Page updated 22 September 2018

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Could God Have Created a World Without Suffering?

Yes, He could, and He did.

In millenniums past there was a time when the universe and its undiscovered galaxies were in a state of complete harmony with their Maker. It was an existence beyond the comprehension of our finite minds; we cannot imagine a world that is older than we can even think and which existed without a hint of the suffering to come. However, into this Paradise came Satan, probably the most misunderstood person in the universe. Before Satan there was no sin, and before sin there was no pain.

Who is Satan?

He is underestimated and frequently caricatured. Some think he is only a spiritual force, others have imagined him as a goblin or dismissed him as a myth. Today, however, when Satan worship is increasing at an alarming rate, we had better be aware of him, his origin, his aims, his abilities, and his LIMITATIONS.

Satan's Tactics

Satan entered the Garden of Eden in the form of a serpent. He cast doubt on what God had said. He worked on Eve first when he said "Did God really say . . . . ?" (Genesis 3:1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?Genesis 3 verse 1). The next strategy Satan used was an appeal to the ego. He told Eve she wouldn't die when she ate of that certain tree, she would simply be like God. So Eve took the fatal bite and passed some over to Adam, and he ate. This is called the Fall of man, and it has been a long way down ever since. God said to Adam, "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" (Genesis 3:11And he said, Who told thee that thou [wast] naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?Genesis 3 verse 11). Adam answered by saying, "The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (Genesis 3:12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.Genesis 3 verse 12).

Ever since, man has been passing the blame....man keeps asking, How can a just and loving God allow so much suffering in the world - natural disasters - man's inhumanity to man? Somehow, like Adam, man tries to blame God.

Take Heart!

...we are blessed only when men speak evil against us falsely for Christ's sake.

Christians should be a foreign influence, a minority group in a pagan world. We are the "light of the world," and light exposes evil. We are the salt, and it adds flavor. If we are at peace with this world, it may be because we have sold out to it and compromised with it.

Jesus knew His disciples were worried about the future, and when He talked to them at the end of His ministry, on that very eve of His death, He said,

Trouble is different for all of us - translate it as you will: money, marital, health, social, loneliness. Jesus said His followers would have trouble. But He also promises His presence with us, not to deliver us from our problems, but to be with us in the midst of them and give us the power to overcome whatever circumstances come our way.

When the Apostle John recorded Christ's message to the church of Smyrna, he wrote,

Mysterious as it appears to be, true faith and suffering frequently go hand-in-hand.