Pain and Injustice In the World

Jesus said, referring to the Kingdom of Heaven, which lasts for all eternity, "Many who are now first will be last, and the last will be first." Mark 10,31

Non-religious people think this life is all there is, but to Christians our time on earth is like a prologue to the real thing - eternity in Heaven, living life to the full without the pains and worries of this temporary, imperfect existence.

Some people ask "God is supposed to be all-powerful and all-loving, so why doesn't He get rid of all the world's pain and suffering?"

We have a tendency to make assumptions about God and then to judge Him unfairly on the basis of those assumptions.


Assumption No 1 - God is All-Powerful

• When God created the universe He was all-powerful. However, when He gave mankind a conscience, the knowledge of right and wrong, He gave us the power to make the world a better, or a worse place.
  
  Through giving away some power God is, by definition, no longer "all-powerful". To become "all-powerful" again, He would have to take back our free will, turning us into living robots. Alternatively, He could eliminate all sinners - do we want that? Instead, our loving God chooses to allow us to keep on sinning.
  
  Don't confuse power with authority. God has 100% authority throughout the universe, but where power is concerned, He sometimes chooses not to use it, for the time being. Judgment Day isn't here yet.
  
  
  
• When God created the universe He also put in place His Laws Of Nature. They specify exactly how the universe holds together and how its many processes take place. Scientists (myself included) have spent countless hours experimenting in order to gain a better understanding of how these elegant, precise and amazing laws work.
  
  Being a God of justice, He chose to obey His own laws. If an earthquake is about to happen because of geological forces, God is not going to somehow reverse those forces. Remember too that on average there are 50 earthquakes a day, each resulting from the Laws Of Nature taking their course.
  
  Obeying His own laws limits God's freedom of action.

Assumption No 2 - God is All-Loving

God is love. 1 John 4,16

• God loves everyone and everything He created.
  
  
  • He loves the world
  • He loves nature
  • He loves us !
  
  
  
• What God doesn't love is
  
  
  • the appalling things we do to the world
  • the appalling things we do to nature
  • the appalling things we do to our fellow human beings.

These things are sins. God hates sin. God doesn't want us to be doing things to each other, He wants us to be doing things for each other !!

[Jesus said] "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you." Matthew 7,12

Sin may be enjoyable to the sinner, but it brings misery, or even death, to the person on the receiving end. Not only the victim, but their friends and family can be faced with suffering too. That is one of the reasons God hates sin. Some people look on God as a kill-joy, but in fact He is on the side of the victims of sin, such as people who have been cheated on, people who have been physically or mentally abused, or victims of theft.

God could stop people sinning by taking away their free will, by punishing them each day for the sins of that day, or by punishing them at the end of their life. In fact He punishes sinners at the end of their life, but if they turn to Jesus and sincerely repent Jesus will take their sins on Himself and suffer for them on the Cross and the sinner is forgiven and can enter heaven.


Assumption No 3 - God should prevent bad things happening to us

• God is not an interfering, hands-on God who micro-manages our lives. If we get into trouble, or bad luck comes our way, He is not going to automatically get us out of it UNLESS WE ASK HIM. This is PRAYER. The power of prayer is widely practised amongst Christians.
  
  
• Prayers will not reverse the laws of nature. That would require a miracle. Instead, they have great control over OUTCOMES. If an event can have two outcomes, one good or one bad, our sincere prayers can greatly influence matters. For example, "Father, please don't let me catch this virus", or "Father, please help me to solve this problem".