Why Does God Allow Pain and Suffering?
Someone wrote to us recently with a heavy heart and asked a burning question. It’s about why we are here and why God lets us go through pain and suffering. I want to share with you the question asked and my response: “Why did God put us on Earth, where there is pain and suffering, instead of putting us directly in heaven? Why would he put us through pain and suffering just so He could find out who his true followers are? We can either choose to love him and follow him and go to heaven, or we can choose to not love him and not follow him and go to hell. I understand the concept of ‘freedom of choice,’ but why would he give us that freedom purely out of his own selfish desire to find out who his true followers are, or who is willing to glorify him while they are on Earth? If God is all-knowing, why not just take everyone who is good and put them directly into heaven in the first place, rather than putting them through pain and suffering on Earth before they get to go to heaven?”
(name withheld for privacy)
Here’s our response according to Christian values and beliefs:
Dear (name),
You are not alone in asking this question and in feeling the way you do. It’s a very good question, one that needs to be answered. So here it is.
God already created PERFECT BEINGS (the angels) and placed them in heaven with full power and everything they could ever possibly want or need. And you know what happened? God’s right hand man, His second in command, an angel named Lucifer the most powerful angel ever created and highly favored by God turned on Him. Lucifer wanted to be God. Lucifer had a following of 1/3 of all the angels in heaven. They made war and devastated the universe so badly that God had to re-boot the whole thing and essentially start over. Genesis chapter 1 “…and the Earth became void, darkness upon the face of the deep…”
The Spiritual Re-Boot
So God did it differently this time around. He decided to create a new being (mankind) and make them start at the bottom of the corporate ladder instead of the top. Man is meant to learn and grow. Start with nothing and become something; prove himself. How much more does a person value something that they worked for rather than something that was given to them? Lucifer was a rich spoiled brat born with a silver spoon in his mouth. So he got smacked down hard for his arrogance and bad attitude.
Yeah, it not always fun the way things are. It’s challenging the way we are born with nothing and have to figure it all out on our own. But people grow through adversity. They learn through experience. And when a person works really hard at something, then finally overcomes all odds being victorious in their undertaking, then THAT is something worth being proud of.
When a baby is born with a blank empty mind and grows into a powerful adult, that adult tends to be humble to their surroundings, understand what others are going through and appreciate his/her place of achievement. Those experiences make us stronger than Lucifer and his angels could ever hope to become. When a person grows to the point that they belong in heaven, then they actually are WORTHY to be in heaven. Not by inheritance, privilege or silver spoon, but by proving themselves by hard work and trying times.
God is Love
God is love. He wants the best for all his creation. God is also all knowing. So he knows who is good or bad right now. But due to free will choice of each individual person God does not know who will be good or bad in the future. So that’s why life is the way it is right now.
I hope this answers your question. If you would like to write to me again then please do because I would love to hear how you are doing.
God bless you!