that the purpose of suffering during our first life is that it directs people to God for succor, but it seems likely. Probably God figures that if a few decades of suffering, followed by death, aren't enough to convince you to seek God, then there's no point in trying anything further.

Your 2nd paragraph: you're kidding, right? I have read the bible as printed several times, without the benefit of church teaching (indeed, it convinced me to remain apart from the Roman Catholic Church, an infrequent part of my upbringing). Jesus saves us from the just deserts of our *own* sinful nature, not the Father. "The wages of sin is death" is a verse you may recall. It is not "The wages of sin is nothing, but God decided to kill you anyway, so luckily Jesus is here to save you". Indeed, the Father sent Jesus to save us - not from himself, but from ourselves and from death that *we* have earned for ourselves. If you have, indeed, read the entire New Testament, you cannot have failed to notice how thoroughly this very topic was covered.

"the caucasian community embraced the teachings and "salvation" not meant for them"
This sounds suspiciously racist. Hardly only "the Caucasian community" embraced these teachings, most certainly meant for them as well (as Jesus himself asserted). In case you haven't noticed, Christianity has been well-accepted by all "races" and nearly all ethnic groups. One of the earliest recorded (and verified by history and archaeology) is Ethiopia, which also has one of the most ancient known Jewish groups as well. Neither Judaism or Christianity were restricted to one particular race, and even in the earliest times (Jesus' own ministry), Christianity was open to *all* Jews, regardless of race.

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 5

God whom you hate is not willing to take your freedom to be evil away from you.. You seem so willing to except a total dictatorship. Are you so willing to surrender your freedom? See it isn't God that causes these evils you wish to have Him stop. Even in the OT God's anger is against sin not people that obey Him.. Now because of Christ, that judgment is stayed to allow you turn to Him who paid your debt.

It's you and me and all the rest of mankind that lie, kill, steal, and hurt each other with our adulteries. God commanded that we not do these things. Yet you find no problem with our actions of the will of God that makes us free... This is not the thinking of a logical mind... IHS Jim

Answer 6

hi Ryan, i used to be a Christian, a southern Baptist, then a fundamentalist Pentecostal. at last, I grew to develop into the happy atheist i'm now. i will assure you you will get solutions claiming "unfastened will" and "guy introduced sin and suffering into the international", and so forth. and that i comprehend I used to have faith that. I used to have an analogous question you at the instant would desire to boot as many others. as long as believers can pull the ol', "God works in mysterious approaches" and "unfastened will!" arguments, there rather would be no communique. the two those merely close down communique and close down one's own thinking, thinking concepts. one element to contemplate which i don't think I'ver ever seen introduced into play in the previous: in spite of if we settle for that people go through because of the sin of Adam and Eve disobeying God, why is it that animals go through? and that i don't recommend your pets which believers would desire to easily declare are go through to punish the sinful human that cares approximately them, yet why animals in the wild that no human will ever comprehend approximately. Did God create them with a view to go through? Why? Did he create them to stay in peace? if so, why then do they consume one yet another, die in distress, stay long lingering deaths? And in case you settle for that it rather is "unfastened will", then, ok the rapist has unfastened will to rape, yet why does the three year previous lady or the 14 year previous boy not have an analogous "unfastened will" to not be raped? it rather is amazingly perplexing to contemplate that your perception equipment may be incorrect, particularly while it rather is rigged in including a fashion as to reason you to have faith any doubt, any thinking, may be the devil attempting to win you over. I bear in concepts the terror of that. i'm hoping you do not go through that specific same worry. This life, the reliable and the undesirable and each little thing in between, is all that all of us comprehend we've. we can concentration in this life and this international and do what reliable we can with what time we've, or we can spend our lives focusing on the "afterlife" which would possibly not exist. stay a life with purpose and meaning regardless of no depend if there's a god or not. Be here now. that's all all of us comprehend we've. Create your own meaning. life is powerful.

Answer 7

Unfortunately, you'll find that your well thought out arguement which involves logic, reason and critical thinking will go unheard by the Christian community.

They are so, so determined that "God exists" that it over-rides any type of sensible logic that you have to bring to the table and all you will end up with is a non-sensical arguement whereby Christians will accuse you of mis-interpretting everything.

It's depressing, I know. But some people don't want to listen to reason.

Answer 8

What is called "suffering" is the result of sin. God has given us the right to choose, many times we choose the wrong way because of selfishness. Sin has consequences, sometimes far-reaching consequences.

Answer 9

Suffering is a consequence of evil.

If God would end evil and suffering, we ALL would be judged and sent to hell.

Answer 10

God is willing and more than able to do as you say. And He has every intention of doing exactly that . Are you going to be arround to benefit from it?