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In Response To: Re: Bible Questions ()

one ting dat allways got I woman but only recently do I overstan is for instance di book of Job...O bredrin, why did Jahovia ALLOW Satan to inflict such misery an horrible events, even among Satan killing Job children???????????
How could my Jah Jah allow fi dat?????????
Now read dis article very carefully jus to overstan di IDEA of how could a righteous Jah punish INI, how could he punish Job, an fi dat matter how could He punish David?? chek it, its a lang artical still, so I will post in two posts, but it is really worth reading:
Why Job Suffered

by Tom Brown

Often, when I speak on healing and prosperity, people will ask me about Job. They'll question me, "If healing and prosperity belongs to us, why did Job suffer sickness and poverty?" That is a good question, and it deserves to be answered.

First of all, the book of Job was written as a play. Nevertheless, this is not a work of fiction. Job really existed. Ezekiel 14:14 lists Job as a real righteous man who once lived long ago. In this play called Job, we find eight characters: God, Satan, Job, Job's wife, Job's three friends (Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar) and finally a young man named Elihu.

The play begins with the narrator telling the story about Job and describing him as the greatest man among all the people of the East. His integrity was world-renowned. He was so upright in the way he lived that even God bragged on Job. He told Satan to take note of Job's outstanding life.

Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. (Job 1:8)

Satan was disgusted with Job's lifestyle of holiness, so he told God that the only reason Job lived right and worshipped God was because he was so healthy and prosperous. Satan believed that if Job was sick and broke he would quit serving God. So God was going to prove to Satan that Job would serve Him no matter what kind of trials he went through. From there Satan destroyed everything that Job had-- his wealth, his children and his health.

It is this fact that God lets Satan destroy everything which causes all the controversy. Why did God do that?

Well, some charismatics simply blame Job's fears as being the open door to Job's trials. They point to Job 3:25, "What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me."

"You see," some exclaim, "Job was operating in fear. This is why Satan was able to attack him."

It is true that fear can cause a lot of bad things to happen to us, but it is also clear that the book of Job is not teaching about fear. You cannot simply take one statement from Job and build an entire theory on it and say that Job lost it all because of fear. I believe that this interpretation is an over-simplified attempt to explain Job's suffering.

On the other hand, many evangelicals love this story because it proves to them that good men should expect to suffer. The trouble with their view is they forget to point out that Job was healed and blessed twice as much after his trial. In other words, Job did not stay sick or broke. He was healed and blessed.

James reminds us to consider the latter end of Job's life: "You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy" (James 5:11).

Isn't it amazing that when people think of Job they think of his trials and not the end of his trials? Yet, James tells us to consider the victory that Job experienced, and to let him be an example for us--that if we are suffering sickness or poverty, we should persevere in faith and God will bring about victory for us, too.

Yet, that still doesn't answer why God let Job suffer in the first place.

WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?

Some think that the book of Job is trying to answer the age-old question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Well, the answer is simple if you don't believe in God. You simply say that life is full of chances. Without God you don't have to answer the question. But for people who believe in God the question is even harder, "If God is love and has all the power to remove suffering, why does He allow good people to suffer?" Tough question, isn't it? In fact, not only is it tough to answer, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ANSWER!

What do I mean? Simple. It is possible to ask a question that can't be answered. I do it by asking a question with assumptions. An assumption is something that most people think is true but has not yet been proven. In other words, if I assume something is true, then I cannot ask for an answer to a question unless I am willing to forgo my assumption.

For example, a wife can ask a question with an assumption by saying, "I don't understand how my husband can be a good Christian and yet commit adultery?" Well, he can't be a good Christian and commit adultery. He can be a Christian and commit adultery, but he cannot be a good Christian and commit adultery. Do you see that a person can ask a question that can't be answered?

The same is true of asking the question, "How can God be love and have all power, and yet still allow good people to suffer?"

This question has three assumptions to it:

1. God is love.

2. God has all power.

3. Good people suffer.

To assume something is not necessarily wrong. In this case, are any of these three assumptions wrong?

First of all, is God love? Of course He is. The Bible says so. "God is love" (1 John 4:16).

Well, how about God's power. Does God have the power to remove suffering?

It is this second assumption that caused a Rabbi to write a best-selling book on suffering. Basically he said that God is love but is not willing to use his power for us. He prefers to let us live our own lives without His intruding on us. He sees God as a little boy who winds up a toy and then lets it go. He believes God made us and then left us on our own.

But this is not what the Bible teaches--either the Old Testament or the New Testament. Christians rightly refuse to believe that God does not become active in our lives. In the Bible we find that God helped Israel out of slavery, delivered Judah from its enemies and Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor. God is active in helping us.

So, the second assumption is correct. God has all power to help us. "For nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37).

That brings us to the third assumption, "Do good people suffer?"

Job's three friends thought, "No!" They believed that if a person suffered it was because they sinned against God. So throughout the book of Job, they constantly try to get Job to confess his hidden sin. They were very eloquent, knowledgeable, but fault-finders.

Every time they tried to say something to convince Job that he had sinned, Job would come back claiming innocence. Job knew that he had not sinned. He knew that he was not at fault. He didn't understand why God was punishing him since he had not committed any sin.

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