WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING AND EVIL?

This is one of the most pressing questions of our time. More pressing than the question of miracles or science and the Bible is the poignant problem of why innocent people suffer, why babies are born blind, or why a promising life is snuffed out as it is on the rise. Why are there wars in which thousands of innocent people are killed, children burned beyond recognition, and many maimed for life?

In the classic statement of the problem, either God is all-powerful but not all-good, and therefore doesn’t stop evil; or He is all-good but unable to stop evil, in which case He is not all-powerful. The general tendency is to blame God for evil and suffering and to pass on all responsibility for it to Him.

No Easy Answers

This profound question is not one to be treated lightly or in a doc¬trinaire fashion. We must never forget that when God created man, He created him perfect. Man was not created evil. He did, however, as a human being, have ability to obey or disobey God. Had man obeyed God there would never have been a problem. He would have lived an unending life of fellowship with God and enjoyment of Him and His creation. This is what God intended for man when He created him.

In fact, however, the first man rebelled against God—and every one of us has ratified that rebellion. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). The point we must keep in mind is that man is responsible for sin— not God. But many ask, “Why didn’t God make us so we couldn’t sin?” To be sure, He could have, but let’s remember that if He had done so we would no longer be human beings, we would be machines.

How would you like to be married to a chatty doll? Every morning and every night you could pull the string and get the beautiful words, “1 love you.” There would never be any hot words, never any con¬flict, never anything said or done that would make you sad! But who would want that? There would never be any love, either. Love is voluntary. God could have made us like robots, but we would have ceased to be men. God apparently thought it worth the risk of creating us as we are. In any case He did it and we must face the realities.

God Could Stamp Out Evil!

Jeremiah reminds us, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassion’s fail not” (Lam. 3:22). A time is coming when He will stamp out evil in the world. The devil and all his works will come under eternal judgement. In the meantime, God’s love and grace prevail and His offer of mercy and pardon is still open.
If God were to stamp out evil today, He would do a complete job. We want Him to stop war but stay remote from us. If God were to remove evil from the universe, His action would be complete and would have to include our lies and personal impurities, our lack of love, and our failure to do good. Suppose God were to decree that at midnight tonight all evil would be removed from the universe— who of us would still be here after midnight?

God Has Done Something About the Problem of Evil

He has done the most dramatic, costly, and effective thing possible by giving His Son to die for evil men. It is possible for man to es¬cape God’s inevitable judgement on sin and evil. It is also possible to have its power broken by entering into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. The ultimate answer to the problem of evil, at the personal level is found in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. To speculate about the origin of evil is endless. No one has the full answer. It belongs in the category of “the secret things [that] belong unto the Lord our God” (Deut. 29:29).
Part of our problem arises from our limited definition of the word good and our applying this term to God. Hugh Evan Hopkins observes:

In his famous essay on Nature, John Stuart Mill clearly sets out the problem with which thinkers all through history have wrestled: If the law of all creation were justice and the Creator omnipotent, then in whatever amount suffering and happiness might be dispensed to the world, each person’s share would be exactly proportioned to that person’s good or evil deeds. No human being would have a worse lot than another without worse deserts; accident or favouritism would have no part in such a world, but every human life would be playing out a drama constructed like a perfect moral tale.

Not even on the most distorted and contracted theory of good which ever was framed by religious or philosophical fanaticism can the government of nature be made to resemble the work of a being at once both good and omnipotent.’
The problem arises largely from the belief that a good God would reward each man according to his deserts and that an almighty God would have no difficulty in carrying this out. The fact that rewards and punishments, in the way of happi¬ness and discomfort, appear to be haphazardly distributed in this life drives many to question either the goodness of God or His power.2

Exact Reward Concept

But would God be good if He were to deal with each person exactly according to his behaviour? Consider what this would mean in your own life! The whole of the Gospel as previewed in the Old Testa¬ment and broadcast in stereo-television in the New Testament is that God’s goodness consists not only in His justice but also in His love, mercy, and kindness. How thankful we and all men should be that “He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him” (Ps. 103:10-11).

Such a concept of the goodness of God is also based on the faulty assumption that happiness is the greatest good in life. Happiness is usually thought of in terms of comfort. True, genuine, deep-seated happiness, however, is something much more profound than the ephemeral fleeting enjoyment of the moment. And true happi¬ness is not precluded by suffering. Sometimes, in His infinite wis-dom, God knows that there are things to be accomplished in our character that can be brought only through suffering. To shield us from this suffering would be to rob us of a greater good. Peter refers to this when he says, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Pet.5:10).

To see the logical consequence of Mill’s exact reward concept of God in His dealings with us, we need only turn to Hinduism. The law of Karma says that all of the actions of life today are the result of the actions of a previous life. Blindness, poverty, hunger, physical deformity, outcastness, and other social agonies are all the out-working of punishment for evil deeds in a previous existence.
It would follow that any attempt to alleviate such pain and mis¬ery would be an interference with the just ways of God. This con¬cept is one reason why the Hindus did so little for so long for their unfortunates. Some enlightened Hindus today are talking about and working toward social progress and change, but they have not yet reconciled this new concept with the clear, ancient doctrine of Karma, which is basic to Hindu thought and

This Karma concept, however, does serve as a neat, simple, clearly understood explanation of suffering: suffering is all the result of previous evil-doing.
But is there not a sense in which it is true that Christianity also holds that suffering is punishment from God?
Certainly, in the minds of many, it is: “What did I do to deserve this?” is often the first question on the lips of a sufferer. And the conviction of friends, expressed or unexpressed, frequently operates on this same assumption. The classic treatment of the problem of suffering and evil in the Book of Job shows how this cruel assump¬tion was accepted by Job’s friends. It compounded his already stag-gering pain.

It is clear from the teaching of both the Old and the New Testa¬ment that suffering may be the judgement of God, but that there are many instances when it is totally unrelated to personal wrongdoing. An automatic assumption of guilt and consequent punishment is totally unwarranted. To be sure, God is not a sentimental, beard-stroking, grand¬father of the sky with a “boys-will-be-boys” attitude. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7) is a solemn warn¬ing to any who would tweak God’s nose in arrogant presumption. God afflicted Miriam with leprosy for challenging the authority of Moses, her brother, whom God had appointed leader. He took the life of David’s child, born of his adulterous relationship with Bath¬sheba.
Other examples could be cited. In the New Testament we have the startling example of Ananias and Sapphira, who were struck dead for lying, cheating, and hypocrisy, That there may be a con¬nection between suffering and sin is evident, but that it is not al¬ways so is abundantly clear.

We have the unambiguous word of our Lord Himself on the subject. The disciples apparently adhered to the direct retribution theory of suffering. One day when they saw a man who had been blind from birth, they wanted to know who had sinned to cause this blindness—the man or his parents. Jesus made it clear that neither was responsible for his condition, “but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:1-3).
On receiving word of some Galileans whom Pilate had slaugh¬tered, Jesus went out of his way to point out that they were not greater sinners than other Galileans. He said that the 18 people who had been killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them were not greater sinners than others in Jerusalem. From both incidents He made the point, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-3).

Clearly, then, we are jumping the gun if we assume automati¬cally, either in our own case or in that of another, that the explana¬tion of any given tragedy or suffering is the judgement of God. Further, as Hopkins observes, it seems clear from biblical examples that if one’s troubles are the just rewards of misdeeds, the sufferer is never left in any doubt when his trouble is a punishment.

Judgement Preceded by Warning

Indeed, one of the profound truths of the whole of Scripture is that the judgement of God is preceded by warning. Throughout the Old Testament we have the repeated pleadings of God and warning of judgement. Only after warning is persistently ignored and rejected does judgement come. God’s poignant words are an example. “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;. . . turn you, turn you from your evil ways, for why will you die, 0 house of Israel?” (Ezek. 33:11)

The same theme continues in the New Testament. What more moving picture of God’s love and long-suffering is there than our Lord as He weeps over Jerusalem, “0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem .how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and you would not!” (Matt. 23:37) And we have the clear word of Peter that “the Lord is.. . not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
When the question, “How could a good God send people to hell?” comes up, we should point out that, in a sense, God sends no one to hell. Each person sends himself. God has done all that is neces¬sary for us to be forgiven, redeemed, cleansed, and made fit for heaven.

All that remains is for us to receive this gift. If we refuse it, God has no option but to give us our choice. Heaven, for the person who does not want to be there, would be hell. Though the judgement of God sometimes explains suffering, there are several other possibilities to consider. Man, as we saw earlier, was responsible for the coming of sin and death into the universe.

We must not forget that his wrongdoing is also responsible for a great deal of misery and suffering in the world today. Negligence in the construction of a building has sometimes resulted in its col¬lapse in a storm, with consequent death and injury, How many lives have been snuffed out by the murder of drunken driving? The cheating, lying, stealing, and selfishness which are so characteristic of our society today all reap a bitter harvest of suffering. But we can hardly blame God for it! Think of all the misery that has its origin in the wrongdoing of man—it is remarkable how much suf¬fering is accounted for in this way.

The Presence of an Enemy

But man is not alone on this planet. By divine revelation we know of the presence of an enemy. He appears in various forms, we are told, appropriate to the occasion. He may appear as an angel of light or as a roaring lion, depending on the circumstances and his purposes. His name is Satan. It was he whom God allowed to cause Job to suffer. Jesus, in the parable of the good seed and the tares, explains the ruining of the farmer’s harvest by saying, “An enemy bath done this” (Matt. 13:28). Satan finds great pleasure in ruining God’s creation and causing misery and suffering. God allows him limited power, but he cannot touch the one in close fellowship with God. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), we are assured.

Nevertheless Satan accounts for some of the disease and suffering in the world today. In answer to the question of why God allows Satan power to bring suffering, we can learn from Robinson Crusoe’s answer to his Man Friday.
“Well,” says Friday, “you say God is so strong, so great; has He not as much strong, as much might as the devil?”
“Yes, yes,” says I; “Friday, God is much stronger than the devil.” “But if God much strong, much might as the devil, why God no kill the devil so make him no more do wicked?”
“You may as well ask,” answers Crusoe reflectively, “Why does God not kill you and me when we do wicked things. that offend Him?”

God Feels Our Suffering

In considering pain and suffering, whether it be physical or mental, another important consideration must be kept in mind. God is not a distant, aloof, impervious potentate, far removed from His people and their sufferings. He not only is aware of suffering—He feels it. No pain or suffering has ever come to us that has not first passed through the heart and hand of God. However greatly we may suffer,
it is well to remember that God is the great Sufferer. Comforting are the words of Isaiah the prophet, foretelling the agony of Christ:

“He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and ac¬quainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). The writer of Hebrews reminds us, “For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted”
(Heb. 2:18). And “We have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our in¬firmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). The problem of evil and suffering is one of the profound prob¬lems of the ages. It is becoming increasingly acute in our time, with the advent of the Bomb. There are no easy answers, and we do not have the last word. There are, however, clues.

Risky Gift of Free Will

First, as J. B. Phillips has put it:

Evil is inherent in the risky gift of free will.3 God could have made us machines, but to do so would have robbed us of our precious freedom of choice, and we would have ceased to be human. Exercise of free choice in the direction of evil, in what we call the “fall” of man, is the basic reason for evil and suf¬fering in the world. It is man’s responsibility, not God’s. He could stop it, but in so doing would destroy us all. It is worth noting “that the whole point of real Christianity lies not in interference with the human power to choose, but in producing a willing consent to choose good rather than evil.”

Unless the universe is without significance, the actions of every individual affect others. No man is an island, To have it otherwise would be like playing a game of chess and changing the rules after every move. Life would be meaningless. Second, much of the suffering in the world can be traced directly to the evil choices men and women make. This is quite apparent when a hold-up man kills someone. Sometimes it is less apparent and more indirect, as when crooked decisions are made in govern¬ment or business that may bring deprivation and suffering to many people unknown to those who make the decisions. Even the results of natural disasters are sometimes compounded by man’s culpa¬bility in refusing to heed warnings of tidal waves, volcanic erup¬tions, floods, etc.

Third, some—but not all—suffering is allowed by God as judgement and punishment. This is a possibility which must always be considered. God usually allows such suffering with a view to resto¬ration and character formation, and those suffering as a result of their deeds usually know it. Fourth, God has an implacable enemy in Satan. He has been defeated at the Cross, but is free to work his evil deeds until the final judgement. That there is in the world a force of evil stronger than man himself is clear from revelation and from experience.

Fifth, God Himself is the great Sufferer and has fully met the problem of evil in the gift of His own Son, at infinite cost to Him¬self. The consequence of evil for eternity is forever removed as we embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sin is forgiven and we receive new life and power to choose what is right as the Holy Spirit forms the image of Christ in us.

Greatest Test of Faith

Perhaps the greatest test of faith for the Christian today is to believe that God is good. There is so much which, taken in isolation, sug¬gests the contrary. Helmut Thielecke of Hamburg points out that a fabric viewed through a magnifying glass is clear in the middle and blurred at the edges. But we know the edges are clear because of what we see in the middle. Life, he says, is like a fabric. There are many edges which are blurred, many events and circumstances we do not understand. But they are to be interpreted by the clarity we see in the centre—the cross of Christ. We are not left to guess about the goodness of God from isolated bits of data. He has clearly revealed His character and dramatically demonstrated it to us in the Cross. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)

God never asks us to understand; we need only trust Him in the same way we ask that our child only trust our love, though he may not understand or appreciate our taking him to the doctor. Peace comes when we realise we are able to see only a few threads in the grand tapestry of life and God’s will, and that we do not have the full picture.
Then we can affirm, with calm relief and joy, that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

At times it is our reaction to suffering, rather than the suffering itself, that determines whether the experience is one of blessing or of blight. The same sun melts the butter and hardens the clay. When by God’s grace we can view all of life through the lens of faith in God’s love, we can affirm with Habakkuk, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:17-18).