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Post by jstwebbrowsing on Sept 24, 2013 14:52:00 GMT -6
"Little Noelle was an affectionate child who loved to draw. One summer evening she wandered into her backyard and somehow tumbled into the family’s swimming pool. She drowned just two weeks before her fourth birthday. Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine . . . These are the names of some of the 20 six- or seven-year-olds among the 26 victims gunned down at a school in Connecticut, U.S.A., on December 14, 2012. At a memorial service, President Obama called out the children’s names and told the grieving audience: “These tragedies must end.” Eighteen-year-old Bano left Iraq in 1996 and moved with her family to Norway. Her friends called her by the nickname Sun Rays. Sadly, however, on July 22, 2011, Bano was one of the 77 victims whose lives were cut short by an extremist, who boasted: “I wish to apologize . . . that I wasn’t able to execute more.” Similar heart-wrenching stories have been reported over and over around the world. Think of the grief and pain that have resulted from accidents, crime, warfare, terrorism, natural disasters, and other tragedies. So many innocent lives snuffed out and so much suffering, often for no apparent reason! Some people blame God, reasoning that our Creator does not care about the human family. Others conclude that God sees our suffering but simply chooses not to intervene. Still others say that such tragedies are predestined. There seems to be no end to opinions on the subject. Where can we find reliable and satisfying answers? In the following articles, we will look into God’s Word, the Bible, for answers on what causes suffering and how it will be brought to an end." www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp20130901/innocent-lives-destroyed/ |
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Post by Maggie on Sept 24, 2013 16:17:35 GMT -6
That is the hardest question we face and it is the only one I take seriously as a challenge to the existence of God. Suffering is a mystery. It cannot simply be dismissed as not important. I am afraid I find most of the reasons offered by the Watch Tower completely inadequate. Of course a great deal of human suffering is caused by other people. But not all of it and human-caused suffering is not usually what leads people to question the existence of a loving God. We know other people can be venial or downright evil. But other people don't cause 2 year olds to develop leukemia. Other people don't cause tsunamis that can kill thousands in a matter of a few minutes. They don't cause volcanoes to erupt nor hurricanes to strike. And then there is animal suffering! I think we are facing a great mystery that will not be answered easily by us.
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Post by jstwebbrowsing on Sept 24, 2013 18:45:25 GMT -6
The articles are not exceedingly thorough. It didn't really even get into the root cause of suffering. "To find out why God allows suffering, we need to think back to the time when suffering began. When Satan led Adam and Eve into disobeying Jehovah, an important question was raised. Satan did not call into question Jehovah’s power. Even Satan knows that there is no limit to Jehovah’s power. Rather, Satan questioned Jehovah’s right to rule. By calling God a liar who withholds good from his subjects, Satan charged that Jehovah is a bad ruler. (Genesis 3:2-5) Satan implied that mankind would be better off without God’s rulership. This was an attack on Jehovah’s sovereignty, his right to rule. 11 Adam and Eve rebelled against Jehovah. In effect, they said: ‘We do not need Jehovah as our Ruler. We can decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.’ How could Jehovah settle that issue? How could he teach all intelligent creatures that the rebels were wrong and that his way truly is best? Someone might say that God should simply have destroyed the rebels and made a fresh start. But Jehovah had stated his purpose to fill the earth with the offspring of Adam and Eve, and he wanted them to live in an earthly paradise. (Genesis 1:28) Jehovah always fulfills his purposes. (Isaiah 55:10, 11) Besides that, getting rid of the rebels in Eden would not have answered the question that had been raised regarding Jehovah’s right to rule. Is the student more qualified than the teacher? 12 Let us consider an illustration. Imagine that a teacher is telling his students how to solve a difficult problem. A clever but rebellious student claims that the teacher’s way of solving the problem is wrong. Implying that the teacher is not capable, this rebel insists that he knows a much better way to solve the problem. Some students think that he is right, and they also become rebellious. What should the teacher do? If he throws the rebels out of the class, what will be the effect on the other students? Will they not believe that their fellow student and those who joined him are right? All the other students in the class might lose respect for the teacher, thinking that he is afraid of being proved wrong. But suppose that the teacher allows the rebel to show the class how he would solve the problem. 13 Jehovah has done something similar to what the teacher does. Remember that the rebels in Eden were not the only ones involved. Millions of angels were watching. (Job 38:7; Daniel 7:10) How Jehovah handled the rebellion would greatly affect all those angels and eventually all intelligent creation. So, what has Jehovah done? He has allowed Satan to show how he would rule mankind. God has also allowed humans to govern themselves under Satan’s guidance. 14 The teacher in our illustration knows that the rebel and the students on his side are wrong. But he also knows that allowing them the opportunity to try to prove their point will benefit the whole class. When the rebels fail, all honest students will see that the teacher is the only one qualified to lead the class. They will understand why the teacher thereafter removes any rebels from the class. Similarly, Jehovah knows that all honesthearted humans and angels will benefit from seeing that Satan and his fellow rebels have failed and that humans cannot govern themselves. Like Jeremiah of old, they will learn this vital truth: “I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step." wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102005141?q=why+does+god+allow+suffering&p=par |
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Post by jstwebbrowsing on Sept 24, 2013 18:47:59 GMT -6
So basically such things happen because this earth is not under God's rulership.
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Post by Maggie on Sept 24, 2013 19:42:30 GMT -6
Actually this world is under God's rulership. Or, it might be more biblically accurate to say that God is in control at all times. Nothing happens apart from His permissive will. That is the crux of the matter. Unless we could come up with some comprehensive explanation for why things happen as they do, I think we are left only with the belief (or the hope) that God has morally sufficient reasons for allowing innocent suffering. He does, after all, have a universe to uphold and save. I certainly do not know what that might entail.
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Post by jstwebbrowsing on Sept 24, 2013 20:40:56 GMT -6
Well yes God is in ultimate control and he does interfere here and there. One way he interfered was sending Christ. But Christ himself called Satan the "ruler of this world", and he is referred to as the "god of this system of things" and is the one said to be "misleading the entire inhabbited earth". And if you look at the world it seems much more reasonable to conclude that Satan rules it rather than God and Satan is a terrible ruler and so is man.
Also bound up in the issue is the integrity of mankind. The book of Job is a very good demonstration of this issue and provides more insight into God's permission of suffering. Christ supplied the ultimate testimony of man's integrity, or at least potential integrity. Job did a pretty good job too. Satan has been proved a liar and therefore is already effectively defeated, ultimately by Christ's perfect life course, but other imperfect humans have added their testimony too by way of Godly living even in the face of opposition, when it is not even beneficial to serve God, thus proving that people do not love God for selfish reasons, which is Satan's claim.
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