QUESTION: "I understand your answer to my question last week -"If God exists then why doesn’t He stop people’s suffering", but I don’t understand why a "loving" God cannot just overlook sin and step in."

 Dear Friend, you are thinking of God as if He were merely a human being. The Bible defines God’s nature as that of being holy, righteous and just. God sees sin much differently than we humans tend to. He views sin as an enemy that kills and destroys. Every bad experience you have ever had is a result of sin in the world. If you have suffered sickness, abuse, betrayal or the death of a loved one, it all came about as a result of sin. If you have ever pierced your finger on the thorn of a rose it is because of the curse of sin. Everyday children are abducted and subjected to unspeakable torture all because sin is in the world. War is a result of sin. The first sinner was Lucifer the archangel who rebelled against God and the result of that was war in Heaven itself. Now ask yourself the question -"is it loving to overlook sin and allow these evils to continue for eternity, or is it loving to condemn sin along with the sinner who refuses to let it go and abolish it forever?"

    There is no place in the Kingdom of Heaven for those who "love" their sins. This is why the first requirement for salvation is the repentance from sin. To "repent" means to turn from practicing sin. By its very nature sin spreads and infects. Lucifer’s sin spread to a third of the holy angels transforming them into demons. Adam’s sin spread to all men and the entire earth was cursed as a result. The ground began to produce thorns and weeds and the animals began to prey upon one another. This only occurred after sin entered the world through Adam. I can say that I am both happy and thankful that God will not allow sinners entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, because it would cease to be Heaven. Heaven would be transformed into the same sad state we now see on earth.

    If someone does you wrong you can simply forgive the offence. God cannot do this with sin because sin must be dealt with and paid for. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness for sin. (Hebrews 9:22) For the sinner to be saved his sins must be paid for and washed away not merely overlooked. To overlook means that there is something still there. Jesus gave His holy life not to overlook sin but to pay for the penalty of sin so that all who would repent and yield to Him would become as if they had never committed sin at all. This is called justification. The person is not merely pardoned of his crimes against God but is declared "just."