‘How can a loving God allow so much
suffering in the World?’
As
Christ-followers, we need to be ready to answer difficult questions about our
faith. The following are some suggestions along these lines.
Suffering
means to undergo pain, grief, damage, or loss. Pain has been defined as,
“The feelings that you have in your body
when you have been hurt or when you are ill.”[1]
The
first mention of suffering in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 3; when Adam and
Eve ate the forbidden fruit and consequently sinned. God said to Eve in verse
16
“You will bear children with intense pain
and suffering…”
This indicates to us that right from the beginning of time that people have endured suffering and the effect it has on our lives. People may experience many types of pain including mental suffering, emotional and psychological suffering, physical suffering, and spiritual suffering.
What is Pain?
It
has been said that,
“In our normal development, our nervous
system becomes wired and develops the ability to transmit pain as a warning signal
symptom. that helps to protect us by giving us an opportunity to withdraw from
potentially harmful situations.”[2]
Put your hand on a stove, and the pain forces you to pull away, thus protecting you. It is designed for survival. What sort of a world would we be living in if there was no pain? What kind of humanity would come out of a world without hunger, thirst, excessive heat and cold?
Is all pain and suffering ‘bad’? What would this world
be like if there was no suffering or pain?
Take a moment to imagine a painless world. In such a world, immoral acts would not have harmful consequences. You could punch someone in the head, and even though it may have been done in anger, there would be no response, hence no consequences. In such a world, there would be no moral compass, to act wrongly means to hurt someone or God. Subsequently, if there were no pain, then there would be no consequences for sin. Love, which we usually define as fidelity, during a struggle and sacrifice, would have no meaning. I am not suggesting that all pain is good, but I am also saying that it does not all have to be bad either. Without it, our lives would be open to abuse and horrible decay.
Why does God allow
suffering?
This
one question can be the beginning of a snowball effect and grow into many more
questions. “If God is good, then why is He allowing evil to continue in the
world”? “If God is all-powerful then why doesn’t he stop suffering and pain”?
Does God tolerate evil?” “How can God let innocent people suffer”? I want to
point out that the Bible declares that the Judge of all the earth is always
right (Gen 18:25). Just as Moses sings in Deut 32:4
“the Rock, His works are perfect, and
all His ways are just.”
He is a “faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He.” God never does evil and can never be evil.
Free Will
It
is important to remember that God did not create people to be robots. He
created human beings with free will. Although some pain might be to protect us,
some suffering is a direct result of sin in the world. On this, it has been
said,
“It is men, not God, who have produced racks, whips, prisons, slavery, guns, bayonets and bombs; it is by human avarice or human stupidity not the churlishness of nature that we have poverty and overwork.[3]
Can
suffering bring good?
Suffering sometimes motivates people to seek God. David is an excellent example of this; the Psalms are full of him crying out and drawing near to God. As you draw closer to God, you also understand Him better. Sometimes we forget God until we are suffering.
Concluding thoughts
In closing, I think the following quote can help us
see pain in a different light. That is,
“Imagine yourself as a living
house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can
understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the
leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you
are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way
that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is he
up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the
one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor
there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made
into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come
and live in it himself.”[4]
[1] ‘Pain.” https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/pain_1
(16th August 2020).
[2] Ray,
Albert L. Neuroplasticity, Sensitization and Pain: Neuroplasticity in Pain – Eudynia: The ‘Good.” In
Treatment of Chronic Pain by Integrative Approaches: the AMERICAN ACADEMY of
PAIN MEDICINE: Textbook on Patient Management. Timothy R. Deer, Michael S.
Leong, and Albert L. Ray. (eds). (New York, NY: Springer, 2015), 15.
[3] Lewis,
C.S. The Problem of Pain. (Great Britain: William Collins Sons & Co.,
1983), 77.
[4] Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity.
(San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2001), 205
No comments:
Post a Comment