People have many questions about God. The question I think deserves to be answered most is,"Why does God allow suffering in this world?" God is complex. God's plans are complex. People don't always understand this when asking the question,"Why does God allow suffering?" People think that because there is no simple answer to this question that possibly God does not exist. Rest assured God does exist. The answer to this question is straight forward, but it is not a simple answer. While it is not a simple answer, the building blocks of logic needed to create it can be insightful to some who do not fully understand the nature of God. Because of this, I think this article should be a good read for some people.
By God's nature, he is good. God can do anything he wants. Of course because God is good, he is not going to do something evil even though he could. God is love.*1 Because God is good and love, he wants all beings to live at their maximum capacity for happiness or pleasure. So why are humans living a sad life of decay, suffering and death on Earth? Why didn't God just create us in Heaven and give us all a huge capacity for happiness?
The problem is that not all beings are good and loving themselves, and some are actually evil by nature. If there is one thing most of us learn on Earth, it is that evil people can cause others to suffer. Some evil people get happiness from causing other people suffering. If God just created every being in Heaven to start out with, there would be some beings complaining that other evil beings are causing them to suffer. It would not be perfect to have evil beings living with good beings forever because they would not be in a state of harmony, peace and happiness. The only real way for good beings to live forever in harmony is for evil to be separated away.
In case you don't know the history and future for the Earth and Heaven, I'll quickly run over some things. Before the Earth came into creation, God made beings in Heaven. Some of these beings became sinful through ways that are not explained in the Bible. So sometime between when God created the beings and before Adam and Eve sinned, some of these beings decided to become evil. I'm just clarifying a point that evil has not exactly existed from the beginning of time, but has likely been around before man was created. It is important to know that evil beings have been in Heaven for a long time because it is a common misconception that Heaven is a perfect place populated by God, angels and dead people. The New Heaven will be like that, but it hasn't came into being yet. When God decides the time is right, he is going to fold up Heaven and Earth and make them a new. It isn't clear whether when we live again that we'll be in the New Heaven or New Earth, but suffering is not going to be there. So the question still remains,"When is God going to end the suffering on Earth, and why hasn't he done it yet?"
It is OK to pray to God,"How soon until Jesus return?". After all, we learn in Revelations that even his most loved martyrs ask him how long until the New Heaven and New Earth are created.*2 Just don't expect God to actually tell you a time or date. The longer that Earth remains, the more condemning evidence it has against evil. Also, the longer that the Earth remains, the more glorified that Jesus becomes. We know that human beings are able to become saved through the power of Jesus Christ. We know that angelic beings are able to learn about Jesus' saving power through witnessing people's lives change. We do not know,however; if Jesus can save beings that are not human. It would be reasonable to expect that. If that is the case, isn't it good for the Earth to last as long as it can in order to save as many non-human beings too? We're looking at Earth and Jesus being a tool that divides the wheat from the weeds. I think it is fair to reason that the mind of God knows that temporary suffering on Earth for many beings is nothing compared with infinite suffering in Hell for a single being.
I think most of us can agree that if letting Earth run its course longer lets final judgment be more accurate that we should let the Earth run so long that no single being's judgment is in question. This is not exactly the case though because we know God knows the future, and every alternate future that would happen if he acts at a certain time. God makes mention of this in the Bible when he says that if miracles would have happened in certain cities that they would have repented. We also know that God has to have the capacity to judge people who die before living a full life. So the next question that arises is,"Why did God not prematurely judge the evil beings in Heaven before they did anything evil?"
Lets say that God prematurely judged evil before it came into existence. Wouldn't the good beings in Heaven wonder why God created beings directly in Hell? In fact couldn't the good beings even have some pity for the beings in Hell? Sure, good beings after experiencing all the awful things reality has to offer in the current reality will be apt to just accept God's judgment on things. Indeed all Christians confess that Jesus is Lord which means that they agree that Jesus has say over everything. But these good beings who never experienced Earth or evil existing may not understand. These good beings could bring the case against God... And that is something that is no good. The only real way to have a proper judgment against a being is for that being to actually commit the crime. God knows that other beings can't read the future like he can so he knows that the current reality is necessary.
Those are some of my thoughts on why God allows suffering. I think they're a reasonable argument. The thing you need to remember is that God is all powerful and infinitely intelligent. If there was some other better way than the way he did, he would have done it. After all, Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross and he did nothing but good.
*1 1 John 4:8 - Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love
*2 Revelation 6:9 Then the Lamb broke open the fifth seal. I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because they had proclaimed God's word and had been faithful in their witnessing. 10 They shouted in a loud voice, "Almighty Lord, holy and true! How long will it be until you judge the people on earth and punish them for killing us?" 11 Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little while longer, until the complete number of other servants and believers were killed, as they had been