Doubt 2 - Why Does God Allow Suffering?
“I can’t believe in a god that allows people to suffer. Either this god is all-powerful but not a good god, or else a good god but not all-powerful. If God can rescue us from suffering, why doesn’t he?” said one college student when asked about belief in God.
This is a major stumbling block for many people in the world. Disease strikes a family member, a tornado hits a community indiscriminately, an accident puts a loved-one in a wheelchair, genocide (like the Holocaust) tortures and kills thousands of people. Where is the God of the Bible in all of this?
Part of the problem is that we tend to believe we should be provided with all the answers to life’s tough questions. If our minds can’t plumb the depths of the universe for answers to suffering, then there must not be any God! If he does exist, he has failed us, the critic says. Talk about blind faith. Faith that there is no God if I am not provided the answers I demand. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) If the God of the Bible does exist, it should make sense that our minds cannot comprehend all his ways. Job suffered in his Old Testament story, and God never allowed him to understand why, he simply showed him that he (God) has his reasons, and he provides enough evidence to have faith in him, so have faith in him.
But although this is true, God does not leave us in the dark when it comes to suffering. In fact, suffering can provide evidence for God and his biblical message. C.S. Lewis struggled with this concept. At one point in his life, Lewis tended toward atheism, but he came to realize that evil and suffering was more of a problem as an atheist. “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of ‘just’ and ‘unjust’? What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?” The whole idea of justice must have a source beyond self, or it becomes meaningless.
If we are simply evolved beings with no moral foundation in God (because we believe there is no God) justice becomes a flimsy tool in the hands of meaningless people who exist for no particular reason. In fact, the whole premise of evolution, that the strong survive (natural selection) says that the strong exist while the weak suffer and die. If you are an atheist, or an evolutionist, suffering should make sense to you. Since it doesn’t, where did this idea of justice come from?
When you go beyond superficial belief in God and dive into the biblical message, you discover that our problem is sin. Sin has messed up the entire creation: humans and nature. God allowed free choice to these humans he has created, wanting this free exchange of love and service, but humans rebel, sin enters the experience (along with an adversary, Satan) and God has worked for our redemption ever since the Garden of Eden. The message of Christ is that God loved us so much that he came in the form of a perfect man and suffered for us! He defeated sin and offers us salvation in Christ. And because Jesus suffered, he can understand our suffering and be our adversary (Hebrews 4:14-16).
So, yes, in this life we experience suffering, a cost for the environment of sin we live within.
Jesus provides hope amidst this, meaning for those who call on his name, and here’s the great thing: he provides a perfect heaven one day where all things are made right, where there is no longer any suffering, no pain, no tears, no death. All things are made new (Rev. 21:1-4).
Cross Point: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:16, 17).
This is a major stumbling block for many people in the world. Disease strikes a family member, a tornado hits a community indiscriminately, an accident puts a loved-one in a wheelchair, genocide (like the Holocaust) tortures and kills thousands of people. Where is the God of the Bible in all of this?
Part of the problem is that we tend to believe we should be provided with all the answers to life’s tough questions. If our minds can’t plumb the depths of the universe for answers to suffering, then there must not be any God! If he does exist, he has failed us, the critic says. Talk about blind faith. Faith that there is no God if I am not provided the answers I demand. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) If the God of the Bible does exist, it should make sense that our minds cannot comprehend all his ways. Job suffered in his Old Testament story, and God never allowed him to understand why, he simply showed him that he (God) has his reasons, and he provides enough evidence to have faith in him, so have faith in him.
But although this is true, God does not leave us in the dark when it comes to suffering. In fact, suffering can provide evidence for God and his biblical message. C.S. Lewis struggled with this concept. At one point in his life, Lewis tended toward atheism, but he came to realize that evil and suffering was more of a problem as an atheist. “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of ‘just’ and ‘unjust’? What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?” The whole idea of justice must have a source beyond self, or it becomes meaningless.
If we are simply evolved beings with no moral foundation in God (because we believe there is no God) justice becomes a flimsy tool in the hands of meaningless people who exist for no particular reason. In fact, the whole premise of evolution, that the strong survive (natural selection) says that the strong exist while the weak suffer and die. If you are an atheist, or an evolutionist, suffering should make sense to you. Since it doesn’t, where did this idea of justice come from?
When you go beyond superficial belief in God and dive into the biblical message, you discover that our problem is sin. Sin has messed up the entire creation: humans and nature. God allowed free choice to these humans he has created, wanting this free exchange of love and service, but humans rebel, sin enters the experience (along with an adversary, Satan) and God has worked for our redemption ever since the Garden of Eden. The message of Christ is that God loved us so much that he came in the form of a perfect man and suffered for us! He defeated sin and offers us salvation in Christ. And because Jesus suffered, he can understand our suffering and be our adversary (Hebrews 4:14-16).
So, yes, in this life we experience suffering, a cost for the environment of sin we live within.
Jesus provides hope amidst this, meaning for those who call on his name, and here’s the great thing: he provides a perfect heaven one day where all things are made right, where there is no longer any suffering, no pain, no tears, no death. All things are made new (Rev. 21:1-4).
Cross Point: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:16, 17).
Posted in Cross Points