5. Will Suffering Ever End?

Why It Matters

If there is reason to believe that suffering will end, such a hope could improve our view of life and even our view of God.

To Think About

Many people would like to eliminate suffering, but they are limited in their ability to do much about it. Note the following:

Despite advances in medicine . . .

• Heart disease remains the largest cause of death.

• Cancer kills millions each year.

• “The world continues to be confronted by longstanding, emerging, and reemerging infectious disease threats,” writes Dr. David Bloom in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

Despite material prosperity in some lands . . .

• Each year, millions of children die, and those living in impoverished areas are the most likely to be affected.

• Billions of people live without access to adequate sanitation.

• Hundreds of millions have no access to safe water.

Despite increased awareness of human rights . . .

• Human trafficking continues in many lands, and countries that have not prosecuted any offenders are “blind to the problem, or they are ill-equipped to deal with it,” says a United Nations report.

  LEARN MORE

  Watch the video What Is God’s Kingdom? available on jw.org.

What the Bible Says

God cares about us.

He is not indifferent to our pain and sorrow.

“[God] has not despised nor loathed the suffering of the oppressed one; he has not hidden his face from him. When he cried to him for help, he heard.”​—PSALM 22:24.

“Throw all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”​—1 PETER 5:7.

Suffering will not continue indefinitely.

The Bible promises that God’s purpose for us will be realized.

“God . . . will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.”​—REVELATION 21:3, 4.

God will address the causes of human suffering.

He will do this by means of his Kingdom, which the Bible describes as a real government.

“The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And this kingdom will not be passed on to any other people. . . . It alone will stand forever.”​—DANIEL 2:44.