The imperfections in our lives—personal, societal, physical, mental, emotional, relational, material, and financial—constitute suffering.
Suffering exists because evil exists, and evil exists because moral truth and free will exist.
(Moral Untruth + Wrong Choices) → Evil ∴ Suffering
Suffering is ultimately a manifestation of evil. Evil stems from wrong choices rooted in moral untruth.
In the absence of moral truth, nothing could be morally untrue. Without free will, no one could make an incorrect choice based on moral untruth.
Not every wrong choice rooted in moral untruth produces suffering, but all suffering can be traced to a wrong choice based on moral untruth.
Definitions
God’s revelations, declarations, commandments, principles, assessments, and designs are moral truths.
Moral untruths are lies, deceptions, distortions, or half-truths about what God deems true.
Our free will allows us to think whatever we want, whenever we want, subject to certain constraints.
It includes the freedom to make choices within limits and to do what we believe will advance our perceived self-interest.
Evil Foments Chaos
God created angels with free will so they could worship him voluntarily and carry out their assigned tasks.
Evil first appeared when Satan, a high-ranking angel, abused his freedom and acted on the moral untruth that he could be like God. Instead, he became the embodiment of evil.
God gave Adam and Eve free will so they could love him and each other and exercise the authority over the earth he had delegated to them, all of which were matters of choice.
God gave Adam and Eve unlimited freedom to exercise their wills according to their desires and judgment, with one exception. He prohibited them from eating the fruit of a single tree in the Garden of Eden.
Implicit in this prohibition was the moral truth that God was their sovereign and they were his subordinates. Compliance with his ban would have affirmed their agreement with this reality.
Satan tempted Adam and Eve with moral untruth. He said they would be like God if they ate the forbidden fruit. They would be able to define good and evil for themselves, apart from his standard.
Adam and Eve responded to this deception by misusing their volitional freedom and making the wrong choice. They defied God’s prohibition and ate the forbidden fruit.
God characterized Adam and Eve’s defiance as a sin. Their sin opened the door for evil to damage the perfect world he had created.
The ensuing chaos made our bodies fragile, our nature selfish, our civilizations coarse, and the earth a dangerous place.
Many Wrong Choices
Every imperfection in the world and in our lives stems from someone’s wrong choice rooted in moral untruth.
Adam and Eve’s original sin accounts for many of our afflictions. However, the adverse consequences of more recent wrong choices by us and others, near and far, also contribute to our present suffering.
Suffering will be part of our lives as long as we inhabit the earth because moral untruth will always be present and our nature will always be fallible.
Conversely, there is no suffering in heaven because we lose our sinful nature upon entry, and God’s moral truth prevails unobstructed.
