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Why God Permitted SufferingAwake!—1990 | October 8
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“It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step. Correct me, O Jehovah.”—Jeremiah 10:23, 24.
THOSE words were written thousands of years after humans were created. Jeremiah realized that up to his day, human history was a tragedy compared with the good start God gave our first parents.
Jeremiah’s observation has been reinforced by the record of over 2,500 additional years of history since his time. The human tragedy has even worsened.
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Why God Permitted SufferingAwake!—1990 | October 8
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The passage of time also has revealed how horribly sin-laden people behave toward one another. There have been vicious wars too numerous to count, ethnic and religious hatreds, inquisitions, awful crimes of all sorts, and acts of selfishness and greed. In addition, poverty and hunger have victimized countless millions of people.
During the past thousands of years, mankind has tried every conceivable type of government. Yet, one after another has failed to satisfy man’s needs. Recently, Communist governments have been rejected in many lands. In democratic nations there is rampant crime, poverty, economic instability, and corruption. Really, all forms of human government have proved deficient.
Further, God has allowed time for humans to come to their peak of scientific and material achievement. But is it genuine progress when the bow and arrow have been replaced by nuclear missiles? when people can travel into space but cannot live together in peace on earth? when millions of people fear going out at night because of crime?
What the test of time shows is that it is no more possible for humans to ‘direct their own steps’ successfully than it is for them to live without food, water, and air. We were designed to be dependent on our Maker’s guidance as surely as we were created to be dependent on food, water, and air.—Matthew 4:4.
By permitting wickedness and suffering, God has once and for all time shown the sad results of misusing free will. This is such a precious gift that rather than take free will away from humans, God has allowed them to see what its misuse means.
Regarding free will, the publication “Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism” says: “Without the real possibility of people making the wrong choice when confronted by good and evil, the entire concept of choice is meaningless. . . . Much of the world’s suffering directly results from our misuse of the free will granted to us.”
Surely, Jeremiah was correct when he said: “It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” And Solomon too was correct when he said: “Man has dominated man to his injury.”—Ecclesiastes 8:9.
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