#Bad things free free

In addition, suffering has no part in GodвЂ™s final creation. By Genesis 4 there has already been a murder and the world is in trauma. But all this became subject to degeneration once rebellion and corruption entered the world.

#Bad things free free

The created world of Genesis 1 was perfect and included manвЂ™s ability to exercise free will. There is a lot of theology and apologetics around the problem of suffering, but itвЂ™s enough to note just three things.ДЄs Christians we believe that disaster, sickness, even accidents, were never part of GodвЂ™s original creation. 'Bad things just happened вЂ“ asking вЂњwhy?вЂќ was out of place' So, when things go wrong, we end up asking вЂњwhy?вЂќ. But it has also brought an expectation вЂ“ especially to us in the west - that we shouldnвЂ™t have to suffer, at all. Today, medical technology has brought benefit to millions, reducing pain and extending life. Bad things just happened вЂ“ a lot, so asking вЂњwhy did this happen?вЂќ was out of place. Pestilence, hunger and plague came around often, and, if you made it through all that, life expectancy was about 40. For example, up to the 18th century, people expected one in three of their children to die before they reached 5, and mothers regularly died in childbirth. That makes sense when we understand that today, especially in developed economies, we are shielded from much of the suffering that occurred in the past.

ItвЂ™s not new of course, but it is asked much more today than in any previous age. It may seem surprising but вЂњwhy does God allow bad things to happen?вЂќ is a recent question. Ultimately itвЂ™s not a question we can answer satisfactorily, but there are things we can say about this question that might help. Why does God allow so much suffering? вЂ¦ is a question that often rears its head in our age of civil wars, extreme weather, and terrorist acts. And before that there was Cyclone Idai in Mozambique which killed hundreds, and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Just a few weeks before that we learnt of the barbaric shooting of adults and children at a New Zealand mosque. But it was not so for the hundreds of Christians in Sri Lanka who had their precious sons, daughters and parents snatched from them in a moment of terror. Millions of us have just finished celebrating Easter вЂ“ Jesus has risen, death is defeated. A question that never goes away, writes Chris Goswami