Article by: Kenneth J. Ester
Why Does God Let us Suffer?
Why would a God of Love allow so much suffering? It is a question that most Christians cannot answer. Originally, suffering was not what God intended. When God made Adam and Eve, they were intended to live forever without ever feeling pain or suffering of any kind. Unfortunately, when they sinned against God, it ruined everything. From that moment, their bodies began to slowly break down and deteriorate. They slowly grew old and died.
They had perfect bodies to begin with that were corrupted by sin. It took Adam over 900 years for his body to die. Unfortunately, there was no choice but to have incestual relations to populate the world. With each generation, the descendants bodies were a little more flawed. Their lifespan became shorter and shorter until finally God knew the bodies would break down too much if they continued doing so. So God laid down a new law that we were no longer allowed to sleep with those too closely related to us.
Today our bodies are simply flawed. We are born with many problems that they never had to deal with in the old days. On top of the natural flaws through incestual relations, we now spend our lives breathing in pollution, eating food filled with chemicals and doing everything wrong and it is causing many more flaws in our bodies. More diseases are popping up because of what we are putting our bodies through as we live our lives.
Sadly, this naturally causes some very terrible diseases and handicaps that people, even children will suffer through. On top of the natural causes, free will allows for people to do terrible things.
People love to roll their eyes when a Christian speaks of Free Will, but they never consider how important free will is in our lives. God could have made it so Adam and Eve never sinned. Then they would have lived forever without ever knowing what it was like to suffer. To do that, He would have had to not give them free will. They would be robots waiting to be commanded and never able to make their own choices. Never being able to decide anything for themselves. Every minuscule decision they ever made would have to be commanded by God. But God loves us too much for that. God wanted us to actually live our lives and enjoy them to their fullest. For that to be possible, He had to give us free will. So He chose to give us free will so we could laugh and love and enjoy life's wonderful moments, knowing full well what horrible things were bound to come from it through the years.
All of the suffering we go through in life? It is all due to Free Will. It was Adam and Eve's free will that allowed them to make a decision to sin against God and cause their bodies to begin dying. It is man's free will that chose to start putting chemicals inside of foods and pump chemicals into the air and water. Whether it is disease or some terrorist blowing up a building, every bit of suffering any of us face, is all traced back to free will in some way.
So would it be better to be a robot than to have a world where some people suffer terribly? Would it be better to never make any of our own decisions than to live a life where we are lonely and sad so often? You might say it would be better. Some who are suffering would likely rather be robots or never be born than suffer through the life they were given. But the only people who would say that are those who do not truly believe in God and Jesus and heaven and hell.
You see, this life is not the life God looks at for us. This life we live right now is only a blip in the true life we will live for all eternity. A good way of looking at it, is to see this life we live today, every single one of us, is only a test run. Through all the suffering, God chose to come to this world and become a man and suffer life right along with us. Jesus suffered! Jesus was beaten, mocked, whipped until his body was shredded up, and then crucified. He did that to be a living sacrifice to God the Father, so that all of our sins could be forgiven. So that our sin stained souls could be washed clean. Everyone who truly believes He is the Son of God and rose from the dead, will be saved. Everyone! All you have to do is believe.
Everyone who believes will be saved from this life and given a new life of joy and happiness forever! Not just a few years of suffering on this earth, but an eternity of living in glory on a new and much larger earth. Forever! Never again feeling sad or pain. Never suffering in any way ever again! All we have to do is believe and keep faith in Jesus Christ.
Why does God allow suffering? Because He loved us enough to give us free will so we could truly enjoy our lives for all eternity. Unfortunately He knew there would be those who refuse to believe and they would choose to suffer for all eternity rather than have faith in him. But they will not suffer because God chose to make them suffer. They will suffer because they chose to reject the way God offered salvation. They will suffer because they choose to not believe.
Why does God allow Suffering? Because God does not see this life as what He is to save us from. He sees this life as a test. Only those who are willing to love Him and believe in what His Son did for us will receive the true life He has planned for us. All of those who reject His Son? The suffering they will spend eternity in will make them wish they were dealing with the suffering they had here instead.
Myself? I know I will receive life with the Lord for all eternity. One filled with joy and happiness. One where I live forever and never suffer in any way again. I know this because I know I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior! All you have to do to receive that life for yourself is to just learn the truth of what Jesus did, and believe it to be the truth.
You can learn all about Jesus and Salvation here.
They had perfect bodies to begin with that were corrupted by sin. It took Adam over 900 years for his body to die. Unfortunately, there was no choice but to have incestual relations to populate the world. With each generation, the descendants bodies were a little more flawed. Their lifespan became shorter and shorter until finally God knew the bodies would break down too much if they continued doing so. So God laid down a new law that we were no longer allowed to sleep with those too closely related to us.
Today our bodies are simply flawed. We are born with many problems that they never had to deal with in the old days. On top of the natural flaws through incestual relations, we now spend our lives breathing in pollution, eating food filled with chemicals and doing everything wrong and it is causing many more flaws in our bodies. More diseases are popping up because of what we are putting our bodies through as we live our lives.
Sadly, this naturally causes some very terrible diseases and handicaps that people, even children will suffer through. On top of the natural causes, free will allows for people to do terrible things.
People love to roll their eyes when a Christian speaks of Free Will, but they never consider how important free will is in our lives. God could have made it so Adam and Eve never sinned. Then they would have lived forever without ever knowing what it was like to suffer. To do that, He would have had to not give them free will. They would be robots waiting to be commanded and never able to make their own choices. Never being able to decide anything for themselves. Every minuscule decision they ever made would have to be commanded by God. But God loves us too much for that. God wanted us to actually live our lives and enjoy them to their fullest. For that to be possible, He had to give us free will. So He chose to give us free will so we could laugh and love and enjoy life's wonderful moments, knowing full well what horrible things were bound to come from it through the years.
All of the suffering we go through in life? It is all due to Free Will. It was Adam and Eve's free will that allowed them to make a decision to sin against God and cause their bodies to begin dying. It is man's free will that chose to start putting chemicals inside of foods and pump chemicals into the air and water. Whether it is disease or some terrorist blowing up a building, every bit of suffering any of us face, is all traced back to free will in some way.
So would it be better to be a robot than to have a world where some people suffer terribly? Would it be better to never make any of our own decisions than to live a life where we are lonely and sad so often? You might say it would be better. Some who are suffering would likely rather be robots or never be born than suffer through the life they were given. But the only people who would say that are those who do not truly believe in God and Jesus and heaven and hell.
You see, this life is not the life God looks at for us. This life we live right now is only a blip in the true life we will live for all eternity. A good way of looking at it, is to see this life we live today, every single one of us, is only a test run. Through all the suffering, God chose to come to this world and become a man and suffer life right along with us. Jesus suffered! Jesus was beaten, mocked, whipped until his body was shredded up, and then crucified. He did that to be a living sacrifice to God the Father, so that all of our sins could be forgiven. So that our sin stained souls could be washed clean. Everyone who truly believes He is the Son of God and rose from the dead, will be saved. Everyone! All you have to do is believe.
Everyone who believes will be saved from this life and given a new life of joy and happiness forever! Not just a few years of suffering on this earth, but an eternity of living in glory on a new and much larger earth. Forever! Never again feeling sad or pain. Never suffering in any way ever again! All we have to do is believe and keep faith in Jesus Christ.
Why does God allow suffering? Because He loved us enough to give us free will so we could truly enjoy our lives for all eternity. Unfortunately He knew there would be those who refuse to believe and they would choose to suffer for all eternity rather than have faith in him. But they will not suffer because God chose to make them suffer. They will suffer because they chose to reject the way God offered salvation. They will suffer because they choose to not believe.
Why does God allow Suffering? Because God does not see this life as what He is to save us from. He sees this life as a test. Only those who are willing to love Him and believe in what His Son did for us will receive the true life He has planned for us. All of those who reject His Son? The suffering they will spend eternity in will make them wish they were dealing with the suffering they had here instead.
Myself? I know I will receive life with the Lord for all eternity. One filled with joy and happiness. One where I live forever and never suffer in any way again. I know this because I know I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior! All you have to do to receive that life for yourself is to just learn the truth of what Jesus did, and believe it to be the truth.
You can learn all about Jesus and Salvation here.
