Suffering 20
Any study of suffering must include an
examination of the problem of evil and suffering. Loosely defined, this is the
atheistic attack upon the existence or power of God. “If an all-powerful god
exists and he refuses to stop suffering he is a lousy god. If god exists and he
cannot stop suffering he is a lousy god. Ergo, he is either a lousy god, or,
more realistically, there obviously isn’t one.”
Curiously enough, the shoe is on the
other foot. The problem of evil/suffering does not prove the non-existence of
God, and if you attempt to make it do so your conundrums are deeper than the
Christian’s difficulties.
When you assert that God does not exist
then there is no absolute standard of morality. If there is no absolute
standard of morality then there is no right and wrong, no good and evil. This
is the atheist position, but it makes him extremely uncomfortable because there
is blatant evil in the world. Put another way round, atheism is intellectually
self-defeating. When the atheist asks you to account for the existence of
evil/suffering ask him to account for it first. We can, in our worldview; he
utterly cannot.
Having asserted we as Christians can do so
it begs the question how. We rejected the answers offered last week, but what
are the good answers?
First, I would point you backward in this
series. I do not accept that we do not know why God allows suffering. The Bible
is the revelation of God. It shows us Who God is. It also shows us why God
operates the way He operates. I have already offered you five of those answers
in this series: 1) to glorify Himself, 2) to be consistent in allowing us the exercise of free will, 3) to create good, 4) to judge evil and provide consequence, and 5) to grow us into the image of Christ.
The second answer I would offer to the
problem of evil/suffering is that God actually is restraining most of the
evil/suffering right now. Was 9/11 a tragedy? Yes, a horrific one. Nearly 3,000
people lost their lives, and the resulting waves of suffering extending outward
from that are enormous. Yet nearly 50,000 people worked in that complex on a
daily basis. That equals a restraining rate, for lack of a better term, of
ninety-four percent. And how many 9/11s have their been in my lifetime?
I believe God actively restrains much of
the evil and suffering that would otherwise go on in a world occupied by fallen
natures, men given over to evil egged on by demonic hatred. If you do not
believe me just go read the book of Revelation. Much of it is about the
Tribulation period on Earth, a short span of years marked by mind-boggling
catastrophe. Yes, some of it is the direct judgment of God on man, but much of
it is simply man’s nature now entirely unrestrained by the Holy Spirit. (II
Thessalonians 2.7)
Even on a personal level, God actively
restrains the vast majority of evil/suffering in our lives. The concept of a
guardian angel is scriptural, as seen in Matthew 18, Psalm 91, and Daniel
10, amongst others. We literally have no idea of how much harm God has
prevented, a realization driven home occasionally by some close brush with
death, and by a simple reading about Elisha’s protective angelic army in II
Kings 6.
The third answer I would offer to the
problem of evil/suffering is this: if God always intervened miraculously and
immediately faith could not exist.
People like to think miracles produce
faith. The opposite is true, as evidenced clearly in the life of Christ.
Miracles authenticate the messenger, but they often produce both opposition and
apathy. After all, if miracles produce faith why did God take away the sign
gifts? Because faith is not developed via miracles; faith is developed by the
Word of God. (Romans 10.17). His Word is enough and needs to be enough.
We dare not come to the place where we expect God to do something miraculous every time we are hungry. We are supposed to pray humbly for God to provide while we work as hard as we can at that provision. If that provision was abundant and painless to obtain would the result be more faith? Absolutely not.
Luke 12.16–19 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
The dependence on God we call faith or
trust implicitly involves doubt and struggle. If you take away evil whole
cloth, if you remove suffering from this world, there is precious little
difficulty left to force us to learn to trust in God. If life always runs
smoothly with zero suffering we would never come to cast our all desperately
upon the Lord. Faith is not faith if it is not faith in the dark.
The fourth helpful answer I have found to the problem of evil/suffering is similar to the third one. If God always intervened miraculously and immediately gratitude and praise could not exist.
Psalm 40.1–3 I waited patiently for the LORD; And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
We praise Him because He saved us, but
if there was no evil we would not have needed to be rescued from anything. I
thank God vocally several times a week for allowing me to live and pastor in
the peaceful environment of Dubuque. Yet would I have such a fervent gratitude
for this place if I had not spent sixteen years in the gritty urban heart of a
city of millions? Every week, as I meet with our men to pray on Wednesday
mornings, unbidden will come to me a gratitude to the Lord for a unified
church. Yet would I have such a grateful spirit if I had not endured a years
long poisonous atmosphere and down-right vicious church split as a teenager?
Each Sunday night as I drive home from church I thank God yet again for the
physical strength to get through the day. Yet would I express such thanks as readily if He had not allowed me to be laid so low so often with Meniere’s
Disease?
What would I praise and thank Him for
if everything in my life had always been peaches and cream? No, beloved, no.
The simple truth is we would have no real sense of the loving kindness of a
good God if we had not also tasted the pain, suffering, trial, and struggle
that preceded it.
Lastly in progression allow me offer
you this thought: none of us would survive a moment in a world in which God
punished evil immediately and totally.
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| The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah John Martin, 1852 |
There is a word for immediate and
total justice – hell. The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6.23)
I, for one, am grateful for a
longsuffering God, for a God who is rich in patience and mercy. That means He lets
me sin. Since suffering is loss and loss is always tied to sin my sin will
produce suffering for someone somewhere.
Could God stop it? Yes, He is not limited
in power. Does God know about it? Yes, He is not limited in knowledge. Does
this mean God is not good? Of course not, it is proof of His goodness. Does
this mean God does not love us? Of course not, it is proof of His love for us.
Does this mean He does not exist? Not in the least. It proves He is consistent,
good, merciful, wise, patient, and powerful.
The existence of evil and suffering do not
prove the impotence of God or the absence of God at all. They show the
greatness of God.
…and that is the right answer.
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