"You say there is a God; yet, look at all the suffering in the world. Right now children are starving to death, a teen with a full life ahead of her is dying of who know's what, and I could go on and on. How can an all-powerful and loving God allow such meaningless and innocent suffering? Either God is a monster or God is weak. Please, I don't want to hear the nonsense that 'God works in mysterious ways.' That only means that you don't have an answer." Often we are slapped in the face with glee with this argument as if nothing can be said, and we have to walk off the stage in shame as if we have completely forgotten our lines.
Of course, we don't know why a particular person is suffering, but the Bible does give reasons why suffering occurs. We simply don't know which reasons belong to which incidents. "Ahh," exclaims the AA. "What good does that do?" Well, often doctors aren't sure which medicine to use or how much. So the doctors will prescribe and monitor. Making judgment calls like this aren't limited to Christians. We don't know the exact reason that will give us an answer. As we try a different verse, asking the Lord in prayer could this possibly be the reason, we can still come to peace, much in the same way a medicine will ease a pain, but not remove it.
Furthermore, the Bible is clear when it states that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be reveal in us" (Romans 8:18). We may not know at a space-time moment why such suffering is occurring or why an untimely death occurred; however, Christianity does promise an answer and a recompense eventually.
Sometimes we simply need to slap back. You slap me; I slap you. Here's what I mean. Ask the AA this: "What do you have to offer the child who has died after horrible suffering?" NOTHING.
I find it so ironic that AAs who are horrified over suffering and death demand that there must not be a God who would allow such things. Okay. Let's assume there is not. What is your alternative. NOTHING. I do mean absolutely nothing. The child is gone forever. His atoms will slowly spin off and be rearranged with other atoms (the good ole conservation of matter). His memory is gone forever. His personality is gone forever. His hopes and dreams are gone forever. His atoms will end up like the rest of the universe, either in fire or ice. Since all life will end, no one will be remembered. No relationships will be remembered. Everyone and everything will be forgotten as if they never existed.
If the AA is correct and there is no God, we will all cease to exist, eventually becoming nothing (assuming a re-collapse in which matter as we know it ceases to exist). If that is true, what is the worse we have done? Truly, if there is no God, what have we done? We have taken an awful situation and given hope for the future. If God isn't real, still, isn't a false comfort better than no comfort? Frankly, if God doesn't exist, what does it matter what we say for comfort--eventually everyone will be dead and forgotten anyway!
In contrast to that, the AA takes an awful situation and makes it worse! "See your child in the casket. The body will soon rot away, his atoms join other atoms (perhaps be in a McDonald's hamburger in a few years), and soon be totally forgotten as you will be ... because everybody will cease to exist as if they were never born."
If Christians are wrong and there is no God, it seems the AAs are upset because we give hope; even false hope is better than no hope. If the AAs are correct, there is NO hope.
We may not like the suggestions given in the Bible for suffering. We most probably will not have the slightest idea why this person or that person suffers. The Bible doesn't tell us. It does tell us we will be recompensed because of our suffering, to such a degree that the suffering will be forgotten. Not only will we be remembered, but we will still be aware, growing, learning, experiencing life as never before.
The key difference between the answers of the Christian and the AA is that the Christian answers, though inadequate to many, are SOMETHING, where the AA answers are ... NOTHING.
So, you choose: something or nothing.
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