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Does God Care About Mankind?

DOES the answer to that question matter to you? It should. Why? Because this fact is undeniable:

In your life there are things of serious concern that are beyond your power to control, solve or change. This truth can be brought home to any of us with alarming suddenness and tragic effect. It can leave us severely shaken​—if we do not know whether God really cares.

When a fatal illness affects a friend, someone in your family, or you yourself​—to whom can you turn? In times like that, even the most powerful rulers, the wealthiest men, cannot ransom, through medical help, their lives or the lives of those they love.

Tornados, earthquakes, landslides, flash floods​—all of these can strike without warning. In minutes a family’s every possession can disappear. Some call these disasters “acts of God.” Are they? Does God not care about those whom such disasters ruin financially, or physically maim or kill?

Today millions of persons face starvation. A recent report says: “In Africa, the drought is such a vast calamity that our statistical machinery is unable to measure it meaningfully.” Eight hundred million on earth now survive on about thirty cents a day, according to World Bank president Robert McNamara. Well-fed and well-clothed persons elsewhere may not feel particular anxiety now. But when hunger touches us, when our own children suffer, the question, “Does God care?” can quickly become very real.

What of the insecurity that is so much a part of life today​—the crime, muggings, murders, rape and violence? If God cares, why has he not done something about this?

Yes, and why have wars filled the pages of history with blood for thousands of years? Why do world affairs right now seem to be on a steady downward trend, with growing political instability, economic shakiness and inflation, and with marked, failures to cope with national and local problems everywhere?

Finding the Answer

Have you found a sound explanation for these things, one that genuinely satisfies your mind and heart?

Some will say that they have. They say, “I know that God cares for me. I pray to him and he answers me.” As proof of their being blessed by God, they may point to certain successes in life, a good financial standing or other benefits.

But what about the many millions on earth who daily face poverty and hunger? Do none of these pray to God? Are those for whom God cares all to be found in wealthier, industrialized countries?

Because of these apparent contradictions, many arrive at the conclusion that God does not care. Often what they really mean is that they doubt the existence of God. Seeing so many bad conditions on earth, they cannot understand how an all-powerful God could permit such a situation. Young people, seeing so much hypocrisy, corruption and injustice, and the evident futility of the world’s systems, also feel doubts and ask, “Is there really a God?”

Some who claim to believe in God say that the present state of affairs is God’s will for mankind, that the earth was meant to be a place where people would suffer, with the possibility of their later enjoying heavenly bliss. Such an idea is difficult to harmonize with the Bible statement that “God is love.” (1 John 4:16) It would make it appear that God’s promise of the ‘meek inheriting the earth’ had been forgotten and that the other Bible promises were just meaningless words of an ancient but unreliable book. (Compare Psalm 37:11; Matthew 5:5.) If this crime-ridden, mixed-up, insecure world represents God’s will, then the prayer for ‘God’s kingdom to come so that His will might be done on earth’ need no longer be offered, for the answer is already here. But, honestly, can you believe that is the case?​—Matt. 6:10.

What, then, is the explanation? It is worth your while to know, for the right answer can bring peace of mind and heart now and a solid hope for the future.