How would you answer these
questions:
1.
Why did God allow the World Trade Center attacks if he is all-powerful
and
2.
Why don’t bad people like Hitler/Mao, etc. suffer more in this world
(Hitler
3.
Jesus fed the 5000. Why are
there so many starving people in the world
Susan
Answer: Dear Susan,
We
have excellent articles in the November-December 2001 Plain Truth about
suffering, which, if read carefully, give the biblical and philosophical
background to the question “Why do Christians suffer?”
And, on the flip side, “why do apparently bad people get off without
much suffering?”
In
brief, the misunderstanding comes from our flawed idea that God enforces all
behaviors on earth like some divine, cosmic Santa Claus, rewarding good people
and punishing bad people. But the Bible leads us to no such conclusion.
The Bible, in fact, says that Christians will suffer, that life is not
easy for those who accept Christ, and that life eternal is the goal for
Christians—not a guarantee of riches, good health, etc. in this life.
The
World Trade Center is just one in a long line of questions—“Why did God
allow if
he is ?”
“Why are there so many starving people?”
The Holocaust is the single biggest question along these lines.
Fact is, God makes no promise that he will not allow such things, nor do
such things diminish his power, sovereignty, love, justice or mercy.
The
question is best answered in what he, in the person of Jesus, has already done
for us—giving himself for us, dying on the cross for us, rising from the empty
tomb that we might live eternally.
In
Christ,
Greg
Albrecht