Why would God allow the torture of innocent children?

Sincerely,
Appalled

Dear Appalled,

This world is full of all sorts of disease, pain, violence, and strife – but God didn’t cause those things; sin did.  All bad things are a result of sin.  When God made the world, He placed mankind in the Garden of Eden and gave us a joyously blissful existence in that paradise.  Who caused the pain?  We did.  It is sin that has brought all of the death, disease, decay, pain, suffering, troubles, and heartaches into our world.  We all, in varying degrees, are reaping the benefits of a world with sin in it.  Sickness is a consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden.  One of the curses of their sin was that we all must face our own mortality – life is finite.  Sickness, disease, and pain are a part of the human existence.

Sadly, this is true even for our children. When God gave us freewill, He gave us the right to cause problems for ourselves and others, and if He simply removed all the consequences for our actions, He would be removing our freedoms as well.  The flip-side to this is that all children go to heaven, so after a child dies, God immediately comforts them on the other side.
 God gives mankind the freedom to make decisions, but He also has the wisdom to know how those choices will affect the future (Job 12:13).  God planned before the foundation of the world to save us by sending His own Son to die (Eph. 1:3-4).  Even though He isn’t responsible for our choices, God sent the perfect cure. This world isn’t fair – if it were, it would be heaven.  Instead, we live in a fallen world where man has been exiled from paradise.  This world is not our home; Christians await a better world where the most innocent don’t face such things. (Heb 11:16).

     My question is regarding Jesus' casting out of demons.  During our sermon today, our preacher referenced Matthew 8 where Jesus cast out demons from many people after preaching in Capernaum.  What happened to the demons after they were cast out?  There is the one example of them being cast into the herd of swine and then drowning in a lake, but what about the others?  I couldn't find anywhere where it says anything about what happened to them.  Did they die?  Were they permitted to go on living on Earth?  Were they cast to hell?  Any idea?  Thanks.

Sincerely,
Disturbed By Demons

Dear Disturbed By Demons,

When they were cast out, the text seems to indicate that they went back to the spiritual realm – what Matt 12:43 describes as ‘waterless places’.  Matt 12:44 talks about a demon coming back from those waterless places and re-possessing a person, but after Christ’s time, that no longer became possible.
Demon possession ended not long after the days of Christ because when Jesus cast demons out, they were cast out for good.  Jesus made it clear that one of His jobs was to bind the devil and take his strength away by casting out his demons (Matt 12:28-29).  When Jesus’ disciples had come back from their evangelism trips and related to Him that they had cast out many demons, Jesus told them that they were defeating Satan by getting rid of Satan’s demonic minions (Lk 10:17-18).  When Jesus and His disciples cast out demons, they did it permanently and bound Satan by their acts.

My boyfriend and I have been dating for almost three years.  We're doing pretty much everything right... no fornication, growing closer together and with God, improving each other's character, and so forth.  I fully plan on having a pastor marry the two of us.  Now my question is... since a pastor will be marrying us, is it wrong for the two of us to get married outside of a church, like in a park or a beach instead?

Sincerely,
Not Going To The Chapel

Dear Not Going To The Chapel,

It is perfectly fine if you get married in a park, at the beach, in a tree house, etc.  Furthermore, it isn’t even important that a religious leader officiate your wedding.  The Bible never specifies the details of wedding ceremonies.  Each culture and family is left to dictate its own traditions and arrangements.  Just be sure to obey the laws regarding legal marriage in whatever part of the world you live (Tit 3:1, Rom 13:1-3).  Your marriage would be just as legitimate if you were married by a Justice of the Peace.  Whatever legal road you take to marriage, just remember that your vows are before God.

My husband is in the army.  He has recently been deployed to Afghanistan.  I don't exactly know how to ask this question, but I'm having a hard time dealing with what he might have to do while there.  Does it make me a bad person to love someone who could possibly kill someone else in a time of war?  I just don't know what to think or how to deal with this.  Can he still go to heaven?  I know that God will forgive him if asks for forgiveness, but can He forgive him if he joined, knowing that war was inevitable?

Sincerely,
Soldier’s Bride

Dear Soldier’s Bride,

There is nothing wrong with your husband being a soldier; some of the most faithful men in the Bible were soldiers and had to kill people in the defense of their country.  David was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14), and yet David killed many people as a soldier.  Jesus marveled at the faith of a centurion soldier (Matt 8:8-10).  The first Gentile convert was Cornelius, a well-known Roman soldier (Acts 10:22).  When a group of soldiers asked John the Baptist what they needed to do to live a faithful life, he told them to be honest and faithful... but he never told them to stop serving in the military (Lk 3:14).

Lord willing, your husband will never have to kill anyone, but if he does, it won’t be murder (read “Kill Or Be Killed” for more on that topic).  Support your husband with a clear conscience.  Being a soldier is an honorable profession.

If our population is growing at such an expansive rate, why does God let so many more people die spiritually?  He knows the gospel will not reach all those people, so why bring more to the world?

Sincerely,
So Many Lost

Dear So Many Lost,

God gives us the freedom to choose to live or choose to sin; the fact that we all choose to sin is not His fault (Rom 5:12).  Your question comes down to one issue – if God knew that so many people would do bad things, how come we are still to blame?  God knows our days upon this earth, but He also gives us the freewill to shape various aspects of the world that we live in.  Just because God has knowledge of how you and I will behave does not mean that He causes our behavior to happen in a certain way.  Foreknowledge is not the same as causation.  A doctor may know that a patient is going to die of cancer, but that doesn’t mean the doctor gave them cancer.  God gives mankind the freedom to make decisions, but He also has the wisdom to know how those choices will affect the future (Job 12:13).  God, having the wisdom to see that freewill also meant that people would have the freedom to choose bad things, doesn’t mean that He is to blame for our choices.  Furthermore, God didn’t just sit idly with His foreknowledge.  God planned before the foundation of the world to save us by sending His own Son to die (Eph. 1:3-4).  Even though He isn’t responsible for our choices, God sent the perfect cure.  A cure that can be found in the Bible – a book that is available in over 2,400 languages and distributed by the billions across the globe.