Why Does God Allow Pain And Suffering?
Originally published in the Carolina Messenger.
The problem of pain and suffering is, for some people, their biggest obstacle to believing in God. Their thinking goes something like this: if God is completely good, knows everything, and is all powerful – then why is there so much evil, pain, and suffering in this world? Is God unwilling to prevent suffering? Does He not know about all the suffering in this world? Or is He just powerless to prevent it from happening? Some consider these things and conclude, “God cannot exist. At least, a totally good, all-knowing, all-powerful God cannot exist.”
In this article, we will think about the pain and suffering in this world and consider why God allows pain and suffering to exist. As it turns out, pain and suffering aren’t evidence against God, but are actually evidence for God.
Pain And Suffering Are Real
All you have to do to confirm the existence of pain and suffering is turn on the news, open the newspaper, drive to the poorest, crime-plagued section of town, or walk next door to the nursing home. For some, you don’t even have to leave your home – you are intimately familiar with pain and suffering inside the walls of your own house.
I make this point because sometimes we get all scholarly in our discussions and arguments and forget that real people have real problems. There is no sugar-coating the existence of pain and suffering in this world. It’s real and it’s absolutely horrifying. Even biblical writers cried out to God about their pain and suffering (Ps. 40:12; Jer. 15:18).
However, Pain And Suffering Aren’t Evidence Against God
In J. L. Mackie’s book, The Miracle of Theism, he made the following case against God, which was summarized by Daniel Howard-Snyder in Reason for the Hope Within:
“If a good and powerful God exists, he would not allow pointless evil, but because there is much unjustifiable, pointless evil in the world, the traditional good and powerful God could not exist. Some other god or no god may exist, but not the traditional God.”
Timothy Keller pointed out the flaw in Mackie’s reasoning:
“Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one…We see lurking within supposedly hard-nosed skepticism an enormous faith in one’s own cognitive faculties. If our minds can’t plumb the depths of the universe for good answers to suffering, well, then, there can’t be any! This is blind faith of a high order” (Keller, The Reason for God, 23-24).
Have you ever gone through a period of suffering in your life that, looking back, you realize it benefited you in some way? I tore one of my ACL’s in high school that resulted in six months of therapy and rehabilitation after surgery. While this was quite an inconvenient and painful time for me, looking back, I realize that my injury has helped me to be more patient and sympathetic with others who are suffering from some injury.
If we can see some of the benefits that come from our suffering, could it be possible that from God’s viewpoint there are good reasons or long-term benefits to all suffering? Even the psalmist acknowledged that suffering has its benefits: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes” (Ps. 119:71).
“If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn’t stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can’t know” (Keller, The Reason for God, 25).
Pain And Suffering Are Actually Evidence For God?
What if I told you that pain and suffering, rather than being evidence against God’s existence, were actually evidence for His existence? C. S. Lewis pointed this out:
“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too – for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies… Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple” (Lewis, Mere Christianity, 38-39).
On what basis do we place our belief that people ought not suffer? If there is no objective standard of right and wrong (which would point to God), then what is the basis for suffering being unjust and evil? As it turns out, pain, suffering, and evil being truly unjust in this world points to the existence of an objective, unchanging standard of right and wrong – which points to the existence of God.
Someone might respond at this point, “Ok fine, so pain and suffering don’t disprove the existence of God. But I’m still angry about it! And it still doesn’t seem like God cares very much about stopping it all!” This is where the gospel story gives us an entirely different picture of God than the one you might have at this moment.
God Takes Pain And Suffering Seriously
Isaiah described Jesus as “The Suffering Servant” who “has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Is. 53:4). Peter wrote that Jesus “suffered for us” and died in our place (1 Pet. 2:21-24). Psalm 22 prophesied of the brutal suffering Jesus would face on the cross. Luke said Jesus was “in agony” while He prayed to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest and crucifixion (Lk. 22:41-44).
While we may not always have the answer to the question, “Why does God allow pain and suffering?” – we do know that it’s not because He doesn’t care. It’s not because He doesn’t love us (Rom. 5:6-9). Jesus is “God with us” (Matt. 1:23), even in our pain and suffering.
The Hope Of The Resurrection
God doesn’t just demonstrate His love for us in our pain and suffering. He’s promised that He’s going to do something about it. God promises to end all pain and suffering through His Son who died on the cross and was raised from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20-26). At the resurrection, Paul told the Christians in Corinth that we will be raised “incorruptible” and “immortal” and given the victory over death and its sting through “our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:50-57). The eternal home with God (John 14:1-4) will be a place without all the pain and suffering we knew in this life (Rev. 21:4). What a glorious, hope-filled future those in Christ Jesus have!
Conclusion
Some look at all the pain and suffering in this world and think, “God can’t exist.” Yet pain and suffering aren’t evidence against God; the fact that pain and suffering can truly be unjust point to God’s existence.
Some might then wonder, “What is God doing about all the pain and suffering? It doesn’t seem like He’s doing anything about it!” That’s where the gospel of Christ enters the picture to show us that God has in the past, is currently in the present, and will finally in the future “do something” about pain and suffering.
Thanks to
for asking me to write this article and allowing me to republish it here. It was originally published in The Carolina Messenger.
Poor atheists! They could believe in God, if ONLY He would be reasonable enough to conform to their requirements! (Sarcasm alert...)
This article is outstanding! One of my favorite passages is Romans 5:1-5 especially the part where perseverance leads to character which then leads to hope. This was my experience after years of struggling with losing my mother in a car accident 16 years ago when I was just 20 years old. I struggled with this problem of pain and turned it over in my head countless times. I probably never would have became a Christian if I had not wrestled with this and then finally after reading CS Lewis it clicked.