WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SIN & SUFFERING? (1)

1. Introduction

a) Many consider the fact that man is fallible and commits sin as an excuse that is not acceptable. Man could do better and be perfect, some think, if he only tried harder. According to many theorists, humans are out of control and the direct cause of their own suffering.

b) Does God know what He is doing? Has he lost control of his greatest creation? Has the Creator's plans been thwarted by his creation? Why do we, his greatest creation, have all the problems that we do?

c) It is tiring to hear message and read articles by people who trash God and all he has created. We endure a most rigorous training program called "Life!" Some believe all our Creator can do is whine about how we should do better. People we love die of cancer, accidents, and thousands of diseases. We enter into relationships we hope will endure until death, only to end up hating each other and divorcing. We tenderly raise a child from baby to adulthood only to have it rebel and possibly hate us. We crave certainty and get uncertainty. We easily become addicted to all sorts of substances or ideas. Yet, trying to get over an addiction is worse than pulling teeth. Our best-laid plans often go astray. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we cannot make things come out the way we want.

d) God knows us and appreciates our struggle. He says He will reward us for it! He wants us not only to live forever but also to have the same wonderful quality of life he possesses. He will give it to us when we overcome Satan's ways. He created man in his own image and likeness. Man's creation is a process that is not finished yet.

2. Where it all started

a) Think about what happened in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve's creation. Genesis does not mention our first parents receiving a warning that Satan would try to deceive them. The Bible says that Satan was one of the most intelligent and craftiest created beings. Adam and Eve was no match for the devil. God intentionally "let the gate open" for him to enter into the garden and entire the first couple to sin. It was a setup.

b) God wanted Adam and Eve to do what they did. He placed a temptation right in front of them. Adam and Eve were set up to take to themselves the knowledge of Good and Evil. He is in the business of teaching us important lessons. He wants us to be wise as serpents by harmless as doves. However, to reach his goals, his plan is for us to learn the WRONG way first from his adversary.

c) God is not as interested as some think in preventing us from being fallible. There are eternal lessons He wants us to learn. His plan is to insure that no one will ever create Satan's way again. We will know that it does not work because we will have already tried it. It is through the character built in this life, built in “hell,” that will enable us to create "heaven" for all eternity.

d) To be smarter and wiser than your enemy it pays to know how he thinks. It is perhaps a cliché to say that God is not finished with us yet. However, it is true. He created us and then gave us to Satan for indoctrination. Then Jesus comes along to rescue us from our mutual enemy. He gave us the ability to think and think about our thinking. 

e) Once he inoculates us with His way of thinking, we can compare his thinking with the way Satan thinks. 

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