Comfort in the Accurate Knowledge of God

FOR some people, what the Bible says about God's love and mercy raises troubling questions.  They ask: If God wants to eliminate evil, knows how to do it, and has the power to do it, why does evil continue to abound?  For them the problem is to reconcile  three propositions  (1) God is all-powerful; (2) God is loving and good; and (3) calamitous events continue to take place.  They reason that since the last proposition is undeniably true, then at least one of the other  two cannot be true.  To them, either God is unable to stop evil or he is unconcerned.

Several days after the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, a prominent religious  leader in the United States said: "I have been asked . . .hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering.  I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction." 

In reaction to this comment, a professor of theology wrote that he was touched by "the good theology" that this religious leader preached.  He also endorsed the view of a scholar who wrote: "The incomprehensibility of suffering is part of the  incomprehensibility of God." But is it really impossible to understand why God allows evil? (Read the Bible, all of it word for word -the true Christians know, the others who perceive themselves to be Christians do not. You have to want to know the truth and they do not)

Next time: The Origin of Evil

The Watchtower, 2002