God and Suffering
"Then God saw everything
that He had made, and indeed
it was very good."
(The Bible: Genesis chapter 1, verse 31)
For many people, the fact that there is so much suffering and injustice in the world is incompatible with a kind and righteous God. Above all, painful personal experien-ces such as a major illness or the loss of a loved one often cause those affected to doubt God's love and good nature. Some accuse God of the grievances on this earth without questioning their own roles and responsibilities.
The Bible testifies that when God created this world, it was very good. According to biblical tradition, after God had finished his work in six days, he enjoyed what he had done. In this flawless world, which the Bible describes as paradise, the first humans lived in peace and complete harmony with their Creator and his creation, enjoying the carefree life they had in the beginning.
If, on the other hand, we look at our world today, which is characterized by disease, death and violence, we find that it is any-thing but heavenly. The question now arises: If everything was very good in the begin-ning, when God created the world, how can all the suffering we see every day be explained against the background of an originally perfect creation? God's Word gives us the answer.
“For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light."
(The Bible: Psalm 36, verse 10)
The connection to God, our creator, was from the beginning the light of the people, which gives meaning and orientation to our lives. Because of God, our life has mea-ning. Through HIM we humans have an iden-tity. At the same time, the relationship with our Creator is the basis for a fulfilling life on earth.
Now, if everything was very good in the beginning, where did evil come from? Now, just as when you remove light from a room, darkness remains, or when you remove heat from a room, cold remains, so also when you remove God from life, nothing remains but darkness and emptiness. Consequently, evil is not something that God created, but merely the absence of good: separation from God.
Just as a flower that has been cut off without a root, which supplies it with the water it needs for life, dries up after a short time, so too does man without a spiritual and life-giving relationship with God soo-ner or later die mentally and physically. In other words, where the connection between Creator and creature is absent, neither peace, nor joy, nor life is lasting. For with-out the relationship to God, human exis-tence remains meaningless (See: Who is God?).
Most people in this world feel this defi-ciency, even if they are often not aware of the reason for it. This deficiency has a visible effect on all areas of human life. The consequences are fear, addiction, loneliness, depression as well as unrest, egoism and malice of all kinds. Many are looking for ways and means to make up for the emptiness within (such as through work, hobbies, pleasure or intoxicating substances) and in this way somehow to give their ephemeral life a meaning. But there is nothing and nobody in the world who can permanently fill this shortage, except God. nor can any interpersonal relationship re-place a person's natural bond with God. And so most of all people live in Dark, with-out meaning and without hope, because they lack the light of life....
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
"Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
but of the tree the knowledge of good and evil
you shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat of it you shall surely die."
(The Bible: Genesis chapter 2, verses 16-17)
After God created man, he initially gave him only one commandment. This small and inconspicuous-sounding commandment should show whether man trusts his crea-tor and whether he recognizes his ordi-nances, which God has laid down as the basis for human life on earth and which are all just and good. At the same time, God knew that existence without him and his commandments would end in suffering and chaos after a short time, which the course of human history has confirmed to this day....
Despite God's explicit warning that disobey-ing His Word would mean death, people broke God's commandments. This event, which the Bible describes as the fall of man, marks the beginning of man's rebellion against his Creator, which in turn had dire consequences for man and life on this earth. God's Word tells us how man's betrayal came about.
"Did God indeed said....?"
(The Bible: Genesis chapter 3, verse 1)
In this context the Bible mentions a being called "Satan" (Hebrew = "enemy"), who is also devil (Greek: "Diabolos" = "Muddler") and who is described as the originator of sin.
Even if many people consider the devil to be a fantasy, Satan is a completely real being. But Unlike people today depicting the de-vil, Satan is described in the Bible as a fallen angel who once served God. He was of very beautiful in appearance and he had one of the highest positions among all angels, which God created to serve God and us humans.
But Satan's heart lifted. His glory and beau-ty made him proud and made him admire himself and seek his own honor instead of his Maker's. This went so far that Satan began to strive to be equal to God and to rule in his place. Since he did not succeed in this, he declared himself an enemy of God. Satan's pride and unbridled lust for honor and power drove him to lure all the angels into rebellion against God, thereby draw-ing them to his side by claiming that God's rule was unjust.
In this way, Satan was able to deceive many angels, so that about a third of them joined Satan's rebellion. Thus arose a battle in heaven - in the unseen world - which later continued on earth. After Satan had destroyed the peace between God and the angels, man also became Satan's target....
Although Satan's accusations against God were unfounded from the start and God could have destroyed him instantly be-cause of his rebellion, God decided to al-low Satan to have his way within a certain period of time so that it would be clear to all that Satan's claims about his Creator are not true and that Satan's intentions are in fact evil and selfish.
Satan's deception was also fatal to the first humans that God created after the angels. Instead of trusting God and heeding his warning, they let a lie lure them into dis-obedience to their Creator. Through their unfaithfulness to God and transgression of His commandments, people recognized evil that was previously alien to them. The personal experience of being guilty led to man's divorce from his Creator. At the same time man lost his right to eternal life for which he was originally made. And so the earth that God once created as a paradise for man became the new arena for Satan's turmoil.
This war, which continues to this day, is about who we believe and whose side we are on: Do we trust God, our Creator, who only wants the best for everyone and whose com-mands give us peace, security and true free-dom? Or do we listen to Satan, whose inten-tions are marked by pride and self-interest, and who have brought nothing but death and injustice to the earth?
"Then the serpent (Satan) said to the woman,
“You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
(The Bible: Genesis chapter 3, verses 4-5)
Satan's goal is primarily to set people apart from God and bring them to serve him. At the same time, Satan seeks to combat and destroy the truth and all who are faithful to God, and moreover to destroy God's pure and perfect plan for His creation. Satan uses any means to achieve his goal.
In order to put his plans into action, Satan uses human pride first and foremost, ma-king them put themselves, their opinions and values before God and his words. In addition, Satan uses every conceivable means (such as money, pleasure and enter-tainment, sexual attractions, industry, me-dia, politics, science and much more) to dis-tract people from God and to let them do things that displease God. Then when people are becoming guilty, Satan can accuse them before God. Music and movies, which have a particularly strong influence on people today, many of which contain ungodly content, also serve as tools for Satan to deceive people subliminally.
On the one hand, Satan tries to make people believe that God doesn't exist and that it doesn't matter how we live because it has no consequences for us. On the other hand, Satan sows doubt and distrust in people about their Creator by challenging God's good plans and purposes. To do this, Satan skillfully uses lies and deception to mislead people while ob-scuring his true goals. It is not for nothing that the Bible calls him the "father of lies". In doing so, Satan leads people to believe that the evil he intends is good and the good that God desires is in fact unjust and evil and that it would be better if everyone could control their own lives.
The Bible also says that Satan disguises him-self as an "angel of light". This means that Satan pretends that his purposes are for the good and benefit of all, when in truth he sees humans as just a means to achieve his selfish ends. Satan also uses political or religious oppression and persecution to achieve his intentions (see:God and church).
By disobeying God and His commandments and ordinances, people automatically re-cognize Satan as their ruler. For that is exactly what Satan intends. That is why the Bible refers to him as the present "god" of this world. To this day, the vast majo-rity of humanity follows Satan's example in striving to be independent of their Cre-ator, believing that man has no need of God. Many people today try to justify this reprehensible attitude with terms such as “humanism” or “self-determination”.
In fact, by doing so, they make themselves a willing tool of Satan and his evil agenda. At the same time, they miss the goal of their lives and finally risk being lost forever. Because the consequence of sin, which means a life contrary to God and his com-mandments, is eternal damnation....
"although they knew God, they did not
glorify Him as God, nor were thankful,
but became futile in their thoughts,
and their foolish hearts were darkened."
(The Bible: Romans chapter 1, verses 18-32)
The The root of all evil, the consequences of which are visible in many ways in our world (e.g. strife, hostility, murder and retribution, theft, sexual infidelity, etc.), is pride and the desire to be like God and thus to be the center of life to stand; just as Satan intended from the beginning.
Through their unfaithfulness to God and transgression of His commandments, people recognized evil that was previously alien to them. The personal experience of being guil-ty led to man's divorce from his Creator. At the same time man thereby lost his right to eternal life, which he had in the beginning.
The further man turned away from God, the more he lost sight of the meaning and purpose of his existence. Instead of loving his fellow human beings and preserving God's creation - as is our destiny - man began to revolve more and more around himself, increasingly looking only to him-self. At the same time, the greed for power and reputation came to the fore. Since then, instead of giving glory and thanks to God, our Creator, people have strived to make a name for themselves in order to be worshiped by other people or to gain fame and recognition.
The renegade people rose up one over the other, so that eventually the strong ruled over the weak. So this paradise world, as God once made it, was filled more and more with hatred and violence. Since then, arrogance and envy as well as greed and egotism have determined the thoughts and actions of most people.
All goods and raw materials on earth, which God had originally made accessible to all people, were now claimed by a few for themselves. While some people were now able to live in abundance, the number of those affected by poverty and material need increased steadily. To this day, money or possessions are the means to rule over other people and to influence events in the world in one's own favour.
Since most people were unwilling to listen to God and turn to their Creator, God left them to their own will and the corrupting desires of their hearts. The result is war, poverty, injustice, disease, terror, moral de-cay and an almost completely destroyed planet....
In addition, people began to make false gods according to their own ideas and to think up all sorts of myths and fables, which a large part of humanity still be-lieves in today.
"And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed;
to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast
of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in
which there is life, I have given every
green herb for food”; and it was so."
(The Bible: Genesis chapter 1, verses 29-30)
As a result of man's transgression of his commandment, God pronounced a curse on the earth so that man would recognize his dependence on God and not lose touch with his Creator once and for all. In addi-tion, this should make it clear to people that a life in paradise, like the one people had up to the point in time when they turned their backs on God, is only possible in connection with their Creator.
At the same time, God made His promise to mankind that one day He would liberate all creation from impermanence and res-tore earth to the state of paradise where all people can live in harmony and abundance (See: The way to redemption).
Man's fall from grace also had conside-rable consequences for all plants and ani-mals. While in the beginning humans and animals still lived in harmony with each other and nobody lacked food, the curse that resulted from human sin caused a dramatic change in the circumstances and thus also in the food supply on our planet. Thus, many animals and plants were forced to adapt to the changed circumstances on earth. Some animals, all of which God originally created to be herbivores, now began to hunt or kill other animals and eat their flesh in order to survive them-selves. Thus the struggle for survival be-came a sign of a fallen creation as a further consequence of man's falling away from God....
Many people who reject God as Creator often show a low regard for nature as part of his creation. This is particularly visible in the ruthless handling of our unique environment, which is vital for all people. As a result, man not only destroys his own basis of existence, but at the same time disregards his responsibility, which God has given him to protect and preserve nature.
In the past 200 years since the beginning of industrialization, human greed for con-sumption and profit has led to increasing destruction of our planet, which has resul-ted in the mass extinction of tens of thousands of animal and plant species, which once enriched this earth through their diversity, within a very short time (See: Creation vs. Evolution").
This is accompanied by a ruthless exploi-tation of humans and animals, which comes to light, among other things, in intensive animal husbandry. Globalization and mass production have accelerated this develop-ment many times over.
But as in everything else, the selfish actions of man take their revenge in the form of natural catastrophes and epidemics, which are increasing worldwide and which claim dozens of human victims year after year....
Jesus Christ says:
"Whoever commits sin
is a slave of sin."
(The Bible: John chap. 8, verse 34)
As a result of separation from his Creator, man became the slave of his own instincts. At the same time, his conscience and sense of what is good and bad, natural and un-natural, became more and more dulled. To this day mankind is under the influence of Satan, captive in bondage to sin - the conse-quence of which is death. For generations, sin has destroyed man morally and physi-cally, and increasingly robbed him of his dignity as a creature made in the image of God. At the same time, pride and stubbern-ness blind people to the good and prevent them from seeing God and the truth.
Driven by his destructive passions and lusts, man always desires more; but his soul finds no rest and his longing is never satisfied. Man's insatiable selfishness finally brought all the indescribable misery to this earth that mankind laments to this day. However, instead of understanding the real reasons, many blame God for the hardships on this planet that we are causing by our rebellion against God Himself....
Man has risen to be the measure of all things and has fallen deeply in the process. Without the saving intervention of God, mankind would most likely have long since extinguished itself in its megalomania. Even the technological "progress" that impresses humanity and that many people boast about today cannot in the least make up for what man has lost since the day he turned from God.
Man's falling away from his Creator is thus the true cause of sickness and suffering. It is not God who is to blame for the misery of this world, but rather the intransigence of people who disregard God and his com-mandments and thus follow Satan's path. Even painful experiences associated with death and pain are ultimately the effects of sin in a world that wants nothing to do with God and in which love is growing colder and colder. And so, in defiance, blinded mankind undeterred treads the path to its doom....