Category: Pain, Suffering, and Evil

Introduction The problem of evil is complex, and one of the biggest barriers towards belief in God today. In fact, as we study the subject, we find that a whole family of questions emerges.[1] In prior posts we discussed some of these questions, like: Why is there so much pain...

Introduction The Bible is clear. A plain reading of scripture tells us that to be made right with God and ultimately go to heaven, we must trust in Jesus alone. Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through...

Introduction The short answer is that God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell (2 Peter 3:9). He loves the whole world, and would want for every one of us to love him in return, and experience his presence, with all of the joy and goodness that comes from that....

The Short Answer I think we sometimes confuse the terms nice or innocent with good. The short answer is that yes, sadly, bad things happen to nice people and apparently innocent people. The book of Job provides a biblical perspective on this. But more broadly speaking in the Christian...

Introduction The short answer is that God is not happy with the death of anyone, whether a child or anyone else. But God must let natural law and the consequences of the decisions of free creatures play themselves out. Nevertheless, we know that God cares deeply for children, and we...

Introduction The short answer is that we’ll probably never know why God allows many things to happen. But we do know that God is good, he loves us, and he’s in total control of all things. So when we go through difficulty, it means that God must have a reason—a purpose...

Introduction We saw in our last post that much of the pain and suffering we see in the world is due to the misuse of our own moral freedom, or free will. That is, we are the cause of the terrible things that we do to each other. And this...

The short answer is that God gave us the freedom to make our own moral choices so that, for one thing, we have the ability to love. But this freedom is misused all the time, causing so much harm upon each other. Nevertheless, God doesn’t interfere, because our freedom...