02 April 2006
Why Does God Allow Suffering?
David J. Brown

ILLUSTRATION: Karen Fosse (her husband Roger died and a while later, she battled with breast cancer)

THE DILEMMA
This is not just a philosophy debated in academic circles - it is intensely personal, and everyone grapples with it.

Here is the argument: If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why wouldn't He stop evil and suffering?

• Either God is all-loving but not all-powerful - wants to but can't help
• Or God is all-powerful but not all-loving - able to help but doesn't want to
• If God is not either all-loving or all-powerful, He is not God - God does not exist.

There are a couple of problems with this thinking:

• The problem of flawed logic - there is a missing component - God is also all-wise. His love and His power are governed by His wisdom. Can God do anything? No; He can do anything He wants to do. His wisdom weaves good and bad to achieve His intended result. There is a "greater good" that He is making happen or a "greater plan" that He is accomplishing.
• The problem of limited knowledge - how can finite knowledge judge infinite wisdom and purposes? We know so little.
  ILLUSTRATION: Imagine a lion in a trap, and a ranger comes along and compassionately tries to rescue him. The lion thinks he is being attacked by the human and angrily fights back. So the ranger shoots him with darts - more hurt. Then to free him from the trap, the ranger has to push him further in to spring the trap - more hurt. Despite the ranger's compassion, the lion sees him as the enemy causing him hurt and pain. The lion would be wrong. He comes to the wrong conclusion because he is a lion, not a human, and he has limited understanding. He doesn't understand the motivations of the ranger.
• The problem of the wrong objective - Most people believe that God is here to help us. It's all about us. God is not all about us. His goal is not to create a paradise for sinful humans where there is no death, so sickness, no famine, no suffering. Ask someone: "Do you want God to stop evil?" and they will answer yes. All evil? Can't go over the speed limit? You can't lie? Drink 8 beers and feel no effects? Freeze you mouth when you're going to swear? Make your TV shut off when you watch Desperate Housewives? So, you want God to control some types of evil, bad evil, the evil of others … but not you? You want to be God. You want God to make your life nice, your relatives to live forever.

WHAT ARE GOD'S PURPOSES FOR SUFFERING?
1. God is allowing sin's curse to take its natural course. God created mankind with a free will or the ability to choose. Otherwise, we would be robots, and doing good would mean nothing; love would mean nothing; worship would mean nothing - and if we did evil as robots, God would be the programmer and thus be the creator of evil.

Mankind had choice; mankind chose for self and against God - he chose evil - and in so doing, brought himself and his dominion, planet earth, under a terrible curse. The creation groans with earthquakes, storms, drought and diseases (Romans 8:18-22). And we groan under the effects of sin and the fall (Romans 8:23) - disease, birth defects, death.

2. God is getting us to search for Him. God is a hidden God. He wants us to seek Him in order to find Him and have a relationship with Him, so He sends us clues that we can follow. You have to make an effort of faith to find Him. God doesn't just blurt out everything; Jesus spoke in parables. It's interesting that in times of suffering, people start to think about God - the 911 tragedy & Billy Graham's daughter.

If we had less than these clues, we would have little evidence that God exists; if we had more than these clues, it wouldn't be faith. I don't believe that 2+2=4 by faith. God gives us just enough evidence so that those who want Him can find Him. Those who want to follow the clues will. Acts 17:26-27.

3. God wants us to forsake this world, not to love it, but to long for a better place - a home beyond (2 Corinthians 4:16-5:2)

4. God is building some virtue in us (Romans 5:3-4, James 1:2-4) - We can't have courage without a bad situation to overcome - can't love selflessly unless there is a difficult person to love - can't persevere without trials that last a long time. He is testing and proving our obedience. He promises reward to those who overcome.

5. God is refining us and freeing us from some vice (1 Peter 4:1-2) "He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" - lion in the trap. Typically, we face the natural consequences of our own sin - gambling/spending and not being able to meet budget, worry brings an ulcer, smoking brings lung cancer, drinking leads to fractured friendships or fractured bones, being cruel brings loneliness - sad thing is that we blame God and ask Him to remove the consequences

6. God is preparing us to be a compassionate comfort to others (2 Corinthians 1:3-4; Hebrews 2:18) - "I've been there; I know." My marriage failed, I lost a son, I was retrenched last year, I made it through my 16th year. This is part of the reason Jesus suffered.

7. God is equipping us for greater service (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) - Joni Eriksson Tada, Ron Hamilton

8. God is opening a door for us to share our faith (Philippians 1:12-14) - unbelievers see us handling difficulties well.

9. God is privileging us to share in His sufferings (Philippians 3:8-10). Sometimes, we may suffer persecution, mockery, loss of a job, disinheritance, or loss of a family community for our faith.

10. God is demonstrating that He can sustain His faithful children (Job 1:8-12, 2:3-10). Those who are faithful until death, God will give them a crown of life (Revelation 2:10).

Karen Fosse's response, Joni's response, Ron Hamilton's response.
Your response?