Suffering - Through the Apparent Silence of God - Foreword

Foreword to Suffering - Through the Apparent Silence of God

For many in this world it is incomprehensible that there would be a God when there is so much suffering going on in this world.

People do forget to question how it comes that there is so much hardship and agony in this world. We may not forget that at the beginnings of times it was man himself who doubted the righteousness of God and rebelled against Him by disobeying His orders not to eat from two trees. Man choose to go in against those orders and ate from the Tree of knowledge and as such brought knowledge of good and evil over him, knowing now what good is and what bad is, but also having to bear the consequences of his choice, now feeling the result of good and bad actions, feeling pain and even feeling his life coming to an end in death.

Conscious living beings

When we live we are very conscious about what we can feel and how we live. But according to the Bible, God's Word the dead, "are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5)

When alive man can love, hate and have jealousy. For those who died that all perished . . . for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol [Hebrew word for the grave, the place to which the dead go].” (Ecclesiastes 9:6, 10) Confirming this, Psalm 146:4 says that man “goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.” And Psalm 115:17 adds: “The dead themselves do not praise Jah [Jehovah], nor do any going down into silence.”

Silence of God because people do not want to hear Him

The people who claim that there is no God or that they do not hear God, mostly do not hear Him because they do not want to open their ears for Him.

God has never kept silence for those who wanted to hear Him. He has given His Word to all mankind and as such everybody can hear God by reading in His Word, the Bible.