“Surely if God is all good, he’d want prevent suffering, and if he is all-powerful he’d be able to stop suffering. So seeing as suffering exists, how can a good God exist?”

 

Why does a good God allow suffering?                         

We all ask this question. We ask it because we are hurting.

Let’s imagine that there’s a great tragedy in my family tomorrow. If so, I’m sure I will be asking “why does God allow suffering?” And, the person I ask won’t be able to answer my question because they won’t know any more than I do, why tragedy has struck the Holloway family.

In these circumstances, the Bible tells us to “mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). I need someone to stand with me, and cry with me. I need someone to share my pain with. I want you to be there for me.

As it happens, it’s OK to ask God why he is allowing suffering. In the Bible, there are poems called Psalms in the Old Testament which ask “Why me, O Lord?” or “It’s not fair, O Lord!” or “how long are you going to let this carry on Lord?” or “Why don’t you do something to stop this, O Lord?”

Perhaps we’re asking this question because for many of us, the fact of suffering is a barrier to faith in Christianity.

So in a nutshell, our question is this: “Surely if God is all good, he’d want prevent suffering, and if he is all-powerful he’d be able to stop suffering. So seeing as suffering exists, how can an all-powerful, all-loving God exist?”

It’s worth us noting, by way of introduction, that suffering is not a problem for all religions, because while all religions are confronted by suffering, not all religions believe that God is loving in the sense that the Bible says God is a loving.

 

For example, in Islam, there are 99 names for God in the Qur’an, but love, and father are not among them. The God of the Qur’an is not personal. The God of the Qur’an cannot be personally known by human beings.

 

So no-one who understands Islam would ever ask a Moslem, “Why does a loving Allah allow suffering?” because the Qur’an isn’t even claiming that Allah is loving in that sense. Allah is a judge and Islam means submission, what we do in Islam is submit to the judge. It’s all very fatalistic.

Hinduism’s response to the problem of suffering is a bit of a surprise. In Hinduism, of course, we’re all re-incarnations. And when we suffer we’re paying for sins we committed in a previous life. The Hindu perspective on suffering is totally repugnant to many westerners. Let me mention a famous example, which led to the unlikely demise of former England football team manager Glenn Hoddle.

During an interview in the Times Newspaper, Glenn Hoddle said that disabled people were paying for the sins they’d committed in a previous life. Well when the story was printed the following day, people were so outraged that Hoddle had to resign. What the whole episode reveals is that although many people in the west are romantically drawn to the mysteries of India and re-incarnation, in reality, western people cannot accept the Hindu view of suffering, that disabled, unfortunate and untouchable people are paying for sins committed in a previous life.

Meanwhile, Buddhism sidesteps the question entirely by saying that suffering is an illusion.

Sometimes atheists ask Christians: “Why does God allow suffering?” because atheists are as outraged by moral evil as everyone else - which is why they’re asking the question. But in atheism there’s no source of absolute morality. There’s no God, So genocide isn’t really, morally or absolutely wrong. It’s only a matter of opinion. So in a society which approved of genocide, and there have been such societies, then genocide would be right in the opinion of most people. Now an atheist struggles with that because he or she still has a gut feeling that these crimes are absolutely morally wrong at all times and in all places.

So it would be fair to ask an atheist, “Why are you bothered by these crimes?” “Where does your sense of moral indignation come from? Could it be that there’s a moral law which has been broken by those committing these appalling crimes? And if there’s a moral law in each of our hearts, then, could it be that there’s a moral law-giver? An external source of morality.” Well, of course, another word for an external source of morality is God. And so, in this way, the atheists outrage at moral evil and suffering turns out to be an argument for God’s existence.

Anyway, let’s look now at a Christian response to this question.

I’d like to suggest four perspectives on suffering:

1. Free will

God had at least three options:

a)   Create nothing – no risk

b)   Create a robotic universe – no risk

c)    Create creatures like himself – high risk

 

Why does God allow suffering? The question pre-supposes that God exists.

What do we suggest this God should do?

Perhaps we think he should have gone for option a), and created nothing at all, the ultimate low risk option. No suffering, no-one gets hurt.

Or perhaps we think he should have gone for option b), and made robotic people who are just lifeless machines. No feeling, no pleasure, no pain, just metal. Another no risk option.

But God chooses to go for option c), an extremely high risk alternative. In option c), God creates highly intelligent, spiritual beings like himself - Free agents who can make real choices, just like he can. But the moment he gives them true freedom, he risks the possibility that they might choose to reject him. Now why on earth would God choose option c)? We wouldn’t expect him too, because he risks a world of pain if people rebel against him and each other? Why does he take the risk? What’s there to be gained by having free will?

The answer is “Love,”

That’s the Bible’s explanation. That’s why God puts himself and us through all the suffering

We can all agree that there is a direct link between free will and love - you can’t have one without the other. For example, just imagine you’re going for a walk in the park, and you see a couple arm in arm, obviously in love. They walk right past you on the path without even noticing you. They’re in a world of their own. Now as you look at them, you know that there wouldn’t be any pleasure in it for her, if she knew for a fact that he was being paid to be with her! The whole thrill of it for her is that they’ve chosen each other. He could have chosen someone else, but he chose her. That’s why love is exciting. You can’t have love without some degree of free choice.”

Robots can’t fall in love.

All we’re saying here is that if God is powerful enough to stop suffering and chooses not to, there must be a reason. There must be some reason why, in his opinion, it’s worth allowing suffering.

His reason is that he is love, and therefore, he wants there to be real love in the world, and because he wants real love, that means he’s got to give us freedom of choice.

Now here someone should ask quite rightly. “Hang on, if God’s all powerful, he could still jump in and prevent tragedies, like car accidents.”

But if God jumped in to prevent every accident, then everyone would drive as fast as possible down the middle of the road in the sure knowledge of never hitting anything.  We’ve got to think through the consequences of what we’re asking God to do. Every single time God steps in so that real choices don’t have consequences, he reduces our freedom until eventually he’ll end up having to jump in every other minute and we’re reduced to being robots again, with no free-will at all.

But we still feel that somehow this answer isn’t good enough. And that’s firstly, because, we’re still hurting. I’m not so silly as to think that anything written in a blog will take away the pain. And, secondly, we still want a world without suffering.

But are we really saying that the only deal we’ll accept from God is a world, where we can enjoy total freedom to do anything we want, but with no possibility of anyone ever suffering the consequences. Surely that’s like holding a gun to God’s head and saying ‘God, the only thing you can do to prevent me pulling the trigger is to create a round square’. Not even God can make a round square, not even God can make a world where we enjoy real freedom, but never suffer any of the consequences of our actions.

Or, am I really saying that, on balance, I’d honestly have preferred to be a machine? No, I wouldn’t. I want to be free.

And so much suffering is the result of human choice. We read about famine in Africa, and yet it’s said that there’s enough corn in the American state of Nebraska to feed every starving child in Africa. We read about violent crimes, murders and atrocities. All these things are the result of human choice. And so, once you accept that God has given people free will, it’s easy to understand how human evil follows.

What’s harder to explain are natural disasters. An event like the Boxing Day Tsunami in South East Asia. Here an earthquake was to blame. Surely here at least human beings were not at fault.

So how do you explain that one?

My approach when asked about the Tsunami, is to get into what earthquakes are and what role they play in supporting human life on this planet.

Now, of course, I wouldn’t do this with anyone who’s struggling emotionally with earthquakes. But if we’re sitting around discussing it dispassionately and we really want an explanation. Well that’s different.

I know we know all this, but the bottom line is that the Tsunami happened because our planet is made up of huge plates that grate against each other in a system of plate tectonics.

And if it weren’t for plate tectonics, we wouldn’t be here. We’d still have a water world. Without plate tectonics the continents would not have formed.

As you know, inside the earth you’ve got all this hot molten metal. It’s in the form of Nickel and Iron. That’s what makes the earth magnetic. Now we don’t have room to go into all the implications of the earth NOT being magnetic. I’m sure you’ll agree that the earth being magnetic is kind of essential. The easy bit to understand is this: if we’ve got to have all this hot molten metal stuff underneath us, then the laws of physics state that the crust which protects us from that heat beneath us 99.9 per cent of the time has got to have breaks in it. You’ve got to have breaks in the earth’s crust for the pressure to escape. So the fact that there are breaks, or faults, the fact that the continents do float on plates that rub against each other, is absolutely essential for the preservation of life on earth. Occasional earthquakes are therefore inevitable and in fact beneficial, because earthquakes ensure that the whole system can carry on, and that life on earth can carry on. You can’t have life on our planet without earthquakes.

Secondly, plate tectonics are crucial in the preservation of life on earth, because of the burial of material. Plate tectonics removes carbon dioxide and water from the atmosphere which compensates for the fact that the sun is getting brighter and brighter.

Thirdly, the level of Earthquake activity is fine-tuned. Fewer or more earthquakes would throw the whole balance of our planet off course. Amazingly, scientists also tell us that the earthquakes we have are just the right magnitude to make it ideal. It’s been 40 years since the last magnitude 9 earthquake. And in terms of the earth’s entire system, that’s about right. It’s similar to the amount of gravity on the earth, which is finely-tuned. More or less gravity would upset the balance.

So, again, even when studying earthquakes, we find that God has fine-tuned the earth’s system to preserve life on our planet.

But, we still wonder, couldn’t God have done something to warn people that that tidal wave was coming?

Well as I’m sure you know the technology is available. You see actually there is a Tsunami warning system off the West coast of the USA. The world’s richest nations could have given a Tsunami warning system as a gift to South East Asia. We could have afforded it. The South East Asian nations could have been humble enough to accept it. But that didn’t happen because of human decisions.

Nevertheless natural disasters still leave us with a feeling of shock and awe. They remind us of our mortality.

A second perspective on suffering is that

2. God sometimes works through suffering to bring about good.

At school I had a teacher called Mr Rosser used to listen to my complaints and then he’d say: “Holloway, life’s tough, rough and desperately unjust.”

But for some reason people think the Bible promises sweetness and light. In fact it promises us the opposite. So

God sometimes works through suffering:

a.) Pain: “God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world”

b.) It brings us to maturity

c.) Christians are in the vanguard of the fight against suffering

d.) We won’t always see what God is up to

a). CS Lewis said that pain is “God’s meagaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Numerous people become Christians as a result of suffering. Clearly in these circumstances the pain is worth the gain. Seventy years of suffering is outweighed by eternity in paradise. I’m sure that 100 per cent of those in heaven think the suffering was worth it. Given the opportunity, they’d sign on the dotted line to get the same deal, if it was offered to them again.

b).   It brings us to maturity

Let’s imagine that God kept every teenager in the world indoors on a Friday night because he wanted to protect them from the pain of hangovers and broken hearts. If he did, there’d be a global riot! Because people all over the world are grateful for the freedom to go out at the weekend. Perhaps equal doses of freedom and suffering are needed for us to become mature enough to enjoy life to the full.

It’s interesting to me that most Christians have had their faith strengthened by suffering.

If the fact of suffering was such a knock-out argument that it actually disproves the existence of a Christian God, then why don’t more Christians quit? Why does suffering seem to have the opposite effect?

c). Christians are in the vanguard of the fight against suffering

Christians are so often the driving force in aid agencies which are fighting to relieve suffering all round the world as even a casual glace through the history books will show.

d). We won’t always see what God is up to

Let me take an example from childhood. When I was a kid I thought the dentists’ was a torture chamber. All facemasks and needles. I was forced to go in there, then he held me down in the chair, and I screamed with pain as this man in a white coat drilled into me. The more I screamed the more I thought he was enjoying it. As far as I was concerned, he was attacking me. 

I had no idea that the pain was actually worth the gain. That’s because I had a kid’s perspective on pain. What if we’re like the kid, and God’s the dentist? For all we know, a loving God might allow some suffering because he’s actually doing us a favour.

Life can be like that, can’t it? I mean we’ve all gone through painful times, only to realise years later, looking back, that we’ve learned something good through it.”

 

3. God is not immune from suffering

But I wouldn’t want anyone to get the impression that Christians are trying to get God off the hook for suffering, because the fact is that God put himself on the hook. He put himself on the cross.

Have you ever heard the poem, “The Long Silence?”

The first time I heard this it sent shivers down the back of my spine. It goes like this . . .

“At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on a great plain before God’s throne.

Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly – not with cringing shame, but with belligerence.

“Can God judge us? How can he know about suffering?” snapped a young girl. She ripped open her sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. “We endured terror . . . beatings . . . torture and death,”

she said.

In another group, a young man lowered his collar. “What about this?” he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. “Lynched . . . for no crime but being black!”

In another crowd, a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. “Why should I suffer?” she murmured. “It wasn’t my fault.”

Far out across the plain there were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering he permitted in his world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.

So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a young black man, someone else from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the plain they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever.

Before God could be qualified to be their judge, he must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a man!

Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured, flogged, mocked, spat at. Then let him be totally alone, deserted, and then, in extreme agony, let him die.

As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled.

And when the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No-one uttered another word. No one moved. For suddenly all knew that God had already served his sentence.”

So the Christian answer to suffering is a person. It’s not really an answer as such. It’s Jesus. You see sometimes lots of words won’t help people. Ideas and concepts are not what they’re looking for, because they’ve got a personal problem, and therefore they need a personal answer. But as it happens, God is a someone, not a something. When we think of the worst moments of our lives, Jesus has been there. Are you broken? He was broken on the cross. Are you rejected by your friends? He was rejected. Are you hated for no good reason? He was hated for no good reason. When we cry out and complain that we can’t take it anymore, we can think of Jesus being killed on the cross, crying out ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’”

Jesus is more than an explanation, he’s a person.

If a great tragedy does happen to my family tomorrow, I don’t know if I’ll ever find, in this life, an adequate explanation for what happened. But I do believe God has left me with something more satisfying than an explanation. God has left me with Jesus.

Maybe when all’s said and done, something evil happened to you. And I know that nothing that’s posted on a blog will take away the pain. Certainly, something evil happened on a hill outside Jerusalem in about 33AD when Jesus was murdered. And God brought something beautiful out of that. God allowed the suffering of his own son, because he knew that through it something wonderful could be achieved. At the time, Jesus’ disciples thought it was a disaster. Their superhero had been executed, and all their hopes and dreams were in tatters. But they had no idea that through dying on the cross, Jesus was solving the biggest problem they had. He was solving the biggest problem I had, the problem of sin.

 

 

 

4. God more than compensates for our suffering

 

We have almost entirely lost the eternal perspective. Heaven changes everything. I’m sure we can all agree that 70 years of pain is a price worth paying if it’s followed by 70 million years of ecstacy.

To which, someone of course will reply, “but we can never know, in this life what’s beyond death.”

To which, of course the answer is, “yes, you’re quite right, we could never know, unless someone came back from the dead and told us.” Which is what Jesus has done.

Finally and in summary, we need to come back again to the Cross. For it is here that we begin to see why a God of love could allow suffering.

 

In the cross, we see how God could allow suffering . . .

1. First we see the results of human freedom.

2. Secondly, we see God working through suffering.

3. God is not immune from suffering. He suffered too.

4. God more than compensates for our suffering.

 

 

1. First we see the results of human freedom.

It was human decisions that put Jesus on the cross. The Sanhedrin deliberately denied Jesus a fair trial. And Pontius Pilate had Jesus flogged and crucified. So we see the results of human freedom in that evil decision.

 

2. Secondly, we see God working through suffering.

You see when Jesus was dying, God seemed to have deserted Jesus, but actually everything that happened on the day Jesus died was planned by God centuries before.

In the Old Testament, which was finished 400 years before Jesus was born, it’s predicted that:

• The Messiah would be betrayed by a friend, Judas, (Psalm 41:9)
• The Messiah would be struck and spat upon. (Isaiah 50:6)
• Also predicted was the price for which Judas would betray Jesus. Sold by 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12)
• In fact (Zech 11:13) rightly predicted that the money thrown into the house of the Lord and the same 30 pieces of silver used to buy a potter’s field.0
• And in (Psalm 34:20) it says that not a bone in the Messiah’s body would be broken
• In Psalm 22:17, it's predicted that the soldiers would cast lots for his clothing.

It was all planned. Jesus fulfilled 29 prophecies on the day he died. So clearly God was working through suffering.

3. God is not immune from suffering. He suffered too.

I think this is the most helpful thing of all. I’m excited about a God who can relate to what I’m going through. I am excited about a God who saw the drama of human suffering and jumped in and suffered too. I’m excited about a God who suffered with the worst of them.

 

4. God more than compensates for our suffering.

One day, you will say, it was worth it. One day you will look back through all the tears, the emotional pain, the relationship break ups, the physical pain, when we are in heaven, you and I will see that it was all worth it. God more than compensates for our suffering.

If you’d been there, nearly 2000 years ago, watching Jesus die on the cross, you might have thought “what a tragedy! Here’s this innocent man being murdered for absolutely no good reason.” But actually, that was God diving into human history in the shape of Jesus to suffer instead of us.

Jesus bore the penalty not of his sin, but of ours. Jesus came as a subsititute.

The Bible says that “For the joy set before him, Jesus, endured the cross.” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus did it for you. He was punished for your sin and my sin, so that you and I don’t have to suffer for our sin.

We were guilty but Jesus was punished. That’s how much God loves us.

The Bible says that: God so loved you that he gave his only Son that if you should believe in him, you won’t have to perish, but you can have eternal life.

You can have it, if you want it, but you do have to accept it. And that decision is up to you.

 

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