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Many agnostics and atheists have asked the question, “If God exists, then why does He allow evil, pain, and suffering to continue in the world?” God does exist and He does allow evil, pain, and suffering to occur in this world. This article will explain why God allows the evil, pain, and sufferings of this world to continue.
A better way to view the question is not to lay the blame on God, asking why He allows evil, pain, and suffering to occur in the world, but instead ask why man is evil and causes so much evil, pain, and suffering in the world.
Agnostic and atheist skeptics use the argument that since there is evil, pain, and suffering in the world, then God surely does not exist. That there is evil in the world, that results in pain, suffering, and death, does not disprove the existence of God, but merely shows that God is currently permitting evil, pain, suffering, and death to occur in the world at this current time.
GOD KEEPS HIS WORD
GENESIS 2:15-17 (NKJV):
Then YHWH (the Lord) God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
It was Adam who decided to disobey God and ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve, and as such, we are all descendants of the fateful decision Adam made to disobey God, resulting in the evil, pain, suffering, and death that this world experiences to this day.
Adam, in his decision to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, declared to God that he would decide, apart from the wisdom of God, what is good and what is evil. He didn’t heed God’s warning that if he did eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die.
GENESIS 3:22-24 (NKJV):
Then YHWH (the Lord) God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” – therefore YHWH (the Lord) God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man.
After Adam had ‘become like God’ in that he was able to discern between good and evil, God had to keep His word that Adam and his descendants, all of mankind, would die. Adam could not be permitted to eat from the knowledge of the tree of life and live forever. Although Adam now knew good and evil, he chose not to put his faith in God for His wisdom to show him to properly discern between good and evil. Adam had declared to God, in sum and substance, that he would be the one to decide what is good and evil in his life, and God, in sum and substance, declared to Adam, OK, go ahead, see how that works out for you, but now you will die and you cannot eat from the tree of life and live forever.
EVIL, PAIN, SUFFERING, AND DEATH ARE THE RESULT OF SIN
ROMANS 5:12 (NKJV):
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
WHY DO PEOPLE, EVEN CHRISTIANS, DIE PREMATURELY?
Some people are murdered in the prime of their lives, others are aborted in the womb, others have died in wars, and many die as a result of the sin of murder being in the world. After Adam sinned in disobedience, it didn’t take long for the world’s first murder to occur, as Adam’s son Cain killed his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8).
Many people acquire diseases, because of sin, and die prematurely.
ROMANS 1:27 (NKJV):
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:18 (NKJV):
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body.
Homosexuality has been declared by God to be an abomination and an unnatural lust (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13). Men who engage in the sin of homosexuality, and others who engage in other forms of sexual immorality, can acquire sexually transmitted diseases and die prematurely.
ISAIAH 66:17 (NKJV):
“Those who sanctify and purify themselves … eating swine’s flesh and the abomination [SEA CREATURES WITHOUT FINS AND SHEDDING, OVERLAPPING SCALES] and the mouse, shall be consumed [BY DISEASE] together,” says YHWH (the Lord).
People acquire cancer and a whole host of other bodily diseases, due to the fact that either through ignorance, a lack of knowledge, or willful disobedience to God’s dietary laws, they eat unclean creatures that were never sanctioned by God to be food. Many people also smoke cigarettes and use narcotic and pharmaceutical drugs to damage their health and shorten their life spans.
ISAIAH 55:9 (NKJV):
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
JOHN 14:6 (NKJV):
Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “I am THE WAY, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
REVELATION 22:14 (NKJV):
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
God is allowing mankind to continue in evil, pain, suffering, and death,
so that man can learn an eternal lesson from the experience and foolish thinking that we know anything better than God does. His ways are higher than our ways. He is the way and His commandments are life.
GOD WANTS AS MANY WHO CAN BE SAVED TO BE SAVED
2 PETER 3:9 (NKJV):
The Lord (Yeshua / Jesus) is not slack concerning His promise [TO RETURN], as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:54-58 (NKJV):
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ).
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
REVELATION 7:16-17 (NKJV):
They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
REVELATION 19:15 (NKJV):
Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron.
REVELATION 21:4 (NKJV):
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.
We are living in an age of grace, where sin abounds, resulting in evil, pain, suffering, and death for all. The age of grace will expire and Yeshua (Jesus) will come to judge the inhabitants of the Earth. He will rule with a rod of iron – putting an end to evil, pain, suffering, and death, but before He returns He is being patient and wants as many who can be saved to be saved.
REVELATION 6:10-11 (NKJV):
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood [OF THE BEHEADED SAINTS] on those who dwell on the earth?” Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
The saints who miss the rapture, due to living in some sin that prevents them from making the rapture and are left behind, will have an opportunity to repent, but they will need to refuse to receive the mark of the beast, and will be beheaded. Many will come to repentance and refuse the mark. Even the beheaded saints, resurrected and in the presence of Yeshua (Jesus), are prophesied to grow impatient for His return to the Earth, but Yeshua (Jesus) will tell them to be patient while their fellow brethren demonstrate their repentance and get killed through the guillotine, just as they were.
JAMES 4:14 (NKJV):
For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
ROMANS 8:18 (NKJV):
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, which shall be revealed in us.
1 CORINTHIANS 2:9 (NKJV):
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
2 CORINTHIANS 4:17-18 (NKJV):
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Whoever has ever lived, whether rich, poor, free, slave, ruler, or servant, his or her life on Earth is but a vapor, a speck in time compared to the vast ocean of time that awaits in eternity. The evil, pain, suffering, and death of this present age are a result of man’s rebellion against God and are not worthy to be compared to the eternal love and glory that God will bestow upon those who love Him.
