God’s Permission of Suffering
Nears Its End
EVERYWHERE you look, there is suffering. Some people bring it on themselves. They contract sexually transmitted diseases or experience the effects of drug or alcohol abuse or of smoking. Or they may encounter health problems because of poor eating habits. However, much suffering results from factors or events beyond the control of the average person: war, ethnic violence, crime, poverty, famine, disease. Something else that humans basically cannot control is suffering related to aging and death. The Bible assures us that "God is love." (1 John 4:8) Why, then, has a loving God allowed all this suffering to continue for so many centuries? When will he remedy the situation? To answer such questions, we need to examine God’s purpose with regard to humans. This will help us to understand why God has allowed suffering and what he will do about it.
The Gift of Free Will
When God created the first human, he produced more than just a body with a brain. Further, God did not create Adam and Eve to be mindless robots. He implanted in them the faculty of free will. And that was a fine gift, for "God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) Yes, "perfect is his activity." (Deuteronomy 32:4) All of us appreciate this gift of free will because we do not want all our thoughts and actions dictated to us without ever having a choice in anything. However, was the fine gift of free will to be used without limits? In directions given to early Christians, God’s Word answers: "Be as free people, and yet holding your freedom, not as a blind for badness, but as slaves of God." (1 Peter 2:16) For the common good, there must be boundaries. Hence, free will was to be regulated by the rule of law. Otherwise, anarchy would result.
Whose Law?
Whose law was to determine the proper limits of freedom? The answer to this question has to do with the fundamental reason why God has permitted suffering. Since God created humans, he knows best what laws they need to obey for their own good and for the good of others. The Bible puts it this way: "I, Jehovah, am your God, the One teaching you to benefit yourself, the One causing you to tread in the way in which you should walk."—Isaiah 48:17. Clearly, a vital point is this: Humans were not created to be independent of God. He made them in such a way that their success and happiness depend on obedience to his righteous laws. God’s prophet Jeremiah said: "I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step."—Jeremiah 10:23 God made mankind subject to his physical laws, such as the law of gravity. Similarly, he made humans to be subject to his moral laws, which are designed to result in a harmonious society. For good reason, then, God’s Word urges: "Trust in Jehovah with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding."—Proverbs 3:5. Thus, the human family could never be successful in regulating itself without God’s rulership. Trying to be independent from him, people would devise social, economic, political, and religious systems that would conflict with one another, and ‘man would dominate man to his injury.’—Ecclesiastes 8:9.
What Went Wrong?
God gave our first parents, Adam and Eve, a perfect start. They had perfect bodies and minds and a paradise garden for a home. If they had submitted to God’s rule, they would have remained perfect and happy. In time, they would have been the parents of an entire perfect, happy human family living on a paradise earth. That was God’s purpose for the human race.—Genesis 1:27-29; 2:15. However, our original ancestors misused their free will. They wrongly thought that they could be successful independent of God. Of their own free will, they stepped outside the boundaries of his laws. (Genesis, chapter 3) Because they rejected his rulership, he no longer was obligated to sustain them in perfection. ‘They acted ruinously on their own part, did not remain his children, and the defect was their own.’—Deuteronomy 32:5. From the time they disobeyed God, Adam and Eve began to degenerate in body and mind. With Jehovah is the source of life. (Psalm 36:9) So because of cutting themselves off from Jehovah, the first human couple became imperfect and eventually died. (Genesis 3:19) Consistent with laws of genetic inheritance, their offspring could receive only what their parents themselves possessed. And what was that? It was imperfection and death. The apostle Paul therefore wrote: "Through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned."—Romans 5:12.
The Main Issue—Sovereignty
When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they challenged his sovereignty, that is, his right to rule. Jehovah could have destroyed them and started over with another couple, but that would not have settled the issue of whose rulership is right and best for people. Granted time to develop their societies according to their own ideas, humans would demonstrate beyond any doubt whether rulership independent from God could ever be successful. What do thousands of years of human history tell us? For all those centuries, people have tried many kinds of social, economic, political, and religious systems. However, wickedness and suffering have continued. In fact, ‘wicked men have advanced from bad to worse,’ especially in our time.—2 Timothy 3:13.
The 20th century saw a peak of scientific and industrial achievements. But it also saw the worst suffering in the entire history of the human race. And no matter what medical advances are made, the law of God still holds true: Humans separated from God—the source of life—get sick, grow old, and die. How clearly it has been proved that humans cannot ‘direct their own steps’!
God’s Sovereignty Asserted
Once and for all time, this tragic experiment in independence from God has demonstrated that rulership by humans apart from him can never succeed. Only God’s rulership can bring happiness, unity, health, and life. Moreover, Jehovah God’s infallible Word, the Holy Bible, shows that we are living in "the last days" of human rule independent from God. (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Jehovah’s toleration of this and of wickedness and suffering is nearing its end. God will soon intervene in human affairs. The Scriptures tell us: "In the days of those kings [human rulerships now existing] the God of heaven will set up a kingdom [in heaven] that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people [never again will humans rule the earth]. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms [present rulerships], and it itself will stand to times indefinite."—Daniel 2:44. The vindication of Jehovah God’s sovereignty by means of the heavenly Kingdom is the Bible’s theme. Jesus made this his foremost teaching. He said: "This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come."—Matthew 24:14. When God’s rulership replaces man’s rule, who will survive and who will not? At Proverbs 2:21, 22, we are assured: "The upright [who uphold God's rule] are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it. As regards the wicked [who do not uphold God's rule], they will be cut off from the very earth." The divinely inspired psalmist sang: "Just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more . . . But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace. The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it."—Psalm 37:10, 11, 29
The Failure of Human RuleRegarding human rulership, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt stated: "We humans . . . have always only partially governed the world, and most of the time very badly. . . . We have never governed it in total peace." Human Development Report 1999 noted: "All countries report erosion of their social fabric, with social unrest, more crime, more violence in the home. . . . Global threats are increasing, outgrowing national abilities to tackle them, and outpacing international responses." |
YOU CAN FIND this Article and other Related Topics @Jehovah’s Witnesses Official Web site (www.watchtower.org) This Web site is published and maintained by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
God Has a Name!
What is God’s name? Humans all have personal names. Why, many people even name their pets! Would it not be reasonable for God to have a name? Having and using personal names is unquestionably a vital part of human relationships and interactions. Should it be different when it comes to our relationship with God? Ironically, millions who profess faith in the God of the Bible do not use his personal name. Yet, God’s name has been known for centuries. As you read this series of articles, learn of times when God’s name was widely used. More important, learn what the Bible says about getting to know God by name.
BY THE 17th century, several European countries were minting coins featuring the name of God. A German coin minted in the year 1634 prominently featured the name Jehovah. Such coins became popularly known as the Jehovah talers, or Jehovah coins, and were circulated for decades.
The Tetragrammaton, meaning "four letters," spells out the personal name of God in Hebrew
Jehovah is a rendering of God’s name that has been recognized for centuries. In Hebrew, a language that is read from right to left, the name appears as four consonants.. These four Hebrew characters—transliterated YHWH—are known as the Tetragrammaton. God’s name in this form was also inscribed on European coins for decades.
God’s name can also be found on buildings, monuments, and works of art as well as in many church hymns. According to the German Brockhaus encyclopedia, at one time it was customary for Protestant princes to wear an insignia composed of a stylized sun and the Tetragrammaton. The symbol, also used on flags and coins, was known as the Jehovah-Sun insignia. Clearly, the deeply religious Europeans of the 17th and 18th centuries knew that Almighty God had a name. More significantly, they were not afraid to use it.
The name of God was no mystery in Colonial America either. Consider, for example, the American Revolutionary soldier Ethan Allen. According to his memoirs, in 1775 he demanded that his enemies surrender "in the name of the Great Jehovah." Later, during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, several advisers made frequent mention of Jehovah in their letters to Lincoln. Other American historical documents containing the name of God are available for public review in many libraries. These are but a few examples of how the name of God has for centuries been prominently displayed.
What about today? Has the name of God been forgotten? Hardly. Various Bible translations feature the personal name of God in many verses. A quick visit to a library or a few minutes of research in your own dictionaries will likely reveal that the name Jehovah is widely accepted as the vernacular equivalent of the Tetragrammaton. For example, the Encyclopedia International pointedly defines the name Jehovah as the "modern form of the Hebrew sacred name of God." A recent edition of The New Encyclopædia Britannica explains that Jehovah is the "Judeo-Christian name for God."
‘But,’ you may wonder, ‘is God’s name a matter of concern to people today?’ The name of God, in one form or another, is still featured in many public areas. For instance, the name Jehovah is inscribed on the cornerstone of a building in New York City. In the same city, the name has also been found in Hebrew in a colorful mosaic decorating a busy subway station. It is safe to say, however, that of the thousands of people who have walked by these locations, few have attached any significance to the inscriptions.
Is the name of God important to people in your part of the world? Or do most refer to the Creator as "God," as if this title were his actual name? Your personal observation might be that many people do not give any thought to whether God even has a name. What about you? Do you feel comfortable addressing God by his personal name, Jehovah?
The Third Commandment
Evidently, during the first and second centuries C.E., a superstition regarding the use of God’s name took hold among the Jews. The Mishnah (a collection of rabbinic commentaries that became the foundation of the Talmud) states that "one who pronounces the divine name as it is spelt" has no portion in the future earthly Paradise promised by God.
What was the origin of such a prohibition? Some claim that the Jews considered the name of God too sacred for imperfect humans to pronounce. Eventually, there was a hesitancy even to write the name. According to one source, that fear arose because of a concern that the document in which the name was written might later end up in the trash, resulting in a desecration of the divine name.
The Encyclopaedia Judaica says that "the avoidance of pronouncing the naView this photo me YHWH . . . was caused by a misunderstanding of the Third Commandment." The third of the Ten Commandments given by God to the Israelites states: "You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way." (Exodus 20:7) Hence, God’s decree against the improper use of his name was twisted into a superstition.
Surely, no one today claims that God would have someone burned at the stake for pronouncing the divine name! Yet, Jewish superstitions regarding God’s personal name still survive. Many continue to refer to the Tetragrammaton as the "Ineffable Name" and the "Unutterable Name." In some circles all references to God are intentionally mispronounced to avoid violating the tradition. For example, Jah, or Yah, an abbreviation for God’s personal name, is pronounced Kah. Hallelujah is pronounced Hallelukah. Some even avoid writing out the term "God," substituting a dash for one or more letters. For instance, when they wish to write the English word "God," they actually write "G-d."
Further Efforts to Hide the Name
Judaism is by no means the only religion that avoids using the name of God. Consider the case of Jerome, a Catholic priest and secretary to Pope Damasus I. In the year 405 C.E., Jerome completed his work on a translation of the entire Bible into Latin, which became known as the Latin Vulgate. Jerome did not include God’s name in his translation. Rather, following a practice of his time, he substituted the words "Lord" and "God" for the divine name. The Latin Vulgate became the first authorized Catholic Bible translation and the basis for many other translations in several languages.
For instance, the Douay Version, a 1610 Catholic translation, was basically a Latin Vulgate translated into English. It is no surprise, then, that this Bible did not include God’s personal name at all. However, the Douay Version was not just another Bible translation. It became the only authorized Bible for English-speaking Catholics until the 1940’s. Yes, for hundreds of years, the name of God was hidden from millions of devoted Catholics.
Consider also the King James Version. In 1604 the king of England, James I, commissioned a group of scholars to produce an English version of the Bible. Some seven years later, they released the King James Version, also known as the Authorized Version.
In this case too, the translators chose to avoid the divine name, using it in just a few verses. In most instances God’s name was replaced by the word "LORD" or "GOD" to represent the Tetragrammaton. This version became the standard Bible for millions. The World Book Encyclopedia states that "no important English translations of the Bible appeared for more than 200 years after the publication of the King James Version. During this time, the King James Version was the most widely used translation in the English-speaking world."
The above are just three of the many Bible translations published over the past centuries that omit or downplay the name of God. It is no wonder that the vast majority of professed Christians today hesitate to use the divine name or do not know it at all. Granted, over the years some Bible translators have included the personal name of God in their versions. Most of these, however, have been published in more recent times and with minimal impact on the popular attitudes toward God’s name.
A Practice in Conflict With God’s Will
The widespread failure to use God’s name is based strictly on human tradition and not on Bible teachings. "Nothing in the Torah prohibits a person from pronouncing the Name of God. Indeed, it is evident from scripture that God’s Name was pronounced routinely," explains Jewish researcher Tracey R. Rich, author of the Internet site Judaism 101. Yes, in Bible times God’s worshipers used his name.
Clearly, knowing God’s name and using it brings us closer to the approved way of worshiping him, the way he was worshiped in Bible times. This can be our first step in establishing a personal relationship with him, which is much better than simply knowing what his name is. Jehovah God actually invites us to have such a relationship with him. He inspired the warm invitation: "Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you." (James 4:8) You may ask, however, ‘How could mortal man enjoy such intimacy with Almighty God?’ The following article explains how you can develop a relationship with Jehovah….
How You Can Know God by Name
A NEWSPAPER columnist received the following letter from a reader: "I have wrestled all my life with this question, and I hope you can provide an answer. What is God’s name? The Jews say the real name has been lost to the ages. The Christians call Him Jesus. The Muslims call Him Allah. . . . So, what is it?" The newspaper published the question along with this answer: "According to ancient Hebrew teachings, God is omnipotent, so He cannot be contained in any one name. I assure you, however, He (or She) will answer to any name you respectfully come up with."
Such a casual attitude toward the name of God is not rare today. Although religiously inclined, many who believe in the Bible give little thought to the issue of God’s name. But how does God feel about it? Is it such a trivial matter to him?
Not a Trivial Matter
Consider the fact that the Bible mentions God’s personal name, Jehovah, thousands of times. In the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, the divine name appears 7,210 times!* It was God himself who inspired Bible writers to use his name so prominently. One of these writers, the psalmist Asaph, wrote: "You, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth." (Psalm 83:18) David also wrote in a psalm: "Concerning the name of Jehovah our God we shall make mention."—Psalm 20:7.
The Bible shows that Jehovah God examines our heart to determine how we feel about his name. The psalmist said: "If we have forgotten the name of our God, . . . will not God himself search this out? For he is aware of the secrets of the heart." (Psalm 44:20, 21) The prophet Isaiah wrote: "Give thanks to Jehovah, you people! Call upon his name. Make known among the peoples his dealings. Make mention that his name is put on high."—Isaiah 12:4.
God himself said: "They will have to know that my name is Jehovah." (Jeremiah 16:21) On another occasion he declared: "I shall certainly sanctify my great name, which was being profaned among the nations, . . . and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah." (Ezekiel 36:23) Some of these statements point to a time when Jehovah will act with anger toward those who show disrespect for his name. The issue of his personal name is no trivial matter to God.
