Answer<em>:</em>
God <em>did not </em>intend for there to be suffering. In fact, he gave the first couple, Adam and Eve, a good start. He gave them the Garden of Eden to live in, plenty of fruits and vegetables to eat, beautiful sights to see, amazing creatures that filled the garden with life and most importantly, each other. But sadly, Eve decided to go against the only thing that God had instructed them not to do. She ate from the only tree she and Adam were not alowed to touch or go near: the Tree of Good and Bad. And who, do you think, lured her into that trap? It was Satan, one of God's angels that had turned bad, and became a demon. He transformed himself into a serpent, the most devious and cautious of all creatures, and spoke to Eve.
He said in Genesis chapter 3, "Did God <em>really </em>say you must not eat from every tree of the garden?" And Eve responded, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. But God has said about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden: 'You must not eat from it, no, you must <em>not </em>touch it; otherwise you will die.'" After Eve had said this, the serpent replied, "You certainly will <em>not </em>die. For God knows that in the very day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad." And so the rest of Genesis goes on to say how desirable the tree was and, after listening to Satan the serpent, she grabbed a whole fruit and took some to her husband, and they ate it together. Later, God had asked them, "Where were you?" And Adam replied, "I heard your voice in the garden, but I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself." God replied, "Who told you you were naked?? Have you eaten from the tree which I have commanded you not to eat??" And Adam said, "The woman gave me the fruit from the tree, so I ate."
So, in the rest of the book of Genesis, it explains how Adam and Eve sinned and passed down their sins for generations and generations to come, leading up, obviously, all the way to our day. They were perfect, <em>yet, </em>they decided to disobey their God, and for that reason, they were disciplined and cast out of the Garden of Eden, where they would have children, so their children would have a choice to either follow their God and lead a happy life, or, leave him, only resulting in suffering and being lost.
And that is why Jesus also died on a stake: for our sins. That way, we can have a chance to come to know God.
Today, people that do not know the true God: <em>can.</em> Because he loves you and he wants all that have been lost to come back to him. You just have to let him.
If you would like to learn more, feel free to go to jw.org, a free website, where you can search any question about life, love, family, the Bible, God, etc,. and it will give you Bible based answers.
