Some suffering can't be explained

To the Editor:

I try very hard and do my very best not to go beyond my understanding in the word of God. A few days ago, Rev. Al Sharpton of MSNBC News, made a statement about the natural disaster that killed about 15 people in the state of Texas. He wondered whether the disaster was God's rebuke or result of a natural disaster. Rev. Sharpton did not explain what he meant. Rev. Sharpton is one of my favored newspeople, but I different with his comment. It is something about some of these preachers that makes comments like this. In 2005, Pat Robertson made a remark why Hurricane Katrina hit Louisianans. He said it was because of the sin of Haiti. I never heard Pat Robertson make such comments about God's judgement on America for its sin. If Pat Robertson is going to blame disasters because of the sin of one's country, we are all doomed or will soon be.

Pat Robertson should know that God, is God, and He is all knowing, therefore, nothing happens without His permission, I mean nothing. God is infinite, and He made the heavens and the earth, and everything in it. We are finite human beings, and we are not able to see what is going on in the mind of God, to make assumptions about what God is doing and for what purpose He is doing it. The Bible does tell us when Adam defied the order of God, and ate from the forbidden tree, the whole world was turned up side down. Everything that had life died, and everything that was good, turned evil. Man died spiritually and would die physically as well. From that point on, evil entered and cause some to hate and some to kill others.

I do believe that God has placed America at the head of the world, not because we are so good, but He has His reason. God has provided America with great power, and He expects America to use it to do what is right. God has put America on top, and He can bring America down. God showed us just a little of what He can do in 2009, when America was in difficult times, and about to go under, but the grace of God gave America another chance.But what did the billionaires do? When they recovered after the crisis of 2009, they started making more money than ever, but they refuse to use some of their wealth to put people back to work, and God doesn't like it.

If the working class suffers low self esteem from not working, America will be in deep trouble. The Rich of this country should take a page from the Old Pioneers, who made this country great, and create jobs. One of the big questions that most people ask, why God allows unjust suffering by the hands of others. You need to know that most suffering in the world is by our own choices. God doesn't make bombs or guns or creates wars or human cruelty. The Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, Ephesians 6:12. What Apostle Paul is saying, is our wrestling is not with human beings, it is on a larger scale with the kingdom of darkness over the world with evil passions.

Some suffering in the world can be explained, but some suffering is from natural disasters that defies explanation, other than God is sovereign and He must at least permit or allow whatever happens to happen. He must choose to permit them, because He always has the power and right to either permit or stop the actions and events of the world. We must understand that God is the one who works all things according to the counsel of His will. Ephesians 1:11. God is sovereign, and nothing happens that is beyond His control. We will never know God's sovereign or hidden will beforehand. God has clearly revealed His perceptive of revealed will to us in the Bible. They are the things we should not do, and the things we should do. If you are not looking for God's revealed will, you will find yourself barking up the wrong tree. Living according to God's revealed will, should be the purpose of our lives.

I learned in High School and from the Bible that supernatural is real, and there is more to life that we see, hear, taste, touch and smell, and you don't need to be born again to believe that. Natural disasters will come, because they operate by a set of laws God has put in place, just like the law of gravity. When the weather condition is right for rain, thats what it will do, rain. When the condition is right for a tornado, thats what it will be, a tornado, ect. If God chooses to intervene, He has the power to do so. Jesus calmed the storm, Luke 8:25. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. God changes not. Whether our suffering is caused by natural disasters or by mankind, we may not always know why the evil acts or natural disasters happen, but we can be assured that in all our trials and tribulations, God is working all things together for His glory and for our good. Romans 8:18-28. Jesus said that His Kingdom was not of this world, and it's not my home, neither.

God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7. There is hope in Jesus.

Elder Albert Veasley