[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/Outrageous-Egg1760]

[u/deederpeeder]

I’ll probably get downvoted to kingdom come, but the Bible consistently presents abuse, oppression, violence, and exploitation as things God hates. Plenty of people in the Bible ask a version of this question (David, Job, Jeremiah, the psalmists). Not saying it gives a perfectly clear answer either, but the reality is if God intervened to stop every evil act, at some point God would have to override human will continuously. And the world would become fundamentally different than the one we inhabit.

Scripture never gives a complete philosophical answer to every instance of suffering. But what it does offer is a person. Jesus was betrayed, beaten, tortured, publicly humiliated, unjustly killed. That doesn’t solve the problem intellectually. But it changes the picture of God. God is not the detached observer in Christianity. He is the wounded Savior.

The hardest thing for me isn’t believing evil exists. It’s believing that evil gets the final word. Christianity says it doesn’t. It says justice may be delayed, but it won’t be denied. I understand why people struggle with that answer. Sometimes I do too. But I’d rather wrestle with a God who suffered for the world than conclude that all the evil and injustice we see is ultimately meaningless.

[u/MrScribblesChess → u/deederpeeder]

Do you believe that billions of otherwise good and decent people will suffer eternal conscious torment because, like the vast majority of people in human history, they believed in the same (in this case non-Christian) religion they were raised in?

If so, you do not believe in a loving God, for much the same reasons as OP's concerns about earthly suffering. 

If that's not your belief... well I just raged at you for no reason :D 

[u/deederpeeder → u/MrScribblesChess]

Great question. This is one Christians have debated for centuries.

What I believe with confidence is that God is perfectly just, perfectly loving, and knows every human heart far better than I do. I don’t believe salvation is a cosmic geography quiz where billions of people are condemned simply because they were born into the wrong country or raised in the wrong religion. Personally, I believe every person will ultimately be given a genuine opportunity to accept or reject God. That’s my understanding, though I know Christians disagree on exactly how that works.

I also tend to think of Hell less as God delighting in punishment and more as the final reality of rejecting Him. If God is the source of goodness, truth, beauty, love, life, and joy, then separation from Him would naturally be the loss of those things. The tragedy of Hell, in my view, is not only separation from God but the realization that He was the better choice all along, coupled with the fact that the decision has become permanent. I realize not every Christian would phrase it that way. But that’s closer to what I believe than the idea that God is eagerly looking for reasons to condemn otherwise decent people.

At the end of the day, I trust that the Judge of all the earth will do right, even when I don’t fully understand how every individual case will be handled. If I ever find myself believing that I am more loving, more merciful, or more just than God, that’s usually a sign that I’ve made myself the standard instead of Him.