Question: Hi Greg,

How would you answer someone who has a hard time believing in a loving God when they see all the suffering going on in the world?

Joe

Answer: Dear Joe,

This has always been one of the most perplexing questions for Christians – asked both by believers and non-believers. In brief, without giving a long explanation under each point (which you may be able to fill in) – I would supply four answers:

1. Evil and suffering is a necessary by-product of allowing humans free will. We are not robots. We have choices. Much of the suffering and evil in our world can be directly attributed to wrong choices humans have made.
2. Satan is part of God’s plan, and he is God’s enemy. Suffering and evil follow Satan and his works, allowed by God until the final judgment.
3. Some suffering – some, not all, and probably not most – is allowed by God as inevitable judgment and punishment. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Sin does not go unpunished. This is part of God’s plan.
4. Most importantly of all, we humans must realize that God’s plan was not devised by God in some sterile, detached lab, a place where he experimented on humans without being willing to be a part of his plan himself. God himself has voluntarily subjected himself to human suffering in the person of Jesus, the Son of God, at great cost to himself. The Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world – God determined at the beginning to suffer with and for his creation. This fact and reality alone places Christianity in a unique position among all religions that have ever existed.

you.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht