May. 29, 2006 - The Problem of Suffering

Posted in Problem of Suffering

The Problem of Suffering

Intro:

1. Tragedy is constantly in the news. Every generation has its fair share of natural and unnatural disasters. We deal with emotional and physical suffering on a day-to-day basis, the innocent and the guilty, the young and the old, Christian and non-Christian alike. Grief, pain, heartache, disappointments, trials and tribulations, death and disease—are all a part of our existence.
2. Many through the ages have abandoned their belief in God because of the presence of evil, suffering, and death. In 1851, Charles Darwin rejected Christianity after the death of his daughter. Similar stories can be told of Mark Twain, Ted Turner, and on and on.
3. Many people choose not to believe in God because of the existence of suffering; it is one of the atheist’s favorite arguments against belief. 
   1. Their argument goes something like this: If God cannot stop suffering then He is not all-powerful. If God will not stop suffering then He is not all-loving.
   2. Here is a quote from H. J. McCloskey: “Evil is a problem for the theist in that a contradiction is involved in the fact of evil on the one hand, and the belief in the omnipotence and perfection of God on the other. God cannot be both all-powerful and perfectly good if evil is real.”
4. So, how do Christians reconcile the existence of suffering with the existence of an omnipotent and all-loving God? How can there be a loving God in charge of a universe full of sin, suffering, and death?
   1. First of all, such a statement recognizes the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. If God does not exist and we are here as a blind cosmic accident, then there is no such thing as right and wrong. It would be no more wrong for the innocent to suffer than for the ice to melt or the sun to burn. To use this argument is to admit that life is something special and that there is a standard of right and wrong, of good and evil.
   2. Second, we must get our answers from the Bible. 
      1. We can sit here all day and come up with hypothetical situations and “what if” arguments, but that doesn’t prove anything. Their problem is reconciling what the Bible says about God with what they see in the world. So the Bible is where we must go. 
      2. And the fact of the matter is, the Bible definitely affirms that God is all-powerful (Jer. 32:17; Lk. 1:37) and all-good and all-loving (Mark 10:18; 1 Jn. 4:8, 16) and that suffering definitely exists. The Bible never denies the existence of suffering or says something to the effect that only evil people suffer. What the Bible does however, is tell us how evil, suffering, and death came into the world and of the ultimate victory over it. But it has no problem reconciling the existence of God with suffering, and neither should we.

I.  The Cursed Earth

1. Let’s take a look at Genesis 1. On the sixth day of the creation week, after God had created the land animals, we find verses 26-31. Read.
   1. First of all, we see that God made man in His image. I don’t think that means God has ten fingers and ten toes, but rather that He gave us an eternal spirit with free moral agency (unlike the animals that act mostly out of instinct).
   2. Second, we see that people and animals only ate plants, not other animals. The carnivorous part of the present "food chain" didn’t exist. There were no animals to rip you apart in this “very good” creation; lions, bears, crocodiles, and T. Rex ate squash for dinner (yes, dinosaurs were made on day six along with all the other land animals, and yes, man subdued them the same as they do with elephants and killer whales today). 
   3. Also, we learn later that man had access to the tree of life which would allow him to live forever. It was definitely “very good” at this time.
2. Now, let’s look at Genesis 2:15-17. Read.
   1. God gave Adam an instruction to obey and told him the consequences of disobeying (you will notice that God allowed the maximum and forbade the minimum). Now, whether He was speaking of spiritual death or physical death from that day forward, they are both true.
   2. Some people ask, “Why did God make man with the ability to sin?” 
      1. Well, God had only two choices: make man with free moral agency or make man without free moral agency. And God decided not to make man a puppet or robot; we have the ability to choose and make decisions, either right or wrong. God could have forced man to love and obey Him, but it is His love and goodness that caused Him to create man with free-choice, with the ability to choose sin and reject Him if they want to. Because this is true, when man chooses to love God and obey Him, it has a real and deep significance. Forced love is not true love; it’s not genuine.
      2. As David Lipe has said, “To bring into existence a being who would love and obey God, Jehovah also had to give man the freedom to hate and disobey Him. God wants man to love and obey Him as a result of free choice.” 
3. Turn now to Genesis 3:12-19. As you know, Satan (taking the form of a serpent) tempted Eve and she ate from the forbidden tree and gave some to Adam, who also ate. Let’s look at what happened after God confronted them. Read.
1. This was the saddest day in the history of the world.
   1. God changed the serpent (I think as a visual reminder to us that Satan is still out there). He changed childbirth, the ground, and brought in physical death to man. It could also be at this time that He changed the animals (that had previously only eaten plants): creatures given teeth and claws designed to rend flesh, venom to paralyze, mouths to suck blood, coils to constrict, expandable jaws to swallow prey, etc. 
   2. As a result of God’s judgment on sin, I think God has given us a taste of existence without Him—a world full of violence, death, suffering, and disease. Dangerous weather patterns and natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis should remind us that we no longer live in the Garden of Eden. It is a cursed earth and bad things are supposed to happen. Rom. 8:20-21 says that the creation was “subjected to futility” by God, and talks about its “slavery to corruption.” 
2. You may be thinking, “Well, why am I being punished for what Adam did?” Because if you were in that circumstance, you would have done the same thing. God could have killed them and started over, but the results would have been the same. How do I know? Because every single person since that time has sinned; Cain killed Abel, and keep going right on down the line (Rom. 3:10, 23); the only exception is Jesus Christ. And so God let Adam simply represent mankind (Rom. 5:12). This planet has been subject to suffering as a consequence of man’s sin. God cursed it, but sin is responsible. When we suffer, it ought to be a sober reminder of how terrible sin is. We all choose to sin and see the results of what sin did to the earth every day. Instead of blaming God, we need to be saying, “Wretched man that I am!”
3. But we can also see from this section that hope was given. 
   1. Verse 15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he [not they] shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel [A minor wound compared to a crushing blow].” I believe this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ; the rest of the Bible follows the seed line down to Him. 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”
   2. People who accuse God of sitting back and doing nothing are desperately wrong. The Son of God stepped into this cursed earth, became a man and endured both suffering and a horrible death on our behalf—to pay the penalty for sin. Unless God intervened, we all would have spent an eternity in suffering and separation from Him. God could have abandoned us to our own sinful devices, but He didn’t. 1 John 4:9-10 says, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” There is your God of love.
   3. God is all-good, and all powerful, and yes, there is an abundance of suffering in the world. The ultimate cause is sin and God has done something about this sin problem.
   4. In Rev. 22, it speaks of when we will be with God again and symbolically of having access to the tree of life again (Rev. 22:2, 14). It also says that “there shall no longer be any curse” (Rev. 22:3). As it has been said, “A man going to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lost mankind’s access to the tree of life. A man going to the tree of Calvary gave it back.”
   5. 1 Cor. 15:21-22, “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.”
      

II.  Reasons Why We Suffer In This Cursed Earth

1. The Natural Laws God Set Up. Combined with a cursed earth, this can cause some suffering.
   1. Take a look at Luke 13:1-5. We can see what Jesus said after being told about some suffering. Read. 
      1. We’ll talk about the first incident later, but I want us to focus on the tower. 
      2. Did they die because they were more wicked or more deserving of death than the others around them? No, they died because of natural laws that were in effect (thermodynamics and gravity).
   2. As we look at the universe, we see a system composed of law and order. 
      1. Everyone (Christian or non-Christian) must respect the laws of nature or else suffer the consequences.
         1. If you step off a roof, gravity will pull you to the ground below.
         2. If you step in front of a moving train, the laws of motion will keep that train moving and two objects cannot occupy the same place at the same time.
      2. The same laws that make it possible to have things constructive to human life also introduce the possibility of things that are destructive to human life.
         1. The same principle that enable you to have fire for cooking and heating your house also enables you to have fire that can burn down your house with your family still in it.
         2. The ability to make steel which is great for building so many useful things can also be used for making guns and tanks that destroy things.
         3. The law of gravity is a wonderful and necessary thing, but it can also bring tragedy, misfortune, and death.
   3. Someone may say, “Well, why doesn’t God just suspend these laws when a human encounters a life-threatening situation or one that could cause suffering?”
      1. Because this would cause chaos and confusion all over the planet. Can you image being left to sort out some kind of random and haphazard system that works one day, but not the next? 
      2. Fortunately, the laws of nature are constant so that we can study and benefit from them.
         
         
2. Our Own Actions. Some of the pain and suffering that we experience in this world is our own fault.
   1. Peter said, “For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?” (1 Pet. 2:20). And, “By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler...” (1 Pet. 4:15).
   2. Actions have consequences.
      1. The young man who decides to “sow his wild oats” will eventually learn that every person reaps what he sows (Gal. 6:7). Look at the pain the prodigal son caused himself.
      2. We have that saying that was popularized in the 1930's radio drama “The Shadow”: “Crime doesn’t pay!” Besides having to constantly be looking over their shoulders, criminals will eventually be caught and punished; that is if other criminals don’t kill them first.
      3. People who pursue a lifestyle of substance abuse or illicit sexual behavior will eventually pay the price in their own bodies.
      4. And on and on. Actions have consequences!
   3. When God made man a creature of freedom, He opened the door to suffering. How could it be any other way? You choose to do something foolish and you will often suffer.
      
      
3. Others' Actions. Some of our suffering is a direct result of other’s misuse of the freedom of choice.
   1. This brings us back to the passage we looked at in Luke 13. Pilate had killed those Galileans and Jesus said it was not because they were greater sinners than other Galileans. They suffered at the hands of Pilate. Those New Yorkers in the Twin Towers were probably not any more wicked than all other New Yorkers; they suffered at the hands of Ben Laden.
   2. We see this all throughout the Bible.
      1. Cain killed Abel.
      2. Laban deceived Jacob.
      3. Joseph’s brothers sold him.
      4. Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites.
      5. And on and on.
   3. In fact, as a Christian, suffering at the hands of others is expected. Paul told Timothy, “...indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).
   4. Suffering in this world is often caused because of other’s actions.
      1. Your mother decides to engage in substance abuse while she is pregnant with you.
      2. The drunk person decides to drive on your street.
      3. The poor person decides to steal from your house.
      4. The terrorist decides to target your workplace.
      5. The cruel dictator decides on the genocide of your people.
   5. When God decided that men should live together upon the earth, it was inevitable that suffering would come about as a result (just remember that living together also brings many of the most cherished blessings that we enjoy).
      
      
4. Training and Discipline. It has been said, “People are like diamonds, they must be treated roughly in order to make them shine.”
   1. Look at Hebrews 12:4-13. Read. 
      1. God is not portrayed in the Scriptures as a soft, doting Grandfather with one eye shut, but as a Father. And a father’s loving care involves discipline.
      2. Now, I don’t pretend to understand exactly how and when God does this. Each person is going to need discipline in different ways. It may come in the form of a loss or a trial, but it is definitely not pleasant at the time.
      3. Now, when our parents disciplined us, they did their best all right, but they were not perfect and made some mistakes in their discipline. God, on the other hand, is the “Father of spirits” who does not make mistakes. He truly disciplines us for our good in order to make us holy.
   2. Now listen to what Paul had to say in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Read.
      1. You see, God cannot use us with pride.
      2. Look at that statement, “...for power is perfected in weakness.” It was Paul’s weakness that made him such an excellent tool for the Lord.
   3. I read about a man who blamed God and missed three months of church because a drought destroyed his crops. The preacher came to him and said, “God knows that, while it is impossible to grow good grain with a drought, it is also impossible to grow good men without a drought. God’s object is to grow men, not grain.”
   4. Suffering and tragedy can help humans develop some of the most treasured traits known to mankind like bravery, heroism, altruistic love, patience, self-sacrifice, etc. There are certain qualities that we simply cannot possess in the absence of hardship and suffering.
   5. I think the saying is true, “There is no greater education than matriculating through the University of Hard Knocks.”
   6. “I walked a mile with Pleasure
      She chatted all the way,
      But left me none the wiser
      For all she had to say.
      I walked a mile with Sorrow
      And ne’er a word said she
      But oh, the things I learned from he
      When Sorrow walked with me!” –Robert Browning
   7. If God removed suffering, He would rob us of the means of developing strength of character. While no one likes or actively seeks suffering in this life, honesty compels us to admit that suffering and hardships really do have great value.
      1. Suffering can humble us (2 Cor. 12:7). As we have seen with Paul.
      2. Suffering can keep us from becoming too strongly attached to this material realm (2 Cor. 5:1-4). We are just pilgrims and sojourners while here on earth (1 Pet. 2:11).
      3. Suffering can lead us into a better prayer life and a deeper dependence on God (Psa. 18:6). The man who spends some time on his back in a hospital room often sees things in a clearer light.
      4. Suffering can help us to feel empathy and gives us the ability to comfort others (2 Cor. 1:3-7) and weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). It has been said, “People who have endured hardship are God’s healing messengers when others experience the same.”
      5. Suffering can remind us of the eternal separation from God (Matt. 13:42). The pain and suffering the non-Christian endures today is nothing next to what he will suffer when God has given him what he has asked for: existence completely away from His presence.
      6. And I’m sure you can think of others. Like the simple fact that it helps us to recognize and appreciate the times when there is no suffering. The rough roads just cause us to appreciate the smooth ones.
   8. When seen from the Bible’s viewpoint and perspective, suffering is often a good thing that is preparing us for eternity. As the Psalmist said, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Thy statutes” (Psa. 119:71).
      
      
5. To Test Our Genuineness. It’s much easier to say and do what is right in the absence of trouble.
   1. The book of Job is a perfect example of this testing. Satan believed that the “blameless and upright” Job would curse God if he was put through the test of suffering, and so God stood back and allowed Satan to take away his property, his children, and his health. In James 5, we read, “As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful” (James 5:10-11). Job passed the test and so the Lord blessed him greatly.
   2. Moses told the Israelites, “And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deut. 8:2).
   3. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved [the NASB text note says, ‘passed the test’], he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
   4. In trials we prove to others, to God, and to ourselves that we are genuine, that we are the good soil and not the rocky or thorny soil (Mark 4:16-20).
      
      
6. We Cannot Know The Reason
   1. The Lord had reasons for allowing Job’s suffering, but He never told Job these reasons. Job wanted to know why these things were happening to him, but God demanded that Job not question the decisions of his Maker. After God corrected him, Job ending up saying, “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to Thee? I lay my hand on my mouth” (Job 40:4) and “...I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). It is not always for us to know.
   2. In John 9, Jesus and His disciples passed by a man who had been born blind. The disciples thought the reason for his blindness might have been because he sinned or his parents had sinned. But Jesus replied, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3).
   3. Suffering can have benefits and reasons behind it that we cannot see and don’t appreciate. We just have to trust that God knows what’s best and that He “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). 
   4. And if we don’t find every question answered to our complete satisfaction here in this life, we need to rest in the assurance that our questions will be answered in eternity. We sing that song: “Farther along we’ll know all about it, farther along we’ll understand why; cheer up, my brother live in the sunshine, we’ll understand it all by and by.”

Conclusion:

1. I like what E. Stanley Jones has said, “How could a faith that has a cross at its center promise exemption from happenings that ordinarily bring unhappiness?” God stood back and watched His Son receive humiliation, scourging and beatings, and a tortuous death on a cross. God didn’t forget us on September 11, just as He didn’t forget Jesus when He hung on the cross.
2. No one likes to suffer. Even when pain is beneficial, it is still pain; it still hurts. Just remember that it is momentary and light, next to what is coming for us (2 Cor. 4:16-18; 1 Pet. 5:10). The present suffering can be pretty intense, but it is so insignificant in view of eternity (Rom. 8:18). We have a God who does not relieve us from suffering, but who will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:4).
3. Instead of blaming God or denying His existence, we should be looking to Him for strength and be reminded that this world was not intended to be our final home (Heb. 11:13-16). 
4. You can take the advice of Job’s wife if you want to (“Curse God and die!” Job 2:9), but eternity is a lot longer than your life here on this cursed earth.
5. My conclusion? The existence of suffering is not a valid reason for rejecting God. The problem of suffering? I don’t see a problem.
6. Habakkuk 3:17-18, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”
7. It has been said, “It is much easier to believe in God and explain why suffering exists, than not to believe in God and explain why everything else exists.”