To attempt to answer the question of why there is pain and suffering in the world and more personally within our individual lives we must first understand that this is often times a complex question which is difficult to answer in a short blog. Actually there have been many books written on this very subject and it is a question that is begging an answer. My concern with this blog is that people often misapply the existence of pain in suffering with a improper view towards God.
When dealing with the problem of pain, suffering, and evil there are several challenges that may occur in respect to how we see this in relationship to the presence or the existence of God and how He relates to us and our world. It calls to question His reality along with His sovereignty and His goodness. One thought that needs to be considered likewise is that if God exists and He permits suffering then does He likewise get any credit for permitting good?
From a biblical perspective, which is my approach to help solve this problem, evil is seen as a existing reality dating all the way back to the beginning of time. Along with evil are its companions of pain and suffering. If you study the creation account you will see that what God originally created was good and when He created mankind He gave Him the capacity to make choices and as you know anybody who has a choice therefore can have influence on their culture. This influence of course resulted in mankind ultimately rejecting God’s goodness thus resulting in a curse upon himself and all of creation. As a part of this curse it led all of mankind into a natural ability to alienate himself from God. Also along with mankind’s contribution to the plot of evil their is likewise another enemy namely the Devil. He is a evil adversary in rebellion to God who works in opposition to the goodness of God and His creation. He is seen as a spiritual counterpart to God along with his demonic cohorts and even though they may not be seen with the naked or natural eye they are nevertheless a present and a active reality in our world creating havoc upon mankind and nature. When the demonic and the human element acting as enemies of God are joined together harmoniously they have a synergistic effect leading to the greatest depths of human depravity and wickedness.
Along side all of this it is obvious that God in His sovereignty allows for free will at least for a season. One interesting aspect or attribute about God is that He is seen as the eternal judge that is just. There will be accountability for the evil doers of society in God’s future impending judgment towards mankind concerning the acts of men whereby we have to give an account for our deeds. So anyway simply speaking God judges mankind based on his decisions to act as a free moral agent and the responsibility of living life under submission to God or in rebellion to Him. So God’s sovereignty in judgement will be exercised fully if not in this life than in the life to come.
One thing we must look at in dealing with this problem of evil and pain/suffering in regards to questioning God existence in His sovereignty and goodness begins first with a question concerning ourselves. This question if taken as a fair evaluation of our own lives which will lead us down the path of asking ourselves if we personally have created any evil in our own lives? Have we violated others or God at any time to any degree? Are we innocent? Are we strictly the victim or are we also the perpetrators of sin crimes. What have we done to help eliminate suffering in our world? The bible refers to the ten commandments of God and on this level all people have sinned against man or God to some degree. Therefore we are all responsible for this curse or grief that we see in our world.
Lastly but not least we must see that God himself through the person of Jesus allowed Himself to feel the pain in the suffering of humanity by placing himself on a human instrument of torture namely the cross. The prophet Isaiah says that Jesus was a man of sorrows and was acquainted with grief. Interestingly enough God subjected himself willfully to the human element of pain and suffering stating that He suffered with us. His pain led ultimately to our gain because he satisfied the just and righteous judgment of God by taking His life as a ransom on behalf of our sinful lives in which we were to be held as guilty before a Holy and supreme judge in the courts of heaven. Even though we were enemies He died for us reconciling us to God and one another and it was strictly an act of His mercy and grace to undeserving creatures. A person must evaluate from this that God is both good and sovereign in the face of evil and that there is no conflict.
Whatever our viewpoint is on the matter. This good God will give us a new heaven and a new earth and he will someday put away all pain, suffering ,and sorrow resulting in ultimate peace. Of course it is obvious that this dispensation in time has not occurred yet but nevertheless it is our hope and it is on the upcoming horizon. One thing we can secure now and today is that God can change our sinful hearts when we submit to His will in accepting Christ as our Lord and Saviour. When He changes our hearts then the curse is reversed in our own personal lives and God produces within us His righteousness even to the point that by his grace we can even love our enemies.
I support a group called Voice of the Martyr’s and based on statistics there are over 300,000 Christians who suffer for their faith yearly. Now a Martyr is not necessarily someone who dies for the faith alone but rather it includes anyone who suffers inhumanely for their faith. This can be loss of job, family, home, physical and emotional torture etc., etc. There only crime is that they are Christians living in a hostile world of people who are intolerant to their beliefs. Now many of the things that had went on in Catholicism were of the same measure of persecuting others as well such as the Crusades and the Inquisition. Yet Christ never said anything about fighting for His kingdom in this manner and even said that we as His disciples should love our enemies and turn the other cheek. So those who make claims to Christ but behave hostile like the world are not truly His followers. As a matter of fact many of these Martyrs that have been violated forgive and prayer for their persecutors.
Anyway we might question the length and breadth of suffering in this world yet in regards to eternity it is only momentary and fleeting. The Bible calls the duration of human life as a vapor of smoke. The Apostle Paul said that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us a eternal glory that far outweigh them all. Yet his credentials of suffering surpass most peoples in that he was imprisoned frequently, 5 times was he flogged, 3 times beaten with rods, once stoned, and was shipwrecked 3 times. He was in danger most of the time during his missionary journeys when he was promoting the welfare of others. Reminds me of the humanitarian helps that are contributed largely through the church and without the influence of God or Christ in their hearts these helps would not exist for our world today. This isn’t about favors for conversions either. I gave up a job making 70,000 a year along with my retirement in order to volunteer in a food and clothing distribution center in Tel Aviv Israel and many people did not come to Christ but we continued to share and serve anyway.
Finally sometimes pain and suffering can produce a redemptive act of goodness. There are too many examples to explain this but the one that I often think about is the placement of a stop sign after there has been an accident. Unfortunately someone had to suffer for the sake of another and yet this sounds so much like what God did for us in allowing his Son to suffer on our behalf whereby we have now become the benefactors.
Anyway if after all of this it still doesn’t make sense then all we can do is trust God. It’s kind of when we were little and we didn’t understand things about life but we always looked to our parents to provide us with a sense of love and security anyways. That is what God want us to do with Him in the midst of our crisis. Even if we had a answer to every question would that be enough then to solve it. God is not concerned about our intellect as he is our hearts for therein lies the key to the dilemma. Let’s simply trust God together.
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I really liked this post. Can I copy it to my site? Thank you in advance.
Sure.
You you could change the post name Pain and Suffering blogforjesus to more better for your content you create. I loved the the writing all the same.