by Morgan Johnson

Created on: February 13, 2008

First off, God loves us; there is no "IF" in that statement. Second this question assumes that God is responsible for bringing pain and misery to the world. Most of the time the real bringers of pain are the people.

All too often people are refer to the God of Abraham, the God of Christianity when they ask this one (nobody ever blames Buddha!). So I will answer from the point of Christianity.

The sovereign Lord of Hosts is very much capable of preventing pain from being in anyone's life. He can turn the entire world into the Garden of Eden where nothing ever harms you, not even a rock to bruise your toe. Never would anyone age, sicken or die and no one would raise a hand to you.

Actually, that was the plan. But He wasn't going to do it Himself. That job was delegated to the new guy, Adam. In Genesis he is given to order to fill the Earth with every good thing. Well, Adam failed. He got tripped up by a pair of shapely legs and a snake.

When he and his woman disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they allowed sin and death to enter the world. Man himself is responsible for creating the conditions of the world and for his children.

Why didn't God just hit the RESET button right then? Couldn't He have given Adam another chance? Yes, He could have. But that was against the rules. God's own Rule is that sin demands a payment in blood. To reset the operation He would have had to kill Adam.

God had a way to pay that price without killing Adam (and all of us), though. He sent His only begotten Son to die for all of our sins on the cross. You've probably heard that story so I won't repeat it again (read the book for more details).

That could have solved all of the problems right then except for man's stubbornness. You see one rule remains in place: free will. Man has to voluntarily turn away from his wicked ways. Some people do, but obviously not enough considering:
- the Genocide in the Darfur region,
- street gang violence around the world,
- suicide bombers, hijackings and terror strikes.
- And drugs prostitution, adultery and hooking up still counts as well.

The world is full of hatred, violence and warfare and worst of all, lawyers. People choose their own comfort over helping other, choose selfish greed over feeding the needy. There is no end to what people to do to their own advantage.

But there is an end to it. God has very clearly laid out a plan; no more wars, lions and lambs, yada-yada (read the book, again; skip to the back.)

In the mean time there's plenty we can do to reduce the pain in the world. We can feed the hungry, clothe the poor, bring comfort to the sick and suffering. In this way we are most like God - in this way we can bring light to a world of darkness.

This may not be the answer some people want but it is the answer already laid out in advance. Our choice is either to sit on the sidelines complaining about things not getting done or, we can wade right in and make things better for as many people as we can.

Don't wait for God to do it for you. Because if He has to do your part you'll probably regret it.

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