Suffering

Because physical/material biological life includes damage or death.

We need to get spiritual bodies to escape these physical laws.

Because sin exists. God doesn't sit up there enjoying seeing children die. Yes He could stop it if He wanted. But man chose to eat the apple. And thus sin was brought into the world. And because of sin bad things happen. We have to live with consequences. It may not seem fair but it's just how it is. Through all the suffering though, all who believe in Him see the eternal joy of heaven. To me thats a great deal.

SayaOtonashi said:

why is there Suffering? If God love us why is there children dying?

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We suffer to make us stronger, because with trials we build perseverance. Perseverance produces character, and character gives hope. We have to suffer for a little while now expecting the Lord's return so He can restore our health.

Because we live in a fallen world as a result of sin. God doesn't cause suffering, but suffering points to our need for a savior. When we look around the world and know that something just isn't right, it highlights our need for a solution... Jesus. Many reject the solution, but everyone recognizes that something is not right with the world.

What dying? Christ put death to death. After His resurrection, death is merely the doorway to eternal life. Suffering exists because we have been poisoned with the pleasure of sin and the antidote to pleasure is pain.

SayaOtonashi said:

So why create us. God knew this. But some people like children don’t deserve it. A baby dies from cancer?

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We can't know God's judgments in this. Maybe that child would have grown up to be a great sinner and subject to condemnation. God had mercy and received him/her in His paradise in exchange for a little cancer.

SayaOtonashi said:

So why create us. God knew this. But some people like children don’t deserve it. A baby dies from cancer?

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When people struggle with "why" questions like this, which realistically no one can answer for sure, I always encourage them to change the "why" to a "what" and "how".

What am I going to do about it? How am I going to respond to it? Am I going to let this pull me away from God because I can't understand, or draw me closer to Him as my source and strength.

SayaOtonashi said:

why is there Suffering? If God love us why is there children dying?

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Gen 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

We live in a fallen world.

SayaOtonashi said:

But there are children who are in pain and don’t die quickly. Children loved children. I would get it if there is judgment on terrible people or adults but not children

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Children suffer, too. In the time of Christ, the male children of Bethlehem were slaughtered. It was very sad. We call this "The Massacre of the Innocents".

All life belongs to God, Saya. Even the lives of children. So, even in pain and suffering we must trust in God's mercy. God Himself suffered in the flesh.

We are mortal. Nature is not without diseases.

God loves our souls. And we need to love our souls as well.

I believe that suffering is here to remind us that our bodies are only temporary. Our souls are eternal.

And, let's face it, sometimes people spend way too much time fixated on how they look, or how they smell, or how their skin feels. These are all good things to pay attention to, don't get me wrong. But we need to understand that we are not our bodies. And our bodies are not us.

Suffering also serves as a reminder that God is bigger than we are. That we are created to be close to him- to be like him. And we cannot be like him if we despise ourselves for how we look, compare ourselves to others, or think we are perfect in every (or any) way.

I have been through my fair share of tragedy. Check out my blog if you want proof. But despite the struggles I have had with my faith, trust me it was a rocky road, I always come back to Jesus. Because he is the man!

The man who loves.
The man who aids.
The man who provides.
And, yes, he is the man who heals.

He doesn't always heal us physically, but he always heals us spiritually- and that is what truly matters.

SayaOtonashi said:

why is there Suffering? If God love us why is there children dying?

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trust me, read the bible and you'll see why

SayaOtonashi said:

why is there Suffering? If God love us why is there children dying?

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If a person, including yourself at this time, is in a middle of a tragedy it is not the right time to be philosophical about tragedies, since Loving, serving, helping listening and spending time with the person is what’s needed.

Do not read further if this is the case and lets us work in Love on getting you through this tragedy.

Paul prayed many times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed and it was not, because it was there to help him.

This messed up world is actually the very best place to help willing individuals fulfill their earthly objective.

We all look forward to being in heaven where there are no needy people, no sorrow, no death, and no sin.

This earth is not to be heaven, if we did not need this earth to be the way it is, we could all start out in heaven.

Is death bad in and of itself?

The same situation which strengths a person faith, will harden another person’s heart, so should God stop providing the message and/or the situation which will soften the accepting heart?



This world is full of tragedies, which can also be viewed as opportunities to help humans fulfill their earthly objective.

We have an earthly objective.



The story of Adam and Eve (Gen 3)(you do not have to believe it is true to get the message) is told very early, because all individuals ask the question: “Why would a truly Loving God not put us all in a Garden type situation?” The story of A&E explains why we are in our situation:

1. God desires is that we all be in a Garden type situation, but God quenches His own desire to provide a better situation for us to fulfill our earthly objective.

2. Our earthly object is not to “worship God”, “to never/ever sin”, run around free, just don’t sin, or be good. God does not need anything from us, but is just trying to give something to us. God is trying to give us the greatest power in all universes; the power that compels God to do all He does, but that power cannot be forced on us (take it or I torture you) or can it be instinctive to man (robotically programmed in humans). It is a gift from God that is totally undeserved and unconditional (so it is Charity), but man has to accept the gift as it was given. Humans, instinctive to survival, (which is good for man to have) does not help an individual to want to take charity especially if it comes at a huge cost to the giver.

3. The gift is Godly type Love which is best defined by Christ’s words and deeds. God will do all he can to help those that are willing to accept His help, fulfill their earthly objective of accepting His Love and growing that Love. Included in “all that God will do and allow to happen” are: Christ going to the cross, satan roaming the earth, sin, hell and tragedies of all kinds.

4. First off; death is the way good people get to go home and the way bad people stop doing bad stuff, so death is not “bad” in and of itself.

5. It is truly unfortunate and not God’s desire that tragedies have to occur. God has to quench His desire to allow tragedies, for man’s sake to help humans accept Love. People have to see, experience, witness, receive and even give Godly type Love, before they will even understand and desire such a Love. Some even after receiving Godly type Love from an individual just like themselves will not want it or explain it away (justifying in their own mind: the person is just trying to gain respect or earn their way to heaven or they are making up for the bad they have done).

6. Everyone on earth is needy, because everyone has hurt others (sinned) and should feel the burden of the sin at least for a while. Their creator is trying to give them Love in the form of forgiveness so they will Love (the Bible and life teach us: “…he that is forgiven much will Love much…”) If we realize and except forgiveness of an unbelievable huge debt created by our sins, we will automatically receive an unbelievable huge Love (Godly type Love) that is truly ours.

7. There are a huge amount of sever tragedies in this world, but they are really opportunities for good people to show, give, experience, grow and witness Godly type Love. With all those tragedies some good people are still not responding, so are more needed? It is not our job to provide tragedies, but to solve, reduce, eliminate all we can, by allowing the Spirit to work through us.

8. Scripture tells us the needy will be with us always on this earth. Christ did not “heal” all those that were sick, but used those tragedies around Him to express Godly Love and show us how we are to handle tragedies (serve others with Love). Healing everyone without the witness of Godly type Love being seen in serving individual like any other person would not get other people to accept God’s Love in faith and humility, but we could grow from the experience.

9. This world is not our Home and our rest comes later. It is both a privilege and Honor to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us in serving others in this world to best help everyone around us to accept God’s Love (fulfill their objective).

10. If you had to find the most Christ Like person in the world today, where would you look?

I see Jesus explaining it in John 9: 1-7.

In John 9: 1-7 you have a tragedy (the apostles are asking about a specific tragedy, but they do not know this individual and are thinking in general terms [you need to get into their head]).

Jesus does not say: “this tragedy was caused by: Adam/Eve sinning, Satan, sin, bad luck, God or evil in the world (those have been our answers).”

Jesus does not say: “It was because of the bad that happened”, but does say: “This is for the good that can (and in this case will) happen.”

If you have lived for very long, you have seen good come from some tragedies, but why not all tragedies?

Is someone keeping good from coming from every tragedy?

Everything that is happening in the world right now (disease, natural disasters, and tragedies of all kinds) are not the result of the bad that has happened (or Adam and Eve), but is the result of the GOOD that can happen!

God is quenching His desire to have us all in a Garden type situation to help us fulfill our objective.

Everything starts and ends with the objective;



The objective of humans is to: “Love God (and secondly others) with all your heart, soul, mind, and energy and Love others.” The definition of “Love” is key for it is not instinctive or just emotional but it is Love of your enemies, described by Jesus’ life and Paul in 1 Cor. 13 and by John. It requires a free will moral decision to Love over likely alternatives (the perceived pleasures of sin for a season). The fall was tragic and not God’s desire, but may have been both inevitable and necessary. For all humans since the fall that have come to Love God started out by accepting God’s Love in the form of forgiveness.

Needy people create opportunities to experience, see, accept, express and receive Godly type Love. Everyone needs the full opportunity to accept Godly type Love which may have to be done when the person reaches the bottom like the prodigal son.

The innocent that died as the result of God’s action may not really suffer as far as we know.

There would have to be some benefit for humans to have faith that would help them fulfill their objective, over not needing faith, so what is the benefit?

1. We either have faith in self or we put our trust in God. Self-reliance has to do with our money, country, insurance, family, friends, achievements and pride, while reliance on God is just the opposite and requires putting self aside; going from being perceived independent to being dependent on God.

2. Faith in God is a humbling experience, because it is something that the lowliest person can do and actually maybe more likely to do. You are no better than the lowliest believing person when it comes to faith.

3. Believing God/trusting God comes out of an admitted need for help. We all need help all the time, but might not feel or admit that need strongly until in a tragedy and if we live long enough we will all experience tragedies. Turning to God is an easy act of humility (made easy by tragedies), and we need humility to accept charity. God’s forgiveness of our sins is an act of charity (grace/mercy/Love). “…he that is forgiven much will Love much…” and thus fulfill our earthly objective by just accepting charity.

4. Faith can produce humility, and humility allows one to accept charity, and forgiveness is Charity and forgiveness produces Love.

Did Adam and Eve have faith? Did the Jews that crossed the Red Sea have faith? Is faith needed in heaven? Is our faith the determining factor to our salvation?

SayaOtonashi said:

why is there Suffering? If God love us why is there children dying?

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Men are evil. (thus hurt each other)

If God did not love us, but just wanted robots with no "dying", He could have created robots with no dying, (and with NO FREE WILL).

Justasurvivor said:

trust me, read the bible and you'll see why

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A lot of people read the Bible, seemingly, and never see why. Most people reject the Bible.

SayaOtonashi said:

why is there Suffering? If God love us why is there children dying?

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I think the answer is: because people wanted to know what evil means. In this lesson we can truly see what it means to be without God. Luckily this is only a short lesson.

1213 said:

I think the answer is: because people wanted to know what evil means. In this lesson we can truly see what it means to be without God. Luckily this is only a short lesson.

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For many, it is a lifetime. (short compared to eternity)

And for the rest (unregenerated men), it is eternal judgment. (not short)