How Can a Loving God Allow Evil and Suffering?

Many people ask, “How can a loving God allow evil and suffering?” Jesus could have explained, but He didn’t. Luke 13:1-5 tells us about two disasters where people were killed:

“There were some present who reported to Him (Jesus) about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no … Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no’”

Pilate ordered some Jewish worshippers to be murdered, and 18 people died when a tower fell on them. Satan incited Pilate to murder the worshippers. The tower fell due to the law of gravity, presumably because someone made a mistake during construction. Jesus was essentially saying, “Don’t blame God for men’s evil actions, or try to give a spiritual explanation for every natural disaster.”

 

Jesus healed multitudes of sick and disabled people, but He never told them, “Let me give a theological explanation about why you’re in this condition.” Jesus came into a world filled with evil and suffering, but He never said, “How can a loving God allow evil and suffering?” After all, He was the loving God! Rather than explaining why bad things happen, He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38). Much of His teaching tells us to help others, and how to respond when evil people attack us.

Satan wants you to blame God for evil and suffering in order to poison your faith and give you a distorted view of God. Never form your beliefs based on bad things that have happened. Disasters and tragedies have occurred since the beginning of time and will continue until Jesus returns. Evil is in the world, but God is always good, which is why we must “Trust in Him at all times.” (Psalm 62:8).

BIBLE STUDY: Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

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Making Life Count Ministries
P.O. Box 680174
Prattville, Alabama 36068-0174
www.makinglifecount.net 

The Shroud of Turin UPDATE

The Shroud of Turin is a burial cloth containing an image of a scourged and crucified man, which many believe could be the burial cloth of Jesus. No one can explain how the image got onto the cloth, but some have speculated that when Jesus was resurrected, the burse of power transferred the image from His body to the cloth.

In 1988, carbon-14 dating of the Shroud of Turin by three separate laboratories indicated the relic should only be about 700 years old, meaning it couldn’t be the burial cloth of Christ. However, some scholars suggested textiles can easily become contaminated by bacteria and carbon-containing minerals, which would skew the results and show a younger date.

In 2022, a new scientific method known as “Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering,” or WAXS, was used to examine the relic. WAXS is said to be more accurate than C-14 because it measures the actual aging of flax cellulose and converts it to time since manufacture. It dated the Shroud at approximately 2,000 years old. The Italian scientist Dr. Liberato de Caro of Italy’s Institute of Crystallography compared the Shroud with other historical fabrics and it closely matched with a fabric from the siege of Masada in Israel, in 55-74 AD. The findings suggest the shroud originated around the time of Christ, which means it could possibly be the burial cloth of Jesus.

Computer enhanced images reveal that coins were placed over the man’s eyes and the coins were stuck by Pontius Pilate in AD 29-31! For a detailed report CLICK HERE. It was a Jewish custom to close the eyes of their deceased and the placement of coins over their eyelids was a practical way of keeping them shut. These coins prove the Shroud could not be a forgery created by someone centuries later.

Our faith is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and not the Shroud of Turin. But wouldn’t it be interesting if God decided to leave ANOTHER piece of evidence that Jesus rose from the dead?  Click Here to watch 6 MINUTE VIDEO ABOUT SHROUD OF TURIN

Click Here to find out how to know you’re going to heaven.

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Making Life Count Ministries
P.O. Box 680174
Prattville, Alabama 36068-0174
www.makinglifecount.net  

Copying the Bible Manuscripts

We wouldn’t have our Bibles today if it weren’t for thousands of people over many centuries carefully copying the manuscripts. The copying was done by scribes, who patiently copied the Scriptures when the original scrolls became too worn to use. The material they wrote on only lasted about 40 years, so the copyists had to keep making new manuscripts to preserve the text from being destroyed. 

To ensure accuracy, the scribes counted every letter on every page they copied. The word for “scribes”, sopherim, literally means, “the counters” because they counted, not only every word, but every letter. The middle letter of the manuscript was marked, as was the middle word of each major section of a book. If the letters of the copy didn’t match up with the original, they destroyed the page and started over.

By the time Jesus was born, the most recent Old Testament book, Malachi, had been copied and recopied more than 400 years. The books of Moses had been copied for more than 1,400 years. Imagine copying the entire book of Exodus without making a mistake.  

Over the last 3,000 years, generation after generation, thousands of scribes spent their lives carefully copying manuscripts to preserve the Bible for future generations. You don’t have to copy the Bible, but have you read the Bible through even one time? Don’t let their labor be in vain. www.makinglifecount.net

MORE STUDY: How Did We Get the Bible?

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Making Life Count Ministries
P.O. Box 680174
Prattville, Alabama 36068-0174
www.makinglifecount.net  

Why Some People Can't Find Wisdom

In 2002, a newly engaged woman named Shaina accidently flushed her engagement ring down the toilet at her fiancé’s parents’ house. She had put her ring on the counter and sopped up some water with a paper towel. She accidently wadded up the ring in the paper towel and flushed it down the toilet.

Suddenly she realized her mistake. Understandably frantic, Shaina climbed into the septic tank to search for her ring. She pumped the waste over a window screen into a 55-gallon drum, but never found the ring.

Last week, Shaina and husband Nick opened one of their Christmas presents and were shocked to see the lost ring inside! Where did it come from? Nick’s parents recently had to replace their toilet. When the plumber unhooked the toilet from the floor and dumped out the excess water, the ring fell out. It had been there for 20 years. The parents wrapped the ring up in a miniature ceramic toilet and gave it to Shaina and Nick as a Christmas present.

Shaina couldn’t find her ring because she looked for it in the wrong place. Prov. 3:13 says, “Blessed are those who find wisdom,” To find wisdom, you have to look in the right place. Suppose your keys fell out of your pocket when you sat on the couch. You look in the kitchen and they aren’t there. You try the bedroom. Not there either. You could search everywhere in the world, but if you don’t look in the couch, you’ll never find your keys because you didn’t look in the right place.

You’ll never find wisdom if you don’t look for it in God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Because the Lord knows all things, He understands how to guide us through this life and solve our frustrating situations. He’s also willing to share that wisdom with us. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God . . . and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). But it all begins by looking in the right place.

www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com  www.makinglifecount.net

BIBLE STUDY: Did Matthew make a mistake in the Bible?

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Making Life Count Ministries
P.O. Box 680174
Prattville, Alabama 36068-0174
www.makinglifecount.net