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God and the Problem of Suffering

Let’s talk about this.

I’ve seen this subject come up with increasing frequency lately, and I’m sure there’s a reason for that. It’s a tough subject to grapple with, but if you’re serious about finding a real answer, I can only encourage you to keep reading. I sincerely hope this helps. I know I’m not the first person to attack this subject and I promise I won’t be the last, but this is my way of explaining the truth of the matter.

Non-Christians often ask Christians to reconcile the existence of suffering and unjustness with the existence of a good and loving God. From a human perspective, their question is valid. Why would an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God stand back and allow so much hurt to occur in His creation? If He loves us, why would He let this happen? The main thing that we need to understand is this: God is good, people are not.

Allow me to expound.

God is not responsible for the condition of the world at this moment. We are. We are. All of us. You. Me. Christians. Atheists. Pantheists. Your next-door neighbor. Your fifth grade teacher. Your parents. Your children. Your friends, your enemies, your mechanic, your bank teller, your favorite celebrity, and your pastor. Everyone you’ve ever known, everyone who has ever lived, is responsible. Why? Because we have all practiced evil in some form.

In order to understand this, we have to define “evil”. If I were to ask you to define evil, what would you say? Would you say that it’s murder? Would you say that it’s rape? Would you say that it’s bigotry or inequality or greed or selfishness or pride? If so, you’re on the right track. The thing is, though, that none of these things are evil in its actual definition. These are examples of evil. You can’t define evil by its practice because people don’t always agree on what practices should be considered evil. More on that later.

So then, what is evil? Simple: evil is the absence of good. Think of it in terms of light and darkness (a classic comparison, with good reason). Darkness is the absence of light. Darkness is not actually a thing in and of itself—it’s just the lack of something else. There are no particles or waves of darkness. You don’t turn off the dark when you need to see. If it’s too bright when you’re driving, you don’t turn on your headdarks. There’s no such thing as a flashdark. It’s simply what you’re left with when all the lights go out. It’s the same with evil. Evil is what’s left over when goodness is absent. It cannot exist except in the exclusion of what is good. And we see examples of this all the time, so I don’t need to tell you about it.

Now that we know what evil is, the next question should be, “What is ‘good’?” Ask anyone this question, and you’ll get as many different answers as there are people. So let me save you some time. Remember what I said above?

GOD IS GOOD.

God is the creator and source of all that is good. He and He alone sets the standard for holiness, for love, for truth, for integrity, for justice, and for perfection. Goodness is God’s nature, and good things are things that align with that nature. Every action, emotion, and word should be compared to Him, and if it doesn’t meet His standard, then it’s not good. It’s evil. We humans have this bad habit of comparing our imperfect selves to other imperfect people when we really need to be comparing ourselves to a perfect God. And you know what? It’s impossible to meet that standard. We’re human. We’re not perfect.

But that is exactly the problem that got us into a position to ask this question in the first place. We are not good. We hurt each other. We offend God. We destroy His creation. We destroy ourselves. None of this is what God intended when He created us, and it hurts Him just as much as it hurts us when we do evil. God has another word for evil: sin.

So, someone may ask, why does God allow sin and evil in the first place? Why is there genocide and disease and racism and war and famine? Why doesn’t He just put a stop to it all? There are at least three reasons for this.

One: God gave us free will. I know there’s a lot of debate about this even among Christian denominations, but the people who deny this fact are just plain wrong. People have free will. I can choose whether or not I go to work in the morning. I can choose what I eat for lunch. I can choose whether or not to break into my neighbor’s house and murder him. I know what my neighbor would prefer, and I know what God would prefer, but if I made the decision to do this horrible thing, God wouldn’t stop me even though He could. Why? Because He gave me the liberty to make my own decisions, which means I’m free to disappoint and disobey Him if I should choose. Which is exactly what the first humans did so very long ago, and in that moment, death in all its forms entered the world. God cursed the earth and everything in it as a result of sin, and that curse has followed us to this very day.

Part of free will is choosing what you believe. Opinions on the morality or immorality of certain philosophies diverge wildly, and you need go no further than your Facebook News Feed to see that this is true. Some people think capitalism is evil. Some think the same of abortion. Some believe that a person has the right to own slaves, and some believe that all slavery should be abolished. Maybe you think marriage should only be between one man and one woman or maybe you think gay marriage is okay. Maybe you think all drugs should be legal, maybe you think divorce is wrong, and maybe you think it’s okay to fly an airplane into a building. I personally know a man who was recently convicted of a violent crime because he didn’t see anything wrong with throwing a little girl against the asphalt of a casino parking lot.

Do you see where I’m going with this? The problem doesn’t lie with God. The problem lies with us. Corruption and cheating and abuse and theft and chemical warfare exist because there are people in this world who have chosen to believe that these things aren’t wrong. And even if they think they are, they continue to participate in them anyway. God is perfectly, physically capable of stopping evil, but He won’t do it because that would infringe upon the free will that His generosity and justness have granted us. And I firmly believe that one of the reasons God gave us free will was so that no one can accuse Him of being unfair. People do what they do because they want to, not because God makes them.

Two: No one really wants God to get rid of evil. They’ll say they do, but they really don’t. Because people like having free will and they want to be able to do what they want to do without interference. Imagine you’re talking to God, and you say, “God, I want you to eliminate all of the evil in the world.” So God replies, “Okay, sure thing. Which of your sins would you like me to deal with first?”

Now, there may be some indignation right about now about how unfair of a question that is, because aren’t pedophiles and rapists and child abusers worse sinners than others? Shouldn’t God take out the big sins first before worrying about my petty infractions? What’s a little white lie compared to a murder? This is a non-argument because we don’t get to decide the severity of our sins. God does. That’s His prerogative as God. All evil is sin, and all sin is bad. Some may have more severe and obvious consequences, but every single sin is a failure in God’s eyes, and every one of them nailed Jesus to the cross. We would just rather God deal with other people first and leave us alone.

Three: This world will never be what we want it to be. It will always, always be broken, dark, and full of pain. As long as sin is allowed to run free there will be suffering, and if we keep expecting differently than we’ll have to pile chronic disappointment on top of all the other problems we already have. It will always be like this. This isn’t heaven. Neither is it hell. For some, that’s a comfort. For others, it’s a warning. But this world is temporary! God is going to wipe it out and make it again, and next time there will be no evil or sin. Praise God.

No one is immune to suffering and unfairness. Not even Jesus. He suffered unspeakable pain, physically and spiritually, so that He might save us from the ultimate suffering in hell. That’s an all-loving God.

Ultimately, God will deal with evil once and for all. He will do it by isolating it in hell, appropriately called the “outer darkness”, and by gathering all of His people into one place where sin and evil cannot enter. But it will happen in His time, on His terms. Until then, we must try to mitigate the suffering of others as much as we can and, as Christians, lead them to the Light of the world.

John 16:33

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” (New King James Version)

Romans 10:9

“…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (New King James Version)