Hello fams, so I was handed this Jehovah witness 'book' this morning, going through it, I found something quite interesting in it. God bless you as you read it. AT SOME time in your life, you may have asked: ‘If there is a God who really cares about us, why does he permit so much suffering?’ All of us have experienced suffering or have known someone who has.
Indeed, throughout history people have suffered pain and heartache from war, cruelty, crime, injustice, poverty, sickness, and the death of loved ones. In our 20th century alone, wars have killed over 100 million people. Hundreds of millions of others have been injured or have lost homes and possessions. Ever so many horrible things have happened in our time, resulting in great sorrow, many tears, and a sense of hopelessness on the part of countless numbers of people.
Some become embittered and feel that if there is a God, he does not really care about us. Or they may even feel that there is no God. For instance, a man who suffered from ethnic persecution that caused the death of friends and family in World War I asked: “Where was God when we needed him?” Another, who survived the murder of millions by the Nazis in World War II, was so grieved by the suffering he saw that he said: “If you could lick my heart, it would poison you.”
Thus, many people cannot understand why a good God would allow bad things to happen. They question whether he really cares about us or whether he exists at all. And many of them feel that suffering will always be a part of human existence.
HOWEVER, millions of people worldwide have a totally different view. They foresee a marvelous future for mankind. They say that right here on earth there will soon be a world completely free from wickedness and suffering. They are confident that what is bad will soon be cleared away and an entirely new world established. They even say that the foundation of this new world is being laid right now!
These people believe that the new world will be free from war, cruelty, crime, injustice, and poverty. It will be a world without sickness, sorrow, tears, and even death. At that time people will grow to perfection and live forever in happiness in an earthly paradise. Why, those who have died will even be resurrected and have the opportunity to live forever!
Is this view of the future just a dream, just wishful thinking? No, not at all. It is founded on a solidly based faith that this incoming Paradise is inevitable. (Hebrews 11:1) Why are they so sure? Because the almighty Creator of the universe has promised it.
Regarding God’s promises, the Bible says:“Not one word out of all the goodwords that Jehovah your God has spoken to you has failed. They have all come true for you. Not one word of them has failed.” “God is not a man that he should tell lies . . . Has he himself said it and will he not do it, and has he spoken and will he not carry it out?” “Jehovah of armies has sworn, saying: ‘Surely just as I have figured, so it must occur; and just as I have counseled, that is what will come true.’”—Joshua 23:14;Numbers 23
However, if God’s purpose was to establish an earthly paradise free from suffering, why did he permit bad things to happen in the first place? Why did he wait six thousand years until now to correct what is wrong? Might all those centuries of suffering indicate that God does not really care about us, or even that he does not exist?
ONE way to determine whether there is a God is to apply this well-established principle: What is made requires a maker. The more complicated the thing made, the more capable the maker must be.
2 For example, look around your home. Tables, chairs, desks, beds, pots, pans, plates, and other eating utensils all require a maker, as do walls, floors, and ceilings. Yet, those things are comparatively simple to make. Since simple things require a maker, is it not logical that complex things require an even more intelligent maker?
A watch requires a watchmaker. What of our infinitely more complex solar system, with the Sun and its planets revolving around it with split-second precision century after century? What of the awesome galaxy we live in, called the Milky Way, with its more than 100 billion stars? Have you ever stopped at night to gaze at the Milky Way? Were you impressed? Then think of the incredibly vast universe that contains untold billions of galaxies like our Milky Way! Too, the heavenly bodies are so reliable in their movements century after century that they have been compared to precision timepieces.
If a watch, which is relatively simple, implies the existence of a watchmaker, surely the infinitely more complex and awesome universe implies the existence of a designer and maker. That is why the Bible invites us to ‘raise our eyes high up and see,’ and then it asks:
“Who has created these things?” The answer: “It is the One [God] who is bringing forth the army of them even by number, all of whom he calls even by name. Due to the abundance of dynamic energy, he also being vigorous in power, not one of them is missing.” (Isaiah 40:26) Thus, the universe owes its existence to an invisible, controlling, intelligent power—God.
The more scientists study the earth, the more they realize that it is uniquely designed for human habitation. It is just the right distance from the sun to get the proper amount of light and heat. Once a year it moves around the sun, with just the right angle of tilt, making seasons possible in many parts of the earth. The earth also rotates on its own axis every 24 hours, providing regular periods of light and darkness. It has an atmosphere with just the right mixture of gases so we can breathe and be protected from damaging radiation from space. It also has the vital water and soil needed to grow food.
Without all those factors, and others, working together, life would be impossible. Was all of that an accident? Science Newssays: “It seems as if such particular and precise conditions could hardly have arisen at random.” No, they could not. They involved purposeful design by a superb Designer.
If you went into a fine house and found that it was generously stocked with food, that it had an excellent heating and air-conditioning system, and that it had good plumbing to supply water, what would you conclude? That it all just came about by itself? No, you would surely conclude that an intelligent person designed and made it with great care. The earth was also designed and made with great care in order to provide what its inhabitants need, and it is much more complex and well-supplied than any house.
Also, consider the great number of things that add delight to living. Look at the vast variety of beautifully colored flowers with their pleasant scents that humans enjoy. Then there is the great variety of foods so delicious to our taste. There are forests, mountains, lakes, and other creations pleasant to look at. Too, what of beautiful sunsets that enhance our enjoyment of life? And in the animal realm, are we not delighted by the playful antics and lovable nature of puppies, kittens, and other animal young? So the earth provides many delightful surprises not absolutely needed to sustain life. These show that the earth was designed with loving care, with humans in mind, so that we would not just exist but would enjoy life.
Therefore, the reasonable conclusion is to acknowledge the Giver of all these things, as did the Bible writer who said of Jehovah God: “You yourself have made the heavens and the earth.” For what purpose? He gives the answer by describing God as “the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to be inhabited.”—Isaiah 37:16; 45:18.
What of living things? Do they not require a maker? For example, consider a few of the amazing features of a living cell. In his bookEvolution: A Theory in Crisis, molecular biologist Michael Denton states: " Even the simplest of all living systems on earth today, bacterial cells, are exceedingly complex objects. Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small, . . . each is in effect a veritable microminiaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery . . . far more complicated than any machine built by man and absolutely without parallel in the non-living world.”
Regarding the genetic code in each cell, he states: “The capacity of DNA to store information vastly exceeds that of any other known system; it is so efficient that all the information needed to specify an organism as complex as man weighs less than a few thousand millionths of a gram. . . . Alongside the level of ingenuity and complexity exhibited by the molecular machinery of life, even our most advanced [products] appear clumsy. We feel humbled.” Denton adds: “The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable, event.” It had to have a designer and maker.
This scientist then says: “In terms of complexity, an individual cell is nothing when compared with a system like the mammalian brain. The human brain consists of about ten thousand million nerve cells. Each nerve cell puts out somewhere in the region of between ten thousand and one hundred thousand connecting fibres by which it makes contact with other nerve cells in the brain. Altogether the total number of connections in the human brain approaches . . . a thousand million million.”
Denton continues: “Even if only one hundredth of the connections in the brain were specifically organized, this would still represent a system containing a much greater number of specific connections than in the entire communications network on Earth.” He then asks: “Could any sort of purely random process ever have assembled such systems?” Obviously, the answer has to be no. The brain must have had a caring Designer and Maker
The human brain makes even the most advanced computers look primitive. Science writer Morton Hunt said: “Our active memories hold several billion times more information than a large contemporary research computer.” Thus, brain surgeon Dr. Robert J. White concluded: “I am left with no choice but to acknowledge the existence of a Superior Intellect, responsible for the design and development of the incredible brain-mind relationship—something far beyond man’s capacity to understand. . . . I have to believe all this had an intelligent beginning, that Someone made it happen.” It also had to be Someone who cared.
Consider, too, the unique blood system that transports nutrients and oxygen and protects against infection. Regarding the red blood cells, a main component of this system, the book ABC’s of the Human Bodystates: “A single drop of blood contains more than 250 million separate blood cells . . . The body contains perhaps 25 trillion of them, enough, if spread out, to cover four tennis courts. . . . Replacements are made, at a rate of 3 million new cells every second.”
Regarding white blood cells, another part of the unique blood system, this same source tells us: “While there is only one kind of red cell, white blood cells come in many varieties, each type capable of fighting the body’s battles in a different way. One kind, for instance, destroys dead cells. Other kinds produce antibodies against viruses, detoxify foreign substances, or literally eat up and digest bacteria.”
What an amazing and highly organized system! Surely anything that is so well put together and so thoroughly protective must have a very intelligent and caring organizer—God. |
