How Can A Good God Allow Suffering?

Introduction

1 Peter 1:3–9 (ESV) — 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:13(ESV) — 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:12–13 (ESV) — 12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

1 Peter 4:19 (ESV) — 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

How can a good God allow suffering?

This question poses perhaps the most difficult intellectual challenge to the Christian faith.

This is simply because it is the farthest reaching and deepest felt of all of the struggles one might have with the Christian faith.

ILLUST - While I may wrestle with the logical congruency of the dual natures of Christ in order to satisfy my intellect that I may find Christianity a coherent worldview, other people may not. Where others may wrestle with the “dark night of the soul” questioning if God really exists if he cannot be felt in any meaningful way, I may not.

However, I have not met a soul yet who has not, in some way and to some degree, been touched by evil in this world, both feeling the pain and asking a question similar to the one we are asking today — How can a good God allow suffering? It is asked by:

The one in the doctor’s office who hears, “It’s cancer”

The woman who has yet to become a mother after several miscarriages.

The family who lost everything in a house fire and now find themselves on the street.

It’s the wife who becomes a widow at 25, the parents who bury their child, the runner who becomes paralyzed, and the list continues.

Nothing new — Epicurus, ancient Greek philosopher of the 4th c.:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

— Epicurus

Habakkuk 1:13 (ESV) — 13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?

This question poses perhaps the most difficult intellectual challenge to the Christian faith.

But before you you begin to waver or question all you’ve learned about God, remember, that this is also the most difficult challenge to EVERY worldview / religion.

Every worldview / religion must account for the problem of evil and suffering.

While some worldviews may deny the existence of evil or diminish the seriousness of the issue, others (atheism) have no problem explaining why there is evil; however, they have no answer for how there can be any good.

Avowed atheist scientist, Richard Dawkins:

“Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous-indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose.”

(Richard Dawkins (1995). “River out of eden: a Darwinian view of life”, Basic Books (AZ))

Two issues that make up this question:

Issue of evil (theological)

Issue of suffering (pastoral)

This is why theology is important — it serves as foundation.

The Issue of Evil

(Theodicy)

There are essentially three tensions at play in regards to our question and they were expressed in the the question of Epicurus:

Origin and nature of evil (What is it?)

God’s greatness

God’s goodness

Many in an attempt to resolve the problem of evil have tried to redefine our understanding of one or all of these three areas:

Finitism - God is not all-powerful - it is as though there are two forces at play - goodness (God) and evil (Satan) and a great cosmic battle is ensuing. Sometimes God wins, sometimes Satan wins.

Open Theism - God is all-powerful, he just doesn’t know the future and is therefore unable to stop the evil though he is really good at cleaning up the mess on the other side.

Both of these limit God. Not only does this wreak havoc on the very definition of God itself, it is not what Scripture teaches:

God is all-powerful:

Deuteronomy 3:24 (ESV) — 24 ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours?

Jeremiah 32:27 (ESV) — 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?

Genesis 1:1 (ESV) — 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

God is all-knowing:

Psalm 139:1–4(ESV) — 1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

Isaiah 46:8–10 (ESV) — 8 “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, 9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

Some simply deny the reality of evil and suffering altogether. while others wish to give God a pass by simply saying that since he is the standard of all right and wrong, then whatever he does right even if we believe it to wrong. Whatever God decrees is right.

To a degree, that is true — We define morality — right and wrong — according to God’s standard, not ours. However, Scripture is clear that God is not capricious — saying one moment that something is just and right and shortly thereafter changing his mind because he’s the standard.

ILLUST — playing ‘made up’ games with my young kids — they (as the standard) change the rules in order to win.

None of these seem to solve the issue because:

When we look at Creation we can see God’s greatness

When we look to the cross we can see God’s goodness

While we can’t explain everything to resolve the tensions, we can at least say this:

Evil is a result of free will gone bad.

In order to allow for free will, God had to allow for evil.

Free will means we have the choice to not follow God.

Evil is a result of not following God.

Genesis 2:15–17 (ESV) — 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

“God, then, did not create sin [evil]. He merely provided the options necessary for human freedom, options that could result in sin.”

— Millard Erickson, Christian Theology.

The definition of evil is defined by God.

We recognize evil from God’s perspective.

Directly in the context of calling people to turn from evil and follow God, God says through Isaiah,

Isaiah 55:9 (ESV) — 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

ILLUST - My boys may truly believe that a straight diet of nothing but Takis is very good. However, I (and their doctor) would see Takis as evil — the devil’s fingers.

God is the standard

God sees the distance

ILLUST - I had to hold each one of our children as they received their immunizations shots as babies. I knew what was good for them in the long-term even though they did not like it in the present.

2 Corinthians 4:17 (ESV) — 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

God oversees the world

ILLUST - the bee on the beach - thought the water was terrible, I thought it was wonderful.

We release evil to God’s goodness.

Story of Joseph.

I don’t know about you, but after all that had happened, the years in captivity, slavery, and unfair punishment, I would have tattled once I had the opportunity to tell my dad!

Not Joseph.

Genesis 50:20 (ESV) — 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Romans 8:28 (ESV) — 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

“That’s great, Jason. Thanks for the theology lesson, but that doesn’t really help the hurt. I never asked for free will - certainly not the free will of the person who hurt me. God hasn’t allowed me to see things from his perspective — He’s not giving me much. ‘Release it to God’s goodness?’ What goodness? I forget what that is like.”

The Issue of Suffering

In the face of suffering, see the face of your Savior.

The face of Jesus lessons the force of suffering.

The grip of Jesus releases the grip of suffering.

The sufferings of Jesus allow for the redemption of yours.

Truth doesn’t cease to be the truth simply because something doesn’t seem to be true.

— Difficult statement because we generally operate with a correspondence theory of truth - Something is true only when it corresponds to reality.

— That is valid; however, there may be times when our perception of reality may be affected by something and so we have a faulty or incomplete view of the truth.

ILLUST - rolling forward in a car while car next to you rolls backward — you feel as though you are rolling one way when, in reality you are not. shifting your eyes to a different focus corrects your perception.

Suffering (While we may not know why the suffering, we DO know):

God is in control.

1 Peter 4:19 (ESV) — 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

God loves and cares about you and your suffering.

Mark 4:37–41 (ESV) — 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

If you are unsure if God loves and cares about you and your suffering, look to Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2–3 (ESV) — 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

God can redeem your suffering into something good.

What you meant for evil, God meant. . .

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

How could God possibly redeem my suffering? What good could possibly come from . . . ?

We are humbled by our sufferings.

Suffering causes us to lean into Christ.

Suffering matures our faith. (if we allow it)

James 1:2–4 (ESV) — 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

1 Peter 1:6–7 (ESV) — 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

For the Christian, suffering is always only temporary; for the unbeliever, it is always only the beginning.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time