Here are some answers provided by the Bible:
1. WE LIVE IN AN ABNORMAL UNIVERSE. This world is not the normal world that was created to reflect the goodness and perfection of God. God created a good and perfect world without suffering, or death or earthquakes or hurricanes. It has been said that “If this world is an accurate reflection of God then God is the Devil”. I totally agree!
2. THE WORLD WAS NOT MESSED UP BY GOD, but by our own human choices, in Adam. Adam (and all of us who are his seed and were “in his loins”) freely and deliberately chose to try to be God and take matters into our own hands instead of submitting to he very first commandment of the Decalogue. Adam made exactly the same deliberate choice that Satan had made even before the creation of this universe. Of course pride is the root of idolatry, and THE ULTIMATE IDOLATRY IS MAKING OURSELVES OUR OWN GOD. This is what Adam did by eating the fruit. We all continue to do this to this day! The first commandment is the basis of all Ten Commandments.
3. GOD IS MUCH MORE ANGRY AND GRIEVED AND HURTING BECAUSE OF SIN AND DEATH AND SUFFERING THAN WE ARE. This is the PRIMARY reason (if not the ONLY reason) why Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He was angry and heart-broken at the loss, even though temporary, that Mary and Martha would have to experience because of the death of their brother. He was angry at sin and death and suffering. Death is described as the ENEMY of God! It was also for this reason that He wept over Jerusalem, because he knew that Jerusalem would be destroyed and scattered to the four corners of the earth for nearly 2000 years because of their rejection of Him as Messiah.
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY GOD HIMSELF WENT THROUGH BOTH PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL DEATH (HELL) BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE FOR US. As an eternal person he experienced eternal hell. He did this even though He is not responsible for the mess that we are in, and even though each of us deserve to suffer the consequences not only of Adam’s sin but of our own sins. God is not some distant uncaring despot, but rather a loving Father who sent His only son to die and suffer scourging, crucifixion and hell itself IN OUR PLACE, in order to restore the lost relationship with Him. The only reason he created us was for us to have a love relationship with the persons of the Trinity, not in order to simply obey Him. God’s plan to have eternal love relationships with Him will not be frustrated, but the solution came at an unimaginable cost to God Himself! How can we be angry at such a God?
5. THROUGH THE CROSS GOD HAS PROVIDED FOR THE RESTORATION OF BOTH HUMAN BEINGS AND THE UNIVERSE ITSELF. He has restored His relationship with those who have received Christ through faith as Lord and Savior (genuine believers – John 3:1-18), but He has also provided the basis for the restoration the Universe itself (Romans 8:18-25). Genuine believers already can experience this restored relationship even now, but the full restoration and consummation is not yet! These things will be completed when Christ returns and we are given new perfect sinless glorified bodies and we will inhabit the New Heavens and the New Earth with Him forever!
Dave Seivright – 7.28.18
For further EXCELLENT MATERIAL ON THIS SUBJECT:
- PLEASE WATCH:
John MacArthur: Why Does God Allow So Much Suffering and Evil
2. PLEASE READ:
two excellent books: “Affliction” by Edith Schaeffer, and
“the Goodness of God” by John Whenham.
Good