As we examine the vexing problem of the existence of suffering in our twentieth century world, it is always helpful to step back and take in the "big picture." And the big picture to this problem of pain is this: in the beginning God made it all good. In fact, the earth that God created and then turned over to mankind for management is spoken of as being "VERY GOOD."
"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." Genesis 1:31
Everything God made was flawless in form, function and beauty. It all worked perfectly together, bringing nothing but goodness and blessing to the human race. As for the entrance of evil into our world, we have no one to blame but ourselves -- our first ancestors used their freewill to open up the floodgates of demonic invasion into their bodies, souls and spirits, and by that dreadful first choice, now all of us suffer horribly. This is not God's fault -- it is our fault.
Of course there are mysteries here, too. God is omniscient, and yet He made lucifer, knowing full well that pride would corrupt him and turn him into satan the accuser, the source of all evil in the universe. So if God made satan, then isn't God responsible for evil in the universe? That is a hard question that no one has satisfactorily answered, and will probably have to remain a mystery in our lifetime.
However, Scripture does unequivocally state that God is NOT the source or cause of evil. James 1:13 In God there is no "shadow of turning," James 1:17 which means He does not have "mood swings" that make Him good one day and evil the next. God is Love, 1 John 4:16 and He will always be love -- yesterday, today and tomorrow. Hebrews 13:8
Evil, with it's bastard children of pain, suffering, sorrow, torture, anger, war, revenge, wounding, hatred, animosity, violence and brutality, came into our world not through the hands of a cruel God. Nope. We have no one to blame but ourselves. God gave us an easy test -- all we had to do was avoid a single tree, and we screwed it up.
