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QUESTION 17:
If there is a God, why does He allow so much suffering and evil to go on in the world?

ANSWER:
There are two main reasons why there is so much evil and one reason why God allows it.

Since God did not bring evil into the world He cannot remove it apart from judgment and the removal of people from the earth. The origin of evil is Satan. He was a created being. He became lifted up with pride and was cast out of heaven. Read Ezekiel 28:13-18 and Isaiah 14:12. Jesus said of him, "...for he is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44.,

The second reason for the evil in the world is sinful man. His heart is deceitful about all things and desperately wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus said, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:" Matthew 15:19. Since God created man with a free will, He cannot change man's will to do right instead of evil. Man cannot change himself either. "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my own sin?" Proverbs 20:9. So, Satan and man are the root cause of all the trouble we have. God would have to do away with them in order to have a world without evil. This, He will do eventually. His reason for delaying this is: "He is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9. His endurance will soon end, and His offer of a full and free salvation will end, also. His judgment will then fall. Every day He waits is an extension to His day of salvation.

Have you received Him and His salvation yet? Why wait, tomorrow could be too late.
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All comments and questions to: Harold Smith

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Updated July 2009, by Shelly Allen