Common Misconceptions About Suffering

There are age-old misconceptions about suffering. Their themes resurface in every era. All of them cause us to view God in a distorted way.

We experience calamities because we’ve offended God. The Jews of Jesus’ day, including His disciples, believed this. On one occasion, when a Samaritan city refused hospitality to Christ and His disciples, James and John wanted Jesus to send fire from heaven in divine retribution for their disrespect. Jesus rebuked them, saying: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Luke 9:55, 56.

As sinful mortals, we offend God’s holiness continually, yet again and again He extends His mercies to us. Jeremiah wrote, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy