God Does Not Inflict Harm on People in One Generation

The ancient ereast was a place where nations were ruled by powerful kings. When something bad happened to one of god's enemies, it was natural for the israelites to look at that and say, god is punishing one of his enemies,. But god continued to educate them, and they gradually learned that not all suffering is punishment. To what extent does god inflict harm at all? This is an open question in theology. On this view, which seems to be increasingly reflected in recent church documents, god may just allow the suffering, he doesn't have to cause it. As the catechism of three 24 says, god permits physical and even moral evil if he did not cause some