"Theo Bekkers" <tbekkers@bekkers.com.au>

Re: Theo's question: Does God Answer Prayer?

Barry OGrady wrote:

God's will is always being done.

What god wants, god gets.

God obviously wants suffering, poverty and starvation for his creations.

Theo

Theo,

That may appear to you to be that way, but that is not what the Bible
says. God permits those things, He doesn't WANT those things.

It is similar to a loving parent permitting a painful operation on his
child. He doesn't want the child to go through that, but knows the
child must in order for things to be better in long run.

So why does God permit those things? God permits those things to occur
at this time because of an extremely important issue raised back in
Eden. God originally created man and put him in a beautiful
garden-like place that had all kinds of delicious foods. (Ge 2:15,16)
God also created man to live forever on the earth, IF he continually
obeyed. (Ge 2:17) Disobedience was the only condition that would bring
death and end his eternal existence on this earth.

When God created the earth and man, all His other living intelligent
beings, the angels, saw what He did. They observed the situation that
occurred in Eden. A rebellious angel, Satan (cowardly hiding behind a
serpent), talked to Eve and told her that God had lied and that doing
things her way could prove beneficial to her; that Eve would do better
if she decided for herself what was right and wrong. (Ge 3:3,4)

Eve took the bate, fell for it and disobeyed, and Adam later joined
her. Right then and there they rejected God and His perfect guidance,
and instead went with their own.

If God would have destroyed the rebels right then, all the other
intelligent beings that God created would never know if Satan was
right. (also none of us would be here today since we are all direct
descendants of Adam and Eve) Thus throughout all eternity there would
be doubts if God's ways are really the best ways. And intelligent
creatures at times, no doubt would forever challenge God's ways. So
much for endless peace and harmony.

God, in His wisdom and in His mercy, permitted the challenge to His
sovereignty to continue, to prove that only His ways are correct. So,
God had to settle the issue. But such an issue would take time so
Satan could not claim that God didn't let enough time elapse to prove
Satan's case. Or if God stepped in before every 'natural disaster'
(see Job below) or evil human action, Satan could claim that God is
not allowing humans to take care of such things. So at the present God
is letting humans 'run the show'. That means that the whole world is
basically ran by Satan. Joh 12:31,

"Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world
be cast out;" (RSV)

The first human couple listened to that liar, and disobeyed God. As
God said would happen, it brought on death. But in order for a perfect
body to die without any outside help, it has to become imperfect. And
since Adam and Eve were mercifully permitted to have offspring, (as
said before, if He destroyed them right in the beginning, none of us
would be here today) we also inherited that imperfection.

Later, Satan again challenged God saying that humans would not serve
God if faced with adversity of any kind. (see Job 1:9-12; 2:4,5)

Satan has been proven to be the liar that he is. Mankind has
demonstrated over the centuries that he cannot govern himself with
complete success. Mankind is even 'destroying the earth'. (Re 11:18)

Man must follow God's guidance in order to succeed in all things. As a
prophet put it at Jer 10:23,

"I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man
to direct his steps." (NIV)

I hope this has helped you to come to a better understanding on why
God permits bad things to happen to people at this time.


Sincerely, James


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