See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.
- Deuteronomy 30
The same people that say "How can a loving God . . . ", would be the first to recoil in contempt and horror if the Lord ever came into our midst and said "Okay, have it your way. From now on you will not have free will. I will force everyone to act in a loving way to each other. You will involuntarily now live in purity. You will be compelled to share your wealth with those less fortunate. No drinking. No parties. No illicit sex. But you will all earn a living wage for the work that you do. But I will force you to work very hard. But you won't know you're working hard, because I will remove the strand of DNA that makes you resentful creatures. You will smile all the time, acquiesce all the time, serve all the time. Everybody will be fed. No one will get sick. There will be no wars. But there will also be no $500,000 homes that any of you live in, for that would be unfair. You will listen to the music that I make you listen to. Yet you won't care, for you will be content all the time. Everyone goes to church faithfully, but not just once a week: daily. Your Sabbath day will be just that - a day of rest. I will make you stay at home and rest. No football, no TV, no picnics, no yard work. There! Is that better?"
Yet this is exactly what happened. The people became quite demanding under Moses, complaining about this or that directive from the Lord. He said He would be their king, but they begged him for a king like the neighboring countries. So He gave them one. They must have started whining like modern people, about why the loving God permits evil to happen. They wanted to be controlled. They wanted a King! So God gave them all the laws and regulations, and commandments that they could handle, and more.
Just like today. We want a government to do everything for us. We want it to do what a "Loving God" would do: that is - make everybody else act the way I think they should.
Thank God, He gave us a choice. We will want to live. We would walk the Earth ten times if it meant we would live forever. But when it comes to the True God, we won't even take the simple step of accepting Him and letting Him love us.
This is the choice - it isn't up to the "loving God" to make us treat each other with love and kindness. He made us capable of making that decision and acting on it. He made us capable of learning to control our passions so that we could in fact treat others with selflessness and charity.
So it isn't, "Why would a loving God permit . . . ". Rather, it's, "Why aren't you doing anything to help?"
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