The short answer
DEVELOPMENT: written up by Claude from an OpenAI reading
Every verse in it is shown whole.
Scripture does give reasons for suffering, and it gives more than one. It gives them in the cases it describes. It does not give one reason that explains every sorrow.
Joseph is a clear example. His brothers had wronged him. Years later, when they feared he would take revenge, he said to them:
"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." ()
The brothers meant evil, and God meant good, in the very same events. The good had already come about: "as it is this day". Yet what the brothers did is still called sin, as shown further down.
At the centre of all that Scripture says about suffering is Christ's own suffering:
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:" ()
In the cases it records, Scripture names these purposes in suffering:
- redemption, through Christ's suffering;
- judgment of sin;
- a father's loving correction;
- the proving of faith, and growth in patience;
- learning to rely on God rather than on oneself;
- being kept from pride, and Christ's strength shown in a weakness that is not taken away;
- comfort that is received and then passed on to others;
- the saving of lives;
- the showing of God's works, power, name and glory, through judgment and through rescue;
- the delay of the final day, so that people may come to repentance.
Scripture also says what suffering does not prove. It does not prove that God is powerless. It does not prove that the person suffering is being punished for some particular sin, or is worse than other people. It does not mean God approves the wrong that people do. It does not mean God has stopped loving the one who suffers. And for God's people it is not the end: Scripture promises a coming day with no more death or pain.
What this reading does not have is a complete explanation. Beyond the cases Scripture explains, it cannot say why each suffering falls where and when it does, or why God chose this whole history rather than another. Scripture itself teaches that there is such a limit, and that limit does not cancel the reasons God has revealed.
Each part of this is set out below, with the verses, so that every step can be checked.
How it was read, replayed
Here the replay stays still. This is the reading in brief; every step of it is listed below, in order.
"Why does God allow suffering?"
- 23 minutes 28 seconds of reading, by an AI from OpenAI
- 56 searches of Scripture
- 2,083 verses opened, from 81 chapters
- 9 false readings struck out
- 16 conclusions handed on
- then the answer, written by Claude in 9 minutes 15 seconds
The readings it struck out, and the verses each would break
- A blanket accusation that disaster victims are worse sinners, or that suffering itself identifies the particular sin being punished, is false. Luke 13:2 · Luke 13:3 · Luke 13:4 · Luke 13:5
- The converse claim that suffering is never judgment is false. Amos 3:2 · 1 Corinthians 11:30
- God's purpose making human wrongdoing innocent, or making every harmful act morally good, is false. Acts 2:23
- God's approval of injustice or attribution of sinful enticement to him is false. Lamentations 3:36 · James 1:13 · James 1:14
- Faith guaranteeing physical immunity, restoration of all earthly losses before death, or pain within unaided human strength is false. Hebrews 11:35 · Hebrews 11:37 · Hebrews 11:39 · 2 Corinthians 1:8
- Suffering necessarily meaning rejection or absence of love is false. John 11:5 · John 11:6
- Calling pain trivial, forbidding grief, or promising that every prayer receives the requested removal is false. Hebrews 12:11 · 2 Corinthians 12:9 · John 11:35 · 2 Corinthians 4:17 · 2 Corinthians 4:18
- A universal promise that nobody will face judgment or any future suffering is false. Revelation 21:7 · Revelation 21:8 · 2 Thessalonians 1:9
- The assertion that no reasons can be known is false; the assertion that the listed reasons prove every evil logically necessary is unsupported. The positive purpose clauses above defeat the former.
Verdicts
- **1.
- **2.
- The denial in John 9 answers the disciples' offered cause of this man's congenital blindness; it does not declare the man and his parents sinless in every respect.
- **3.
- The answer must not make human freedom the sole explanation, since the active judgment, hardening, disability, and natural calamity passages below exceed that description.
- **4.
- First Corinthians 11's cause is the misconduct described at the supper, not a general assertion that every illness has that cause.
- **5.
- The writer's three requests for removal precede that answer.
- **6.
- **7.
- John 11 actually records Lazarus' death and raising; the purpose statement must not be read as denying that he died.
- **8.
- **9.
- **10.
- **11.
How it was read, replayed from its own logs in the order it happened, at eight times its real speed (slower through its record, so each part can be read). It pauses once, at the reading's conclusions. The clock is the real time it happened.
What this reading did
Scripture alone. By its words, and by the Greek and Hebrew behind them.
In its own context. Whole passages, and 76 whole chapters. Every verse was first opened in a passage of at least 3 verses.
False readings fall. It struck out 9 readings, each by a verse it would make false.
Traceable. Every verse it quotes opens in its chapter, as the reading opened it.
The Greek and Hebrew word searches use data from STEP Bible.
This answers the question as it was asked: why God allows suffering, in general. No particular loss, illness or situation was described. So nothing here says why any particular thing happened to anyone. The last part of this answer explains why that stays with God.
Where sorrow and death came from
God warned the first man:
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." ()
After the man and woman disobeyed, God spoke judgment to each of them:
"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." ()
"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;" ()
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." ()
The "Because" in Genesis 3:17 states the cause plainly: Adam listened and ate, and then came the curse on the ground, sorrowful labour, and the return to dust.
The letter to the Romans explains this, naming Adam:
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" ()
The same passage adds a qualification:
"Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." ()
So the link between sin and death is a general one. It explains the mortal condition everyone shares. It does not say that each illness is the sick person's own particular offence. (Nothing in this reading makes any claim about infants, or about anyone who has died.)
It is not only people who suffer. Romans 8 speaks of the whole creation:
"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope," ()
"Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." ()
"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." ()
Because the whole creation is in pain, the question cannot be shrunk down to persecution, or to people's bad choices alone. The words "in hope" and "shall be delivered" show a present condition with an appointed end. It is not endless futility.
These verses in Romans 8 do not name Adam. What joins them to Genesis 3 is what each describes: the ground under a curse there, creation in bondage and pain here, and a release that is coming. Nothing in them gives the purpose of any one natural disaster.
That sorrow and death belong to a world affected by sin: Scripture teaches this.
Suffering does not show a person's particular guilt
Some say that whoever suffers is being punished for a particular sin, and that the victims of worse disasters must be worse sinners. That would make these verses false.
Of Job, the LORD said to Satan:
"And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause." ()
When the disciples saw a man blind from birth, they asked Jesus whose sin caused it:
"And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" ()
"Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." ()
Then Jesus healed him:
"And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing." ()
Jesus' "Neither" answers the cause the disciples offered for this man's blindness. It does not say the man and his parents had never sinned at all. And the purpose He named, that God's works be shown, is the purpose for this man. It is not a reason to pin on every illness.
When people told Jesus about a killing of some Galileans, He also brought up a tower that had fallen. So both deliberate violence and a disaster are covered:
"And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?" ()
"I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." ()
"Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?" ()
"I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." ()
His "Nay" is firm, and so is His call to repent, said twice. His denial does not teach that sin and judgment are unreal.
God's people could also say, in the middle of disaster:
"All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant." ()
Romans 5's general link between sin and death does not lead to the claim that each sufferer is being punished for their own particular sin.
That suffering shows which particular sin is being punished, or that the victims of disaster are worse sinners than others: this is false.
Suffering does not mean God is powerless
Some say God allows suffering because He cannot stop it. That would make these verses false.
In Job, the LORD sets the limits of what Satan may do, and Satan does not go past them:
"And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD." ()
"And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life." ()
At the end, Job says:
"I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee." ()
And Jesus reversed death itself:
"And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." ()
The question uses the word "allow", which here simply means to permit. Job gives direct evidence of God permitting, with limits that He sets.
That God allows suffering because He is unable to stop it: this is false.
What happened in Job
The book of Job tells the reader about a scene in heaven that God's later speeches to Job do not fully explain to him. The LORD speaks of Job to Satan:
"And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?" ()
Satan challenges whether Job's fear of God is sincere once his blessings are gone:
"But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." ()
The LORD gives a permission with a limit (Job 1:12, above). Then the losses come, and they include the deaths of Job's children:
"And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." ()
So this story must never be turned into a harmless lesson. Through it all:
"In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." ()
The second time, the LORD again sets a limit (Job 2:6, above), and Satan strikes Job's body:
"So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown." ()
Job 2:3 (above) rules out the idea that this was a punishment for something Job had done. It does not say nothing was at stake: Satan's challenge was at stake. But that challenge must not be made into the explanation for every sufferer.
At the end, the narrator says the calamity was the LORD's doing, even though Satan was the one who struck:
"Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold." ()
Both statements are about the same events, and both are true. One event can be described at more than one level: God's permission and limit, Satan's own act, and calamity brought by the LORD. This one case does not show that every event has the same immediate agent.
When God finally speaks to Job, He questions Job's knowledge of creation and his right to judge:
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding." ()
"Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" ()
Job answers:
"Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." ()
Job's repentance here does not bring back the guilt explanation that Job 2:3 ruled out. God's speeches do not give Job the full account of the scene in heaven; the reader has it. And Job 42:3 is a confession about what Job knew. It is not a statement that God had no reasons.
Then the LORD rebukes Job's friends:
"And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." ()
So what the friends said cannot simply be taken as God's own verdict. Job's later restoration is recorded as what happened to Job. It is not a promise that every sufferer will get back double, or that a bereavement will be replaced. James draws this lesson from Job:
"Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." ()
What Job's friends said, and what Elihu said
Some of the hardest-sounding lines in Job come from the friends, not from God. Eliphaz said:
"Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?" ()
"Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:" ()
"He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee." ()
Taken as a rule that the righteous never die by harm, his reasoning would make false the record of faithful people tortured and killed in Hebrews 11:35, 11:37 and 11:39 (quoted below), and 1 Peter 3:18 (above). Applied to Job as a diagnosis, it would make Job 2:3 false. The LORD's rebuke in Job 42:7 confirms this. Still, that rebuke does not make every sentence Eliphaz spoke untrue: correction joined with love is taught on its own in Proverbs 3 and Hebrews 12 (quoted below). What is set aside is his conclusion about Job, and his promise of safety taken as a guarantee for everyone. The whole subject of discipline is not set aside.
Elihu is a different speaker. He was angry with Job, and also with the three friends:
"Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job." ()
The rebuke in Job 42:7 names Eliphaz and his two friends. It must not be stretched to cover Elihu. Elihu says:
"For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee." ()
"He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity." ()
"If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures." ()
"But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee." ()
"He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy." ()
"Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict." ()
His point that God can teach and correct through affliction agrees with Hebrews 12. His list of purposes for one storm also stands against any single-purpose explanation. But his claim to knowledge (Job 36:4) and his charge against Job (Job 36:17) cannot be made into God's own explanation of Job's first losses. That would overrule the narrator and the LORD in Job 2:3.
"He will not afflict" in Job 37:23 is best read with the justice he names in the same breath. Read as saying God never afflicts anyone at all, it would make Job 42:11 (above) and Lamentations 3:32 (quoted below) false. The same Hebrew word for "afflict" shows why the narrower reading fits. In Deuteronomy 8 it describes God humbling Israel for a good purpose (quoted below). In Exodus 22 it describes the wrong that God forbids people to do to the vulnerable:
"Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child." ()
"If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;" ()
So one word can name both kinds of act; the setting shows which is meant. The reading that ties Elihu's words to justice is preferred, because it fits what he says right there. It is not simply left undecided. Either way, the conclusion that God does bring grief, and does not approve injustice, rests on the LORD's and the narrator's own words, not on Elihu.
God does more than watch
Some say God only watches and never brings calamity. That would make these verses false:
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." ()
"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?" ()
"But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies." ()
Job 42:11 (above) says the same. So "permission" alone is not the whole description.
Isaiah 45 is the LORD speaking about Cyrus, the nations, Israel's release, and Himself as the only Creator and Saviour. The same chapter calls Him righteous and just:
"I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right." ()
"Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me." ()
The Hebrew word behind "evil" in Isaiah 45:7 means wickedness in one place:
"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." ()
But it is also the "ill" of the cattle in Pharaoh's dream, which stood for famine:
"And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river." ()
"And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine." ()
Those cattle were not sinning. So the word is not limited to moral wickedness. In Isaiah 45:7, set against "peace", it means calamity. That does not weaken the plain statement that the LORD brings it. The famine in Joseph's day is also called God's doing:
"And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass." ()
Amos speaks to Israel. He names their sins first, then announces judgment:
"For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces." ()
"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled." ()
The "evil" in the city in Amos 3:6 is calamity the LORD brings in judgment. It does not mean He approves of their violence.
Lamentations: grief, compassion, and no approval of injustice
Lamentations speaks first as one afflicted man, then as a people confessing their sin, and also as someone praying against enemies who did wrong. It holds all of this together:
"It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not." ()
"For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." ()
"To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth," ()
"To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High," ()
"To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not." ()
"Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?" ()
"Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?" ()
"We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned." ()
"Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause." ()
No one line here may cancel the others. Verse 33 cannot mean God never causes grief, because verse 32 says He does. And verse 38 cannot mean He approves of perverting justice, because verse 36 says He does not. The contrast is between God bringing calamity as the one who governs all things, and any delight in crushing people or corrupting justice. Both statements are kept, without claiming to explain everything about how God wills.
The word "willingly" in verse 33 stands for the Hebrew word for "heart". It is used of God's own grief:
"And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." ()
And of giving freely:
"Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering." ()
These uses keep "willingly" from simply meaning every act by which God governs. They do not settle a full theory of God's will. The verses right around Lamentations 3:33 decide its sense.
Disability, nature, and more than human choice
The LORD said to Moses:
"And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?" ()
This says more than that God meets disabilities after the fact. Read with John 9:3, it rules out two things: denying that God is involved in disability, and assuming the disabled person is to blame.
Some say all suffering comes only from other people's choices, and that God has nothing to do with natural calamity. Genesis 3:17 to 3:19, Romans 8:20 to 8:23, Job 1 and 2, and Genesis 41:27 to 41:32 do not allow that limit. Human cruelty is a real cause:
"Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." ()
"Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you." ()
But it is not the whole account.
That God only permits and never brings calamity: this is false. That God governs calamity, without approving injustice: Scripture teaches this.
God never approves wrong, and never entices anyone to sin
Some say that if God brings calamity, He must approve injustice and lead people into sin. That would make Lamentations 3:36 (above) false, and these verses as well:
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:" ()
"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." ()
"Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." ()
Isaiah 45:19 and 45:21 also keep righteousness and justice in the very chapter that holds the hard verse.
That God approves injustice, or entices people to sin: this is false.
Testing is not enticing
The Greek word behind "tempted" in James 1:13 also stands behind "tried" and "Examine" elsewhere. God did test Abraham:
"And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am." ()
But He stopped Abraham's hand and provided another offering:
"And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." ()
"And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son." ()
Hebrews calls it a trial:
"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son," ()
And the letter to the Corinthians uses the same word for examining oneself:
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" ()
(That verse is used here only for what the word means. It is not a judgment on anyone asking this question.)
Examining is not luring into wrong. James says what the temptation he denies to God is: a person's own desire, then the lure, then sin, then death. Peter speaks of a trial that is suffering for Christ:
"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:" ()
And he separates it from punishment for crimes:
"But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters." ()
So God testing, or permitting affliction, and James denying that God lures anyone into sin, do not clash. The settings show this; it is not made up from word numbers.
Judgment that uses deception
Some passages are hard, and they are not skipped. Through Ezekiel the LORD says:
"And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel." ()
"And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;" ()
"That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD." ()
The prophet Micaiah told the kings what he had seen:
"And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so." ()
"Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee." ()
So James 1:13 must not be stretched into a claim that God has no part, as judge, in deceiving or hardening those under judgment. And these judgment passages must not be stretched the other way, into God approving falsehood or excusing sin. Ezekiel 14:10 keeps the punishment of iniquity. Ezekiel 14:11 gives a purpose of turning Israel back. Micaiah warned Ahab openly, against all the other prophets.
What stands is a distinction. God governs as judge, which these texts state. God does not approve injustice, and no one may blame Him for their own sinful desire, which the texts forbid. This is not a theory that explains every detail of how such deception works. Nothing here is said about any living person's heart.
Human evil stays evil, even when God means good
When Joseph's father died, his brothers sent him this message:
"So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him." ()
Joseph answered with Genesis 50:20 (above), and then:
"Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them." ()
The same pattern appears at the cross. Peter said to the crowd:
"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:" ()
"Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." ()
God's counsel and wicked hands are in the same sentence. God's purpose does not make the wrongdoers innocent. Both Joseph's story and the cross show this. Neither is a formula for working out the full reason behind every event. Joseph's story also does not promise that every sufferer will be able to see, now, the good that came of it.
That God's purpose makes human wrongdoing innocent, or makes every harmful act good: this is false.
The reasons Scripture names
These reasons belong to the cases Scripture describes and to the people it addresses. They are real, and they are stated plainly. They are not a key for working out why something has happened to any one person.
Christ's suffering: redemption
Isaiah described a servant who would suffer for others:
"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." ()
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." ()
"And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." ()
"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." ()
"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." ()
The hard words "it pleased the LORD to bruise him" stand in the same verse as the offering for sin, and just before the justifying of many. The servant is not called guilty of the sins he bears.
Peter applies these very words to Christ: His sinlessness, His bearing of sins, His wounds, and the straying sheep:
"Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:" ()
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." ()
"For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." ()
This is more than two sufferers who look alike. Scripture itself says this is about Christ. And 1 Peter 3:18 (above) gives the purpose: "that he might bring us to God".
Hebrews adds that Christ shared our flesh and blood, died, made reconciliation, and now helps:
"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." ()
"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." ()
"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;" ()
"Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." ()
"For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." ()
"Perfect through sufferings" in Hebrews 2:10 is about Christ being fitted for His saving work. It does not mean a flaw in Him was fixed; Peter says plainly that He "did no sin". And the letter to the Romans says:
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." ()
Christ's suffering is not just an example of pain teaching lessons. Its stated purpose is to bring the unjust to God. No other sufferer is given Christ's unique work of bearing sins.
Some say God never wills any suffering of the innocent or the righteous. That would make false Job 2:3 with Job 2:6, Isaiah 53:9 and 53:10, Acts 2:23, and 1 Peter 3:18 with this verse:
"For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing." ()
Even so, God's purpose never makes the one who inflicts the harm innocent.
That God never wills any suffering of the innocent or righteous: this is false. That Christ's suffering, the just for the unjust, is God's way of bringing people to Himself: Scripture teaches this.
Judgment of sin, where Scripture names it
Some say suffering is never judgment for sin. That would make Genesis 3:17, Lamentations 3:39 and 3:42 (all above) false, along with these:
"You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." ()
"Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:" ()
Jesus' warnings to repent in Luke 13:3 and 13:5 also still stand.
Judgment named in Scripture is not limited to whole nations long ago. In the church at Corinth there was misconduct at the shared supper:
"For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken." ()
"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." ()
"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." ()
"But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." ()
The cause there is the misconduct the passage describes. It is not a general claim that every illness has that cause. When Scripture names a particular sin as the cause, that can be said. That gives no one the right to invent the cause of anyone else's illness.
"Without cause" and "not without cause." Job 2:3 says Job was destroyed "without cause". Ezekiel says of a land under judgment:
"Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:" ()
"And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD." ()
These do not clash. Job was an upright man; Ezekiel's land is said to be trespassing grievously. A just cause for that nation's judgment does not create a hidden offence for Job, or for anyone else.
Ezekiel also says that a parent's righteousness does not guarantee a child's safety in such a judgment, and that one person does not bear another's sin:
"Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate." ()
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." ()
These are about moral judgment and responsibility. They do not undo Romans 5:12 on death entering the world. And they must never be used to give a reason, or a spiritual standing, to any child who suffers today.
No pleasure in death, yet real judgment. The LORD swears:
"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" ()
"For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." ()
Yet the same chapter warns:
"Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed." ()
And of Eli's sons, after their great sin is named:
"Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the LORD: for men abhorred the offering of the LORD." ()
"If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the LORD would slay them." ()
So "no pleasure" does not mean God cannot or does not judge. And a warning is not a claim that no one dies. 1 Samuel 2:25 rules out reading Ezekiel 33:11 as denying every decision of God to bring death. Isaiah 53:10's "pleasure" must likewise be kept with its offering for sin and the justifying of many.
The Hebrew word behind "pleasure" in Ezekiel 33:11 and "pleased" in Isaiah 53:10 is also used for delight and for being willing:
"I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." ()
"Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman's part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the LORD liveth: lie down until the morning." ()
These show that this kind of word has an object: delight in something, or willingness to do something. They are checks on the word, not further reasons for suffering. The death that judgment brings, the turning that God calls for, and the servant's saving suffering are different objects with different stated purposes. This reading does not claim they are the same thing, and it does not invent an account of God's feelings. It states what each verse says.
That suffering is sometimes God's judgment of sin, where Scripture names it: Scripture teaches this. That suffering is never judgment: this is false.
A father's loving correction
"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." ()
"For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." ()
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." ()
Hebrews is quoting Proverbs, where correction sits alongside love, trust, and the duty to help a neighbour:
"My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:" ()
"For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." ()
Moses said the same to Israel:
"Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee." ()
So discipline is not God's hatred. Hebrews 12:11 admits it is "grievous" now. And these passages cannot be turned into a diagnosis that someone's pain is correction for a fault no one has named.
The proving of faith, patience and maturity
"And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;" ()
"And patience, experience; and experience, hope:" ()
"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." ()
"But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." ()
"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:" ()
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" ()
These are written to believers, as brothers and sisters. They give real purposes and effects. They do not say suffering improves every person automatically.
Humility, and relying on God
Moses reminded Israel of the wilderness years:
"And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no." ()
"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." ()
"Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;" ()
God allowed them to hunger, fed them, and meant good for them in the end.
The writer of 2 Corinthians told his readers about trouble that went beyond his strength:
"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:" ()
"But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:" ()
He also wrote about a weakness that was not taken away:
"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." ()
"For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." ()
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." ()
The thorn is called both "the messenger of Satan" and something given to keep the writer from pride. He asked three times for it to go. The answer was grace that was enough, not the removal he asked for. What the thorn was is not stated, and nothing here depends on knowing. His experience is his own; it is not being told as anyone else's story.
Comfort to pass on
"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." ()
This and 2 Corinthians 1:9 are stated purposes in the writer's own account of his trouble in Asia. They are not guesses about anyone else's life.
Saving lives
Genesis 50:20 names the saving of "much people" through the famine years Joseph had foretold (Genesis 41:27 and 41:32, above).
The showing of God's works, power, name and glory
Not every purpose is about the sufferer's own growth. John 9:3 names the showing of God's works in the blind man.
When Lazarus fell ill:
"When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." ()
"Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." ()
"When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was." ()
"Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." ()
"And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him." ()
"Jesus wept." ()
"And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" ()
Then He raised him (John 11:44, above). His love is named before His delay. Lazarus really died; "not unto death" does not deny that. The crowd's question is not brushed aside by denying Jesus' power or calling His tears needless. Here love, delay, purpose, grief and real help all stand together. This is a particular revealed reason. It is not a promise that every bereavement will be undone now, and it says nothing about anyone who has died today.
In Egypt, God spoke to Pharaoh through Moses:
"And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." ()
The letter to the Romans quotes it:
"For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." ()
God had said from the start:
"And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go." ()
Scripture records both God's hardening and Pharaoh's own sin and self-hardening:
"And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses." ()
"And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants." ()
"And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so." ()
"Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore." ()
So God does not merely wait on Pharaoh's choices. Respect for human choice cannot by itself explain this story. Israel's rescue and the Egyptians' deaths belong to one history. These purposes cannot be reduced to each sufferer's personal improvement.
Romans 9 takes this up:
"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." ()
"Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." ()
"Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?" ()
"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" ()
"What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:" ()
"And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory," ()
The words about mercy come from God's answer when Moses asked for His presence and to see His glory:
"And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." ()
Romans 9 denies any unrighteousness in God. It affirms both mercy and hardening. It voices the objection "Why doth he yet find fault?" and answers with the Creator's authority over what He has made. Verse 22 is written as a question, "What if", and is kept as a question. It is not a way to explain each person's pain, and it gives no one authority to judge where any living person stands, or to tie a hidden tragedy to a particular decree. Neither Romans 9 nor Exodus allows God's governing to be dropped so that everything can be explained by human choice alone.
The delay of the final day
Some scoffed at the Lord's promised coming. Peter answered:
"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." ()
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." ()
"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;" ()
This is the stated reason the day of judgment waits. The day still comes. It is not a claim that every tragedy is arranged to bring about a particular person's repentance.
That God has revealed these real purposes in suffering, in the cases Scripture describes: Scripture teaches this. They rest on the verses shown, not merely on weaker answers having been ruled out.
What is promised to those who belong to Christ
The letter to the Romans says to believers:
"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." ()
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." ()
"And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." ()
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." ()
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." ()
Romans 8:28 is spoken of "them that love God", and verse 29 says what the purpose is: being shaped into the likeness of God's Son. It does not say each painful act is good in itself. It does not promise anyone comfortable circumstances.
The letter names hard things and still denies they can cut believers off from God's love:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" ()
"As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." ()
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come," ()
"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ()
Verse 36 quotes a psalm in which faithfulness and slaughter go together:
"Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." ()
Scripture itself makes this link. Being killed for God's sake belongs inside the promise of unbroken love.
Some say suffering shows God has stopped loving the sufferer. Hebrews 12:6, Romans 8:35 to 8:39, and John 11:5 and 11:6 (love, then delay) make that false. This says nothing about the standing of the person asking.
That suffering means God has stopped loving the one who suffers: this is false.
Faith does not guarantee escape
Hebrews tells of faith that was rescued and faith that was not:
"Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:" ()
"They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;" ()
"And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:" ()
Some say that enough faith guarantees escape, pain that stays bearable, or the return of every earthly loss before death. Hebrews 11:35, 11:37 and 11:39 make that false, and so does 2 Corinthians 1:8, "above strength". Job's restoration is not a promise to everyone. What joins Hebrews 11 to Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 4 is faithful suffering and the resurrection and glory ahead, not a guarantee of escape now. Lazarus' raising was a real rescue. It does not cancel the recorded deaths of other faithful people.
Two promises are sometimes read as guarantees of physical safety:
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all." ()
"The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul." ()
"The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore." ()
Psalm 34 itself says the righteous have "many" afflictions. Psalm 121 is a strong reassurance. Read as a promise that the righteous never suffer bodily harm, it would make Psalms 34:19 and Hebrews 11:37 false. Read with Romans 8:38 and 8:39, its lasting keeping stands alongside deadly suffering, without that suffering being separation from God. No conclusion is drawn from this psalm about protection on any one journey.
Peter uses words from Psalm 34 and then at once speaks of suffering for doing right:
"But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;" ()
The letter to the Corinthians also says:
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." ()
That is said in a passage warning against evil desire, idolatry and self-confidence. Its promise is that God makes the way to bear it. It does not say a person's own unaided strength will always be enough, and it does not promise release from bodily danger. With 2 Corinthians 1:8 and 1:9 and 12:9, the strength God gives must not be replaced by a demand to cope alone. Neither the promise nor the extremity described in 2 Corinthians 1:8 may be denied.
That faith guarantees escape from severe pain, or the restoration of all losses in this life: this is false.
Pain is real, and it is compared with glory
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" ()
"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." ()
"Light" and "for a moment" are measured against an "eternal weight of glory". This is the same letter whose writer said he despaired even of life (2 Corinthians 1:8). In the same chapter, while bodies waste and inward renewal goes on, he quotes a confession of faith:
"We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;" ()
It comes from a psalm that holds both affliction and thanks for rescue:
"I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:" ()
Some say all pain is trivial because it is "light" and "for a moment". 2 Corinthians 1:8 and Hebrews 12:11 make that false. Scripture does not call pain imaginary.
That pain is trivial, or that grief is wrong: this is false.
The end that is promised
To the suffering church at Smyrna, the risen speaker in John's vision said:
"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." ()
John saw the new creation and heard:
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." ()
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." ()
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." ()
The letter to the Thessalonians also promises rest to the troubled, and judgment on those who trouble them:
"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;" ()
"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels," ()
"In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:" ()
"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" ()
The promise of no more pain is for God's people, in the new creation. The warning beside it stays. The promised rest must not be stretched to erase judgment. And it must not be pushed so far off as to say God has no answer for those who oppress others.
That Revelation 21 promises no judgment or pain to anyone at all: this is false. That God promises good, unbroken love, the redemption of the body and coming glory to those Scripture identifies as His in Christ, alongside present groaning and death: Scripture teaches this.
Crying out to God is not unbelief
Scripture keeps the prayers of people in anguish, and does not tidy them up.
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" ()
That psalm later says:
"For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard." ()
The turn from the cry to being heard does not erase the anguish. Nor does it mean every lament is unbelief.
Psalm 88 has no such turn:
"O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:" ()
"Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah." ()
"LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?" ()
"Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." ()
It ends in darkness. So a faithful prayer does not have to end in visible relief, and distress that continues does not prove the prayer was never really prayed. The psalmist's question does not mean God has stopped existing, caring or hearing. The prayer that keeps going and the distress that remains both stand. Hope found elsewhere in Scripture must not be pasted onto this psalm as a happy ending.
Psalm 44 asks why, too, and still asks for help:
"Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?" ()
"Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake." ()
When things got worse after a promise
In Egypt, God said:
"And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;" ()
"Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt." ()
But after Moses first went to Pharaoh, the oppression grew:
"Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words." ()
"And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me?" ()
God answered with a renewed promise, not by denying the misery:
"Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land." ()
"And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage." ()
Scripture names their anguish as the reason they did not listen. Their distress was real. Struggling to take in reassurance is not proof of some hidden motive.
When the wicked prosper
Jeremiah asked the LORD, whom he called righteous:
"Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" ()
The answer included more conflict and judgment, and then compassion after uprooting, with conditions about learning and obeying:
"And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land." ()
Jeremiah's question is not recorded as discovering that the LORD is unjust. And God's compassion does not mean there is no judgment.
A psalmist felt the same strain:
"For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." ()
"Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end." ()
"Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction." ()
"My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." ()
Ecclesiastes says it plainly:
"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." ()
"There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity." ()
These passages keep the difficulty in plain view. They also answer the claim that unequal suffering now proves there can be no just God governing all things: the present is not the full measure of His justice. They do not give the reason for each unequal event.
Some say every prayer will be answered by the removal asked for. 2 Corinthians 12:8 and 12:9 make that false: three requests were made, and grace in weakness was given instead. Some say grief should be forbidden. Hebrews 12:11 names grief, and "Jesus wept" ().
That every prayer is answered by removing the suffering: this is false.
What God's purposes never excuse
None of these purposes is permission to neglect people who suffer, to harm them, or to silence their lament.
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." ()
Exodus 22:22 and 22:23 (above) forbid afflicting the widow and the fatherless, and promise that God hears their cry.
"Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms." ()
In the same chapter as the fallen tower, Jesus spoke of a woman Satan had bound:
"And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" ()
God's purposes never turn ongoing harm into a reason to hold back relief.
Job's friends, at the start, sat with him:
"So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great." ()
And Joseph, having named God's good purpose, promised to provide for the very brothers who had wronged him (Genesis 50:21, above).
Peter speaks to those who suffer:
"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully." ()
"For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." ()
"Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." ()
"Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." ()
Some say that because God brings good through evil, the evil becomes good, or that relief can be withheld. Genesis 50:17 still calls the brothers' deed sin. Acts 2:23 calls the hands wicked. James 1:27 requires care. Luke 13:16 gives a positive reason to set the afflicted free.
That good brought through evil makes the evil good, or excuses refusing help: this is false. That the right response to suffering includes care, comfort and prayer: Scripture teaches this.
What is not revealed
Scripture distinguishes what God has revealed from what He has kept:
"The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." ()
"Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it." ()
And Job, after God's questions, confessed he had spoken of things too wonderful for him (Job 42:3, above).
Moses said this in the same chapter where he named the reason for a judgment (Deuteronomy 29:25). So a reason God has stated is not secret. What these verses forbid is claiming to know what God has not revealed. They do not cancel the reasons He has revealed.
Some say there are no revealed reasons, so nothing can be known. Genesis 50:20, John 9:3, John 11:15, Hebrews 12:10, 2 Corinthians 1:4 and 1:9, and 1 Peter 3:18 state purposes outright. That claim is false.
Others go the other way: that the reasons listed here explain every case completely, or prove that every evil had to happen. Nothing in the verses says that. No verse about trials, and nothing in Joseph's story, says God had no other possible way. And it would claim the kind of complete knowledge that Ecclesiastes 8:17 and Job 42:3 deny to people. So that claim is unsupported, and this answer does not make it.
So two things are true together. The reasons Scripture states are real, and are said firmly here. And beyond them, this reading has not established the full reason why suffering falls where, when and on whom, beyond the cases Scripture explains, or why God chose this whole history rather than another. That is a limit on what this reading can say, and Scripture itself supports that limit (Deuteronomy 29:29, Ecclesiastes 8:17, Job 42:3). It is not a claim that suffering has no reason, that every reason listed applies to every person, or that Scripture has no more to say. And the limit is never a way to back away from the hard things Scripture does say: God's judgment, His hardening, His mercy, and Christ's suffering for sins.
If this question comes from something in your own life, why that particular thing happened is not something this answer can tell you, and no private details are needed to answer the question asked. This isn't ours to know; here is what Scripture does reveal: everything above. No one's heart is judged here, and nothing is said about where anyone who has died now is.
How this reading was done
- Only Scripture was used, and every verse quoted was read in its full passage, with who was speaking and to whom.
- Where a word's meaning mattered, the reading checked how Scripture uses the same original word elsewhere: "evil", "willingly", "tempt", "afflict" and "pleasure", as shown above. A shared word number points to where to look; it never defines a word by itself.
- One more example of that check: the Greek word family behind "sufferings" in Romans 8:18 is also behind "motions" here, which means sinful impulses, not injuries:
"For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." ()
The painful sense that fits this question is the one in 1 Peter 2:19 and 2:20, about grief and suffering wrongfully.
- A search for the word "allow" found three verses, and those were not used to decide what "allow" means here. The question means simple permission, and Job shows God permitting directly.
- Each wrong answer was tested against the verses it would make false, and those verses are quoted. The reasons left standing rest on verses that state them, not only on wrong answers being ruled out.
What this reading did not cover
- The whole Bible was not opened. The searches turned up many passages that were not read; one check counted 639. They were kept as possible leads, and nothing here describes them or relies on them.
- Some of them may add further examples, distinctions or purposes. This answer does not claim that none exist, and it does not claim that Scripture is silent on anything.
- The word checks did not cover every use of each word.
- No philosophical proof that every pain was necessary was attempted.
- No answer here depends on a dictionary, an unread verse, what the thorn in 2 Corinthians 12 was, or a guess about anyone's situation.
Every step of the reading
Everything the replay shows, as plain text, in the order it happened. Times are from the moment the reading began.
Every search, in order (56)
- words affliction 73 found
- all of why + evil 9 found
- all of God + suffer 18 found
- word family suffering 59 found
- words allow 3 found
- all of LORD + evil 201 found
- words affliction (page 2) 73 found
- word family suffering (page 2) 59 found
- original word G3804 16 found sufferings 10 · afflictions 3 · affections 1 · motions 1 · suffering 1
- original word G3958 41 found suffer 21 · suffered 17 · felt 1 · he 1 · i 1 · let 1 · passion 1 · suffering 1 · vexed 1 · ye 1
- words without cause 12 found
- all of LORD + evil (page 3) 201 found
- all of LORD + evil (page 5) 201 found
- all of LORD + evil (page 2) 201 found
- all of LORD + evil (page 4) 201 found
- all of sin + blind 2 found
- words pain 24 found
- words darkeneth counsel 1 found
- all of prosper + wicked 2 found
- all of longsuffering + perish 1 found
- words chastening 6 found
- all of meant + evil 1 found
- words stripes 15 found
- all of sin + death 16 found
- words prosperity of the wicked 1 found
- words calamity 17 found
- words willingly 23 found
- words declare thy name 2 found
- words I believed 4 found
- words children whom 2 found
- words What is man 6 found
- original word H3820 550 found heart 486 · hearts 20 · mind 12 · midst 11 · understanding 10 · hearted 7 · wisdom 6 · well 5 · comfortably 4 · regard 3 · care 2 · considered 2 · double 2 · friendly 2 · kindly 2 · stouthearted 2 · brokenhearted 1 · consent 1 · consider 1 · courageous 1 · hardhearted 1 · heart's 1 · hearts' 1 · heed 1 · man 1 · merryhearted 1 · minded 1 · myself 1 · regarded 1 · repent 1 · stiffhearted 1 · unawares 1 · willingly 1
- original word H7451 623 found evil 434 · wickedness 59 · wicked 25 · hurt 20 · mischief 20 · bad 13 · sore 9 · trouble 9 · evils 8 · affliction 5 · harm 5 · ill 5 · adversity 3 · favoured 3 · naught 3 · not 3 · grievous 2 · mischiefs 2 · noisome 2 · sad 2 · things 2 · wickedly 2 · adversities 1 · afflictions 1 · calamities 1 · displeasure 1 · distress 1 · evilfavouredness 1 · exceedingly 1 · great 1 · grief 1 · heavy 1 · hurtful 1 · men 1 · mischievous 1 · misery 1 · naughty 1 · ones 1 · sadly 1 · smart 1 · sorrow 1 · that 1 · the 1 · troubles 1 · vex 1 · worse 1 · worst 1 · wretchedness 1 · wrong 1
- words Be ye holy 3 found
- words determinate counsel 1 found
- words secret things 2 found
- all of Jesus + wept 3 found
- words tempted 22 found
- words love life 1 found
- words cannot find out 1 found
- words desireth life 1 found
- words tempt Abraham 1 found
- original word G3986 20 found temptation 15 · temptations 5 · try 1
- original word G3985 35 found tempted 15 · tempting 7 · ye 4 · tried 3 · tempt 2 · tempter 2 · about 1 · assayed 1 · being 1 · examine 1 · he 1 · prove 1 · tempteth 1 · try 1 · was 1
- words no pleasure 10 found
- words thorn in the flesh 1 found
- all of sickly + sleep 1 found
- original word H2654 71 found delight 17 · delighteth 12 · delighted 10 · pleased 8 · desire 6 · please 5 · pleasure 3 · will 3 · desirest 2 · like 2 · all 1 · desired 1 · favourest 1 · favoureth 1 · moveth 1 · pleaseth 1 · would 1
- original word H2654 (page 2) 71 found delight 17 · delighteth 12 · delighted 10 · pleased 8 · desire 6 · please 5 · pleasure 3 · will 3 · desirest 2 · like 2 · all 1 · desired 1 · favourest 1 · favoureth 1 · moveth 1 · pleaseth 1 · would 1
- original word H6601 26 found entice 7 · deceived 6 · persuade 3 · deceive 2 · enticed 2 · allure 1 · enlarge 1 · enticeth 1 · flatter 1 · flattereth 1 · one 1 · persuaded 1 · silly 1
- words name may be declared 1 found
- words get me honour 1 found
- words my name might be declared 1 found
- words gracious to whom 1 found
- words oppress 23 found
- original word H6031 80 found afflict 28 · afflicted 21 · humbled 7 · forced 4 · humble 4 · exercised 2 · sing 2 · abase 1 · afflictest 1 · afflictions 1 · answereth 1 · chasten 1 · force 1 · gentleness 1 · her 1 · hurt 1 · leannoth 1 · ravished 1 · submit 1 · troubled 1 · weakened 1 · wise 1 · with 1
Every time it opened Scripture (13 times, 2,083 verses)
- Genesis 2 25 Genesis 3 24 Job 1 22 Job 2 13 Job 42 17 John 9 41 Luke 13 35 Romans 7 25 Romans 8 39 Lamentations 3 66 Isaiah 45 25 Amos 3 15 347 verses, 347 new
- John 9:35–41 7 Luke 13 35 Romans 7:1–7 7 1 Peter 1 25 1 Peter 2 25 1 Peter 3 22 1 Peter 4 19 1 Peter 5 14 2 Corinthians 1 24 2 Corinthians 4 18 Hebrews 2 18 214 verses, 165 new
- Genesis 50 26 Genesis 41 57 Genesis 6:1–13 13 Exodus 25:1–9 9 Romans 5 21 James 1 27 James 5 20 Hebrews 12 29 Proverbs 3 35 2 Peter 3 18 Psalms 73 28 Revelation 21 27 310 verses, 310 new
- Job 38 41 Job 39 30 Job 40 24 Job 41 34 James 1:22–27 6 James 5:1–3 3 Psalms 44 26 Psalms 8 9 Psalms 22 31 Isaiah 8 22 Isaiah 52:13–15 3 Isaiah 53 12 241 verses, 232 new
- Acts 2 47 Deuteronomy 29 29 Ecclesiastes 8 17 John 11 57 Hebrews 11 40 Psalms 34 22 Psalms 116 19 Genesis 22 24 2 Corinthians 13 14 Revelation 2:1–11 11 280 verses, 280 new
- Job 4 21 Job 5 27 Job 32:1–10 10 Job 36 33 Job 37 24 Psalms 88 18 Exodus 3 22 Exodus 4 31 Exodus 5 23 Exodus 6 30 Ezekiel 14 23 Ezekiel 33 33 Jeremiah 12 17 312 verses, 312 new
- Exodus 4:18–31 14 Exodus 5 23 2 Corinthians 12 21 1 Corinthians 11 34 Ezekiel 18 32 1 Kings 22 53 177 verses, 140 new
- 1 Samuel 2 36 Psalms 40 17 Ruth 3 18 71 verses, 71 new
- 1 Corinthians 10 33 2 Thessalonians 1 12 Psalms 121 8 53 verses, 53 new
- Exodus 9 35 Exodus 14 31 Romans 9 33 99 verses, 99 new
- Exodus 33 23 23 verses, 23 new
- Deuteronomy 8 20 Exodus 22 31 51 verses, 51 new
- Genesis 2:17–17 1 Genesis 3:16–17, 19 3 Romans 5:3–4, 8, 12, 14 5 Romans 7:5–5 1 Romans 8:17–18, 20–23, 28–29, 35–36, 38–39 12 Job 1:8, 11–12, 22 4 Job 2:3, 6–7, 13 4 Job 38:4–4 1 Job 40:8–8 1 Job 42:2–3, 7, 11 4 John 9:2–3, 7 3 Luke 13:2–5, 16 5 Isaiah 45:7, 19, 21 3 Amos 3:2, 6, 10–11 4 Lamentations 3:22, 32–33, 36, 38–39, 42, 52 8 Genesis 6:5–6 2 Genesis 41:3, 27, 32 3 Exodus 25:2–2 1 Genesis 22:1, 12 2 Hebrews 11:17–17 1 2 Corinthians 13:5–5 1 Genesis 50:17, 20–21 3 Isaiah 53:5, 9–11 4 Acts 2:23–24 2 Hebrews 2:9–10, 17–18 4 1 Peter 2:19, 22, 24 3 1 Peter 3:17–18 2 1 Peter 1:6–7 2 1 Peter 4:12, 15, 19 3 1 Peter 5:7–7 1 James 1:3–4, 13–15, 27 6 James 5:4, 6, 11, 13 4 Hebrews 12:6, 10–11 3 Proverbs 3:11–12 2 Hebrews 11:35, 37, 39 3 2 Corinthians 1:4, 8–9 3 2 Corinthians 4:17–18 2 Psalms 116:10–10 1 Psalms 44:17, 22, 24, 26 4 Psalms 34:19–19 1 Psalms 22:1, 24 2 Psalms 73:3, 17–18, 26 4 Ecclesiastes 8:11, 14, 17 3 John 11:4–6, 15, 35, 37, 44 7 2 Peter 3:9–10, 15 3 Revelation 2:10–10 1 Revelation 21:4, 7–8 3 Deuteronomy 29:25, 29 2 Job 1:19–19 1 Genesis 22:13–13 1 Lamentations 3:34–35 2 Isaiah 53:6–6 1 1 Peter 2:20, 25 2 Hebrews 2:14–14 1 2 Corinthians 4:13–13 1 1 Peter 3:14–14 1 John 11:14–14 1 Job 4:7–7 1 Job 5:17, 19 2 Job 32:3–3 1 Job 36:4, 10–11, 17 4 Job 37:13, 23 2 Psalms 88:1, 7, 14, 18 4 Exodus 3:7, 10 2 Exodus 4:11, 21 2 Exodus 5:9, 22 2 Exodus 6:1, 9 2 Exodus 9:16, 12, 34 3 Exodus 14:4, 30 2 Exodus 33:19–19 1 Romans 9:14, 17–20, 22–23 7 Ezekiel 14:9–11, 13, 16, 23 6 Ezekiel 18:20, 32 2 Ezekiel 33:11, 29 2 1 Kings 22:22–23 2 1 Samuel 2:25, 17 2 Psalms 40:8–8 1 Ruth 3:13–13 1 Jeremiah 12:1, 15 2 2 Corinthians 12:7–9 3 1 Corinthians 10:13–13 1 1 Corinthians 11:21, 29–30, 32 4 2 Thessalonians 1:6–9 4 Psalms 121:7–8 2 Deuteronomy 8:2–3, 5, 16 4 Exodus 22:22–23 2 231 verses, 0 new
The reader's own notes (9)
- The reading will begin with the two permitted SIFT files, then gather and check Scripture passages before writing the record and hand-off.
- The searches distinguish suffering as pain or affliction from “suffer” meaning permit. They also raise two checks: whether suffering always follows the sufferer’s wrongdoing, and whether God only permits suffering or sometimes actively brings it. The reading will test both.
- The passages reject both a blanket blame of sufferers and a picture of God as powerless. Job’s suffering is called “without cause,” and Jesus rejects the claim that disaster victims were worse sinners. Isaiah, Amos, and Lamentations also attribute calamity to God. Those statements must be read together without weakening either side.
- The reading has found several stated purposes: judgment, correction, the testing of faith, comfort for others, the preservation of life, and Christ’s work of bringing sinners to God. Each belongs to a stated setting; none alone explains every case. The record will also retain the passages about grief, delayed help, and faithful people who suffered to death.
- The draft record is written in
/Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/suffering/out/RECORD.md. It will now be read back against the full question and the report of unread search hits. That check will include lament, apparently unanswered prayer, collective judgment, and passages that could challenge an account centered on beneficial purposes. - The read-back found two needed additions. Psalm 88 ends in darkness without recording relief, so the answer must not imply that every lament reaches a visible resolution. Further passages will also test how divine judgment and unanswered requests for relief fit with the reasons already gathered.
- The further checks add hardening and judicial deception to the passages that must be retained; the answer cannot describe God as merely watching harmful events. They also add positive reasons involving God’s name and power, humility, and sustaining grace. The remaining work is to finalize the record and carry these qualifications into the hand-off.
- The record has been revised and read back. It now retains the stated purposes, the strongest opposing passages, and the limits of what those purposes explain. The hand-off will be written last from that completed record, including every substantive change from the read-back.
- Completed RECORD.md and HANDOFF.md. All 231 distinct quoted verses were checked against the permitted Scripture tool; no quotation mismatches remain.
What its record and its hand-off say, in their order
Question and scope
The person's complete question is: "Why does God allow suffering?"
This is a question, not an assertion that a particular explanation is true. It concerns God's reason for allowing suffering generally. No particular loss, illness, danger, wrongdoing, or personal history was disclosed. The reading therefore makes no claim about why something happened to this person. No circumstance requiring the policy's fixed safety words was disclosed.
The files opened as instructions were /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/suffering/inputs/SIFT-v3-CORE.md and /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/suffering/inputs/SIFT-v3-POLICY.md, read whole together before research. Scripture was obtained only through the permitted Scripture tool. References were found through the permitted searches and word index. No outside source was consulted. This record is written to /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/suffering/out/RECORD.md; the hand-off will be written afterward to /Users/Shared/before-god-sift-library-2026-11-03/runs/suffering/out/HANDOFF.md.
From its hand-off to the writer
Their words
"Why does God allow suffering?"
The person asks for a reason concerning God and suffering generally. No particular suffering, personal history, danger, or proposed explanation was disclosed. The answer must address why suffering is permitted, including its painful and unjust forms. It must distinguish revealed reasons from a complete explanation of every event. It must not invent a personal circumstance or diagnose why something happened to the person.
Hard passages
God's active bringing of calamity: Isaiah 45, Amos 3, Lamentations 3, and Job's ending. These oppose an answer limited to nonintervention. Isaiah's setting concerns Cyrus, nations, Israel's release, and the unique Creator and Saviour. Amos names the iniquities and violence before announcing judgment. The H7451 check found both moral wickedness in Genesis 6 and ill appearance interpreted as famine in Genesis 41. The number does not define the sense; the peace/calamity contrast and judicial setting carry it. These passages affirm an actual divine act, not a euphemism for absence. Lamentations itself joins caused grief with compassion and rejection of injustice. Record E–F and C supply the full settings.
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." ()
"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?" ()
"But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies." ()
"For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." ()
"Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold." ()
Lamentations 3:33 cannot mean that he never causes grief without making 3:32 false. Nor may the active government texts make 3:36 false. Both statements survive together.
Job without cause and Jerusalem not without cause. The read-back opened Ezekiel 14 specifically to test this apparent opposition. Job's uprightness is affirmed by the LORD; Ezekiel's land is expressly described as grievously trespassing. The cause in the latter does not manufacture a personal offence for the former. Job's heavenly challenge is disclosed to the reader, but cannot be generalized into an explanation of every sufferer. Job's losses include deaths; no harmless lesson should be invented. Record C and T carry this distinction.
"And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause." ()
"Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:" ()
"And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD." ()
The read-back also retained the limit on another person's righteousness protecting children, together with personal responsibility. These must not be used to assign a cause or spiritual standing to any child today.
"Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate." ()
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." ()
The innocent servant whom the LORD is pleased to bruise. The same passage identifies an offering for sin and the justification of many, and Peter applies the servant's innocence and sin-bearing to Christ. This defeats both universal personal-guilt explanations of suffering and a denial that God purposes any righteous suffering. It does not make other sufferers additional sin-bearing redeemers. Record H carries the connection.
"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." ()
"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." ()
"Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:" ()
No pleasure in the wicked's death, yet actual decisions to bring death. The read-back added Ezekiel 18 and 33, then checked the same H2654 under other English words and followed its hard 1 Samuel hit. Ezekiel's invitation and sworn declaration stand with the judgments within those chapters; they do not mean that God never judges. First Samuel names grave wrongdoing before the decision to slay Eli's sons. Isaiah 53 names the servant's redemptive purpose. These statements have different stated objects and purposes; no invented account of God's feelings is needed. Record T carries the reasoning.
"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" ()
"For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." ()
"If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the LORD would slay them." ()
The cross-rendering checks in Psalms 40 and Ruth 3 support attention to the object of delight or willingness; they do not turn a number into a definition. They are retained as read-back checks, not as new reasons for suffering:
"I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." ()
"Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman's part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the LORD liveth: lie down until the morning." ()
Judicial deception. The read-back added Ezekiel 14's explicit divine deception and followed H6601 to the persuasion by a lying spirit in 1 Kings 22. These qualify any overbroad explanation of James 1:13. James rejects attribution of sinful enticement to God and identifies human lust; it does not erase these judicial acts. Ezekiel retains the prophet's iniquity and punishment, and states a corrective purpose for Israel. Micaiah openly warns Ahab despite the misleading prophets. The answer must affirm these statements without calling injustice good or pretending to explain every causal detail. Record T carries this qualification.
"And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel." ()
"And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;" ()
"That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD." ()
"Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee." ()
Hardening and God's making his power known. The read-back added Exodus 9 and 14, Romans 9, and the mercy quotation's setting in Exodus 33. God does not merely wait for Pharaoh's choices; Pharaoh's sin and self-hardening are also recorded. Israel's deliverance and the Egyptian deaths belong to the same history. Romans explicitly rejects unrighteousness in God and answers the voiced fault/resistance objection with the Creator's authority. Its question about wrath, power, longsuffering, and glory should be kept as written; it is not a mechanism for diagnosing the questioner's life. Record S carries this addition.
"And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so." ()
"Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore." ()
"And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." ()
"What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." ()
"Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." ()
"Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?" ()
"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" ()
"What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:" ()
"And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory," ()
The Pharaoh quotation in Romans 9:17 was checked against Exodus 9:16, quoted above. The mercy declaration was checked in Exodus 33's request for God's presence and glory. These links support disclosed divine purposes, not a claim that the reading can reconstruct all God's reasons.
Disability and increased oppression after a promise of deliverance. The read-back opened Exodus 3–6. God's knowledge of suffering, Moses' sending, Pharaoh's increased demands, Moses' causal question, and God's renewed promise must be read together. Exodus 4:11 also expressly attributes the making of disabilities to the LORD; combined with John 9 it prevents either denying divine involvement or presuming personal blame. Exodus 6:9 names anguish as a reason the people do not listen. Record S carries this addition.
"And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;" ()
"And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?" ()
"And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me?" ()
"Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land." ()
"And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage." ()
The speeches about discipline and promised safety in Job. The read-back opened Job 4–5, identified Eliphaz, and read Elihu's identification in Job 32 before Job 36–37. A faithful record of a speaker's claim does not make that speaker's application God's explanation. Eliphaz's universal inference about the innocent and his safety assurance cannot overturn the LORD's statement about Job or the recorded deaths of faithful sufferers. Discipline is nevertheless independently affirmed in Proverbs and Hebrews. Elihu is distinct from the three friends rebuked at the end; that rebuke must not be falsely expanded to name him. Record Q and W carry this distinction.
"Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?" ()
"Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:" ()
"He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee." ()
"And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath." ()
"Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job." ()
"If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures." ()
"He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy." ()
"Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict." ()
The last denial must be read with the immediately named justice, rather than as a denial of every divine humbling or grief. The final H6031 check followed the same word into Deuteronomy 8's purposeful humbling and Exodus 22's prohibited affliction of vulnerable people. Those contexts positively distinguish the acts; the number alone does not. A universal no-affliction reading would break Lamentations 3:32 and Job 42:11. Elihu's instruction-through-affliction possibility does not become a revealed diagnosis of Job's original losses.
Lament without a recorded happy ending, and suffering for God's sake. The read-back added the whole of Psalms 88. Its prayer continues and its ending remains dark. It cannot be given an invented concluding deliverance. Psalms 44 likewise joins fidelity with slaughter; Romans 8 explicitly takes up that verse inside the assurance of love. Record L and R carry this conclusion.
"O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:" ()
"LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?" ()
"Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." ()
"All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant." ()
"Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." ()
"As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." ()
Protection and ability to bear temptation. The read-back added Psalms 121 and 1 Corinthians 10. Lasting preservation cannot become a guarantee that righteous people never suffer bodily harm, given Psalms 34 and Hebrews 11. The temptation promise includes God's provision of the ability to bear; it is not a demand for self-sufficiency and does not cancel the extremity in 2 Corinthians 1 or the sufficient grace in chapter 12. Record V carries this qualification.
"The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul." ()
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all." ()
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." ()
Present prosperity of the wicked and unequal suffering. The read-back added Jeremiah 12 alongside the already opened Psalms 73 and Ecclesiastes 8. Jeremiah's question is addressed to the LORD as righteous; the reply includes judgment and subsequent compassion, not a denial that the treacherous currently prosper. The psalm's change of assessment considers their end. These passages retain the difficulty while denying that present circumstances are a complete measure of God's justice. Record L and U carry this conclusion.
"Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?" ()
"And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land." ()
"Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end." ()
"There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity." ()
Ruled out
A blanket accusation that disaster victims are worse sinners, or that suffering itself identifies the particular sin being punished, is false. Jesus' denial must remain joined to his call to repentance; it does not teach that sin and judgment are unreal.
"And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?" ()
"I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." ()
"Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?" ()
"I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." ()
The converse claim that suffering is never judgment is false. It would contradict Amos 3:2 and the specifically stated cause in 1 Corinthians 11:30, quoted above. Neither passage authorizes inventing a cause not disclosed.
God's purpose making human wrongdoing innocent, or making every harmful act morally good, is false. The same sentence affirms divine counsel and wicked hands:
"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:" ()
God's approval of injustice or attribution of sinful enticement to him is false. The texts governing those denials must not be widened into a denial of the judicial hardening or deception discussed below.
"To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not." ()
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:" ()
"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." ()
Faith guaranteeing physical immunity, restoration of all earthly losses before death, or pain within unaided human strength is false. Hebrews records both deliverance and deaths within the account of faith, and the Corinthians' trouble was above strength. Job's restoration cannot be made a universal promise.
"Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:" ()
"They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;" ()
"And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:" ()
"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:" ()
Suffering necessarily meaning rejection or absence of love is false. The paternal correction and unbroken love passages above contradict that rule. John explicitly records love alongside delay:
"Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." ()
"When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was." ()
Calling pain trivial, forbidding grief, or promising that every prayer receives the requested removal is false. Hebrews 12:11 names grief; 2 Corinthians 12:9 gives grace in weakness after the petitions; Jesus' response includes tears. The comparison in 2 Corinthians 4 concerns eternal glory, not imaginary pain.
"Jesus wept." ()
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" ()
"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." ()
A universal promise that nobody will face judgment or any future suffering is false. The new-creation promise has a stated inheritance and a warning alongside it. Second Thessalonians also retains judgment; the answer must not omit these qualifications.
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." ()
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." ()
"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" ()
The assertion that no reasons can be known is false; the assertion that the listed reasons prove every evil logically necessary is unsupported. The positive purpose clauses above defeat the former. The latter adds a premise absent from those clauses and conflicts with claiming comprehensive discovery despite the limits quoted under Open.
Verdicts
1. Scripture teaches that God has disclosed real purposes in suffering. These purposes belong to their stated cases; they are not an exhaustive explanation of each case. A clear example is Joseph's distinction between his brothers' evil intention and God's intention to preserve life. The outcome is identified as already accomplished; the human conduct remains sin in its setting. Record G and link 5 carry this distinction.
"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." ()
2. Scripture places sorrow and mortality in a world affected by sin, while refusing the inference that every afflicted person is being punished for a particular offence or is worse than other people. Genesis 2–3 and Romans 5 give the general background; Job 2, John 9, and Luke 13 constrain personal inference. The answer must retain both. Record A–D and link 1 carry this conclusion.
"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;" ()
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" ()
"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." ()
"Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." ()
The denial in John 9 answers the disciples' offered cause of this man's congenital blindness; it does not declare the man and his parents sinless in every respect. The manifestation of God's works is the purpose Jesus names for this man, not a diagnosis to assign to every illness.
3. Scripture teaches both bounded divine permission and active divine government of calamity. Suffering does not establish divine powerlessness. Job's account names Satan as the immediate afflicter while also attributing the calamity to the LORD at its conclusion. Neither statement may be dropped. Record C and E, with link 3, carry this conclusion.
"And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life." ()
"So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown." ()
"I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee." ()
The answer must not make human freedom the sole explanation, since the active judgment, hardening, disability, and natural calamity passages below exceed that description.
4. Scripture identifies judgment and loving correction as actual reasons in specified settings. It does not authorize an invented diagnosis of another person's pain. Amos addresses Israel's iniquities. Hebrews connects paternal discipline with holiness and acknowledges present grief. The read-back added explicit judgment at the Corinthians' supper, so the answer must not restrict specified judgment to the earlier national cases. Record E, J, and V carry this conclusion.
"You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." ()
"For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." ()
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." ()
"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." ()
"But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." ()
First Corinthians 11's cause is the misconduct described at the supper, not a general assertion that every illness has that cause. Hebrews' quotation was traced to Proverbs 3, where correction is joined to love:
"For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." ()
5. Scripture identifies testing of faith, patience, maturity, humility, and dependence as purposes or effects in the people addressed. The read-back's Deuteronomy 8 adds God's allowing hunger while providing food and teaching dependence on his word. Second Corinthians 12 adds prevention of self-exaltation and Christ's power in continuing weakness. These must not become a claim that suffering automatically improves every person. Record F, J, V, and W carry this conclusion.
"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." ()
"But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." ()
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" ()
"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live." ()
"And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." ()
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." ()
The writer's three requests for removal precede that answer. The answer grants sufficient grace rather than narrating the requested removal. No medical identity for the thorn was established or is needed.
6. Scripture names comfort for others and reliance on God rather than self as purposes. These are explicit purpose clauses in the account of trouble in Asia, not guesses about the questioner's life. Record K carries this conclusion.
"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." ()
"But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:" ()
7. Scripture also names the manifestation of God's works, power, name, and glory, including through judgment and deliverance. The answer must not reduce all purposes to a sufferer's personal improvement. John 9 names God's works; John 11 names glory and the disciples' believing; Exodus names the declaration of God's name throughout the earth. The latter is a substantive read-back addition. Record D, M, and S carry this conclusion.
"When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." ()
"And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him." ()
"And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." ()
John 11 actually records Lazarus' death and raising; the purpose statement must not be read as denying that he died.
8. Christ's suffering is a central revealed answer: the just suffers for the unjust to bring them to God, and the one who suffered helps those tempted. This is redemption, not merely a general illustration of character development. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 was opened before relying on Peter's application of innocence, bearing sins, wounds, and straying sheep to Christ. Record H and link 6 carry this conclusion.
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:" ()
"For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." ()
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." ()
9. Scripture promises good, unbroken love, bodily redemption, and coming glory to the recipients it identifies in Christ. These assurances coexist with present groaning and death. The answer must preserve the scope of the promise and must not equate good with presently pleasant circumstances. Record B, K, L, and N carry this conclusion.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." ()
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." ()
"And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." ()
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come," ()
"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ()
10. Scripture explains the delay of the promised day by the Lord's longsuffering with repentance and salvation in view. It promises a future end of death and pain for God's people, while retaining judgment. This is not a reason assigned individually to every tragedy. The read-back added the explicit promised rest and recompense in 2 Thessalonians. Record N and V carry this conclusion.
"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." ()
"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;" ()
"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels," ()
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." ()
11. The revealed purposes do not authorize neglect, inflicted injustice, or suppression of lament. The practical response includes care, comfort, and prayer. Record D, J, R, and W carry this conclusion. The read-back added Exodus 22's direct prohibition and Psalm 88's unresolved prayer.
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." ()
"Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child." ()
"Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms." ()
Open
The complete explanation of the selection, timing, and distribution of suffering beyond the cases explained, and why God chose this whole history rather than another, has not been established. This is a limit on the reading's warranted account. It is not a claim that suffering has no reason, that every listed purpose applies to every person, that every evil was logically necessary, or that Scripture contains no further relevant passages. The record explicitly preserves unread search candidates and makes no canon-wide silence claim.
The positive purpose texts remain true and must be stated firmly. The limit is also positively supported: Moses distinguishes secret from revealed things, the wisdom text limits human discovery, and Job confesses speech beyond knowledge after God's questions. The answer should therefore distinguish the reasons revealed from the complete explanation that the reading cannot supply. It must not use the limit to retreat from the hard assertions of active judgment, hardening, mercy, or Christ's redemptive suffering.
"The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." ()
"Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it." ()
"Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." ()
The question gives no personal event for application. The policy also excludes assigning the reason for a particular thing happening to the person. No further question is needed for the general answer, and no request for private circumstances should be invented as a condition of answering it. The record does not adjudicate a present person's heart or the present state of anyone who has died.
Other readings that quote its verses
- Is suicide a sin, and can a believer who dies by suicide be saved?23 verses in common
- Can a person who is truly saved ever lose their salvation?17 verses in common
- Does God exist, and what is Scripture's own witness to it?17 verses in common
- Where was Jesus between His death and His resurrection, and did He go to hell?13 verses in common
- Is Jesus God?13 verses in common
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