Copyright 2004 by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr., Used By Permission.
Taken from his book Earth-Trekker's Voyage: Exploring The Solar System.

1. A Godlike Overview Of AFFLICTION

Why would I ever allow such WIDESPREAD AFFLICTION and SUFFERING in human life? Why must the ENTIRE EARTH suffer and endure such ENDLESS TROUBLE and TORMENT?

What might be My Own RATIONALE for SUSTAINING a world of such pain and misery?

The people of Earth have been asking this kind of hard question for centuries. . . and have rarely found any sort of convincing answer that seems really adequate to them!

There are several VALID EXPLANATIONS which can help you FATHOM THE PROBLEM of Universal Affliction and Suffering. I Myself will deliver these to you in the following communications, in a simple form that you may easily memorize and reproduce for the others on Earth who are engaged in a similar quest.

Today I Myself will show you My Own REASONABLE EXPLANATION for these afflictions-- an explanation that is also revealed in My Book and the commentaries of its authorities, if one only has the perception necessary to stand under it.

The problem of affliction is one that is strongly related to other enigmas that also perplex humankind: the problems of DEATH, DISEASE, AND DECAY... of EVIL FLOURISHING... of PARADOXES... of the DEVASTATION OF EARTH... and of the FUTURE OF EARTH. In this moment, you should focus first on the problem of affliction.

Why is there such awful, widespread affliction and suffering in human life?

Look into My Own Answer-Key and it may help you to achieve a Godlike comprehension of the answer to this question. What's My Own justification for sustaining a world of universal affliction. . . ?

From My Own omniscient viewpoint, HUMAN SUFFERING IS GOOD FOR YOU AND THE AFFLICTIONS HAVE A VERY VALUABLE LONG-TERM PURPOSE.

1. Afflictions and suffering have been designed TO RESTRAIN YOU FROM EVIL that you might be more inclined to perpetrate if life were very easy.

Without the existence of the poverty, hard work, afflictions, and troubles which can sometimes crush (or lessen) your arrogance, humans might have an even greater excess of time and pleasures available to them and thus be even more easily corrupted than they are when in the midst of deprivation and many trials.

2. Afflictions surmounted, when you humans can ascend beyond them with your faith intact, are DESIGNED TO BE A PROOF that Satan's wicked accusations against you were wrong and mostly a pack of lies.

3. Afflictions and suffering have been designed TO HUMBLE HUMANS, to remind you of your weakness and the need to depend on God for all things.

4. Afflictions and suffering are designed TO ALERT AND WARN HUMANS OF POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE PROBLEMS... which may be physical, financial, biological, emotional, spiritual, societal... or personal behavior matters.

5. Afflictions in your earthly life are DESIGNED TO SHOW HUMANS THAT YOUR WORLD IS NOT WHAT IT SHOULD BE, and that it must be transformed by God into what He wishes it to be.

6. Afflictions and suffering are designed TO FORCE HUMANS TO PRACTICE THE VIRTUES OF ENDURANCE AND PERSEVERANCE.

This sort of trial forces you to learn patience, in order that your lives may be more admirable and even bear witness to the angels that God's plan is right and proper.

7. Afflictions and suffering are designed TO FORCE HUMANS TO LEARN ABOUT THEMSELVES, THEIR INADEQUACY, AND THEIR OWN PERSONAL VALUES, SO THAT THEY will then GROW TOWARD THE SPIRITUAL MATURITY THAT GOD REQUIRES OF THEM.

Trials and troubles are often used by Your God for very practical results: It is sometimes necessary that your human egotism be assaulted in order that you humans should turn away from a familiar pattern of selfishness, foolishness, arrogance, or wickedness.

Trials are often used by Your God to bring about some extremely pragmatic goals: TO BRING UNBELIEVERS TO A POINT OF WEAKNESS THAT BRINGS ABOUT TRUE REPENTANCE and SPIRITUAL SALVATION, or perhaps TO CHASTISE BELIEVERS who are guilty of wrong-thinking and wrong-behavior, or else TO FORCE BELIEVERS TO RELY ON THEIR GOD IN A CONTINUING (EVEN LIFELONG) STATE OF TOTAL MEEKNESS AND COMPLETE DEPENDENCY.

8. Afflictions and suffering have been deliberately designed TO FORCE HUMANS TO SHOW GOD THE HARD CHOICES THEY WILL MAKE when they are under great stress and confronting grave difficulties.

Trials of this sort help Your God to make His own final determinations as He proceeds with a very careful and lengthy developmental process of SELECTING and REJECTING from among the people of the Earth.

9. Afflictions WILL ONE DAY COME TO AN END. In the new world that Your God will then provide for you, there will be no more pain, nor tears, nor suffering of any kind.

Your God has a special project planned for those who make it through His training program to the final list... It's called "THE NEW EARTH."

10. Afflictions on this present Earth SERVE AS A PRELIMINARY COUNTERPOINT of unpleasantness, yet these will make the new world of peace and safety much more fully honored and appreciated when it has at last arrived. I will provide an admirable new world for those humans whom I Myself have rescued from the present Earth's distress.

The torments experienced on the Old Earth will make the heavenly raptures of Your God's next world all the more memorable and will increase your gratitude for My Own reign when I Myself rule at last.

11. Afflictions surmounted by humans living on this present Earth, when you have ascended beyond them with your faith intact, are DESIGNED TO VALIDATE YOU humans before the watchful eyes of all the angels in Heaven.

When you have passed through all these trials safely and successfully, without the destruction of your faith, it is only done by the grace of Your God and the power of His Holy Spirit within you.

Yet it is also true that the many astounding examples of the trials and afflictions which humans have survived on Earth are designed to be evidence for the angels. These serve as proof that I Myself am right in My Own decisions concerning your fate in this universe -- that some should be given special status and privilege in a future time, while others shall be cast down and excluded.

FIVE KEYS TO ACHIEVING A GODLIKE COMPREHENSION OF

UNIVERSAL SUFFERING:

1. From My Own divinely omniscient viewpoint, HUMAN SUFFERING IS PRESENTLY GOOD FOR YOU, AND THE NECESSARY AFFLICTIONS SERVE A VERY VALUABLE LONG-TERM PURPOSE.

AFFLICTIONS HAVE BEEN DELIBERATELY DESIGNED TO FORCE YOU HUMANS TO SHOW US THE HARD CHOICES YOU WILL MAKE WHEN YOU ARE UNDER GREAT STRESS AND CONFRONTING GRAVE DIFFICULTIES. TRIALS OF THIS SORT CAUSE PAIN, BUT CAN HELP US TO MAKE OUR OWN FINAL DETERMINATIONS AS WE PROCEED WITH A VERY CAREFUL AND LENGTHY PROGRAM OF DIVINE SELECTION-- A VERY OLD DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS OF SELECTING AND REJECTING FROM AMONG THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH.

I Myself will elucidate this matter further as we proceed with these communications.

2. From Your God's omniscient viewpoint, THERE ARE VALID REASONS FOR THE PRESENT EXISTENCE OF DISEASES AND PHYSICAL DEATH. . . AND EVEN WHEN THESE SERVE AS PRESENT-DAY TEMPTATIONS AND ASSAULTS OF SATAN, THEY HAVE A VALID AND USEFUL FUNCTION.

THESE ARE USED BY YOUR GOD TO BENEFIT HUMANS IN YOUR EARTHLY PROGRESS AS YOU ARE PUT THROUGH A CAREFUL PROCESS OF DIVINE SELECTION IN THIS ONE STAGE OF YOUR GOD'S LENGTHY DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM FOR EARTH.

I Myself will elucidate this matter further as we proceed with these communications.

3. From My Own omniscient viewpoint, it is clear that THERE IS A VALID JUSTIFICATION EVEN FOR MY PERMITTING THE ASSAULTS OF SATAN UPON THE FOLLOWERS OF GOD. . . AND THE STRANGE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED IN THE PRESENT TIME.

THESE DIFFICULTIES MAKE THE WORLD SEEM UNBALANCED, BUT THEY ARE USED BY YOUR GOD TO BENEFIT MY LENGTHY DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM FOR EARTH.

I Myself will elucidate this matter further as we proceed with these communications.

4. From My Own omniscient viewpoint, THERE IS A VALID JUSTIFICATION EVEN FOR MY PERMITTING THE EXISTENCE OF HELL AND THE POWER OF SATAN. . . AND ALL THE STRANGE PARADOXES OF YOUR EXISTENCE IN THIS PRESENT TIME.

THESE THINGS LIKEWISE ARE MANIPULATED BY YOUR GOD, AND HAVE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO MY OWN GREAT PLAN IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT WILL ALL WORK TO BENEFIT MY LENGTHY DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM FOR EARTH.

I Myself will elucidate this matter further as we proceed with these communications.

5. From My Own point-of-view, which is an omniscient perception of the Universe, YOUR HUMAN SUFFERINGS ON THIS PRESENT EARTH SHOULD NOT BE OF EXCESSIVE CONCERN TO YOU, due to the fact that there will eventually be a transformed Earth where there is no more affliction, nor death, nor evil.

YOUR GOD'S GREAT PLAN CALLS FOR THE CREATION OF AN ENTIRELY NEW AND TOTALLY RESTRUCTURED EARTH IN FULFILLMENT OF A PROCESS OF DIVINE SELECTION.

I Myself will elucidate this matter further as we proceed with these communications.

THE CRITERION FOR DIVINE SELECTION . . .

1. Rather than the Darwinian concept of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" (meaning the strongest) in a scheme of evolution, Your God's system of development is quite different!

My Own plan is that there will be "DIVINE ELECTION" of all those who have chosen to accept My system of grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, and My plan calls for a "SURVIVAL OF THE LOYAL" instead.

2. In this scheme which I Myself have formulated, it is not the STRONGEST who survive, but rather the SUBMISSIVE!

In this regard, it is certainly true that Your God can make the weak person become strong. But a person who is too strong and egotistical I may choose to crush, in order that he--or she-- will be humbled and will become submissive to My Own will!

3. Your God is continuously harvesting the Earth as His Own ever-progressing plan of DIVINE SELECTION goes forward, through a wise and millennia-long program of evaluation-- through interminable testing of people and a very lengthy developmental process of SELECTING and REJECTING.

4. Any soul can be spared on the basis of My Own painful sacrifice, by a belief in the salvation I Myself offer you through My chosen Messiah, My only-begotten Son Jesus Christ. Jesus was slain as the unblemished Lamb of God, as My Own self-sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Those souls that are spared will be the ones that have opened the door of the heart and have allowed Jesus Christ to come inside, through My Holy Spirit, to take up residence inside as the New Center of the universe . . . as a brilliant light at the center of the spiritual "solar system."

5. Your God asks that you make a MAJOR SHIFT IN WORLD-VIEW, for it truly requires a COPERNICAN REVOLUTION IN THE MIND-SET of a human being.

You must comprehend with an entirely new way of looking at the universe -- for to be among the redeemed, to be among the survivors who are granted eternal life, you must place JESUS CHRIST AT THE CENTER OF YOUR UNIVERSE, in the very place where once YOUR OWN EGO had ruled supreme!

6. Those souls who are not to be spared on this basis (those who have rejected My words, My truth, and My sacrifice) will suffer eternal separation from God and from My Own final achievement -- the recreated Paradise that will be revealed as My ultimate objective.

This will be a NEW EARTH produced by Your God for those persons He has rescued (or harvested) from the present world. Your God will populate the reconstructed Earth with those persons whom He has chosen through His Own millennia-long DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAM of DIVINE SELECTION.

7. This is Your God's final goal -- My objective is to produce an entirely different world. It will be a new and totally restructured world that will be vastly superior to this present world of distress and disorder. This present, temporary Earth holds countless evils and sin-produced chaos with which you now contend, but it will someday vanish and be replaced by a far, far better Earth.

It is certain that the NEW EARTH which I Myself create will be IMMENSELY MORE PLEASANT than this present Earth which will eventually be rejected and replaced !

8. You humans can see My New Earth by placing Jesus Christ, who in the Trinity of God created your Universe, upon a throne at the center of your heart! He deserves that position and that kind of respect. As the only sinless and righteous person who ever lived, He sacrificed Himself for your sake, taking all guilt and sins upon Himself -- in order that all those who wish for salvation might be rescued from the due punishment of their sins.

9. All it really requires of you is a simple but sincere little prayer -- one that you should make up in your own words. The prayer for My deliverance and for My Own leadership should come from your own heart!

Some important elements that you might include are: 1) your desire to turn away from the wrongness or evil of your past life, and your remorse over the sins of your previous life, 2) your desire for My forgiveness and mercy through the act of sacrifice of My Only Begotten Son (Jesus Christ), 3) your desire to know My leadership in your life, 4) your desire to learn more of My Own truth through the study of My Book, 5) your desire to find fellowship with genuine believers.

If you will do this, you'll have a new contentment and peace as you accept Your God's organizational plan for the Universe . . . and you'll be letting Your Creator be the Ruler of All Things in your world . . . and in your own life.

Your God wants to bless you for all your long efforts to understand this confusing and difficult universe in which you live -- so let Him reward your search with the grace of forgiveness and enlightenment!

My servant Matthew has written in My Book of a prophecy made by Jesus. My Son Jesus said of the people of God that "The kingdom of heaven is like a net that God has cast into the sea, and it gathers of every kind: When it is full, it will be pulled up on the shore, where they will sit down to sort the catch, and they will collect the good fish in baskets, but the bad things will be thrown away. This is the way it will be at the end of the world: The angels shall come forth, and they will separate the unrighteous persons from among those justified by God . . ." [13:47-50]

Copyright 2004 by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr., Used By Permission.
Taken from his book Earth-Trekker's Voyage: Exploring The Solar System.

The above material is one section of a book by Kenneth Street entitled

Earth-Trekker's Voyage: Exploring The Solar System

and is Copyright protected by him, with all rights reserved by the author.