by Patricia Skinner

Created on: June 10, 2008

If there is a God, why does he allow such suffering? Why has God taken my child? If God really cares about us, why has he caused so many disasters that take so many lives? Have you asked questions like these? If you have, you are not alone. A great many people have asked the same questions.
So, why is there so much suffering? To get the answer to this question, you really need to go to the Bible. This is God's Word to man, a handbook to life.

The theme of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is about the Kingdom of God. In the very beginning God did not intend to have a Kingdom. Man was created perfect and it was God's purpose for man to live forever on the earth. There would have been no sickness, no disease, no crime, war, poverty, famine or death. So what happened?

Adam and Eve decided that they did not need God to direct their lives. They listened to the Devil who, through a serpent, persuaded Eve that God was holding back something from them. She pondered on what she was told and eventually persuaded her husband Adam, to take of the fruit of the tree and decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong. Now that they had disobeyed the most High God, the Sovereign of the Universe, they had alienated themselves from him. There was no going back! God had told the man Adam, that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge he would die. Well, he didn't die immediately. In fact, he lived on the earth for a total of 930 years before he died.

He left a legacy for mankind. Sin! Since that time, man has paid the penalty of disobedience. Over the centuries, mankind has deteriorated. This eventually brought about wars, crime, violence, poverty, famine, disease and death.

So God is not to blame for the suffering here on earth. It is man himself. He has chosen to continue the course of Adam by rejecting the guidance of God and lean on his own understanding.

But will we ever see the end to suffering? Yes. The Bible shows that we are now living in the "time of the end". 2 Timothy 3 v 1 - 5 read like a newspaper. "But now this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to the power and from these turn away". Yes, mankind in general in described here. When Jesus Christ was on the earth, he too forewarned than the last days would be days of calamity. He foretold that there would be wars in one place after another, nation would rise against nation, there would be food shortages, diseases, earthquakes in one place after another, and there would be an increase in lawlessness. Has this happened? Yes it has. Earthquakes are happening more frequently. More and more countries are affected by food shortages. Global warming is affecting every aspect of life on this planet. If something is not done soon, mankind will destroy this earth and himself.

However, God will not allow this. He created the earth to stand to time indefinite. He also created it to be inhabited. Therefore, he must soon step in and put an end to all the suffering. Will you be around to see it? You can, but it comes at a price! You need to take in knowledge of God, and his son, Jesus Christ. John 17 v 3.

Learn more about this author, Patricia Skinner.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.