If God loves us so much, why do people suffer and some even kill themselves. It is said that the devil tempts a person to do so. So if God is stronger than Satan, why cant he stop them from doing it.

-- Guillermo Quintero (willie5@budweiser.com), December 26, 2002

Answers

It all boils down to the fact that God gives mankind free will. Sometimes that free will hurts others, and hurts oneself. If God intervened in our personal choices that might hurt ourselves or others, we would no longer be free. God even gives men the freedom to sin. Otherwise, we would not be freely choosing to worship Him.

A great book by a Yale-educated lawyer, Lee Strobel tackles these hard questions: The Case for Faith, available on Amazon, and at most Barnes and Noble bookstores.

-- VeraP (verap1@earthlink.net), December 26, 2002.

Yes, Guillermo,
Not only as Vera points out. You must also consider that God DOES stop Satan from succeeding against us, every day of our lives. By His ever-present grace we meet countless challenges to our faith during a lifetime. You can only point to the ultimate BAD choice some poor souls make. But it might well be God was helping them cope and they still failed.

You and I will never know how many others resisted and overcame despair. The dead ones get all the publicity. Saints are almost never acknowledged in public.

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), December 26, 2002.

P.S.- Lee Strobel and Chuck Colson have 2 things in common- they are both Yale-educated lawyers, and they both believe faith boils down to ow we handle scripture- whether we believe it or not. They both fall on the side of belief.

http://www.intouch.org/highlights/another_book_176293.html

-- VeraP (Verap1@earthlink.net), December 27, 2002.

Look at the Cross, Guillermo - there is God's answer to your question. :-)

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), December 30, 2002.

Dear Vera:
You must have been out when the subject of lawyers had its day. In fact, a Yale-educated lawyer might make a poor witness to the faith.

I want to express myself kindly, so you see my point not from an adversarial angle, but simple good will.

So; these lawyers believe faith boils down to how we handle scripture- whether we believe it or not. They both fall on the side of belief.--

Belief in sola scriptura, however, is unscriptural in itself. Naturally, Catholics must ''believe'' the Holy Scriptures. But private interpretation of scripture and ''belief'' are two different things. Many well-meaning Bible scholars fall into serious error. All we now need is a pair of Yale lawyers expounding on their errors! Lol!

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), December 30, 2002.

Dear Vera,

The problem does not lie in believing scripture. All Christians claim to believe scripture. The problem is in properly understanding scripture, so you know that what you believe is true. Neither Mr. Strobel nor Mr. Colson have the ability to correctly interpret scripture, and that ability is not conferred by Yale University. It was conferred upon the leaders of the Church Christ founded, and no-one else, when Jesus said "whatsoever you bind on earth is bound in heaven". Jesus didn't say this to any Yale-educated lawyers - or for that matter, to any Protestant person. Therefore Mr. Strobel and Mr. Colson's personal guesses regarding the meaning of Biblical passages are no more valid than those of Luther or Knox or Wesley or Calvin, or your own.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), December 31, 2002.