Why is there so much suffering in the world? Satan's Cycle of Pain versus God's Cycle of Comfort

(Part 1 of 2)

Study mathematics long enough and you will here this phrase: "The Fundamental Theorem of (insert topic here)."   A fundamental theorem is simply an important idea, a central truth upon which the other truths of the subject stand. 

When it comes to spiritual subjects, the "Fundament Theorem of Satan" is, in my opinion, simply this:  Satan hates us. 

Jesus describes Satan as "...a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44)  Peter, an apostle and one of Jesus closest friends, refers to the devil as an enemy who "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).  In Job we see Satan devising cruel schemes to try and get Job to curse God (Job 1 -2).  In Zechariah 3:1-2 he is accusing Joshua the high priest before the Lord.  In fact, like a prosecutor always seeking a guilty verdict, the devil is called "the accuser" in Revelation 12:9-10.  Worst of all, we see him trying his absolute best to get God's own beloved Son to sin when Jesus was alone in the desert for 40 days (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:9-13, Luke 4:1-13).

As if this weren't evidence enough, we can see the devil's hate for us in what I call "Satan's cycle of pain."

Satan's Cycle of Pain

The cycle of pain begins with exactly that, pain.  The pain and suffering can be physical - an injury, an illness, a chronic condition, etc. ; emotional - sadness, anger, or jealousy for example;  or spiritual - trauma, stress, depression, loneliness, to name a few.  Any type or source of pain and suffering will do.

Then comes the lies, lies that are designed to do two things: increase the odds that we will seek "false relief" from our pain (more on that in a minute), and descrease the odds that we will turn to the God of Jesus Christ for "true relief". 

Our hate for God increases through Satan's lies

If I had to choose a pecking order for Satan's preference of lies, number 1 would be that God does not exist.  Number 2 gets a little more specific: It is the God of Jesus Christ who does not exist.  It is when the first two fail that the lies become even more evil.

You see if the devil can't convince you that the God of the Bible doesn't exist, then he uses his lies to paint God in the image of himself - a God who is cruel, uncaring, unloving, unmerciful, unjust; a God who takes pleasure in our misery, in our suffering;  a God who finds delight in condemnation. 

This is where Satan really hacks me off.  He is the uncaring one!  He is the accuser!  He is the one seeking our destruction and condemnation!  But he paints God as himself and then what happens to our feelings toward our Father and Creator?  Our hatred of Him increases.  Then where do we turn for relief from our pain?  Anywhere but God.

As I said earlier, the devil's lies are also designed to get us to seek "false relief" from our suffering.  Having turned our hearts away from God, then it is simply a matter of "You will feel better if you ..." For example, you will feel better if you get drunk, do those drugs, steal that thing, hold that grudge, be mean, rebel, get revenge, hate that person, kill that person, see yourself as better than that person or those people, throw up, starve yourself, lie, deceive, look at that porn, commit adultery (oh, pardon me: have that love affair), engage in any form of sex except that which is with your spouse, cut yourself, kill yourself, numb yourself, stay so busy with work or fun or whatever that you don't ever think about God, and the list goes on and on.

The reason I call this "false relief" is two-fold: 1) It does indeed provide temporary relief from the pain we feel, even when the "relief" is simply trading one form of pain for another.  Mankind will normally choose the lesser of two pains, or at least what seems like the lesser of two pains, given the option.  2)  The relief is only temporary.  Remember the fundamental theorem of the devil:  He hates us.  He is not interested in pulling off a one-time prank, rather he is trying to devour us. Hidden within the ingredients of his medicine is a poison, a poison that drives us back to the pain from which we were seeking relief, only now the pain is normally worse! 

There is poison in Satan's medicine.

Adultery drives us and our spouses farther apart, not closer together.  Hatred, meanness, revenge, gossip, lying, etc., only alienates us from the people around us.  It increases the number of our enemies, not our friends.  Harming our own bodies only increases the types of pain that we have to deal with.  Porn adds shame.  Numbing ourselves does nothing to deal with the root cause of the problem.

Using false relief to deal with our suffering is like having a thorn that, instead of removing, we simply put ointment around the area to numb it.  That can only work for so long.  Eventually the thorn causes an infection, and as the infection grows, what we have to do to numb the area is use stronger ointment and use it more frequently. 

And thus the vicious cycle continues.  We again listen to Satan's lies, we again turn to false relief as our hatred toward God increases, and we again find a temporary relief that ends up increasing our pain.

It is a downward spiral.  It is how people become drunks, drug addicts, pedophiles, murderers. It is how we become the worst that we can be.  It is how people become extremely angry, extremely mean, extremely depressed even to the point of being suicidal.  Please listen when I say that Satan will drive us down that road of pain as far as we are willing to travel it.  My friends, it is literally a dead-end road.

But you see, the God who loves us, who does care, who weeps with us in our pain, who is merciful, who is gracious, who is just, who is forgiving, has a cycle of comfort that is every bit as beautiful as Satan's cycle of pain is ugly.  I will write about that in my next blog.

Thank you for reading!!!