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• Christians believe the Bible reveals the nature of God as omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omnipresent.
• Christians believe that there is only one God and that God is revealed in three persons; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is known as the Trinity.
• Christians believe that God created the universe and all the things in it, giving life purpose and meaning.
• The Old and New Testaments tell the story of God looking after His people and wanting the best for them.
• However, many people experience hardship and suffering and wonder about God’s role in the situation.

Evil and suffering can take two forms:

1. Moral evil
2. Natural evil

Moral evil is caused by humans misusing their free will. Murder and theft are examples of moral evil as they can cause huge amounts of suffering and can be avoided as it is always possible to choose to do something good over something evil.

Natural evil is suffering that has not been caused by humans. Earthquakes, volcanoes, illness and so on are not caused by humans but they result in human suffering.

Some people cannot believe that a good God would have designed a world with natural evils in it. They may express the problem in this way:

• If God is all-powerful, He must be able to remove evil and suffering from the world.
• If God is all-loving, He must want to remove evil and suffering because it would lead to unhappiness for His people.
• If God exists, there should be no evil and suffering in this world.
• For some people this argument proves to them that God does not exist.

Christians have several responses to the problem of evil and suffering:

• Christians believe that God wants them to help those who suffer. In the New Testament, Jesus regarded evil and suffering as something to be fought against and he healed the sick, fed the hungry and challenged those who were evil.

• Christians feel that they should pray for those who suffer from poverty, sickness, famine, war and so on. Christians believe that prayer is a powerful way of dealing with a problem.

• Many Christians believe that evil and suffering is not God’s fault. According to Genesis 1, God created humans in His image, which means He created them with free will. To be free, means to be free to do either good or evil.

• As well as this, Christians feel evil and suffering may be part of God’s plan. This life is often seen as preparation for paradise and if people are going to improve their souls, they need to face evil and suffering in order to become good, kind and loving.

• Finally, many Christians believe that God must have a reason for allowing evil and suffering, but humans cannot know what it is because they are not God.