You may have heard this quote,

• “If God is all good then God has the desire to end suffering, and if God is all-powerful then God has the ability to end suffering. Therefore if God does not end suffering, then God is either not all good, or is not all-powerful, and is therefore not God”.

• Psalm 73:11 puts it this way, “And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?”

Many ask this question. What is God doing? Why doesn’t God just stop all the evil? Does He know what’s going on? Does He even care?

If God were to stop all evil, where would He start? What if He started with us? You see, we all do evil. We may say that in comparison to a murderer or dictator we are nowhere near as bad, but we have all still done wrong, knowing it was wrong, and did it anyway.

If God were to do away with all evil then He would do away with all people. Yet, if He were to keep all people then perhaps He should stop us from being allowed to even make evil choices. However, we would then have no free will. How can we freely choose to do good if we have no choice to do otherwise?

God allows evil, because He allows us to choose and sometimes we choose evil. This does not mean that God does not care or bad people are allowed to get away with their schemes. God will judge all people for the things we do. Someone like Hitler did not die without meeting justice. In fact, God WILL do away with evil, when Jesus returns to judge the world and transform the universe into perfect beauty.

This is why God waits, because He wants everyone to turn away from their evil doings and trust in Christ’s sacrifice. This is so that as many as possible who believe will not have to be destroyed with all evil but have a place in the perfect world to come.

Consider this story:

• A man cheats on his wife. Yet, immediately after, he feels great remorse. He apologizes to his wife everyday, buys her gifts, cooks dinner for her, and tries to do anything he can to make it up to her.

When will the man earn his wife’s forgiveness?

• Never, because he can never undo what he has done. No person in their right mind would say the man deserves to be forgiven after all he did.

  This is because forgiveness cannot be earned, it can only be given.

  Now, add to this the fact that the man also contracted an incurable std. Even if she did forgive him, this would not take away this disease he contracted.

This is our situation before God. We have all willingly done wrong and that wrongdoing (sin) has given us a disease called death. This is why we die, because our corruption of morality lead to the corruption of our very being (including our body).

So, one day we will not only be judged for our sin and found guilty, but will eventually succumb to our disease. God has no obligation to forgive for what we freely chose nor cure us for what we contracted. Yet, God wants to forgive us and save us anyway.

The Bible says God is “not willing that any should perish”, that He “does not delight in the death of the wicked”, and so He sent His son Jesus to take our place, our punishment, our consequence and thus set us free from it so we can be not only forgiven but restored (as though what we did had never happened).

Jesus’ sacrifice is the cure that we must have applied to us if we wish to be cured. All we must do is trust Him and ask for this this restoration and forgiveness and He will freely give it to us.

Many religions have their own holy books, what makes this one any different?

The Bible (τὰ βιβλία, meaning the Books) as a whole, took approximately 1,500 yrs to be written by around 40 different writers, from 3 continents, in 3 languages. What we have are a collection of 66 books that, compiled together, remarkably tell a cohesive story about God and His relation to man.

This itself is quite a feat but the uniqueness of the Bible goes beyond this. For instance, the Bible references many historical peoples and places that can be and have been verified as true. It also makes statements about our reality that actually align with what we now see and know (Job 26:7 “God hanged the earth upon nothing” & Isaiah 45:12“God stretched forth the heavens” much like cosmic inflation).

• The New Testament has been preserved in more manuscripts than any other ancient work of literature, with over 5,800 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts catalogued, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Gothic, Ethiopic, Coptic and Armenian.

  Quotes from “the early church fathers” also corroborate the text. This is the most scrutinized compilation of books in history and we can be confident in its authenticity.

Yet, the most incredible piece of evidence for the Bible is in it’s ability to foretell the future.

Isaiah 44:24-28 & 45:1-6 make mention of a man named Cyrus, who would not know God but whom God would identify by name to help rebuild the temple.

The book of Isaiah was written from around 700-681 BC. The Persian king, Cyrus the Great, would be born over 100 years later (590 BC) and would go on to commission the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple in 539 BC.

Another example is found in the book of Daniel, which was, at the latest, completed around 530 yrs Before Christ.

Daniel makes a prophecy that the Messiah would come 483 yrs after the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem. This prophecy was during the 1st year of King Darius, around 539 BC (around 66-67 yrs after the Jews went into Babylonian captivity).

• Who comes 483 yrs after this command? Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53 also depicts what happened to Jesus on the cross 700 yrs before it occurred, Psalm 22 speaks of Jesus’ crucifixion 500yrs before it was even invented, and Daniel prophesies of how Alexander the Great would conquer the world, die, and have his 4 generals take over afterwards, written 100 yrs before Alexander’s birth.

There are many other historical evidences and prophecies but these are just a few that show this book is unlike that of any other.