Almost no other current conflict has caused as much suffering as the Syrian civil war. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian children have tumbled from nightmare to nightmare. They have seen little more than rubble and death and felt little more than starvation and fright.

Tens of thousands of them have been killed. Some of them were tortured to death.

Those who haven’t lost their own lives have seen it flicker out in the eyes of friends and family members—and with it vanished their hope. In desperation, many children have joined armed groups—terrorizing and being terrorized. The constant shootings, bombings, torture, poisonous gas attacks have left them traumatized for the rest of their lives.

German Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller lamented in 2020 the reality for an entire generation of Syrian children: They know “nothing but fear and need.”

Those who survive face hopelessness.

“After 13 years of conflict in Syria, almost 7.5 million children in the country are in need of humanitarian assistance—more than at any other time during the conflict,” United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund reported March 15. “Repeated cycles of violence and displacement, a devastating economic crisis and extreme deprivation, disease outbreaks and last year’s devastating earthquakes have left hundreds of thousands of children exposed to long-term physical and psychosocial consequences. More than 650,000 children under the age of 5 are chronically malnourished—an increase of around 150,000 in the four years since 2019.”

For years, the international community has tried to solve this conflict, yet it has only grown worse.

“Why do we find a world of awesome advancement and progress, yet paradoxically with appalling and mounting evils?” the late Herbert W. Armstrong asked in Mystery of the Ages. “Why cannot the minds that develop spacecraft, computers and marvels of science, technology and industry solve the problems that demonstrate human helplessness?”

The present reality is staggeringly bleak. World leaders discuss solutions—but every glimpse of promise turns to ashes. This paradox puzzles many today. Yet we continue to look to the wrong source for the solution. Many are desperately looking to Germany, yet Bible prophecy shows that Germany is about to use its power to start an even more devastating war worldwide!

What hope then does a Syrian child have in the midst of rubble? His family cannot provide comfort, neither can his government, nor the media, nor outside nations.

Is there any hope in the midst of the carnage?

In Matthew 24, Jesus Christ gave His disciples a timeline of events that would precede His return. He warned of religious deceit, wars, famine, pestilence, earthquakes and much tribulation. But He also gave them words of comfort: “[S]ee that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass …” (verse 6).

In the midst of suffering, many wonder: Where is God? He is here! We could find Him if we would only look to His Word.

In it, Jesus Christ accurately prophesied the evil that is now befalling mankind. He warned that it will get to the point where “there should no flesh be saved” alive if He did not intervene—but He will intervene! (verse 22).

Every war and every conflict is bringing mankind closer to realizing their own helplessness! The carnage actually indicates that Christ’s return is near!

The answer to why God allows such terrible events to occur is also found in God’s Word. To understand this eye-opening truth, read our September 2022 article “Why Does God Allow Suffering?” (theTrumpet.com/25977).

When Christ walked this Earth, He was moved with compassion by the suffering of this world. He said they were “as sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). He knows that unless we come to realize our own helplessness, we will never accept His intervention and submit to Him (see Revelation 2:27).

God has a plan to save mankind not only physically but from our own rebellious and terminal human nature. If you understand that long-term plan, there is much reason to hope. The same Bible that accurately prophesied the destruction we are experiencing and are about to experience also prophesies that mankind will finally learn the inescapable, painful lesson that rebellion against God and His law is rebellion against the only just, right and happy way of life. That lesson will be learned not only by the survivors of the current and imminent carnage but also by those who die from it! The Bible shows that a resurrection is coming for all those who have died never knowing the true God, the way of His wonderful law, or the true purpose of their own lives.

There among the rubble, whether he still lives in fear or has died in terror, this is the hope for the child of Syria—and of all nations.