Kids Feedback: Why Is There Death and Suffering?

In the recently released biography entitled Steve Jobs, the author related the story about a life-changing question that Steve Jobs had as a 13-year-old teen. Steve attended church with his family at that time, and confronted his pastor with the following:

In July 1968 Life magazine published a shocking cover showing a pair of starving children in Biafra. Jobs took it to Sunday school and confronted the church’s pastor. . . . “Does God know about this and what’s going to happen to those children?” [The pastor answered,] “Steve, I know you don’t understand, but yes, God knows about that.” Jobs announced that he didn’t want to have anything to do with worshipping such a God, and he never went back to church.1

This is a very serious question that many children, teens, and adults struggle with today. Would you be able to give an answer? Thankfully, the Bible has answers about death and suffering.

Genesis 1:31 reads, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Around 6,000 years ago, God created a perfect world, in which there was no death or suffering. Adam, in his rebellion, marred this perfect world with sin. Sadly, the consequences of Adam’s sin are the death and suffering that we see all around us today. Every night we can watch the evening news and see examples of sin causing death and suffering in the world around us. We live in a broken world, but thankfully, God has a plan to make things right again.

God’s plan involves grace. “Grace” is when a person receives a gift that they don’t deserve. You see, we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). Our sin separates us from God. Thankfully God gives us hope of reconciliation (having a right relationship) with Him again, through the work of Jesus Christ. “God didn’t start the suffering, but He stepped into this world as Jesus Christ to experience the fullness of it, to pay the price for man’s sin, and to make a way to put an end to death.”2 Jesus offers us a special gift of grace (Romans 6:23)! Even though He did not deserve it, Jesus willingly suffered the punishment for our sins. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Do you believe in Christ? Have you accepted His gift of grace—forgiveness for your sins and the promise of eternal life spent with Him? If you have not already done this, please make a decision to follow Christ today!

Did you know that God will eventually destroy the heavens and the earth with fire? He will make a “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). There will no longer be death and suffering! By believing in Jesus Christ, you can spend eternity with Him in a restored world, free from sin, death, and suffering!

To learn more, please read the following:

• Bible Questions
• Good News
• Beautiful Paradise—What Happened?
• If I Am God's Child Why Doesn't He Keep Me From Getting Sick?
• Why Doesn’t God Keep Me from Being Sick or Hurt Here on Earth?

Parents, if your children have any questions, please submit them using the “contact us” section on our main website.