According to Christians the Devil is the sworn enemy of God, in the Bible it is also referred to as Lucifer, Beelzebub and Satan. Ideas of what the Devil is like, range from a stereotypical picture of a figure with horns and a tail, to a sophisticated powerful being who hates all that is Godly and revels on human suffering. Mention is made of the Devil in many passages of the Old and New Testaments, but there is no full account given in any one place, and the teaching on this topic can only be ascertained by combining a number of scattered notices from Genesis to Apocalypse. From the Bible and his life, Christians know that Jesus clearly condemns evil. The authoritative teaching of the Church on this topic is set forth in the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council. Here it is clearly taught that the Devil and the other demons are spiritual or creatures created by in a state of innocence, and that they became evil by their own act. It is added that man sinned by the suggestion of the Devil, and that in the next world the wicked shall suffer perpetual punishment with the Devil. Most conservative Christian churches teach that Satan is a profoundly evil, a fallen angel who is totally dedicated to the destruction of everyone's lives. He is a supernatural being who "walketh about, seeking whom he may devour," and is aided by countless . Liberal Christian churches tend to view Satan as a principle or concept of evil, without any physical existence or personality. They acknowledge that Jesus and his disciples believed in the presence of a living entity called Satan. And they realise that the gospel writers wrote of which drove indwelling demons from within people. But they attribute these beliefs to the pre-scientific level of knowledge at the time. In one of John’s letters he teaches that people who do what is good come from God and people who do what is bad come from or are influenced by the devil. The devil is said to tempt humans to do evil things, throughout the Bible many examples of this can be seen; the serpent who tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:4 & Genesis 3:14), and another time when the devil was depicted as an adversary. Many Christians look to the story of Jesus’ temptation to help them overcome the will of doing evil. To some Christians, reading the bible would show them; God put the very nature in man that caused the man to fall, God knew that redemption would be necessary and it was planned long before that very first man had been created. God has a great purpose, and the world has lost sight of that purpose, it couldn't have been brought about in any other way than the way that God did. The Bible speaks of the devil as a trickster and an unreliable source of information, John 8:44 speaks of him as a liar, the father of all lies. Also in the Bible the devil is said to be able to adopt a spirit form, reside inside a person and influence their thoughts and behaviour. There are two kinds of evil; natural evil and moral evil. Natural evil is not a supernatural creature preventing natural good, it is all the harm and evil caused by natural forces which are beyond human control, some examples of natural evil would be earthquakes, Volcanoes and tornadoes. So for natural evil, there is no problem of evil to be explained. Conversely Moral evil is of a different nature, it is said to be when there is an absence of human wish, which leads to an immoral action; this means it can be a type of evil that humans implement unwillingly. Thomas Aquinas stated that because God is ‘infinitely good’ to allow evil there must be no god, so his point was that evil is not real and it only exists in our minds. Another medieval philosopher, Saint Augustine attempted to deal with this issue by denying the actual existence of moral evil. What we perceive as evil is, he argued, merely distance from God. Hell is the ultimate alienation from God, he said. Firstly although this argument appeals powerfully to many modern thinkers, it is essentially un-Christian. The Bible portrays Satan and sin as active, independent forces against which one must struggle, they are therefore not mere voids. Secondly, if to be with God is good; to be distant from him is evil, evil exists even if it is called "the absence of goodness". It is still not clear how a perfect, all-powerful God can allow anything to be at a distance from him. Indeed, in conventional theology, as Christians believe, God is omnipresent (present everywhere), both in the physical universe and in the moral universe. The very concept of distance from God contradicts his nature. Evil to different people can be different things; some believe it’s a physiological phenomenon. Some people say that our brains have the mental ability to do evil acts but it just depends on how we have been brought up and what thoughts fill our heads. Others say it’s a force, these people think that it is the power inside someone to commit evil acts. The last view on evil is that a person may be overcome by evil, the Bible has many references of this “the prince of the demons, Beelzebub” (Matthew 12:24) clearly here evil is spoken of like a human. Lastly the Bible states,” By the envy of the Devil, death came into the world" (Wisdom 2:24), In some ways this could mean that those who want to do evil things, like the things the devil does, themselves produce evil, In other ways it could mean those people that want to do evil things (like things that the devil does), cause bad things to occur.
A survey was carried out in Ireland to find out which view the majority of Christians have on evil and the devil. 4000 Christians were asked.
(Source: a beyond evil article)
This information clearly shows that the majority of Christians believe that the devil is either a person overcome by evil or a fallen angel, these two are very similar as a fallen angel could be someone overcome by evil, this also shows that many Christians may believe that the devil could be the stereotypical, red demon with a pitch fork
Christians believe that evil can be a punishment for sin; the Bible gives several dramatic definitions of sin. To start with Sin is defined biblically as a violation of divine law (cf. 1 John 3:4). To swerve aside from the revealed will of God is to sin. Sin is the very opposite of obedience and righteousness (cf. Rom. 6:16-18). Lastly the Bible says that it is a neglect of one’s religious and moral obligation is sinful. James declared that he who knows to do good, and yet who does it not, is guilty of sinful conduct (James. 4:17). So to the Bible sin is anything that causes the neglect of Gods true will; consent to the devils vocation. A Roman, Christian psychiatrist wrote a book entitled, “whatever became of sin?" in which he concluded that we often harm each other simply because we want to harm each other. That psychiatrist was close to discovering the biblical concept that we inherit more than our parent’s genes, and we also inherit the desire and delight in rebelling against Gods will for our lives. So other Christians would ask; is evil an act of the devil or just in our heads? St. Paul once described original sin as a powerful, active force in his life and ours. In Romans chapter 7, an apostle writes that even as Christians, we still have to struggle with our old sinful nature. So he wrote, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good” (Rom 7:18-19). Even Christians have to struggle with our old nature, original sin in our lives. St. Paul adds, original sin is a serious matter in Gods sight. So this means we all have evil naturally within us, not as a human form, and that we must refuse to be tempted by the will to do bad that is within us. To endorse this point, the philosopher, St. Augustine once made a statement, "the deliberate sin of the is the cause of original sin”, this original sin is what causes man now to sin, not the, some may call this the evil but not the devil. Also, the very fact that Jesus died on the cross reminds Christians of how serious sin is.
The Bible expression: "God created man In His own image" has been interpreted to mean that God made man immortal, spiritually perfect and was created of the same composition as God-that is, out of spirit. The man was perfected, completed, immortal, and faultless in character. Then, this theory continues, along came Satan, who succeeded in wrecking this perfect creation-this man that God had perfected, causing him deliberately to sin. This sin of Adam is supposed to have somehow caused a change in the man's nature. So this point backs up the fact that because of original sin humans are compelled to do bad. So again due to the original sin Humans have already sinned and this evil comes from human failings, this is one assumption from the bible. Others say Social evils caused most of the evil that individuals perpetrated; true evil in man was a rare foible, which could eventually be eradicated by improved education and better government (source: the book ‘the faith of Thomas Jefferson’). Therefore there is only one way to reach God as Christians believe and this is not to sin and not to do what the devil says. Jesus refers to good and evil together on many occasions throughout the Bible as he taught people to accept the evil that other people imposed on them, he said “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44). Jesus was completely apposed to the acts of the devil, when asked about revenge and anger he would say ‘don’t get mad, don’t even get even’. Christians are reassured by the Bible that God can give them the power to overcome temptation by the devil, the Bible reads “overcome by evil, but (to) overcome evil with good” (romans12:21). So Christianity says that those whom avoid works of good are denying God and are disobedient. It is of the utmost importance that Christians are to be involved in doing good. The Bible makes it clear that God is pleased with human kindness, love and goodness. So Christians would try to live morally by helping others as much as they possibly can.
The Bible contains many examples of human suffering such as natural disasters, slavery, wars and executions; these affected the good as well as the bad. In the documents of the Old Testament is the Book of Job, in it the writer talks of suffering. Job was a good and worthy man; Satan however, said that Job only did this because it suited him, so God allowed Satan to test him. Thus, the blameless man was put through a series of tragedies and disasters; Job was deprived of his wealth, his family, his health, his friends, and his prestige. He lost everything, and yet, the religious dignitary never forsook his faith in God. Though he lashed out in anguish at times – because he did not understand what was happening to him. Job is an example of the fact that God makes us suffer to test ad prove our faith. But suffering does pose a problem to Christians as they find it hard not to contradict themselves, believing that God is omnipotent, all powerful, omniscient, all-knowing and omni benevolent, all loving. An argument put forward about suffering was; people suffer because God doesn’t care about human suffering, so maybe God isn’t all loving. The next argument was; maybe God can’t do anything about human suffering as he might not be all powerful. And the last argument was that maybe God doesn’t know about human suffering because maybe he isn’t all knowing. All of these arguments then lead to the view that maybe there isn’t a God at all. Responding to these arguments Christians would say that suffering is part of Gods plan, if we could explain it we would be as knowledgeable as God and so this would pose the question why then would there be a need for a God if we knew everything he knew? In addition Christians would say Jesus had suffered the greatest penalty and only through suffering then can we become spiritually closer to him. Lastly Christians would say suffering is a test of faith that makes you stronger, it is only in this way, without interfering with free will, that God can see someone’s true faith.
Jesus taught a lesson that every Christian should keep in mind; that they should choose to sacrifice their rights, and instead do their duties; which are to serve God and do well by helping others. Along with preaching good, Jesus called his disciples to follow him. Not only did the disciples follow Jesus but they devoted their lives to do what he did; they tried to carry out the greatest good. Timothy, one of the disciples, like all the others, was very influenced by Jesus’ beliefs about doing good. In training this young leader, Paul, another disciple, passed on his desire and conviction to help the weak and serve the poor. The twelve disciples of Jesus learnt from the works of Jesus that they must show love and mercy to anyone who is in need. Paul put his beliefs into action by serving God and he trusted every part of his daily life to Jesus so that Jesus’ life could be shown out of his own obedience and the help he gave the people that God brought to this world. These are clear examples of how the disciples carried out the command from God to do good. In observing the commands of Jesus and the lives and convictions of his disciples, their service towards the poor was a major aspect of their Christian lives. Jesus’ disciples have a long history of telling people what to do and what not to do, they set Christians nowadays an example of the duties they must carry out. The model that Jesus proposed was for everyone to follow his example, his disciples did just this. Jesus’ disciples had not been extra-ordinary people with outstanding talents or professional religious leaders, they where normal people. This is the kind of model Jesus presents towards Christians today, that they as normal Christians can follow the path of good by helping others in need-buy carrying out the will of Jesus, just like his disciples.
A significant part of being a Christian is the duty of having to pray. Jesus’ disciples undoubtedly had a communion with God, why? Because they regularly prayed to him. Jesus taught Christians that they should pray, he gave them a model prayer, all Christians try to recite this prayer regularly.
“Our father in heaven, Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, yours will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today out daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:9)
This prayer is an acknowledgement of who God is and adoration of him and by reciting this prayer Christians feel that they become closer to God. Influenced by the works of Jesus, Christians pray because they believe that it is essential to life, as it is essential to pray to be a good person. The analogy Jesus used of the wine and branches indicates the necessity of living in constant touch with God. Christians pray because it is an expression for praising God, for thanking him, resting faith in him and for claiming the promises made to him-to carry out the greatest good.
To become defiantly good Christians trust that they must become like God. God as a character is forgiving. So to become a person of great spiritual wealth, Christians know that they must forgive. Christians are instructed to forgive because God forgave them-the all good forgave them, if they do not forgive then they are not all good. Christians believe that forgiving someone greatly affects how close some one is to God. So one of the qualities that Christians try to acquire is the compassion that God has to forgive sinners. Therefore during their lives Christians, knowing that they have been forgiven an infinite debt that that they owe to God they work to pay off this debt by forgiving others sins. So to be blessed by God, Christians believe that they must keep their channels of forgiveness open, so they turn to sharing and forgiving. The central message of Christianity is to forgive everyone who commits evil. This idea that revolves around the insignificance of how great or cruel the act and whether or not the wrongdoer repents has been adopted by a large number of the Christian community. An example of this can be seen in the next article.
Article
The bodies of the three teenage girls murdered by a fellow student at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky were not yet cold, let alone buried, before the students of the prayer group that was shot at announced, "We forgive you, Mike," said the parents of the three girls referring to Michael Corneal, the murderer. (source: Christian forgiveness news)
This message of immediate and automatic forgiveness of a murderer by three Christian families conveys how Christians live their lives towards doing the ultimate good that God did for them. Christians forgive others to distance themselves from the devil, all evil and to near themselves to God. However, one Roman Catholic said, yes, Jesus did ask God to forgive those who crucified him, But there is no indication that Jesus ever forgave, or asked God to forgive, or would consider forgiving everyone who commits evil against other people. At any time in his life, Jesus could have gone to where thousands of innocent people were regularly crucified and asked God to forgive their killers. He didn't, presumably because he recognized the simple and basic moral rule that while all human beings have the moral right to forgive those who do evil to them, no one-not even Jesus has the moral right to forgive evil done to others. But other Christians do have a more sophisticated defence for this argument. They argue that victims should be encouraged to forgive all evil done to them because it is psychologically healthy to do so. So during their lives Christians would try to forgive in all circumstances and they would try to preach about forgiveness, to stay pure-all good -like God. In the life of a Christian the sacraments are very important. During their time spent at church, Christians take Holy Communion, here they eat bread and drink wine, the bread symbolises Jesus’ body and the wine symbolises his blood. By taking this Holy Communion Christians believe that they can become closer to God. When Holy Communion is taken place Roman Catholics believe in transubstantiation, here they believe that part of Jesus is in them, therefore God is in them. All Christians take the Holy Communion in the hope of becoming a better person as they believe to be closer to God. At birth all Christians are baptised, this means that they are accepted into the church as a Christian-they are accepted into the ‘house of God’, this to Christians is the start of a good life close to God. There are many Christian individuals that dedicated their lives to helping other because of what they believed in. Mother Theresa was one of those people. Mother Theresa from the beginning had a mature outlook on life, she disliked the way the less fortunate were treated and wanted to help them. She then trained as a nurse and set up a hospital for the sick and deprived. She found it important to then help the education less children, so she began to teach them the teachings of Jesus. Being very religiously aware Mother Theresa new that you needed courage and unselfishness to look after poor and helpless people just like Jesus had. Influenced by, and having faith in God and Jesus, Mother Theresa led her life believing this; “Let the poor use you, be kind and merciful”. One particular Christian who is famous for his work for others was Dr Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King grew up in America in the 1950’s were the division between blacks and whites was made very clear. At this time America was run by racist whites that believed they were superior to blacks, because of this the black population of America was treated immorally and unfairly. Reading the bible, King became strongly influenced by its pacifistic content in which Jesus taught people to ‘Love their enemies’ and not to fight back. King thought that if we believed in the saying ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ we would all be blind , this meant that if everyone fought back everyone would be worse off and no one would gain anything, Jesus also had this view. So he did not try to fight evil or revenge evil. Instead, Martin taught that Christian love was the way forward; Love was the supreme moral norm. Love, he said, “is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend” and his convictions of course came from the Bible, Jesus’ words. As usual, what Jesus preached he practiced, he forsook all His divine rights to live in all his glory and power, and instead took on the lowly form of a human; he helped thousands, disguised himself as a slave, and like a criminal died on a cross, out of a profound sense of duty to his beloved Father and to us. Thus Jesus personally showed us the great lesson; Christians should live their lives like Jesus, by living to help others. There are many Christian charities that have decided to do this through their lives work. At the Barnardo's (Christian) charity, everything they do - whether in the home, school or local community is influenced by a set of principles and values, which are as important to them today as they were when Barnardo's was founded. These are Christian values, Barnardo's derives its inspiration and values from the Christian faith. Today they work in a multi-cultural society, but are proud of the Christian values and beliefs upon which they were founded. These values, enriched and shared by many people of other faiths and beliefs, provide the basis of our work with children and young people, their families and communities. They value the contribution of everyone who works with Barnardo's, whether directly with children, young people and their families, or in areas such as fundraising, retail, administration and support services. Barnardo's helps the most vulnerable children and young people transform their lives and fulfil their potential, just like Jesus helped the discouraged. They raise approximately £67 million each year through fundraising and retail activity, this ranges from asking for donations from regular donors to raising money from companies and grant giving trusts. Barnardo's helps children, young people and their families over the long term to overcome the most severe disadvantages, problems like abuse, homelessness, poverty and they try to tackle the challenges of disability. By doing this, all the workers at bernardo’s believe that they will be closer to Jesus because they are doing what he did and what he wanted them to do. Amnesty international is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights, their vision is of a world which every person enjoys all of their human rights. Some of their campaigns are; stopping torture, International justice and war. One of these campaigns is control arms; worldwide arms fuel conflict, poverty and human rights abuses. It doesn’t have to be like this, which is why Amnesty international and other charities such as Oxfam and IANSA are calling for global arms trade treaty to keep peace. Their religious views come from the Christian roots of human rights. No one disputes the fact that human rights, given to protect the individual, are derived from Christian thought. The General Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations clearly demonstrates its Christian roots. The bans on slavery and torture, the principle of equality before the law, the right to rest and recreation - as seen in the Sabbath or Sunday rest - come from Christian traditions and not by chance are the governments which confirm these rights and anchor them in their constitutions mostly in Christian countries. It was in 1784 that a man named William Wilberforce became an Evangelical Christian, a step that changed his life and behaviour completely. William Wilberforce was a deeply religious Christian whose political views were very conservative, but who devoted most of his parliamentary career to the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. He also campaigned for legislation to prohibit the worst forms of child labour, cruelty to animals and the removal of political disabilities on Roman Catholics. He fought to abolish the slave trade which, after many years of defeats, he finally achieved in 1807. What made Wilberforce tick was a profound Biblical loyalty to what he called the "peculiar policies" of Christianity. William led his life with Christian morals helping to overthrow one of the world’s worst troubles, slavery. In 1974 The Christian follower, Chad varah founded Befrienders International-the worldwide body of Samaritans branches. The Samaritans then became a world wide Christian Foundation that worked to help others in need. So influenced by their Christian beliefs all of these people do good to gain spiritual wealth (a kind and loving personality, to be rewarded in heaven,) to be closer to God and Jesus. One of the greatest puzzles for many Christians is why God allows good people to suffer. What is the benefit, they ask, of trying to live according to God's instruction if we all have to suffer? I don’t agree that if God loved humanity we wouldn’t have to suffer. Firstly I think that God is all powerful and all knowledgeable so know one can ever understand him, this is why we cannot know why he does the things he does, we just have to accept them. I think that if there was no suffering God could never pick out the righteous from the unrighteous because there would be no test of faith. An example of God using suffering to find those who are righteous would be this passage from the Bible, "My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience" (James 5:10) ,this shows that not only will God find the worthy but he will also find the people who have so much faith that they keep quiet and patient when suffering or in pain. Lastly I think that as humans were given free will, everything had been left up to humans, a lot of the suffering going on in the world has be caused by humans, if God took away suffering then he would have to take away free will. The freedom to choose leads on to another problem - the problem of evil. Who is responsible for the suffering in deprived 3rd world and war torn countries? Again, who is responsible for the ecological rape of our planet, the pollution of the oceans and the atmosphere, and the destruction of the forests? I think that not all suffering is caused by human action, but the greater percentage of it is. So having free will does cause evil in the world but it gives people the choice, with this choice they can also stop a lot of the suffering themselves. Christians would agree with me, they believe that God is omni benevolent, omniscient and omnipotent. Christians strongly believe that suffering is a test of humanity. Other people including Christians would use ‘the balance of nature’ to back up their point. They would say that the world is carefully balanced, everything in it is elaborately connected and the world doesn’t only do good things, it is a world that creates certain natural laws which determine everything that happens. So these Christians believe that natural processes can produce good and bad effects-this includes suffering. A flood for instance which kills some people, waters the land which allows others to live-the purpose of the suffering. Or the earthquake which destroys a city, is caused by the forces that create land that we are able to live on. Most Christians believe that God has set the world going and left it to follow its natural course, so it would be wrong for him to get involved. If God were to stop suffering myself and Christians would say when would God see it right to intervene and when not to, and how do we know that God hasn’t already intervened and saved man kind from a huge disaster? Christians strongly believe that suffering was put here to test humanity, to see someone’s true strength, to see how much they believe in their faith. To endorse this Christians would use this passage from the Bible: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16) as this means that those who have faith shall be the righteous ones, so keeping faith is very significant to God. Therefore keeping faith, no matter what is very important. The book of Peter 1 deals specifically with the suffering of Christians. Peter understood the significance of the suffering of people who lived righteously in the light of Jesus Christ and his suffering. Peter notes two categories of suffering, one is for righteousness' sake and brings us nearer the Kingdom of God and the other is the result of problems we bring on ourselves. However, we earnestly need God's help during both types of suffering. Most people together with Christians would like to know if God has a purpose for suffering. Christians straight away would look towards Jesus to find the answer, they knew that he suffered on the cross, the Bible says "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps" (1 Peter 2:21), Christians would abide by this, so they would tolerate the suffering, believing that it was supposed to happen to them because it happen to Christ. Christians would also take the pain of suffering and understand why a loving God would cause such things, they refer to another passage from the Bible, "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" (Philippians 1:29). So Christians would suffer out of compassion for Jesus. The next point made in the Bible summarizes the reason why there could be suffering, "For this is commendable, if because of conscience towards God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully" (1 Peter 2:19), this is saying that some one might be doing good because of a guilty conscience, not out of faith, so suffering can prove whether it is, or is not, out of guilt. Christians would say that God is loving and this is the reason why we suffer: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:10) meaning, those people who undergo suffering, God will fully reward in heaven. The Bible explains a great deal about why the righteous suffer in this present evil age, it says that most misery is brought about by Satan's pervasive influence over people and their ideas and attitudes. (Source: the book ‘Satan's Role in Human Suffering’). Others who have opposing views could use the quote that Jesus said, "I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest" (John 10:10), they would then say Since God planned for us to have peace and real life right now, why are so many people hurting or angry inside?.
Here is an article showing an example of suffering caused by natural forces.
Article
JUNE 3, 1980. About 8:30 in the evening, a cloud the colour of coal settled over the northwest corner of Grand Island, Nebraska, a mid-state community of 35,000. The wind grew ever more vicious and violent. The lights went out, and the water stopped running. Seven times in three hours, people felt the air pressure change and heard that distinctive rumble, like the pounding of a freight train, as funnel clouds lashed out of the sky. The only thing city residents could do was sit … and wait … and tremble. A seventy-three year old woman, crouching in the hallway of her apartment, heard nails screaming as pieces of lumber were pulled apart on the floor above. Two grandparents made a tent of their bodies to protect their grandchildren. A father and daughter, the house over their heads popped like a bottle top, ran through the rain to burrow into a damp, below-ground well house. Almost 1,000 homes were destroyed or left uninhabitable. In minutes, homes and businesses which represented lifetimes of work were left as matchsticks, guarded by lonely water pipes clanking upright in the breeze. Families away from home for the evening pulled into their driveways in the post-midnight quiet and looked into the black space where their homes had been. Lives were turned inside-out
This article, to many people, again poses the question; why do we have suffering? Some Christians may say God has complete power and authority over the earth, he is omnipotent, so he does not allow plagues, storms and earthquakes, and therefore it must be the act of the devil. Other Christians to this would say that the answer is found in the first few chapters of Genesis. God created everything perfect and beautiful, when Adam and Eve sinned, a curse was placed on the earth and everything became broken and degraded. Although, the curse brought conflict, disease, and death, much of the original beauty can still be seen in God's creation. It continues to show his power, wisdom and design ability. Again others say, but why do Christians suffer? We are children of a loving, caring Father, who sent his Son to die for us, so why do we have to suffer? Could God not protect us from the powers of evil? Another Christian’s reply would be yes, he could, God protected the nation of Israel in Egypt from most of the plagues and he could still do the same today. Some significant reasons that Christians have for why God would let humanity suffer are so that we realize that we are totally dependent on God and to make us realize that we need each other as God’s ultimate goal for all of us is to experience and demonstrate genuine love. Love is built on recognition of mutual need and a joy in giving to those that need. Suffering may also take place to help us sort out our Priorities; during a time of disaster we realize that relationships are more important than material things-especially our relationship with God through belief in his Son, Jesus Christ, Paul said, "Yes most assuredly, and I count all things to be loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ." (Philippians 3:8). Furthermore suffering may be present to remind us of the curse of sin, When God created the earth, it was a beautiful paradise, but man’s sin brought a curse upon the earth and the freedom for Satan to kill and cause great destruction through natural disasters, such as hurricanes. So finally Christians and I would say; Our Father wants what is best for us, we do not know the future, God does and will shape events to bring true the promise and Knowing that our Father will work out for us the best, we do not need to worry when bad times come because God cares deeply for humanity.
