God=Love why is there suffering

[jehoiakim]

I put this together, just looking for some feedback.

God=Love so Why is there suffering, Why is there a Hell? What is this Gospel thing? - YouTube

 

[Harry3142]

Jehoiakim-

God is compassionate, but he is not sentimentalistic. God is forgiving, but he will not condone. As humans we are far from being perfect; that's why God had to send his Son as the perfect sacrifice of atonement. However, there are those who deliberately and of their own free will choose to commit evil, while knowing that it is evil which they are committing. Those people are about whom St. Paul wrote this stern warning:

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8,NIV)

As for those who suffer because of their faith, but remain steadfast in that faith, St. Paul has written encouragement which has literally come down through the ages:

What, then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39,NIV)

 

[mandelduke]

Satan = sin; sin = pain and suffering.

 

[jehoiakim]

I feel like a had good answers in the video I wasn't really looking for more I was looking to see if what I said was helpful or not

 

[asiyreh]

Dr. William Lane Craig has some excellent answers regarding this topic.

Craig looks at the problem essentially from a philosophical point of view. Let's for a second look at this problem from the perspective of logic and reason and try to remove the emotions from the issue.

The conclusion of what you're driving at in this thread would sound something like this; from a logical point of view.

1. If evil and suffering exists then God cannot exist.
2. Evil and suffering exist.
3. Therefore God does not exist.

When you see the logic broken down in this format you can see why most well polished Atheistic "apologists" refrain from attempting this particular argument.

You can see the enormous burden of proof they taken on?

The Christian God described in the bible is perfectly able to exist in a reality where pain and suffering exist. 99.99 percent of the suffering in this world is caused by refusing to obey two simple rules that he left us with.
Love God, with all your heart and treat your neighbor as yourself.

Did you know that most of the starving countries in the world are net exporters of food?...

Also it may help to ask what is evil does God create evil. It's my opinion that God does not create evil. Evil is simply the absence of good. There's some good examples in physics. Consider for example what is darkness? It's nothing, it's not thing, it's simply the absence of light. Just as absolute cold is simply the absence of all heat. Yet cold itself, is no thing.

Something to muse over. Check out Dr. Craig possibly the leading Christian philosopher of our age.

 

[brea555]

I really liked this video and found it very interesting. Im not a new christian, but i dont think im a WELL educated christian. Your video helped me understand some things though. Thank you.

 

[Bible2]

brea555 said in post 6:

Im not a new christian, but i dont think im a WELL educated christian.

The best way to become a well-educated Christian is simply to read every word of Bible (Matthew 4:4) over and over again. It ends up explaining itself once what it says has become engrained in your memory, and you see the connections between verses regarding something in one place in the Bible and other verses regarding that same thing in other places in the Bible. It's by comparing and combining related verses from different places in the Bible that we arrive at correct doctrine (Isaiah 28:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:13).

It's also a good practice to always end each reading session with a prayer for understanding and remembrance of the whole Bible.

One way to read the whole Bible, over and over, is to think of it as seven volumes:

1. Genesis to Deuteronomy
2. Joshua to Esther
3. Job to Song of Solomon
4. Isaiah to Malachi
5. Matthew to Acts
6. Romans to Philemon
7. Hebrews to Revelation

You can read a chapter in each volume every day. This will keep you current in every part of the Bible. After a while, there won't be any part that you haven't read recently enough to remember what it says. When you reach the end of a volume, simply start again at the first chapter of that volume. In this way, you will be cycling through smaller volumes like #6 and #7 much more often than larger volumes like #2, but the smaller volumes are so much more dense with doctrine that it can be profitable to read them over and over more often.

Also, you can listen to recordings of people reading the Bible, whenever you need to keep your eyes on something else while you listen (such as keeping your eyes on the road while you drive, or on a cutting board while you're preparing food, or on your clippers while you're trimming a hedge). In this way, you can listen to the Bible throughout the day, whenever you don't need to be thinking about something else (such as at your workplace). Also, you can listen to the Bible even while you're going to sleep, so that it will become part of even your subconscious mind.

 

[parsley]

Nice video, thanks for making it and posting here.

Adding to your thoughts... God wanted justice and what was best for us, so He handed us guidelines to follow, that would help us treat each other fairly. In following these, we protect each other from injustice and undue suffering. But that's the same Law that so many Christians are trying to run away from. Our souls are not saved by the Law, but we certainly can save others from injustice by honoring the advice God gave us.

Do not steal, do not bear false witness... if we reject this, how can we expect God to rescue us from oppressive people? Jesus is our substitute for our own guilt; then we can help others find peace and wholeness.

 

[insurchoftruth]

Most of the problems of men in this world, are, because men have decided to live their own way, as they like it, without their Creator, and without consideration of how God wants men to live. The more mankind goes away from God, the more ways of self destruction they find and follow.

Most of the problems in this world, are man made.

God created the universe and the earth, in order for us, to live according to the purposes for which God created us, but when we go away from the intentions and purposes of God for this world, then we become useless for those purposes. God is the giver of life, therefore, he has the full right to say, how that life should be lived.

 

[Bible2]

dga said in post 9:

Most of the problems in this world, are man made.

Satan can also be the one who causes people to suffer (Luke 13:16). Jesus came to counteract Satan's work in the world (John 10:10). Jesus miraculously healed multitudes of people (Matthew 12:15b) oppressed by Satan (Acts 10:38). And Jesus still miraculously heals some people today, sometimes through Christians who have been given the Spiritual gift of miraculous healing (1 Corinthians 12:9).

Christians, with their hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2), can look far beyond any temporal suffering they may be undergoing (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Revelation 2:10-11; 1 Peter 4:12-13). God can permit some Christians to suffer in order to help them remain humble before him and others (2 Corinthians 12:7). Also, suffering can strengthen Christians spiritually (Romans 5:3-5). It can help them to stop putting any hope in that which is merely mortal and temporal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, John 12:25, Matthew 10:37-39). Also, when God allows Christians to suffer, he provides them with his comfort to help them through their suffering (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).

We mustn't ever say that it's evil for God to allow human suffering. For the only way to eradicate any possibility of human suffering would be to eradicate any possibility of humans committing sin (John 5:14). And the only way to eradicate any possibility of humans committing sin would be to eradicate their free will. It's better for humans to have free will and for there to be the possibility of suffering, than for them to be robots with no free will and for there to be no possibility of suffering. By becoming a human in Jesus Christ and suffering and dying for our sins, God has made a way for us to retain our free will and yet escape suffering in hell forever for our sins. For as the human/divine Son of God, Jesus' suffering satisfied God the Father's justice (Isaiah 53:11), which requires an infinite amount of human suffering for sin (Matthew 25:41,46).

Also, suffering is like gravity, in that while it can cause us problems, who would want to live without it? For example, someone could say that God was cruel to create gravity because it sometimes causes old people to fall down and break their hips. But who would want to get rid of gravity and float off into space? It's the same way with suffering. Someone could say that God was cruel to create the possibility of suffering. But if God made it impossible for us to suffer, what could happen to us? For example, imagine that you went on a camping trip, built a campfire, and laid down in your sleeping bag near the fire and fell asleep. While you were sleeping, you turned over at one point in such a way that your hand went into the fire. But because of your ability to suffer, you immediately woke up and pulled your hand out of the fire, keeping your hand from getting badly burned. But if you had had no ability to suffer, you would have stayed asleep with your hand in the fire, and woken up in the morning with no hand: it would have been burned clean off.

So suffering can be a good thing when it causes us to draw back from something that will harm us. God sometimes brings suffering to those he loves as a way of chastening them and getting them to repent from a sin (Revelation 3:19, Hebrews 12:5-11). For God knows how much harm their sin will cause them (Galatians 6:8, Hebrews 10:26-29), while on their own they could be oblivious to the danger (Proverbs 14:12).

 

[FelicityAnn13]

Just stumbled across this CF website, with all due respect to Harry, Galatians scripture is on sowing and reaping is specifically speaking about money, let's not take scripture out of context like so many well-meaning Christians do to suit their journey with God.

Jehoachim search within and find your answers, one think I have learnt is many Christians base their opinions on THEIR personal walks with the Lord.

I have asked this same question, Jesus said He came to give life and life abundantly yet there are so many defeated Christians struggling on a daily basis.

There are different levels we go through from baby to spiritual maturity and your answer lies within and where you are at - many times Christians give advice and opinions and really it confuses us more.

You are the TEMPLE of the HS and if you keep searching you will find your answers that are UNIQUE to your walk with the Lord, putting aside others' opinions based on their walk.

The Word says there will come a time where we will seek to worship in spirit and truth, take from that scripture what YOU feel is good for you right now.

The HS is the ONLY one who can reveal TRUTH to YOU based on your journey with the Lord.

Teachers etc are good but remember they are basing their teachings on THEIR journeys.