Ps 103 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his love for those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

14 for he knows how we are formed,

he remembers that we are dust."

When sin entered the world God cursed man and the creation. But God does not cause evil. God does not tempt man to destroy himself. If God caused the abuse in relationships then He would be responsible for the injury. The Reformers would say that God does not need to abuse man in order to promote His purposes. Man is self destructive by nature.

When man fell into sin it was not as bad as it could be. The question is , If man could act according to his nature in without constraint then why would God need to be the author of mans troubles? The truth is that God is the one who is preventing man from being as bad as he could be. God does not need to add to mans evils. Man is fully responsible for becoming depraved.

Now think about this. When we talk about God in relationship to our troubles do we describe a God who takes pleasure in our suffering? You think about the Muslim culture. You see the men abuse their wives and children. No one believes that wives or children are perfect. They are taught that all rebellion and mistakes are correct by the man disciplining their wives and children.You must understand in the ot the smallest sin of rebellion..meaning talk back to parent was deserving of death. When we see the Muslim father abusing his family it is from the culture that believes that rebellion deserves death. They have no guilt from the abuse. They miss interpret the ot and really believe that God promotes the abuse. He deserves swift death because he is cursed.

The question is that when we say that God does good by our suffering does it present the same kind of care that we see on by the Muslim culture? Some of us describe God like the Muslim father. So we see that all behaviors in society are a result from a miss application of Gods relationship to His law and to the elect who are sinners. You look at that Muslim father who abuses his family and you want to destroy that abuser. Why would this man be so cavalier in his reactions? Because he lives in a culture that teaches him that rebellion is deserving of death. He does not feel guilty. This is what happens to some degree in all cultures. Mans forgiveness and punishment are always corrupted. There are behaviors between people that are enforced by culture that are not proper applications of God law. Every man feels guilty about sins that may be from a culture that enforces faulty applications.

The teaching that God does good in our suffering is from miss representing the ot warnings. It is very important to distinguish between Gods warnings to the nation of Israel and to His covenant elect. The question is does the bible teach that any kind of pain that we go through is evil enough for us to curse the person who rejoices in our pain? Does the bible teach that self destruction is accepting pain as good for us? Does the bible require in denying ourselves to accept that pain is good for us? If we answer these questions in the positive then we can use pain to gain control of someone or as a motive to gain power. In applying street sense it would be that person needs to be boiled in oil for the pain he has caused. We are just using christian terms to teach karma. This is why we always apply the doctrines to a social teaching in scripture..ie like the Sermon on the Mount. Without the application of doctrine it would seem that Christ is teaching Karma.

So if we say that God causes pain then we are saying that its ok for us to cause pain. The truth is that if pain is good then taking ones own life is not wrong. Do evil in order to promote good. The truth is that we must distinguish between sin and the curse if we are to learn true value. Because the requirements of sin and presence of the curse are not always together. The elect sin but they are not cursed and so the bible does not confuse Gods warnings to nation of Israel with His elect.This is where we build the culture of semi pelagianism.