How can a loving God allow pain?

Probably the number one excuse that people have for not believing in God or the Bible is that they can't understand "How a loving God can allow pain and suffering" or "How a loving God could send someone to Hell". We have lots of people in this world today that has created their on god. That is the god that loves and accepts everyone into heaven. All paths lead to heaven.


God created that situation one time. He created all of the angels to worship and praise Him. The problem was they were created to praise and worship Him. They didn't choose to do so because they loved Him, they did it because they were created to do so. It is kind of like if you have a lot of money. How do you know that the people who say they are your friends, are your friends because they care about you and like being with you, or are they hanging around because you have money?


God came up with a great solution. It is called "free will". You choose what to do in your life and in your future. The problem with "free will" is there has to be a choice. If there is a good side, there has to be a evil side for "free will" to exist. You see, God loved you soooo much that He created evil. Boy, that is a hard concept to understand. However, without it we can't choose.

When we are born on this earth, we are created for one main reason, to choose our future. In God's eyes, life on earth is only a second compared to eternity. Our real problem is that we don't understand eternity. We believe that everything has an end. So, if evil creates a little suffering, and it gets you to turn to the truth and make a decision that will affect you eternal future, what a deal. It is like a parent who spanks his son that is trying to touch the fire. How dare the parent be mean and spank the child, I thought he was a loving parent? The parent understands that a little pain will kept the child from destroying his future by touching the fire. A small price to pay for the safety of the child, even when the child looks at you with "that look" with tears in his eyes saying "why did you do that?". A loving parent would protect his child and provide for a great future. God does that, His protection is using evil as a deterant to you loosing you chance at everlasting life.

A great example is Job. Satan was roaming the earth and went up to God and asked God to allow him to sift Job. Job was a godly man. God said, "there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil". He was pleasing in the eyes of God. However, God allowed satan to torture him up to the point of death, but satan could not take his life. So, satan destroyed his family, destroyed his sheep, camels, servants, and destroyed his health. He lost everything except his wife and a few friends. Guess what, satan used them against Job. Job had many reasons to do as his wife told him to do, "curse God and die". Back then, they thought like his friend did. They asked him, "what sin have you commited for God to curse you?". They thought God has sent all of this evil against him because of his sin. Why would a loving God allow his whole family to die? What did they do wrong? Nothing. We look at a life that is shortened by a dissaster, God looks at it as a blessing. They get to the real life, eternal life sooner. This trial on earth is over. You see, if you don't get it, you really don't get that there is a life after this one, an eternal life. We will be complete there, we will be perfect, without sin, and have a pupose to serve in the kingdom.

I have had a lot of suffering in my life that should make me question if there is really a God. My parents were killed when I was 14 months old. My brother died of pneumonia at the age of 25. I was adopted by my aunt and uncle. My uncle was an alcoholic. I was legally kicked out of the house at the age of 17 without anything. How could a loving God allow a 14 month old child to suffer like that? The answer is because He loves me. He replaced a father who killed my mother and then himself, with a Father that loved me unconditionally. He provided for me when no one else would. I got a college education, the first in my family, totally paid for, not deserved, but God provided the opportunity. I felt his presence in my life even before I became a Christian.

Let's be logical, there are many people in this world who have had near death experience. People try to explain these occurances away by saying that it is a chemical reaction in the brain, etc. However, there are many examples of people who die on the table and describe how they left their body and went down the hallway, into other rooms and described everything in the room, who was there, and what color their clothes were that they were wearing. Some have described words on the top of the surgical lamps that can only be seen from the ceiling. There is no doubt that we have a spiritual body and that there is a life after we die. The ones who deny it or deny God really don't want to see the facts.

Know this, there is a God, He unconditionally loves us so much that He gave us "free will" which in turn could not exist without evil. He has a plan for us, if nothing else to freely choose to believe in His Son who came and died for me. The least I can do is learn about Him, trust Him, and serve Him.

God bless, Dean