What "c" are you asking for? I see no other options.


Is that because God has lost His ability to do otherwise? Or is it because, according to His wisdom, this is the best way to tackle the problem? The former is inability, the latter is unwillingness.

I know all about the Great Controversy. Perhaps the difference with our views is that I believe that God can do whatever He wants but consciously chooses the best long-term option, while you may believe that God's hands have been shortened somehow and is impotent to do what He would really like to do.

The great Controversy is all about allowing sin to manifest its true nature.

God has all the power, and right as Creator and Originator of life, to wipe this whole messy planet out in the blink of an eye.
It's not because He can't stop evil, or because He is unwilling to stop evil, He will do both in the near future, it's because sin must be allowed to manifest its true nature so the created universe will see once and for all what sin really is, in stark contrast to what God's love and law is.

I believe that God would LIKE to end this mess, it must be excruciating for an all-seeing loving God to see all the hurt, abuse, and cruelty that goes on each and every day.

c) Decision

To say it's "unwillingness" to save a child dying from cancer when He has the power to heal him, causes God to appear cruel.

Jesus demonstrated that He wants to heal everyone of their diseases. So why doesn't He?

It's because of a decision to allow sin to manifest its true nature, so all the universe will know the truth about sin.

Here I agree with you, dedication,

I agree completely.


It would only appear as such to those who don't understand the controversy. If God prevented every bad thing from happening - no cancer, no asthma, no headaches, no hangnails, no mosquito bites - sin wouldn't appear so bad at all. The angels who revered Lucifer would not discern his faulty ideas. Sin would be immortalized in the hearts of God's creatures across the universe. THAT would be cruel.

But if we saw all that, as God promises to show us in the Judgment, and we see things as clearly as God sees them, we would realize that some of our hardest experiences are actually our greatest blessings. We're just too ignorant to realize it now.

So the choice is to APPEAR cruel temporarily, or to BE cruel forever. I think the choice is clear.


Again I agree. God could end the suffering immediately (quarks floating randomly in empty space don't suffer) if He wanted to. But He decided on another course of action.

The decision before us is between believing that God is in control and events will unfold as guided by His will, or that God has lost control and is helplessly watching children die from cancer.

As my 10 year old niece lay dying of Leukemia, she asked my father why she was suffering so much pain. What would you say?

1. Sorry, God can't do anything about it.
That was many years ago. Having worked in hospice for a few years now, even I can do something about it. A few drops of morphine sulfate under the tongue and the pain goes away. It would be silly to say God can't make the pain go away.

2. Sorry, but God has decided/chosen for you to suffer excruciating pain. As a 10 year old. On your way to certain death.
Does that make it any easier? It is God's will that you suffer at this time vs. God has decided for you to suffer at this time. What is the difference? Having a slight idea of seeing a child with cancer, I can tell you that it looks identical. The pain is just as bad, both physical and emotional.

It all boils down to faith. Do you trust that God is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-knowing? Do you trust that He knows what He's doing? Do you trust that if you abide in Him, even through the pain, all will be well in the end? No euphemistic gymnastics will be needed.

I should have thanked you, dedication, for stating so clearly what I was just trying to say.

I believe we need to have faith and know God so well that we do not have to expressourselves in any cruel either or which misrepresent God to others.

Amen. Jesus does not sit back and allow evil angels to do as they please. He limits what they can do and works to ensure they do not exceed those limits.

1 Corinthians
10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

The Great Controversy would have ended poorly if Jesus had not intervened with the Great Deluge. Similarly Jesus has labored lovingly throughout the Great Controversy to ensure things play out in favor of a positive outcome.

Amen. Thank you, Jesus.

Amen. Also, the truth about righteousness. Sinning must be shown to be unsustainable and righteousness must be shown to be the only course that can endure eternally.