Why does God allow suffering

The answer begins in Genesis, the book of Beginnings. God created mankind in his own image. We were created like God, with the freedom of making choices. If God had created us without that desire and ability, we would not have been in his image. In order to truly love, we must be free. Love by compulsion is not love at all. God gives us the choice to love him and follow his commandments, or the choice to not follow his commandments. In the Garden of Eden, mankind made a choice to not do what God asked them to do, and they tasted of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. This brought sin into Adam and Eve’s lives. Before that time, there was indeed no suffering. It was our choice not to follow God, and our choice to bring suffering into our lives. God did not create suffering, mankind did that by our choices.

So why doesn’t God just eliminate suffering?

God is good, in him there is no evil. This is his very nature, and it cannot be changed. God looked at poor Adam and Eve, shivering naked in the Garden of Eden, and had to do something with them. He could have wiped them out, and started over again… but God by his nature is good. God had compassion on Adam and Eve, and even though he knew Adam and Eve’s actions would cause suffering in their lives and the lives of their descendents, God loved them and wanted to give them a chance to choose to love him before he ended mankind. Would not any good father choose life and freedom for their own children, even though they would have hardship? What God did do, was to send his own Son at the appointed time to provide deliverance to all who loved him. Jesus Christ was appointed to die for mankind on the cross, so that all who love him might overcome the evil and suffering of this world and have eternal life. Jesus is our way to overcome and eventually escape suffering. God will indeed end suffering forever. However, in order to do so he must end this earth as we know it. Why? Because mankind gave Satan dominion over this world when they departed from God in the Garden of Eden. In order to end that dominion, this world as we know it must end. God is good, and he has provided a way for us to escape the suffering and have an eternity of perfection with him in a place he calls heaven.

So why doesn’t God bring us all to heaven now?

God is good, he cannot and will not do evil. God wants to make sure that everyone has a chance to go to heaven. Just like a father and mother in a family of many children love each and every child with all their heart, God loves each of us with all that he is. He has commissioned his followers to make sure everyone has heard about Jesus so that no one misses the chance for heaven without having an opportunity. God would like us all to go to heaven, but we are created in his image with freedom, and we must choose him. He cannot make us choose him. When all have heard the truth about Jesus, Jesus will come back and this world as we know it will end. Those who love Jesus will be taken to heaven where there will indeed, be no more suffering.