Why Does God Permit Wickedness and Suffering? (Part 2)

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WHY DOES GOD PERMIT WICKEDNESS & SUFFERING ? (Part 2)

By Arthur Zulu

Wickedness has a long history. As old as the history of man on this planet -- 6,000 years.

So, in a sense there is nothing happening now that has not happened before. Long before the Twin Towers collapsed, long before the war on terrorists, and long before the Israelis and the Palestinians began to send each other to untimely graves, the history of man right from Bible times has been a tale of misery and woes.

Consider our first parents, Adam and Eve. Their suffering knew no bounds. Adam was to till and plough the ground before he could eat. (0nly God knows how he made his farm implements). And Eve was to suffer terrible pains during child birth. That was not enough. They would have to die!

Murder also was present in the beginning. Cain killed his brother Abel. His offence? God accepted his sacrifice. David, the King murdered Uriah and took his only beautiful wife, Bathsheba. And this, despite all the many wives of David! Add to this the killing of Christian martyrs like Stephen, and God�s prophets to make the homicide scenes complete.

Also violence is not new. Nimrod the great hunter was a violent man who opposed God. He even initiated the construction of a mighty tower in Babel. And then came the Nephilims. These were violent giant offsprings resulting from the marriage between angels from heaven and beautiful women on earth. In fact wickedness was so rife in those days that God regretted making man in the first place.

What of rape? When you hear about a serial rapist, that one may be borrowing a leaf from Lot�s daughters. These beautiful girls had their father, Lot, drunk with wine, raped him and had children for him (what a shame!) And beautiful easy-going Dinah, too, was raped by Schechem. And her brothers went on a killing spree!

Even oppression and injustice are not new. The Egyptians made the Israelites slaves in the land of Egypt. They were makers of bricks and builders of cities. And in order to suppress the Israeli population, their male children were killed at child birth! Naboth, a property owner in Israel also experienced oppression and injustice when King Ahab and his wicked wife, Jezebel had him killed, and seized his vineyard.

What about hatred? Is it a new phenomenon? No. Two fleshly brothers, Esau and Jacob hated each other to death. And do you know the origin of the hatred? Jacob buying Esau�s first born birthright with a pot of porridge. Ridiculous? Maybe.

Further down in this list, Joseph�s brothers hated him, sold him into slavery, and was taken to Egypt because of jealousy. King Saul hated David to death because he got more praises for war victories. And Haman plotted the extermination of the Jewish race in Persia during the reign of Ahaseurus. Why? Because Mordecai, the Jew refused to bow down to him.

Even war as one historian said, has been �a constant in history� . God himself destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha. The Israelites fought many wars against the inhabitants of Canaan and occupied their lands under God�s direction. Even God allowed the nation of Israel to be later destroyed by Babylon, and Babylon itself was later destroyed by the Persians. Again, when the church Holy Fathers abuse children, newsmen go to town. But do you know that the sons of high priest Eli -- Holpni and Phinehas, who also were officiating priests, were having sexual intercourse with women right before the temple? The Israeli men abused, maltreated and divorced their wives on flimsy excuses in Bible times. Even some burnt their children in sacrifice to idols, while others killed and ate theirs!

What is more? Of course the list is endless: Delilah betrayed Samson, her husband to the Philistines; Achan stole dedicated spoils of war in Jericho; the sons of Korah rebelled against the leadership of Moses; the Gibeonites tricked the Israelites, and Ananias the thief and Peter the Apostle, lied.

Now God has permitted and is still allowing these bad things to happen in our time. Why does he permit it? But before we answer that question, let us first find out if God exists. (To be continued)