Today we will begin a sermon series regarding one of the most often asked questions Christians, particularly pastors and other leaders, have been asked from the beginning. It may be asked in a variety of ways, but it sounds something like this: “You Christians say that God loves us all, and that God, in essence, is love. If that is true, how come there is so much human suffering in the world? How can a loving God allow that to happen?” That is a fair and important question. How you answer that question can determine the way in which you will respond, whether you will turn to or turn from God, when a trial, tribulation or tragedy takes place in your life.

I am not sure that anyone can fully answer the question of why God allows suffering to take place, but the Bible does give us some insight into the matter. When seeking the answer to the main question, several sub-questions arise that must be answered first. These are:

1. Does an all-powerful God even exist?
2. If so, is this God a personal God?
3. Is God truly a loving God?
4. Why then does this loving God allow pain and suffering to take place?

The Bible, which is God’s autobiography so to speak, clearly tells us that God does indeed exist and that He is all-powerful. He also tells us that there is no equal counterpart and that evil will be defeated in the end.

Let’s take a little test on opposites. I say, “Black”. You say, “White.” I say, “Up.” You say, “Down.” I say, “Left.” You say, “Right.” I say, “God.” You say, “Satan” or “The Devil.” Gotcha! Understand this, Satan is NOT the opposite equal to God! Satan is powerful, yes indeed. But he is a created being, not the Creator. God and God alone is the all-powerful creator of the universe and there is nothing, and no one, equal to Him!

How do we know that God exists? Well, the evidence is everywhere. Throughout the Bible we are told that if we look, we can see God’s work in all of nature. (For examples, check out these scriptures: Job 10:8-14; 12:7-10; 34:14-15; 35:5-7; 37:5-7; Psalm 19:1-6; 50:6; 85:11; 97:6; 98:2,3; 104; 139; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Habakkuk 3:3; Acts 14:17; 17:23; Romans 1:18-25; 2:14-15; Colossians 1:23)

Possibly the most compelling evidence of God’s existence is found in what is known as the “Anthropic Principle”. This is the term given to the scientific findings that the Earth and its surrounding galactic environment are “extremely fine-tuned”, regarding the existence of human beings and other life-forms. Every year, more and more findings reveal how miraculous this balance is, that allows life, as we know it, to exist.

The following is a list of just a few of these delicate balances, any one of which being changed in the slightest degree, would mean that life on Earth could not exist.

• A larger Earth
• A smaller Earth
• Faster rotation of the Earth
• Slower rotation of the Earth
• If the Earth were 2%-5% closer to the Sun
• If the Earth were 2%-5% farther from the Sun
• A plus or minus 1% change in the sunlight reaching the Earth
• Oxygen/nitrogen ratio slightly greater
• Oxygen/nitrogen ratio slightly less
• Earth’s crust thicker
• Earth’s crust thinner

Okay, okay, God exists. But, is He a personal God? There are a lot of people in the world who believe that God exists, but their vision of God is that He is more or less in tune with their thinking. “It” stands far apart and above His creation and has no feelings, one way or the other, about individual people.

Then there are those people who believe that God is in everything and everything is God. They believe the created and the Creator co-exist in all things; I am God, you are God, the birds are God, the trees are God, the dirt is God. (Wait a minute, “I am God, the dirt is God, therefore I am dirt!?” Anyway, their “god” is not a being of person. “It” is more a “cosmic force”. (“Luke, may the force be with you!”)

Both of these types of “god” mentioned are uncaring, impersonal and unloving “gods”. And you know what? At first glance, the existence of one of these types of “god” would seem to fit perfectly well with the chaos, calamity, pain and suffering found in the world. But if that were the case, then even more questions arise, like:

• If there were no purpose, caring or love behind His creation, why would an impersonal, uncaring, unloving “god” even bother to create the universe, the Earth and mankind in the first place?
• If God is just a “cosmic force” contained in everything, then what is the purpose of anything?

• If no God exists at all, then we are at the mercy of this evil world and have no eternal hope.
• If an uncaring, impersonal God exists who could care less about His creation, or if God is merely a “cosmic force” present in all things, than how we respond to Him, or It, has no bearing whatsoever, no significance to us, eternal or otherwise.
• But if a caring, loving, personal God exists, then nothing in life would be more important than coming to an understanding of, and a personal relationship with, this God.

You know, some people say that even the Bible portrays God as “hard and unloving”. They say, for example, that “throughout the Bible, God not only allows, but even brings severe punishment upon human beings.” “How could a loving God do that?”, they ask. A good question indeed. But to find the answer we must look at the question with the entire character of God in mind. For you see, God is not only loving, He is also holy, just, and righteous. As much as we would like to, and some try to, we cannot separate the character of God into only those features we like or agree with.

God is God and we must do our best to know and understand just what that means. More often than not, when we view the punishments handed out by God in the Bible from the perspective of humanity as a whole, we find these judgments to be very loving acts indeed. Yes, the Bible clearly states that God is love.

Note: Next week we shall look at why God created us and the world we live in.