Footnote

1. The question of suffering is not just an academic issue. The questioner may well have in mind some bitter personal experience - all the more reason to handle the subject 'with gentleness and respect' (1 Pet 3:15).
2. It should be possible in any attempted answer to bring the discussion to central issues of the Gospel in the death and resurrection of Christ.

Bible Reading

Mt 11v25
At that time Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Ps 100v5
For the Lord is good and his love endures for ever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Mt 5v48
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Gn 1v4,10,12,18,21,25,31
... And God saw that it was good.

1 Jn 4v8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Gn 1v26,27
Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Gn 3v1-19
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

Rom 5v12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.

2 Cor 4v2-4
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Tit 1v15
To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.

Rom 7v15-24
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Gn 3v17,18
To Adam he said, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' 'Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

Rom 8v20-22
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Gn 3v1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?'

Rev 20v2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

Eph 6v12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Mark 10v18
'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good - except God alone.

Rom 3v23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Lk 13v2-5
Jesus answered, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Acts 5v4,5
'You have not lied to men but to God.' When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.

Rom 1v18
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

2 Pet 3v9
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Jn 3v16
'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.'

Is 53v3
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Mt 26v38
Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.'

Lk 22v44
And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Mt 27v46
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' - which means, 'My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?'

Mt 25v31-46
'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat..'

Jn 17v18
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

Jn 20v31
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Mt 24v36
'No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.'

1 Cor 13v12
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Rev 21v1-5
'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'

Dt 29v29
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.