Originally posted by jayemcintyre
...I am looking for one or two verses that they will eb able to remember easily...
One verse that I can remember easily explains how the world, which was once without suffering and death in the Garden of Eden, now contains suffering and death because of man's sin:
"By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12).
It is by man's free will that suffering and death are now in the world, for God warned man beforehand what the dire consequences of his disobedience would be:
"Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17).
Just as God subsequently warned the Israelites what the dire consequences of their disobedience would be:
"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them" (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).
And just as Jesus warned some believers in the church of Thyatira what the dire consequences of their continued disobedience would be:
"I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works" (Revelation 2:22-23).