‘Suffering happens because of Satan, not because of God.’ is the worst argument of all, it shows God is selfish so allow Satan to rule us and make us suffer when the omnipotence God can stop Satan from doing this or God is lying in the Bible and he is not really omnipotence so is not able to prevent Satan from making us suffer.
‘Suffering exists in the world because that is how God punishes those who do not live by his rules.’ Also prove God is not omnipotence – if God is omnipotence, then he should be able to make us all happily accept his rules and live by them. A benevolence parent would not make his child suffer as much as God make us as a punishment when a child does not act as he/ she is told, so why the omnibenevolence God does when he can change our lives without making us suffering – he is omnipotence! Besides, suffering does not really change the ways of lives of many of us.
‘Suffering exists because God does not have total control over the world.’ once again shows God is not omnipotence nor omnibenevolence – if he is loving enough to bother to take over from whoever is controlling the rest of the earth and has the power to do so, he would!
‘Suffering exists because humans have taken what God has given them and used for their own good and not for the good of humankind.’ shows he is not omnipotence and omnibenevolence for the same reason as above – he should be able to make all human care for each other if he is really omnipotence and if he is at all loving, he would not want to see, never mind to make one human suffer as the consequence of the other human being selfish which is what is happening now in the world.
On the other hand, even though the argument, ‘We shouldn’t ask why people suffer. Only God knows and He works in mysterious ways’ does not explain ‘why God allows people to suffer’, it does not contradicted itself or prove God is not omnipotence or omnibenevolence. Therefore, I think it is the best argument of all listed though I do not think it is a good argument nor do I agree with it.
Worst Argument
For more than once, the Bible states or hint that the world is ruled by devil for a while. During the 40 days and night in the wildness, the devil once tried to tempted Jesus by ‘…taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world…’ ,and told him, ‘…these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." (Matthew 4 verse 8 to 9). The devil would not be able to give Jesus ‘all the kingdoms of the world’ if he was not ruling over it.
In Revolution chapter 13 verse 5, it clearly states that ‘The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.’ And if we are still living in the age of this ‘forty-two months’; then ‘Suffering [in a way,] happens because of Satan, not because of God.’
However, if God is omnipotence and have any sense of benevolence at all, he surly would not let Satan to rule the world and make us suffer for the sake of letting Satan to ‘exercise his[God’s] authority’ for whatever reasons.
God is often described as ‘Our heavenly Father’. A half loving father on earth would not want to see his children suffer and certainly would not let someone to make his child suffer if he can. Only that fathers on earth are not omnipotence, so he sometimes cannot avoid, yet, no fathers on earth are omnibenevolence but they try their best to avoid their children from suffering. So would an omnibenevolence God give power to Satan to rule the world while knowing he is going to make his ‘children’ suffer? God must knows before he give the world to Satan – he is omniscience – unless he is not omnipotence so Satan took over the world from him or he is not omniscience and thought Satan would treat his people well.
When we let our enemy exercise our authority, we normally want to prove how powerful we are and that the enemy cannot rule something as good as we do. If God let Satan to rule the world for the sake of letting him to ‘exercise his authority’, God is either not omnipotence so cannot prevent him form doing this or He does not have any sense of benevolence so do not care his people suffering as long as he can prove to Satan how powerful he is and He rules the best.
And if God let Satan make us suffer for the second reason, he is not only not at all benevolence, but also not omnipotence – he does not have any other way of proving it to Satan other that to let him make us suffer.
Therefore, I think ‘Suffering happens because of Satan, not because of God’ is the worst argument of all as it not only not be able to explain why the ‘omnibenevolence’ and ‘omnipotence’ God allows people to suffer but led us to think God is either lying in the bible: ‘…the hand of the LORD is powerful’(Joshua 4 verse 24) and in fact, he is not able to prevent his people for suffering because of Satan or He is a selfish God who do not care his people suffering as long as he can prove to Satan how powerful he is which means he is definitely not omnibenevolence. And if so this argument led us back to the beginning – suffering is because of God as well as Satan since God allows him to make us suffer while can avoid it.
RS Kathy Liu L5W 08/12/2008
