It is a common complaint by critics of God and the Bible that He does not stop sickness and suffering in the world. The accusation is made that if God is truly good and loving and has all power, why doesn’t He eliminate suffering in our world?
These same people openly admit that they don’t believe in God, nor have they committed their lives to Him.
———>Whose Fault Is It?<————
It is important to understand that God made the world perfect at the beginning. No one ever became sick, suffered, or died. There was no evil on our planet until the first man and woman decided that they did not want to obey God’s moral laws. It was we who brought suffering into the world by the introduction of sin. Those who say it’s not fair that God has punished the whole world for the sins of Adam and Eve, also commit their own sins and refuse to submit their lives to God today.
It has always been sin that has caused the evil, suffering, and death that exists on our planet, not God.
A Righteous World Promised
For those who love God, and trust in the salvation that He promised us by the death of His Son on the cross for our sins, God will give us a new world where there is no suffering or death. Evil will not be permitted in God’s future kingdom and all people will live in a perfect world as God intended.
Jesus described two kingdoms that exist in this world—the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. We can serve the Lord, or we can serve satan; there is no neutral ground.
Jesus said that those who are not for Him, are against Him. Every person who refuses to submit to His righteous rule in their life, automatically defaults to the kingdom of satan. You might not think that you serve the devil, but in the words of Jesus who knows the truth, He said that when you turn away from God’s kingdom, you place yourself into the kingdom of satan.
A person might object to the limitation of only two choices, but this is nevertheless the only two options God has given us. If a person will not serve Jesus, then he serves in satan’s kingdom. Someone might claim that he does not serve God nor satan, but neutrality is not an option that God recognizes. Jesus said that those who are not with Him are against Him.
He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. ~Luke 11:23
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. ~John 8:42-45
Giving someone the freedom to make their own choices is the greatest act of genuine love a person can express. The unfortunate consequences of conveying this freedom to a person is that they may use their liberty to make decisions that cause their suffering as well as the suffering of many others. The continuing consequences of allowing all human beings the privilege of their free will is clear and obvious all over the earth. It is a mistake to blame God for what people do to each other by their own choices.
We forget many times that our acts of sin and the suffering people experience in this world as a result of those sins are a part of God’s patience and His longsuffering in allowing us time to change our minds and come to Him.
The LORD is longsuffering… ~Numbers 14:18
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. ~2 Peter 3:9
The God Of This World
Jesus described satan as the god of this present world. At the garden of Eden, God gave rulership of the earth to Adam. At his fall, he lost dominion of the earth to satan. When Jesus came to earth, he began His ministry by going into the desert for 40 days where the devil tempted Him three times. In one of these temptations, the devil offered Jesus the kingdom of this world if He would fall down and worship him. Jesus never disputed this claim, but instead said that we should worship only the Lord our God and serve only Him.
Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ~Luke 4:5-8
At the cross, Jesus not only died for the sins of the world, He also defeated the kingdom of satan and gained the right to rule over the earth once again. Jesus has delayed this rulership so that He might give every person on the planet, time to decide whom they will serve. God has said that He will not strive with us forever, but has appointed a time when He will end this period of Grace when anyone can be saved, and Jesus will come again to assume HIs rightful place as ruler of the earth.
…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. ~1 John 3:8
As the Lord sees the world in a condition He never intended for us, He longs for the day when He will say, “Enough!”, and the time of His patience with man’s sin will come to an end.
And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever…” ~Genesis 6:3
Parents who observe their children making decisions that cause their hurt, suffer themselves as they see their sons or daughters experience the consequences of their actions. The Lord has been suffering for the decisions Adam has made as well as those who are his descendants, for six thousand years.
God cannot do anything evil. He will, however, not prevent us from doing the evil we choose to do by our own free will. It would be completely unloving for God to stop us from exercising our right of choice, which He has given us, to make our own decisions apart from Him, if that is our desire.
God does, however, suffer greatly for the decisions we make, and constantly seeks to draw us into a close relationship with Him so that He can someday remove us from this present world that is quickly coming to an end. It should be noted that this time—when we can choose to rebel against God—will not last forever. At the end of this age, when Jesus returns to earth, the entire population of this planet will live in conformity to the righteous laws of God.
It was the compassion of God in all our suffering and His desire to end our pain that compelled Him to allow His only Son to die for us by such great torture and misery.
This second Old Testament prophecy that Jesus fulfilled is found in the second part of Genesis 3:15:
…He (Jesus) shall bruise your head (satan), And you shall bruise His heel. ~Genesis 3:15
At the Cross, Jesus not only paid for the sins of every person for all time, He also bruised the head of satan. The meaning of this verse is clear: Jesus would destroy the works of satan by removing man’s slavery to sin and the fear of death that all men have.
… that through death Jesus might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ~Hebrews 2:14-15
The meaning of “He shall bruise your head” is clearly a reference to a fatal blow that was dealt to satan and his works by Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.
The second part of Genesis 3:15, in this second Old Testament prophecy, describes Jesus as He would experience a bruising of His heel by satan. It was the intent of satan, at Jesus’ death, that He would be defeated and lose His ability to be our Savior. The attempt of the devil to stop Jesus’ efforts to save us, was only the bruising of Jesus heel; the devil could not stop Him.
Satan clearly did not understand the ramifications of Jesus’ death nor that His resurrection would mean the end of satan’s rulership over man. When Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, the reality of what His death had accomplished was revealed to all creation.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ~1 Corinthians 2:7-8
As satan understood that he had been defeated forever and his limited rulership over the earth for the past six thousand years was over, he knew that his remaining time was short. In these last days before Jesus returns, satan has drastically increased his activity of evil and deception in seeking to destroy as many lives as possible before the Lord returns.
For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. ~Revelation 12:12
Jesus’ death on the Cross caused only a bruising of His heel. At the resurrection, Jesus lifted His foot and crushed the head of the serpent forever, who once defeated man in the garden and took away his right to rule and his eternal life.
The Fulfillment of this second prophecy of the Bible is found in these two New Testament Verses:
That through death Jesus might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ~Hebrews 2:14-15
… For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. ~1 John 3:8
Today, because Jesus did not waiver or fail in His efforts to save us, all people everywhere have the opportunity to have their sins removed and be flawless in the eyes of God. All those who come to Jesus Christ in true and sincere repentance, looking to His sacrifice on the Cross as the payment for their sins, have their record of wrong cleansed.
If you are trusting in Jesus today, and believe that He died for you on the Cross and rose from the dead, your sins are no more, and you are clean and perfect before God. There is therefore NOW no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus… (Romans 8:1)
The Perils Of Those In Satan’s Kingdom
Those who refuse to follow Jesus and submit their lives to Him, are subject to the rulership of satan. He can do whatever he wants to these persons. We see the results of this all over the earth. Massive evil, sickness, suffering and death. The devil has come to destroy and this is what he does everyday on the earth.
Jesus said: “The devil does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” ~John 10:10
When Jesus returns, satan and all those who were a part of his kingdom will be assigned to the prison of hell where they will wait for their final judgment at the end of Jesus’ one thousand year reign on the earth. At the conclusion of this time, the devil and all those who joined his kingdom, will be raised and judged by God at the Great White Throne of Revelation chapter 20. They will all be throne alive into Lake of Fire where they will exist forever.
People Who Choose Darkness, To Darkness They Will Go
Hell is not a place where those who hate God join together to party and live as they please. It is a prison of darkness where no one will ever see light again. Each person will be held in isolation by themselves and have no contact with any other person. The demons will torment and tear at them forever and all their thoughts will be on regret and their foolishness that brought them to this place of torments.
Author Randy Alcorn describes the isolation of hell:
“The aloneness was becoming stifling. He could hear nothing, feel nothing, see nothing, sense nothing. He had only himself. He considered the unthinkable—that this was not a phase, a part of a transition, but the final destination. That this was hell.” ~Deadline, Randy Alcorn, Page 341
In understanding these principles of God’s word, we see that it is we who are the cause of sickness, suffering, evil and death in the world. We permit these things by our willing rejection of God’s righteous rule over our lives. If God ruled over this world, none of these plagues would be present. The fact that they are here now tells us that something outside God has caused sickness and suffering to occur.
You and I have a choice where we want to live. We decide the kind of kingdom we want to abide in. If we choose Jesus and follow Him, we will live in a perfect world and all of our hopes of ending evil and suffering, will come true. No one in Jesus’ kingdom will ever grow old, get sick, or die again. There will never be anyone who commits evil or is allowed to harm anyone again.
Evil in the world is the fault of human beings and the devil who brought these perils to our planet. God has done all that He could do to stop these plagues by allowing Jesus to die for all sins and make it possible for Him to rule over the world in righteousness.
This matter is now in your hands, whose kingdom do you want to belong?
Categories: Book of Life, Common objections by Atheists, Following Jesus, Forgiveness of Sin, How Salvation Occurs, Jesus conquered death and Hell, Jesus destroyed the work of the devil, Justification, Living For Jesus, Not understanding salvation, Religion vs. Relationship, Robert Clifton Robinson, Ruling with Jesus, Salvation is a free gift, Salvation through Jesus, The earth is the Lord's, The fall of Lucifer, The world rejects Jesus, We must repent, What happens after death?, Where Evil Men Are Tormented, Why God Allows Evil, Why Jesus had to die
Robert Clifton Robinson 
I can understand the logic of God punishing adults who reject Him and continue in sin but what I cannot understand is why Jesus allows 17,000 children under the age of five, each and every day, month after month, year after year, to die from starvation.
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Thanks for your comments Gary.
It is important to understand that those of us who live on this earth, let 17,000 children die of starvation each day, not Jesus. The Lord has given us this earth to manage and it is we who are responsible for the suffering that takes place on earth. Each year, humans spend enough money on things they don’t need (a new cell phone, tv, car…) And Trillions of dollars on weapons to kill people, more than sufficient to feed every person on the planet.
We are all at fault for starvation, poverty, and human suffering. God has given us the resources and ability to feed the world and stop suffering, but our selfish, sinful nature, makes this impossible.
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So even though Jesus has the power to prevent 17,000 little children from dying each and every day from starvation, he doesn’t do it because he has handed off this responsibility to humans. Does sound just to me. In fact, it sounds like something an indifferent bureaucrat would do.
Is it moral to shift responsibility for resolving human suffering to others when you yourself have the power to resolve it?
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I find it interesting that you think that selfish human beings bear no responsibility for the suffering that exists in the world, when we have the absolute ability to stop it today.
You are blaming God for what we have caused.
How exactly is it God’s fault that people are starving?
Perhaps you believe that God should force us to be good?
God created a world for us and gave it to all of us to live upon and enjoy. He told us to love each other, care for one another, and take care of the poor, hungry, sick, and destitute.
We don’t do this, and suddenly its God’s fault because He gave the earth to us.
I find your logic baffling, it makes no sense to me.
This kind of reasoning is one that I often see from those who claim to be atheists, but are actually God haters.
It’s not really that hard to understand that human beings are the cause of suffering in the world.
If our world would obey God and truly love our fellow man, no one would die of hunger.
It is our fault that we are so selfish that we don’t give food to those who are hungry. We have the resources on the earth that God gave us, but we don’t use them to help people, we use them to hurt people.
How many hungry people did you feed this year?
Once again, we are the reason that people die from hunger. We are the reason that evil has overtaken our planet. We are the ones who kill, steal, rape, and destroy the lives of other people. God has not done these things, we have done them and it is our fault that the world is filled with suffering.
If you don’t understand this and continue to try and blame God for what we have caused, I don’t know how I can convince you of something so obvious.
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I never said that humans bear no responsibility for the 17,000 little children who starve to death everyday. There is a lot we humans could do to decrease this horrific number of deaths.
But is it moral to shift all responsibility for this travesty onto human beings when you are omnipotent and all-knowing?
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I think that is an excellent question, Gary.
If God had said that it was His responsibility to prevent human suffering, hunger, and stop all crime, then He would certainly be culpable. The problem with your assumption is that God said that He has given dominion of the earth to us. It is our responsibility to love and care for the poor, sick. hungry, and homeless.
He will hold us accountable for whether we took care of the least of these or ignored them and focussed on our own life.
God created the universe to provide an environment for earth, and created our planet so that it would support human life and other life forms. He made earth so that it contains all of the raw materials that we would need to build everything we have. He gave the responsibility for governing earth, to us.
With these things in mind, God also allows us to bear the consequences for how we manage earth and take care of each other.
The question of whether God will help us and do something about evil, sickness, suffering and death, has been answered: The death and resurrection of Jesus, paid for the sins of every person and made it possible for all of us to live in the perfect world that God will create for us in the future.
First God had to provide a way for our sins to me removed, then offer us redemption. He then provided a period of time to give us an opportunity to chose the Savior He provided, or to reject Him.
God said that He will not always strive with us, but has appointed a time when His offer of redemption will end and He will bring this present world to an end.
Jesus will return to earth to rule over a kingdom of righteousness that will never end. This will be a forced rule where God will not allow evil any longer. No one will ever hurt or kill on earth again. There will be no sickness or death. Those who commit their lives to Jesus now, will return with Him to be co-rulers over this kingdom.
Because the earth remains under suffering, some have imagined that God doesn’t care, or is unable to help us. What is actually taking place is that God is waiting, now, after Jesus has made salvation possible, for the world to decide. While He is waiting for us our world continues to suffer under sin, evil, and death.
The arrival of Jesus on earth is sufficient to answer the question of whether God cares or is able or willing to help us. When Jesus came and died for us, this event forever settled the question of God’s love for human beings.
Peter wrote about this and gave an answer to the critics who scoff at the idea that Jesus will return:
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. ~2 Peter 3:9-10 (NLT)
Your falling away, Gary, was not due to a lack on the Lord’s part, but a lack in your assurance in God’s word. I have witnesses this many times in the lives of people like you. You have read too much of the critics words and not enough of Jesus’ words. Assurance comes from studying and knowing the words of God, not the words of men.
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Why do you believe that the Bible is true?
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In large part, I answered this question in your preceding post. A few additional observations:
1. The Bible has a solid, historical record that has stood the test of time and every attack and criticism over the past 2,000 years, unscathed. Yes, there are many criticism’s and imagined contradictions and discrepancies, but all of these have been answered and impeached. The Bible has survived the test of time and every critical assessment by every generation, as the singular valid historical record of the true events of God, sin, salvation and the future judgement, written by honest men who told the world the truth about God.
2. The Bible is the only accurate record of the true nature of God and His true and unbiased answer for why the word exists in the horrible condition we find it.
3. Only the Bible tells us the truth about the human condition and our desperate state, incurable sinful nature, and the plan that God formulated for our redemption, before He created the universe.
4. The Bible is the only religious book that accurately describes the true nature and function of the universe (see “A Universe From God,” and “How Intelligence Acted Upon The Universe.”
5. The Bible is the only book that accurately shows us what God is really like, recording the arrival of God on earth in the person of Jesus, the Messiah.
6. The Bible is the only book that accurately describes the four ancient world empires, predicted long before they existed, as well as many other ancient kingdoms and people.
7. Following #6, the Bible is the only book in existence that contains thousands of prophetic predictions, of which, a majority have already been fulfilled. I wrote a 3,200 page book documenting the fulfillment of Jesus, of 400 Hebrew prophecies of the Messiah.
Although space will not permit me to demonstrate the accuracy of these 400 prophecies, I will show you one that makes this point:
Zechariah 9:9a Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
New Testament Fulfillment:
Matthew 21:8-11 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!” And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Matthew 21:4-5 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
The Arrival of the King
Zechariah 9:9 contains six important prophecies of the Messiah.
• The Messiah will be revealed at Jerusalem.
• The Messiah will be proclaimed as King at Jerusalem.
• The Messiah will be just.
• He is bringing salvation.
• He is coming humbly.
• He will be riding on the foal of a donkey.
When the Messiah makes His entrance into the world, it will be at Jerusalem.
Zechariah wrote this incredible prophecy 516 years before Jesus was born, 549 years before the event happened. We know from history that Zechariah lived and wrote in the second year of Darius 1st, king of Persia; twenty-eight years from Amyntas, king of Macedon; in the fifteenth year of Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of the Romans.
It is interesting that the Bible is the world’s best and most accurate record of history.Many secular historians obtain important facts and specific dates about many important events from ancient history, from the pages of the Bible. No other document of antiquity can come close to the massive amount of information that the Bible accurately records. Contrary to criticism by those who try to find inconsistencies and contradictions in the Bible, what is viewed as capricious, are actually quite easily explained when the full context and meaning of the text is understood. It is the critics who are misinformed, not the record of the Bible.
Robert D. Wilson, Ph.D.—February 4, 1856–October 11, 1930—was an American linguist and Biblical scholar who was fluent in 45 ancient languages and dialects, and had memorized the entire Old Testament in Hebrew. Dr. Wilson was able to recite, from memory, every word of the Hebrew scriptures without missing a syllable.
Dr. Wilson demonstrated that the secular accounts of 29 ancient kings from 10 different nations were inaccurate. At the same time, he also firmly established that the names of these kings, as they are recorded in the Old Testament scriptures, matched the artifacts of Archeology empirically.
Today, those who have criticized the Bible for being inaccurate have eaten their own words. The secular record has been proven inaccurate by discoveries of modern archeology, while the Biblical descriptions of archeological artifacts have been proven true.
Previous claims that certain references in the Bible—such as the depiction of King David, Pontius Pilate, and the ancient Hittites—once claimed by critics of the Old Testament as myths have been proven by archeological discoveries to be absolutely accurate.
See my book: “These Things Were Written: An Expositional Treatise Of The Life, Death, And Resurrection Of Jesus.” This publication contains one of the largest sources of evidence for the Bible and faith in Jesus Christ, in existence today.
I believe the Bible because the empirical evidence of history, archaeology, literature, and science, prove that it is the only ancient compilation of books that has told the truth about God, man, creation, sin, salvation, and the world to come.
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