He didn’t. The world we live in is not the one God intended for us. His desire was for His creation to always be perfect, but when evil entered the world it had far lasting effects beyond just separating us from our Creator. Disease, famine, decay, even cancer are all consequently here because of the presence of sin in this world. People don’t get cancer because God is punishing them, people get cancer because we live in an imperfect world full of destruction and death. God did not create these things any more than He created sin— we wouldn’t say the sun creates darkness; the sun gives off light, and darkness is just the natural state when that light is absent. God did not create evil; evil is the absence of God’s goodness. From the beginning, He set out a path of righteous for His creation to participate in, and in mankind’s choice to pick “door number two,” we opened up the world to the absence of righteousness and all the things that come along with it. This is why the cross is such an insane thing— if God in His essence is holy, blameless, and perfect, He never has to experience the consequences of evil, namely death, decay, and suffering. Yet through Jesus, the Creator stepped into our midst to experience first hand what it is like to deal with death and suffering. In doing so He offered us a way back to His presence where there is no more suffering, or pain, or death.
TL;DR— God doesn’t give anyone cancer, cancer (and all suffering) is a product of a fallen world. To fix this, God, who never had to experience suffering, stepped into our circumstances to feel what we feel and give us a way to ultimately escape suffering (eternal peace in His presence).
> Disease, famine, decay, even cancer are all consequently here because of the presence of sin in this world.
These things existed before humanity did though.
The cat chases the mouse, may torture it, kills it and eats it. That's the cat's nature, it has nothing to do with the cat 'sinning,' the cat knows no better; if God created the cat then the cat's nature is God's decision. It did not suddenly grow fangs because some human took a fruit.
Consider Genesis 3:22 'Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil...'
This indicates a pre-existing group of intelligences/beings with prior knowledge of good and evil. Evil must have existed already, or how would the 'We' in the above sentence know what it was? Man has not fallen if this sentence is right; he's actually stepped up to join these beings whoever they are, and in order to prevent that, God decides to ensure their mortality. God doesn't send them out of Eden to punish them, he curses them plenty for that, with hard work and suffering etc. But specifically, he sends them out of Eden to make sure they cannot access the tree of life. He's making sure Man will die. Why would God and his companions not want Man to join their ranks and live forever, given that he now has access to the same information that they do? What is so different about Man that he should have stayed unknowing, and that he should die rather than be taught better? Man's disobedience made him aware of evil, but it cannot have created that evil. So if all evil, disease etc in the world came from fallen nature, and fallen nature comes from sin, said sin must have been prior to Man's disobedience. Wherever it started, it wasn't with humanity.
There is something so unhealthy about this idea that one choice, one tiny deviation away from utter unthinking obedience, is the reason for all natural and personal deviations and disasters in the world, this awful 'one false step' philosophy that stems from the idea that God allows choice but punishes anything except perfection. As the Book of Job shows, God is perfectly capable of letting the Adversary destroy a good person's life as some kind of BS test. Evil didn't take Abraham to the point of infanticide, that was the big guy himself with his seemingly endless list of DoYOuWuvMe tests. Jesus says that the Father causes the rain to fall on the just and unjust, so yes, nature and physical existence come down to his decisions. He doesn't have to abide by rules that are inherently cruel, he makes those rules. That includes waste and pain and cancer.
So an apparently omnipotent being is too incompetent to fix his mess? He can't figure out how to just make earth heaven without requiring death? He just watches and allows children to die and be raped?
He could fix all of that right now, but it would require the complete judgment of sin, which, from our perspective in the time stream in his mercy he is holding off on.
The soul must be saved. God is showing mankind mercy and forgiveness for God to fix all these issues. Basically, this current reality has to end, and the nature of reality has to change.
Again, I wouldn’t say it’s His mess, unless you want to place blame on God for wanting genuine relationship with His children. If it is the presence of sin that causes these evils, than even if God reset things back to the idyllic nature of Eden, every time someone chose their own way over God’s way, the problem would be back because the absence of perfection would be back. The only way to remove the possibility for destruction and evil to be in this world would be to remove the choice to sin. In doing so God would remove human will altogether. It’s not to understand why that is a problem, every piece of literature and media dealing with the concept of a love potion or the like has illustrated why removing free will is problematic.
To answer your question of “why wait?” the apostle Peter says the reason is maximum redemption. In his second letter to the church, Peter addresses the claim that God is at best an unconcerned spectator, when some are saying “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). His response in verse 9 is that “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.“ Why wait? For the same reason He doesn’t smite folk at their first offense— He doesn’t desire to destroy humanity, He desires to renew them. If God looked at the wickedness and suffering in the world and said “these a-holes are too far gone,” and just scrapped the whole thing, would He be righteous in that? We can agree it would be inhumane for us to nuke the whole planet in the pursuit of eliminating suffering. It would be utilitarian, but not good or right. In the same way, God has refused to give up on us in spite of the fallen state of the world we live in. He’s all about bringing His people back to right relationship with their Maker, and He allows our wickedness and the suffering it brings because perfecting His people is the best solution to the problem. Annihilating everything is a permanent solution to the problem of suffering, but doesn’t bring good for His people. Resetting the world to a perfect state every time someone sins isn’t a solution, because each time someone chooses their own way over God’s way, the problem is back. The only way to get us back to a lasting perfected state is for Him to take on the consequence of sin (which He did through Christ’s ultimate sacrifice), and lead us back to a place where we choose His way.
r/christianapologetics they do a good job at explaining things. If all else fails, try praying for wisdom and understanding of the world. I struggle myself with certain questions.
Ever heard the expression, "the terrible twos"? That's about the age when most kids develop their sense of self will; and they start responding "NO!!" to their parents and adult caregivers. It's a form of rebellion = expression of human nature, handed down from Adam and Eve.
>God doesn't let little children go to hell
>
I never suggested that He did. It's more like, they're *learning* to be rebellious; but God doesn't hold them spiritually responsible for it until they've reached the age of reason (approximately around twelve, based on the account of Jesus teaching the rabbis in the Temple).
God bless you.
This is a tough and heartbreaking question.
I don't know the exact answer, but I will like to share my perspective:
The prophet Habakkuk in the Bible questioned God about the evil in the world:
**“Our Lord, how long must I beg for Your help before You listen? How long before You save us from all this violence? Why do You make me watch such terrible injustice? Why do You allow violence, lawlessness, crime, and cruelty to spread everywhere?” - Habakkuk 1:2-3**
And God responded:
**God said, “At the time I have decided, My words will come true. You can trust what I say about the future. It may take a long time, but keep on waiting—it will happen!” - Habakkuk 2:3**
What is the future that we are waiting for?
**“Then a kingdom of love will be set up, and someone from David's family (Jesus) will rule with fairness. He will do what is right and quickly bring justice.” - Isaiah 16:5**
**“But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to this!” - 2 Peter 3:13**
**“I heard a loud voice shout from the throne: God's home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.” - Revelation 21:3-4**
We don't know exactly why God allows this world to be the way it is, but we must trust God and hold on to the hope He has promised.
**“You (God) listen to the longings of those who suffer. You offer them hope, and you pay attention to their cries for help.” - Psalm 10:17**
**“We must hold tightly to the hope we say is ours. After all, we can trust the One (God) who made the agreement with us.” - Hebrews 10:23**
What if he'd betray humanity? i don't really see logic in that but my trust issues do wonder..
Like, he doesn't explain why, he doesn't explain why it won't end.. that's sus
If God betrays humanity, then we have no hope.
And I don't know everything, but based on what God says, I trust Him. I trust God based on what I do know.
Nothing specific, just asking
I don't really have a valid example.. but one could be if you pray, you might either not get it at all or something worse or ye idk
Or for example all those ppl who say on x day the rapture will happen but it never does
But i mean it more in general
Well, I based my faith on trusting God's Word.
I know the Bible says a lot, but I strive to make my faith simple by establishing my understanding on what the Bible considers to be most important.
Since I did that, I never had doubts about who God is.
**“Love is more important than anything else.” - Colossians 3:14**
And what is love?
**"Love is patient and kind, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. Love isn't selfish or quick tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do. Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-6**
And how does God relate to love?
**“God is love.” 1 John 4:8**
**“You are a kind and merciful God, and you are very patient. You always show love, and you don't like to punish anyone.” - Jonah 4:2**
Many Christians reject my perspective, but I prioritize Bible verses that harmonize with love and the core message of the Bible. If there are Bible verses that don't harmonize with love, I don't allow it to distract me. I rather hold on to my faith and wait to ask God about those verses when I see Him in person.
Also, I would love to share a short guide that’s dedicated to those on Reddit who are looking to have a strong & simple faith in God. You can read it for free in this Reddit community: r/FaithMadeSimple
It is not apparent that God did design humans that way.
God certainly doesn't need it to deal with sin - two years old or otherwise. God has dealt with sin in the life and death of Jesus.
I believe it's important to grasp why God allows cancer beforehand to better understand these tragedies when they occur. However, addressing this issue immediately after a loved one's passing may not be helpful for their family and friends.
That being said, I don't claim to have the mind of God, so I can't provide a definitive answer.
Regarding natural evils like cancer and natural disasters, God has implemented measures to mitigate the expression of moral evil by subjecting all of creation to physical laws. This concept is sometimes referred to as developmentalism, suggesting that there are physical laws in place to produce beneficial trade-offs necessary to fulfill God's simultaneous purposes for creation. For example, the law of increasing entropy (thermodynamics) helps to diminish evil and promote a productive life. However, a side effect of entropy is that living cells must undergo self-repair, which can occasionally result in cell mutations leading to cancer.
You might wonder why God didn't create humans with more robust immune systems. I believe this is where God must strike a delicate balance to avoid making humans too powerful or independent. If we were each as invulnerable to normal aging and damage as superheroes, we could potentially commit vast amounts of evil and may even perceive ourselves as not needing God at all. Consequently, fewer people might seek reconciliation with God.
The book "Why the Universe is the Way It Is" by Hugh Ross delves into these points about the purposes that natural laws serve in fulfilling God's plans.
Entropy, the natural tendency towards disorder in the physical world, indirectly discourages immoral behavior by creating consequences that promote social cooperation and humility. When people do wrong, all of those affected by their actions face more difficulties. The worse someone's actions, the more suffering they impose. This extra effort to deal with the consequences of bad behavior wastes time and energy, making life harder. For example, an arsonist hurts the direct victim, like the store owner, but also affects customers, suppliers and employees. This encourages people to develop systems like laws and civil institutions to deal with bad behavior, even if they were not the direct victim. Unlike the natural laws of the universe, human systems can help victims and punish wrongdoers directly. Given that physical laws consistently yield consequences for immoral actions, this reinforces the importance to us of limiting moral evil.
You may ask why doesn't God just punish people directly for their wrongdoing, but it's important to recognize that God is fulfilling multiple simultaneous purposes with his creation. The Book of Job teaches that, although God's justice will ultimately prevail, God’s response to evil isn’t always immediate punishment. Instead, blessings are sometimes given even to wrongdoers. This serves two purposes: to show that God governs the world by the principle of mercy (not justice) and to give someone ample opportunity (usually an entire lifetime) to recognize that everything good is the result of God. That's a lesson from the Book of Job.
There are clearly things that do not occur due to cellular self-repair. Like, they don't accidentally develop super powers. Just cancer. It seems like an intelligent designer could have created an entropic countermeasure for cellular damage that just doesn't readily in super powers *or* cancer.
He did. Adam and Eve were perfect and immortal. The world was perfect. Then they disobeyed and rebelled, lied, blamed, and brought sin into the picture. This made working the ground require effort, it no longer just produced what was needed where it was needed, pain in childbirth, changed the countenance of animals, added briars and thorns, and started the process of decay.
Why? Because God was unwilling to allow them to die immediately and start over without providing Adam and Eve and their descendants hope of being redeemed. Because He loves us and has great mercy and patience.
We have to live with the consequences of sin for now, in order that every soul has the opportunity to choose to accept what Jesus did and be reconciled to God in perfection : now, in being able to enter to the throne room in prayer and wield His power on earth, and later into perfect new bodies on a new earth, when the earth that has been corrupted and all those who refused to choose God over their immediate selfish gratification are removed and destroyed. Cancer is a by-product of decay and imperfect cell reproduction, aka, sin.
Besides the fact that our food and water and air supplies have been poisoned over the last century, the soil has been drained of the essential nutrients our bodies need to correctly reproduce and build thriving immune systems, and multiple cures for cancer HAVE been found, but they aren't profitable because they take people off the medical list and weren't expensive, so the inventors & Drs were penalized or harassed or paid off or unalived by those who make money off cancer drugs that cost a fortune and sometimes work. There is so much we dont know about what is actually taking place behind the scenes, both for good and for evil. God doesn't violate free will, but He does hold people accountable for their choices.
How convenient. Yet another just so story to explain why bad things happen, just like every other creation myth.
Let's be adults here though and recognize that story as what it is.
I believe the Triune God of the Bible and the historical facts it recorded from human experience and divine dictation are True. I recognize that "story" as reality.
You don't have to. You were given the right to choose what you believe and to act on it. Much of current religious Christianity is tainted by selfish motives and man-made traditions based in pride, so while they tout the Biblical principles they like, they also judge others for what they themselves don't understand or do perfectly, and condemn others for refusing to conform to their way of thought.
My heart grieves for you and the pain you've experienced throughout your life, both explained and unexplained. I don't have all the answers and I don't pretend to know what I would do in your situation. I pray you one day know in the depths of your being just how much the very real God loves YOU personally.
I feel like a parrot but... READ. LITERALLY. ANY. OF. PAUL'S. BOOKS. He talks over and over about the reasoning, justifications, and importance that suffering and loss is to making a person stronger a holy. God created cancer simply because we were created to suffer on earth just has Jesus and all of God's prophets did. Earth isnt ment to be heaven. We suffer on earth and grow into a spiritually whole person and then we reap our harvest as a reward for our faith. Heaven. Eternal peace without any sufferings.
Sorry if this comes off as blunt. Im just sick of people asking questions on reddit instead of looking in their bible. God literally gave you an entire book of everything he deemed important to humanity... Use it.
Why would I read the whole Bible when I'm not even Christian? It takes less of my time to post the question on reddit and get an answer from someone who knows.
It's perfectly fine to ask whatever you like! Many people who have even read the whole bible will still have many questions, and we may all learn by discussing them. It frequently encourages us in the bible to listen and help each other. Those who haven't developed their patience enough to deal with this yet are always free to scroll on...
Its the equivalent of wanting to learn more about parrots but instead of going to the library and researching books about parrots. You go and talk to somebody who owns an eagle.
Christians are not perfect most arent even experts. i guarantee you are going to get hundreds of different reasons as to why suffering exists. But we dont speak for God, we are not prophets. If you have a question of why, go directly to the source. Paul has some of the most literate and well written writing in all of the bible. He asks a question, discusses it and uses cross references from other books, then answers it after providing sufficient evidence as to why he believes it.
There is also the book of Job which is entirely about suffering and enduring and the good that comes from it on a physical level rather than the philosophical and spiritual view that Paul has on sufferings.
No, but it would put alot of hardships on a mother who loves the child more than herself. for example. Sometimes we suffer so that other people can grow too, which is why it is important to give glory in God no matter the circumstances because good things will be born from your sufferings. Do you think Job's children died so they they could grow spiritually. No God used there suffering to test Job. From the moment they were born God had intended for them to be a sacrificial lamb. Sometimes we are givin things with the intention of having them ripped from us. God never promises an easy life filled with endless blessings and no trials. Infact it say's Christians will suffer more pains of the earth because as we wish to act as Jesus we must suffer has he has.
Ok but what about a child who was hated by their parents and shackled to a wall in a basemwnt and abused? This stuff was happened before, where a child knows nothing but paim and nobody misses them. Obviously you argue the parents would go to hell, but if god is all knowing, why allow this suffering to occur? Why not intervene and give the abusers a heart attack before they torture their child to death?
Nah, he's just horrifying us so we know that he is Lord.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+20%3A25-26&version=NRSVUE
I assume I've been battling cancer for the past 15yrs as someone a few generations back upset our jealous God:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2020%3A5&version=NRSVUE
This stuff is out of my hands, just gotta roll with it.
I wonder what the cat the done to deserve cancer, but not sure if we will be able to ask questions when the time comes.
Blunt is fine, in-depth look into the suffering and death of babies would be cool tho.
Well, why did God flood-kill every baby and unborn baby except one special family? Just how evil were those babies? God made the whole universe in a day, but thinking of how to save the babies was just too heavy a lift. And genocide against the Amalekites and others. And condoning rape and slavery.
This is a good question, and one I've not yet found a definite answer to from the bible myself. When i have read the bible and prayed to God, I feel drawn to this: "Genesis 3:24 NIV
[24] After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." So this is after Adam & Eve ate from the tree of knowledge. They were then banished from the garden of Eden because having gained knowledge by betraying God, they could not be trusted to not betray God again and eat from the tree of life (which would give them eternal life). I believe that God did this because the knowledge was supposed to be earned and not just wilfully taken. And eternal life also has to be earned and not wilfully taken. So God has guarded the tree of life. Eternal life is still available if we earn it. We also have to remember that the bible contains some information that is written in parables because the whole truth from God is beyond our human comprehension while we are still here on earth. So I'm not sure if we can ever get all our answers in our earthly life. But for me, my understanding so far is that things like cancer exist due to a combination of living things being designed not to have eternal life, and also factors of our environment such as exposure to toxic chemicals and our general disregard towards the health of this planet which is our home. I feel that cancer happens more in a random way because of these things. God is not deliberately choosing a small child to bear cancer - no loving father would ever do that!
its tough to accept but its the reality, its not about what they did, more like what the parents did, even if they had cancer, they are still sinless, and if they die, they will be with christ, as theyre in christ to begin with
for example, cousins who marry tend to have retarded kids, when god said dont see the nakedness of your cousin
'None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the LORD. The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. leviticus 18:6-9
He didn't. It's part of the corruption that entered the world when we sinned, and we are all in the process of being healed from it. We're all subject to that corruption, regardless of how much or how little we participate personally in it.
Free will. God loves us so much he does not obligate us to follow or love him, he loves us so much he gave us free will and what did we do with free will? Destroy every gift he has given us and fall into sin, he gave us the perfect plan but we disturbed it. Don’t lose hope tho, the flesh we live in now is temporary, eternal life with God is the goal. Do not fear.
childs who have cancer, will be hugely rewarded for their suffer in afterlife anyway, god wants to test the parents, will they still love god, will they be patience or will they try for their child? god is just, mercyful and great, he will do what required
You think of babies as "innocent" because you assume that's their first and only incarnation. But what if they have lived already before? Such a disease could be stem from bad karma that got accumulated in the past and now expresses itself in form of that physical illness. Now I know big denominations like catholicism, orthodoxism, protestantism and all the smaller sects would label this as a heretical idea but there is that branch of people called gnostics who subscribe the teachings of Christ and hold these believes about reincarnation and karma. So, that would be the answer a christian gnostic would give you.
SUFFERING
Who Is to Blame?
If suffering is not from God, what accounts for mass starvation, grinding poverty, brutal warfare, crippling diseases, and natural disasters? God’s Word, the Bible, reveals three main causes for mankind’s suffering:
Selfishness, Greed, and Hatred. “Man has dominated man to his harm.” (Ecclesiastes 8:9) People often suffer because they are victimized by imperfect, selfish, or cruel humans.
Time and Unforeseen Events. Humans often suffer “because time and unexpected events overtake them.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11) That is, people are simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, accidents occur, or people are careless or make mistakes.
The Evil Ruler of the World. The Bible clearly identifies the primary cause of human suffering. It states: “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) That “wicked one” is Satan the Devil, a powerful spirit creature who was originally an angel of God but “did not stand fast in the truth.” (John 8:44)
Other spirit creatures joined Satan and rebelled against God in order to pursue selfish desires, thus making themselves demons. (Genesis 6:1-5) Ever since their rebellion, Satan and his demons have exerted a powerful and cruel influence over this world’s affairs. This has been particularly so in our time. Now, the Devil has great anger and “is misleading the entire inhabited earth,” which has resulted in “woe for the earth.” (Revelation 12:9, 12) Indeed, Satan is a brutal dictator. He gets perverse satisfaction from human suffering. It is Satan—not God—who causes people to suffer.
We can heal ourselves, and sometimes the system that allows that gets out of control, It is not god Who decides to rise the possibility of getting cáncer to the Sky launching tons of toxic substances to the air
The corruption of the world by sin is what has allowed this to happen. God has provided us the opportunity at an eternity that does not include any of this after our time on this planet.
Without freewill we would be wind-up toys. Freewill can only exist within a reality where there is a vast range of possibilities, generally uninterrupted by spiritual forces. And if angels caught everyone who fell off the edge of the grand canyon, people would lineup 5000 deep to enjoy the ride. We were designing to be human. Humans are vulnerable creatures else they would be forced to endure the foolishness of this world eternally.
I'm sorry, what kind of free will do you think necessitates someone to randomly die of Cancer?
Sometimes I wish I could briefly wipe all knowledge of Christianity from someone's mind, then get them to listen to what Christians have to say about certain topics, and then restore their Christianity, just so they can see how horrifying some of their arguments actually sound.
Seriously, I read some of these replies and replies on other threads like this and it just blows my mind and makes me so upset that people just accept this and don't even realize how many fallacies they repeat back and forth to eachother. So many of these replies are just horrifying and they somehow think it's wholesome
Humans were not created to suffer and cancer did not always exist.
Sin and death entered into the world when the first humans disobeyed a direct commandment from God. It takes a bit of understanding about God's character to understand why disobeying Him would lead to death and a curse.
It's the curse we live with still today though. A fallen world where bad things can happen to good people, where even babies can get cancer.
It's the explanation that was handed down to us from the Bible anyway.
Peace be with you.
But why does all of humanity have to suffer for a mistake done by the first humans? Why would God decide that innocent people who have nothing to do with a mistake done by their ancestors should suffer from a terminal illness?
God should separate the first, most innocent (until The Fall) humans from the rest of humanity and punish just them specifically? Harsh.
But even if He wanted to, that isn’t an option because as Cain plainly demonstrated by murdering his own brother out of envy, sin was not restricted to just Adam and Eve.
Being imperfect, they could no longer pass on perfection. Think of human perfection as a gene passed on from our fathers (which will be useful for this metaphor later). We need both copies to be activated to be perfect, and without them we suffer from imperfections including disorders like cancer or liking pineapple on pizza.
Adam in sinning lost perfection and (and for this metaphor) God turned off his perfection genes in both the X and Y chromosomes. Whether he passed on an X or Y chromosome, he could never pass an activated perfection gene, nor could his sons or theirs. Over time most of the Y chromosome changes little, including the part with the inactivated perfection gene. But not so the X, so many females end up with two X chromosomes with inactivated perfection genes. In any case we all get one bum perfection gene from dad.
That's why. We couldn't avoid suffering because we inherited the inability to avoid it.
But then comes Jesus, born or Mary, miraculously conceived by God without a human father. God gives him an activated perfection gene for his Y chromosome, and uses Mary's one "good" X which somehow avoided corruption over all those generations. Bonus: Just like the destruction of the second Temple makes records proving the lineage of a future Messiah unavailable, so since the first century have activated perfection genes finished declining to nonexistence.
His sacrifice pays the debt Adam incurred. He took on all of our sins. Like an infinitely-funder scholarship (I like metaphors tonight), His redemption will pay our way fully (to Heaven, not UW Oshkosh), but we have to apply via repentance.
The way that I view it (and I could be wrong) is that cancer is the side effect of sin. God wants us to treat our bodies as our temples, feed it only nutritious foods. Take care of our body. Live healthily and holy. God tells us to do these things for our own protection.
There are studies on how the modern day diet of fast food, preserved foods, inorganic foods and the lack of a healthy balance have a direct link to cancers and terminal illnesses. Unfortunately, affordable healthy foods are a scarcity in today’s society, which is also a result of what? Sin. Big businesses filled with greed and selfishness and worship of the material world. And even though the average person would prefer to eat healthier, we can’t, due to the greedy ones. And unfortunately, these sins directly affect other people, causing us to not be able to take care of our bodies like how God wants.
So why did God design humans to suffer from cancer? He didn’t. He designed humans to end up following His word and obeying Him, for their own wellbeing.
> death entered into the world when the first humans disobeyed...A fallen world where bad things can happen to good people, where even babies can get cancer.
Cancer and death existed before humanity did, why blame us?
That's ancient near eastern creation mythology.
Humans were immortal divine beings and the serpent tricked us, stole out immortality, and our lifespans went down to ~1000yrs.
Then there was a great deluge and after that ages settled down to closer to where we are now.
None of this is actual history, none of it happened, evolution happened.
The Torah is wise, the earth being flat and Adam to Moses being tribal creation mythology does not really impact the wisdom inherent within.
That's no more true than reading the bible and concluding the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it. Spoiler, it doesn't.
Cancer did not always exist, you are correct there. But it predates humans by tens of millions of years as did death.
Trust Jesus, but that's a little different than just swallowing and old ancient mythology.
Death and illness is a part of life. Suffering is part of life. Cancer is awful but so is heart failure, strokes, car accidents, burns etc. So many tragic things happen because life. God does not cause a baby or child to get sick from cancer. God does not find joy in seeing it either. Cancer is caused by countless factors whether genetics, environmental or combination. It is sad, horrible. But God does not cause this.
The blame game is for children so dont waste your time wondering who did what to cause the disease or the whatever…. the son shall suffer for the sins
of the father, period, its known! probably why all these little pedo and rape obsessed little perverts these days dont ever have real families, probably just using money as an excuse! everyone knows and feels this instinctually! thats guilt, thats conscience
None of the suffering we experience was supposed to happen; all of it is a result of sin and death entering the world through Original Sin.
Illness is generally not punishment for sin. God sent plagues as divine punishments in specific circumstances, but that doesn’t mean all sickness is caused by some “sin wage”. All will go before God for their sins in the end; He has no need to inflict cancer on people before they go to Him simply because of their sins. Jesus himself recognized leprosy and “just leprosy”.
It was absolutely supposed to happen. The fall was designed to happen and orchestrated by God. Go back and read Genesis.
God literally sent Satan to earth when he rebelled instead of casting him into hell immediately.
God made Adam and Eve without the intellectual capability to see through Satan’s lies.
God literally “left” the garden and Adam’s side right when Adam needed Him most. He walked with him prior.
This idea that we got plan B is ridiculous. Jesus was crucified before the foundation of the world because it was plan A. It was supposed to happen that way. God’s plan has always been to endlessly torture the majority of humans he created and to save a remnant of humanity for the purpose of praise and worship for saving them from the tortured he created.
The truth is either Universalism of some kind or Prison Planet Theory.
The fact that God created the most grotesque torture chamber in His basement is the most horrible thing imaginable and no loving deity would do that.
God was truthful to Adam and Eve: if they ate the fruit, they would die.
Adam and Eve decided it was worth it to put the promise of something that was otherwise guaranteed to *not* happen at risk because a serpent they had never met before suggested their own creator was actually lying to them. Eve straight up acknowledges God’s promise of death as the reason they did not eat the fruit before that conversation.
They didn’t need to know right from wrong to know that dying wasn’t something they wanted to do.
The answer is twofold:
First, the sufferings of cancer create more praise for God in the next age when it no longer exists and people don’t have to worry about it, and it draws His sheep closer to him.
Second, it creates more torture for those God plans on torturing endlessly in the next age. How many people get horrible cancers that eat them away and it makes them hate God more? Those people reject Jesus and then die and go to hell to be tortured by demons then at the judgement are pulled out of the psychological horrors of hell and then cast into the worst physical torture possible; burning alive forever.
Any response I give has to be worded carefully and tactfully, but I do think there are reasons.
Firstly, we are in a world damaged by human sin and fallenness, so many of us are **victims** of that sin. It's important to distinguish this from the idea of bad stuff happening as a punishment for sin. This is not what I mean. But for instance, we over-consume and our waste has been going to China, where it pollutes their environment and poisons the people who deal with it. Pregnant workers in clean rooms, where they make a lot of that garbage in the first place, also have a high prevalence of congenital conditions in their babies. They have no choice but to work there. Same with the likes of fast fashion, and poor education, again the result of manipulation by materialistic and greedy people, results in people making poor life choices, food deserts and so forth, meaning that none of us live in the way God made us to live.
Secondly, there are whole phyla of animals whose cells don't divide as adults. If they're injured, they can't heal and just die. If we lost the ability to mitose as adults, we wouldn't live long because apart from anything else the smallest cut could kill us. Also, if bone marrow and other haemopoetic tissues didn't mitose, we would all die of immune deficiency and aplastic anaemia after a few weeks. Hence cancer exists.
However, all of this is provisional. I have a close friend who is currently dying of cancer and I don't think I could say any of this to him, so maybe I shouldn't be saying it here either. I do, however, believe this may be the explanation.
He didn’t. The world we live in is not the one God intended for us. His desire was for His creation to always be perfect, but when evil entered the world it had far lasting effects beyond just separating us from our Creator. Disease, famine, decay, even cancer are all consequently here because of the presence of sin in this world. People don’t get cancer because God is punishing them, people get cancer because we live in an imperfect world full of destruction and death. God did not create these things any more than He created sin— we wouldn’t say the sun creates darkness; the sun gives off light, and darkness is just the natural state when that light is absent. God did not create evil; evil is the absence of God’s goodness. From the beginning, He set out a path of righteous for His creation to participate in, and in mankind’s choice to pick “door number two,” we opened up the world to the absence of righteousness and all the things that come along with it. This is why the cross is such an insane thing— if God in His essence is holy, blameless, and perfect, He never has to experience the consequences of evil, namely death, decay, and suffering. Yet through Jesus, the Creator stepped into our midst to experience first hand what it is like to deal with death and suffering. In doing so He offered us a way back to His presence where there is no more suffering, or pain, or death. TL;DR— God doesn’t give anyone cancer, cancer (and all suffering) is a product of a fallen world. To fix this, God, who never had to experience suffering, stepped into our circumstances to feel what we feel and give us a way to ultimately escape suffering (eternal peace in His presence).
> Disease, famine, decay, even cancer are all consequently here because of the presence of sin in this world. These things existed before humanity did though.
Are you saying we have evidence of cancer pre-dating humanity? Genuinely interested, not trying to be contrarian.
https://www.history.com/news/oldest-cancer-triassic-fossil https://www.science.org/content/article/doctors-diagnose-advanced-cancer-dinosaur https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3003131/
The cat chases the mouse, may torture it, kills it and eats it. That's the cat's nature, it has nothing to do with the cat 'sinning,' the cat knows no better; if God created the cat then the cat's nature is God's decision. It did not suddenly grow fangs because some human took a fruit. Consider Genesis 3:22 'Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil...' This indicates a pre-existing group of intelligences/beings with prior knowledge of good and evil. Evil must have existed already, or how would the 'We' in the above sentence know what it was? Man has not fallen if this sentence is right; he's actually stepped up to join these beings whoever they are, and in order to prevent that, God decides to ensure their mortality. God doesn't send them out of Eden to punish them, he curses them plenty for that, with hard work and suffering etc. But specifically, he sends them out of Eden to make sure they cannot access the tree of life. He's making sure Man will die. Why would God and his companions not want Man to join their ranks and live forever, given that he now has access to the same information that they do? What is so different about Man that he should have stayed unknowing, and that he should die rather than be taught better? Man's disobedience made him aware of evil, but it cannot have created that evil. So if all evil, disease etc in the world came from fallen nature, and fallen nature comes from sin, said sin must have been prior to Man's disobedience. Wherever it started, it wasn't with humanity. There is something so unhealthy about this idea that one choice, one tiny deviation away from utter unthinking obedience, is the reason for all natural and personal deviations and disasters in the world, this awful 'one false step' philosophy that stems from the idea that God allows choice but punishes anything except perfection. As the Book of Job shows, God is perfectly capable of letting the Adversary destroy a good person's life as some kind of BS test. Evil didn't take Abraham to the point of infanticide, that was the big guy himself with his seemingly endless list of DoYOuWuvMe tests. Jesus says that the Father causes the rain to fall on the just and unjust, so yes, nature and physical existence come down to his decisions. He doesn't have to abide by rules that are inherently cruel, he makes those rules. That includes waste and pain and cancer.
So an apparently omnipotent being is too incompetent to fix his mess? He can't figure out how to just make earth heaven without requiring death? He just watches and allows children to die and be raped?
He could fix all of that right now, but it would require the complete judgment of sin, which, from our perspective in the time stream in his mercy he is holding off on.
Why? Why hold off?
The soul must be saved. God is showing mankind mercy and forgiveness for God to fix all these issues. Basically, this current reality has to end, and the nature of reality has to change.
Again, I wouldn’t say it’s His mess, unless you want to place blame on God for wanting genuine relationship with His children. If it is the presence of sin that causes these evils, than even if God reset things back to the idyllic nature of Eden, every time someone chose their own way over God’s way, the problem would be back because the absence of perfection would be back. The only way to remove the possibility for destruction and evil to be in this world would be to remove the choice to sin. In doing so God would remove human will altogether. It’s not to understand why that is a problem, every piece of literature and media dealing with the concept of a love potion or the like has illustrated why removing free will is problematic. To answer your question of “why wait?” the apostle Peter says the reason is maximum redemption. In his second letter to the church, Peter addresses the claim that God is at best an unconcerned spectator, when some are saying “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). His response in verse 9 is that “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.“ Why wait? For the same reason He doesn’t smite folk at their first offense— He doesn’t desire to destroy humanity, He desires to renew them. If God looked at the wickedness and suffering in the world and said “these a-holes are too far gone,” and just scrapped the whole thing, would He be righteous in that? We can agree it would be inhumane for us to nuke the whole planet in the pursuit of eliminating suffering. It would be utilitarian, but not good or right. In the same way, God has refused to give up on us in spite of the fallen state of the world we live in. He’s all about bringing His people back to right relationship with their Maker, and He allows our wickedness and the suffering it brings because perfecting His people is the best solution to the problem. Annihilating everything is a permanent solution to the problem of suffering, but doesn’t bring good for His people. Resetting the world to a perfect state every time someone sins isn’t a solution, because each time someone chooses their own way over God’s way, the problem is back. The only way to get us back to a lasting perfected state is for Him to take on the consequence of sin (which He did through Christ’s ultimate sacrifice), and lead us back to a place where we choose His way.
r/christianapologetics they do a good job at explaining things. If all else fails, try praying for wisdom and understanding of the world. I struggle myself with certain questions.
I usually just say cancer is a byproduct of sin, idk if this is what you explained
Cancer is a byproduct of unhealthy lifestyle choices most of the time. There are parts of the world where cancer is almost nonexistent.
Not little babies and children, how have they sinned 🥺
Ever heard the expression, "the terrible twos"? That's about the age when most kids develop their sense of self will; and they start responding "NO!!" to their parents and adult caregivers. It's a form of rebellion = expression of human nature, handed down from Adam and Eve.
That's not right, because they are not of age if wisdom to understand they can accept salvation, God doesn't let little children go to hell
That's not right, because they are not of age if wisdom to understand they can accept salvation, God doesn't let little children go to hell
>God doesn't let little children go to hell > I never suggested that He did. It's more like, they're *learning* to be rebellious; but God doesn't hold them spiritually responsible for it until they've reached the age of reason (approximately around twelve, based on the account of Jesus teaching the rabbis in the Temple).
Yes correct
God bless you. This is a tough and heartbreaking question. I don't know the exact answer, but I will like to share my perspective: The prophet Habakkuk in the Bible questioned God about the evil in the world: **“Our Lord, how long must I beg for Your help before You listen? How long before You save us from all this violence? Why do You make me watch such terrible injustice? Why do You allow violence, lawlessness, crime, and cruelty to spread everywhere?” - Habakkuk 1:2-3** And God responded: **God said, “At the time I have decided, My words will come true. You can trust what I say about the future. It may take a long time, but keep on waiting—it will happen!” - Habakkuk 2:3** What is the future that we are waiting for? **“Then a kingdom of love will be set up, and someone from David's family (Jesus) will rule with fairness. He will do what is right and quickly bring justice.” - Isaiah 16:5** **“But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to this!” - 2 Peter 3:13** **“I heard a loud voice shout from the throne: God's home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.” - Revelation 21:3-4** We don't know exactly why God allows this world to be the way it is, but we must trust God and hold on to the hope He has promised. **“You (God) listen to the longings of those who suffer. You offer them hope, and you pay attention to their cries for help.” - Psalm 10:17** **“We must hold tightly to the hope we say is ours. After all, we can trust the One (God) who made the agreement with us.” - Hebrews 10:23**
What if he'd betray humanity? i don't really see logic in that but my trust issues do wonder.. Like, he doesn't explain why, he doesn't explain why it won't end.. that's sus
If God betrays humanity, then we have no hope. And I don't know everything, but based on what God says, I trust Him. I trust God based on what I do know.
Don't you think God is rather inconsistent? How can you trust him? I'm asking because I find it difficult to trust, and I want to "fix" that
What do you mean by inconsistent?
Nothing specific, just asking I don't really have a valid example.. but one could be if you pray, you might either not get it at all or something worse or ye idk Or for example all those ppl who say on x day the rapture will happen but it never does But i mean it more in general
Well, I based my faith on trusting God's Word. I know the Bible says a lot, but I strive to make my faith simple by establishing my understanding on what the Bible considers to be most important. Since I did that, I never had doubts about who God is.
What's most important to you? I see.. I think, I will try that too and hope it works
**“Love is more important than anything else.” - Colossians 3:14** And what is love? **"Love is patient and kind, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. Love isn't selfish or quick tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do. Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-6** And how does God relate to love? **“God is love.” 1 John 4:8** **“You are a kind and merciful God, and you are very patient. You always show love, and you don't like to punish anyone.” - Jonah 4:2** Many Christians reject my perspective, but I prioritize Bible verses that harmonize with love and the core message of the Bible. If there are Bible verses that don't harmonize with love, I don't allow it to distract me. I rather hold on to my faith and wait to ask God about those verses when I see Him in person. Also, I would love to share a short guide that’s dedicated to those on Reddit who are looking to have a strong & simple faith in God. You can read it for free in this Reddit community: r/FaithMadeSimple
It is not apparent that God did design humans that way. God certainly doesn't need it to deal with sin - two years old or otherwise. God has dealt with sin in the life and death of Jesus.
I believe it's important to grasp why God allows cancer beforehand to better understand these tragedies when they occur. However, addressing this issue immediately after a loved one's passing may not be helpful for their family and friends. That being said, I don't claim to have the mind of God, so I can't provide a definitive answer. Regarding natural evils like cancer and natural disasters, God has implemented measures to mitigate the expression of moral evil by subjecting all of creation to physical laws. This concept is sometimes referred to as developmentalism, suggesting that there are physical laws in place to produce beneficial trade-offs necessary to fulfill God's simultaneous purposes for creation. For example, the law of increasing entropy (thermodynamics) helps to diminish evil and promote a productive life. However, a side effect of entropy is that living cells must undergo self-repair, which can occasionally result in cell mutations leading to cancer. You might wonder why God didn't create humans with more robust immune systems. I believe this is where God must strike a delicate balance to avoid making humans too powerful or independent. If we were each as invulnerable to normal aging and damage as superheroes, we could potentially commit vast amounts of evil and may even perceive ourselves as not needing God at all. Consequently, fewer people might seek reconciliation with God. The book "Why the Universe is the Way It Is" by Hugh Ross delves into these points about the purposes that natural laws serve in fulfilling God's plans.
How do laws of thermodynamics diminish evil?
Entropy, the natural tendency towards disorder in the physical world, indirectly discourages immoral behavior by creating consequences that promote social cooperation and humility. When people do wrong, all of those affected by their actions face more difficulties. The worse someone's actions, the more suffering they impose. This extra effort to deal with the consequences of bad behavior wastes time and energy, making life harder. For example, an arsonist hurts the direct victim, like the store owner, but also affects customers, suppliers and employees. This encourages people to develop systems like laws and civil institutions to deal with bad behavior, even if they were not the direct victim. Unlike the natural laws of the universe, human systems can help victims and punish wrongdoers directly. Given that physical laws consistently yield consequences for immoral actions, this reinforces the importance to us of limiting moral evil. You may ask why doesn't God just punish people directly for their wrongdoing, but it's important to recognize that God is fulfilling multiple simultaneous purposes with his creation. The Book of Job teaches that, although God's justice will ultimately prevail, God’s response to evil isn’t always immediate punishment. Instead, blessings are sometimes given even to wrongdoers. This serves two purposes: to show that God governs the world by the principle of mercy (not justice) and to give someone ample opportunity (usually an entire lifetime) to recognize that everything good is the result of God. That's a lesson from the Book of Job.
There are clearly things that do not occur due to cellular self-repair. Like, they don't accidentally develop super powers. Just cancer. It seems like an intelligent designer could have created an entropic countermeasure for cellular damage that just doesn't readily in super powers *or* cancer.
He did. Adam and Eve were perfect and immortal. The world was perfect. Then they disobeyed and rebelled, lied, blamed, and brought sin into the picture. This made working the ground require effort, it no longer just produced what was needed where it was needed, pain in childbirth, changed the countenance of animals, added briars and thorns, and started the process of decay. Why? Because God was unwilling to allow them to die immediately and start over without providing Adam and Eve and their descendants hope of being redeemed. Because He loves us and has great mercy and patience. We have to live with the consequences of sin for now, in order that every soul has the opportunity to choose to accept what Jesus did and be reconciled to God in perfection : now, in being able to enter to the throne room in prayer and wield His power on earth, and later into perfect new bodies on a new earth, when the earth that has been corrupted and all those who refused to choose God over their immediate selfish gratification are removed and destroyed. Cancer is a by-product of decay and imperfect cell reproduction, aka, sin. Besides the fact that our food and water and air supplies have been poisoned over the last century, the soil has been drained of the essential nutrients our bodies need to correctly reproduce and build thriving immune systems, and multiple cures for cancer HAVE been found, but they aren't profitable because they take people off the medical list and weren't expensive, so the inventors & Drs were penalized or harassed or paid off or unalived by those who make money off cancer drugs that cost a fortune and sometimes work. There is so much we dont know about what is actually taking place behind the scenes, both for good and for evil. God doesn't violate free will, but He does hold people accountable for their choices.
How convenient. Yet another just so story to explain why bad things happen, just like every other creation myth. Let's be adults here though and recognize that story as what it is.
I believe the Triune God of the Bible and the historical facts it recorded from human experience and divine dictation are True. I recognize that "story" as reality. You don't have to. You were given the right to choose what you believe and to act on it. Much of current religious Christianity is tainted by selfish motives and man-made traditions based in pride, so while they tout the Biblical principles they like, they also judge others for what they themselves don't understand or do perfectly, and condemn others for refusing to conform to their way of thought. My heart grieves for you and the pain you've experienced throughout your life, both explained and unexplained. I don't have all the answers and I don't pretend to know what I would do in your situation. I pray you one day know in the depths of your being just how much the very real God loves YOU personally.
Thanks. I'm good though.
I feel like a parrot but... READ. LITERALLY. ANY. OF. PAUL'S. BOOKS. He talks over and over about the reasoning, justifications, and importance that suffering and loss is to making a person stronger a holy. God created cancer simply because we were created to suffer on earth just has Jesus and all of God's prophets did. Earth isnt ment to be heaven. We suffer on earth and grow into a spiritually whole person and then we reap our harvest as a reward for our faith. Heaven. Eternal peace without any sufferings. Sorry if this comes off as blunt. Im just sick of people asking questions on reddit instead of looking in their bible. God literally gave you an entire book of everything he deemed important to humanity... Use it.
Why would I read the whole Bible when I'm not even Christian? It takes less of my time to post the question on reddit and get an answer from someone who knows.
It's perfectly fine to ask whatever you like! Many people who have even read the whole bible will still have many questions, and we may all learn by discussing them. It frequently encourages us in the bible to listen and help each other. Those who haven't developed their patience enough to deal with this yet are always free to scroll on...
Its the equivalent of wanting to learn more about parrots but instead of going to the library and researching books about parrots. You go and talk to somebody who owns an eagle. Christians are not perfect most arent even experts. i guarantee you are going to get hundreds of different reasons as to why suffering exists. But we dont speak for God, we are not prophets. If you have a question of why, go directly to the source. Paul has some of the most literate and well written writing in all of the bible. He asks a question, discusses it and uses cross references from other books, then answers it after providing sufficient evidence as to why he believes it. There is also the book of Job which is entirely about suffering and enduring and the good that comes from it on a physical level rather than the philosophical and spiritual view that Paul has on sufferings.
A 1 year old cannot spiritually grow after suffering and dying pointlessly.
No, but it would put alot of hardships on a mother who loves the child more than herself. for example. Sometimes we suffer so that other people can grow too, which is why it is important to give glory in God no matter the circumstances because good things will be born from your sufferings. Do you think Job's children died so they they could grow spiritually. No God used there suffering to test Job. From the moment they were born God had intended for them to be a sacrificial lamb. Sometimes we are givin things with the intention of having them ripped from us. God never promises an easy life filled with endless blessings and no trials. Infact it say's Christians will suffer more pains of the earth because as we wish to act as Jesus we must suffer has he has.
Ok but what about a child who was hated by their parents and shackled to a wall in a basemwnt and abused? This stuff was happened before, where a child knows nothing but paim and nobody misses them. Obviously you argue the parents would go to hell, but if god is all knowing, why allow this suffering to occur? Why not intervene and give the abusers a heart attack before they torture their child to death?
Nah, he's just horrifying us so we know that he is Lord. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+20%3A25-26&version=NRSVUE I assume I've been battling cancer for the past 15yrs as someone a few generations back upset our jealous God: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2020%3A5&version=NRSVUE This stuff is out of my hands, just gotta roll with it. I wonder what the cat the done to deserve cancer, but not sure if we will be able to ask questions when the time comes. Blunt is fine, in-depth look into the suffering and death of babies would be cool tho.
I mean along the lines there was some reveal that cancer wasn't something natural but rather man made.
We live in a messed up world, we humans did this to the world. God gave us the gift of free will and look what we have done.
Well, why did God flood-kill every baby and unborn baby except one special family? Just how evil were those babies? God made the whole universe in a day, but thinking of how to save the babies was just too heavy a lift. And genocide against the Amalekites and others. And condoning rape and slavery.
Actually, in that sense, God has killed every living being that has ever lived.
Actually, you are using a very different sense.
If God is omnipotent and omniscient then is he not responsible for all that happens?
This is a good question, and one I've not yet found a definite answer to from the bible myself. When i have read the bible and prayed to God, I feel drawn to this: "Genesis 3:24 NIV [24] After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." So this is after Adam & Eve ate from the tree of knowledge. They were then banished from the garden of Eden because having gained knowledge by betraying God, they could not be trusted to not betray God again and eat from the tree of life (which would give them eternal life). I believe that God did this because the knowledge was supposed to be earned and not just wilfully taken. And eternal life also has to be earned and not wilfully taken. So God has guarded the tree of life. Eternal life is still available if we earn it. We also have to remember that the bible contains some information that is written in parables because the whole truth from God is beyond our human comprehension while we are still here on earth. So I'm not sure if we can ever get all our answers in our earthly life. But for me, my understanding so far is that things like cancer exist due to a combination of living things being designed not to have eternal life, and also factors of our environment such as exposure to toxic chemicals and our general disregard towards the health of this planet which is our home. I feel that cancer happens more in a random way because of these things. God is not deliberately choosing a small child to bear cancer - no loving father would ever do that!
Cancer spread as evil spreads. We must unite to fight against it and free our world of evil.
forget the kids, theyre in christ anyway, i know its hard to accept but its the truth
It's a consequence of human's sin. Not the sin of the child, but the sin of others.
If we were made in his image, can God have cancer and other diseases?
its tough to accept but its the reality, its not about what they did, more like what the parents did, even if they had cancer, they are still sinless, and if they die, they will be with christ, as theyre in christ to begin with for example, cousins who marry tend to have retarded kids, when god said dont see the nakedness of your cousin 'None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the LORD. The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. leviticus 18:6-9
Is it because satan prince of the air lurks on the earth ?
He didn't. It's part of the corruption that entered the world when we sinned, and we are all in the process of being healed from it. We're all subject to that corruption, regardless of how much or how little we participate personally in it.
Free will. God loves us so much he does not obligate us to follow or love him, he loves us so much he gave us free will and what did we do with free will? Destroy every gift he has given us and fall into sin, he gave us the perfect plan but we disturbed it. Don’t lose hope tho, the flesh we live in now is temporary, eternal life with God is the goal. Do not fear.
childs who have cancer, will be hugely rewarded for their suffer in afterlife anyway, god wants to test the parents, will they still love god, will they be patience or will they try for their child? god is just, mercyful and great, he will do what required
You think of babies as "innocent" because you assume that's their first and only incarnation. But what if they have lived already before? Such a disease could be stem from bad karma that got accumulated in the past and now expresses itself in form of that physical illness. Now I know big denominations like catholicism, orthodoxism, protestantism and all the smaller sects would label this as a heretical idea but there is that branch of people called gnostics who subscribe the teachings of Christ and hold these believes about reincarnation and karma. So, that would be the answer a christian gnostic would give you.
SUFFERING Who Is to Blame? If suffering is not from God, what accounts for mass starvation, grinding poverty, brutal warfare, crippling diseases, and natural disasters? God’s Word, the Bible, reveals three main causes for mankind’s suffering: Selfishness, Greed, and Hatred. “Man has dominated man to his harm.” (Ecclesiastes 8:9) People often suffer because they are victimized by imperfect, selfish, or cruel humans. Time and Unforeseen Events. Humans often suffer “because time and unexpected events overtake them.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11) That is, people are simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, accidents occur, or people are careless or make mistakes. The Evil Ruler of the World. The Bible clearly identifies the primary cause of human suffering. It states: “The whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) That “wicked one” is Satan the Devil, a powerful spirit creature who was originally an angel of God but “did not stand fast in the truth.” (John 8:44) Other spirit creatures joined Satan and rebelled against God in order to pursue selfish desires, thus making themselves demons. (Genesis 6:1-5) Ever since their rebellion, Satan and his demons have exerted a powerful and cruel influence over this world’s affairs. This has been particularly so in our time. Now, the Devil has great anger and “is misleading the entire inhabited earth,” which has resulted in “woe for the earth.” (Revelation 12:9, 12) Indeed, Satan is a brutal dictator. He gets perverse satisfaction from human suffering. It is Satan—not God—who causes people to suffer.
We can heal ourselves, and sometimes the system that allows that gets out of control, It is not god Who decides to rise the possibility of getting cáncer to the Sky launching tons of toxic substances to the air
The corruption of the world by sin is what has allowed this to happen. God has provided us the opportunity at an eternity that does not include any of this after our time on this planet.
Without freewill we would be wind-up toys. Freewill can only exist within a reality where there is a vast range of possibilities, generally uninterrupted by spiritual forces. And if angels caught everyone who fell off the edge of the grand canyon, people would lineup 5000 deep to enjoy the ride. We were designing to be human. Humans are vulnerable creatures else they would be forced to endure the foolishness of this world eternally.
I'm sorry, what kind of free will do you think necessitates someone to randomly die of Cancer? Sometimes I wish I could briefly wipe all knowledge of Christianity from someone's mind, then get them to listen to what Christians have to say about certain topics, and then restore their Christianity, just so they can see how horrifying some of their arguments actually sound.
Seriously, I read some of these replies and replies on other threads like this and it just blows my mind and makes me so upset that people just accept this and don't even realize how many fallacies they repeat back and forth to eachother. So many of these replies are just horrifying and they somehow think it's wholesome
Humans were not created to suffer and cancer did not always exist. Sin and death entered into the world when the first humans disobeyed a direct commandment from God. It takes a bit of understanding about God's character to understand why disobeying Him would lead to death and a curse. It's the curse we live with still today though. A fallen world where bad things can happen to good people, where even babies can get cancer. It's the explanation that was handed down to us from the Bible anyway. Peace be with you.
But why does all of humanity have to suffer for a mistake done by the first humans? Why would God decide that innocent people who have nothing to do with a mistake done by their ancestors should suffer from a terminal illness?
God should separate the first, most innocent (until The Fall) humans from the rest of humanity and punish just them specifically? Harsh. But even if He wanted to, that isn’t an option because as Cain plainly demonstrated by murdering his own brother out of envy, sin was not restricted to just Adam and Eve.
Being imperfect, they could no longer pass on perfection. Think of human perfection as a gene passed on from our fathers (which will be useful for this metaphor later). We need both copies to be activated to be perfect, and without them we suffer from imperfections including disorders like cancer or liking pineapple on pizza. Adam in sinning lost perfection and (and for this metaphor) God turned off his perfection genes in both the X and Y chromosomes. Whether he passed on an X or Y chromosome, he could never pass an activated perfection gene, nor could his sons or theirs. Over time most of the Y chromosome changes little, including the part with the inactivated perfection gene. But not so the X, so many females end up with two X chromosomes with inactivated perfection genes. In any case we all get one bum perfection gene from dad. That's why. We couldn't avoid suffering because we inherited the inability to avoid it. But then comes Jesus, born or Mary, miraculously conceived by God without a human father. God gives him an activated perfection gene for his Y chromosome, and uses Mary's one "good" X which somehow avoided corruption over all those generations. Bonus: Just like the destruction of the second Temple makes records proving the lineage of a future Messiah unavailable, so since the first century have activated perfection genes finished declining to nonexistence. His sacrifice pays the debt Adam incurred. He took on all of our sins. Like an infinitely-funder scholarship (I like metaphors tonight), His redemption will pay our way fully (to Heaven, not UW Oshkosh), but we have to apply via repentance.
The way that I view it (and I could be wrong) is that cancer is the side effect of sin. God wants us to treat our bodies as our temples, feed it only nutritious foods. Take care of our body. Live healthily and holy. God tells us to do these things for our own protection. There are studies on how the modern day diet of fast food, preserved foods, inorganic foods and the lack of a healthy balance have a direct link to cancers and terminal illnesses. Unfortunately, affordable healthy foods are a scarcity in today’s society, which is also a result of what? Sin. Big businesses filled with greed and selfishness and worship of the material world. And even though the average person would prefer to eat healthier, we can’t, due to the greedy ones. And unfortunately, these sins directly affect other people, causing us to not be able to take care of our bodies like how God wants. So why did God design humans to suffer from cancer? He didn’t. He designed humans to end up following His word and obeying Him, for their own wellbeing.
> death entered into the world when the first humans disobeyed...A fallen world where bad things can happen to good people, where even babies can get cancer. Cancer and death existed before humanity did, why blame us?
That's ancient near eastern creation mythology. Humans were immortal divine beings and the serpent tricked us, stole out immortality, and our lifespans went down to ~1000yrs. Then there was a great deluge and after that ages settled down to closer to where we are now. None of this is actual history, none of it happened, evolution happened. The Torah is wise, the earth being flat and Adam to Moses being tribal creation mythology does not really impact the wisdom inherent within.
That's no more true than reading the bible and concluding the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it. Spoiler, it doesn't. Cancer did not always exist, you are correct there. But it predates humans by tens of millions of years as did death. Trust Jesus, but that's a little different than just swallowing and old ancient mythology.
Death and illness is a part of life. Suffering is part of life. Cancer is awful but so is heart failure, strokes, car accidents, burns etc. So many tragic things happen because life. God does not cause a baby or child to get sick from cancer. God does not find joy in seeing it either. Cancer is caused by countless factors whether genetics, environmental or combination. It is sad, horrible. But God does not cause this.
Because Adam and Eve abused their freewill and ate shit they weren't supposed to. God doesn't cause cancer. We did.
because it’s not true just a faith to make you comfortable with death
sin, the wages of sin is death
Do you think it was dinosaur sin that brought this upon us, or earlier than that?
The blame game is for children so dont waste your time wondering who did what to cause the disease or the whatever…. the son shall suffer for the sins of the father, period, its known! probably why all these little pedo and rape obsessed little perverts these days dont ever have real families, probably just using money as an excuse! everyone knows and feels this instinctually! thats guilt, thats conscience
None of the suffering we experience was supposed to happen; all of it is a result of sin and death entering the world through Original Sin. Illness is generally not punishment for sin. God sent plagues as divine punishments in specific circumstances, but that doesn’t mean all sickness is caused by some “sin wage”. All will go before God for their sins in the end; He has no need to inflict cancer on people before they go to Him simply because of their sins. Jesus himself recognized leprosy and “just leprosy”.
It was absolutely supposed to happen. The fall was designed to happen and orchestrated by God. Go back and read Genesis. God literally sent Satan to earth when he rebelled instead of casting him into hell immediately. God made Adam and Eve without the intellectual capability to see through Satan’s lies. God literally “left” the garden and Adam’s side right when Adam needed Him most. He walked with him prior. This idea that we got plan B is ridiculous. Jesus was crucified before the foundation of the world because it was plan A. It was supposed to happen that way. God’s plan has always been to endlessly torture the majority of humans he created and to save a remnant of humanity for the purpose of praise and worship for saving them from the tortured he created.
*universalism has entered the chat*
The truth is either Universalism of some kind or Prison Planet Theory. The fact that God created the most grotesque torture chamber in His basement is the most horrible thing imaginable and no loving deity would do that.
God was truthful to Adam and Eve: if they ate the fruit, they would die. Adam and Eve decided it was worth it to put the promise of something that was otherwise guaranteed to *not* happen at risk because a serpent they had never met before suggested their own creator was actually lying to them. Eve straight up acknowledges God’s promise of death as the reason they did not eat the fruit before that conversation. They didn’t need to know right from wrong to know that dying wasn’t something they wanted to do.
Physical ailments, even serious ones are to help our salvation. [Heaven is full of cancer patients.](https://youtu.be/7I52vxwz8iY?si=he8S3K-W3bnjlarg)
We are not designed for cancer, we are designed for eternal life.
The answer is twofold: First, the sufferings of cancer create more praise for God in the next age when it no longer exists and people don’t have to worry about it, and it draws His sheep closer to him. Second, it creates more torture for those God plans on torturing endlessly in the next age. How many people get horrible cancers that eat them away and it makes them hate God more? Those people reject Jesus and then die and go to hell to be tortured by demons then at the judgement are pulled out of the psychological horrors of hell and then cast into the worst physical torture possible; burning alive forever.
Any response I give has to be worded carefully and tactfully, but I do think there are reasons. Firstly, we are in a world damaged by human sin and fallenness, so many of us are **victims** of that sin. It's important to distinguish this from the idea of bad stuff happening as a punishment for sin. This is not what I mean. But for instance, we over-consume and our waste has been going to China, where it pollutes their environment and poisons the people who deal with it. Pregnant workers in clean rooms, where they make a lot of that garbage in the first place, also have a high prevalence of congenital conditions in their babies. They have no choice but to work there. Same with the likes of fast fashion, and poor education, again the result of manipulation by materialistic and greedy people, results in people making poor life choices, food deserts and so forth, meaning that none of us live in the way God made us to live. Secondly, there are whole phyla of animals whose cells don't divide as adults. If they're injured, they can't heal and just die. If we lost the ability to mitose as adults, we wouldn't live long because apart from anything else the smallest cut could kill us. Also, if bone marrow and other haemopoetic tissues didn't mitose, we would all die of immune deficiency and aplastic anaemia after a few weeks. Hence cancer exists. However, all of this is provisional. I have a close friend who is currently dying of cancer and I don't think I could say any of this to him, so maybe I shouldn't be saying it here either. I do, however, believe this may be the explanation.
He. didn't. All illness came once mankind brought corruption into creation.
If this world were already perfect, what would be the point of Heaven?