God and Suffering

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God and Suffering
Comments by Frank and Mary Hoffman - 14 Jan 2009

Dear Friends:

Yesterday morning, Ray asked why more people didn't join in this discussion.  For us, as experience has shown us, it's often a feeling of not wanting to bend or end a discussion with our thoughts, as administrators, but to first allow the discussion to progress as other desire it to go, which in this case has been excellent.

One thought that has continually come to mind is the difference of opinion and thought about what God causes, as opposed to what He simply allows to happen.  Let's take a look at a few examples:

The Hebrew text has several instances where God is said to cause physical death.  The foremost of these is the Flood. There are also the instances of the raining of fire and brimstone, and the hailstones on people, and the time that He swallowed up those in the wilderness who opposed His anointed, and there are more.

Other than these cases, God seems to work through His appointed humans, and God does seem to allow the evil of human beings to come back upon their own heads, and upon the world in general.

Having said this, there is also ample evidence that humans have been given the power to reverse the powers of evil and suffering in the world.  Jesus even taught us to pray for our Fathers heavenly will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and if we are to pray for this, then we should also so everything in our power to bring it to pass.  And this is what Paul was referring to in Romans 8, where he tells us that the whole of creation is anxiously awaiting the revealing of the peacemaking children of God to free it from its present corruption, and we also believe that this is what Isaiah is saying is his depiction of the peaceable kingdom.

We know that almost all viral and chronic diseases are caused by raising and eating animals, so if humans go vegan, we will not suffer from these diseases, which brings us back to the comments that started this discussion.  And as was pointed out early in the discussion, most people don't want to listen or know the truth.

So, we are faced with the challenge of what we can do to change this attitude...Your thoughts?

Go on to: Comments by Elaine - 14 Jan 2009
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