The Problem of God and Evil/Suffering

 Note: As I have said elsewhere, I am no philosopher. When it comes to origins of thoughts or ideas, or cause/effect arguments, even logical fallacies, I am no expert. And this topic certainly cannot be covered in a meager blog post. Volumes of books already exist, and we haven’t scratched the surface. It’s obviously highly debatable, but hopefully something below will help.

Much of the philosophy side is adapted from the videos on my Resources Page from William Lane Craig. I don’t agree with Dr. Craig on all things, and I honestly don’t understand much of what he says. But these videos at least offer a starting point to the discussion.

            The reality is that whether you’re a skeptic or been a believer for many, many years, many people will continue to struggle with this issue of evil, pain, and suffering and God. We say, How can this happen? A middle schooler’s going to wonder, How can people bully me and get away with it? How can my mom have this disease? We hear of the latest shooting and think, How can all these people get killed? How can this hurricane ruin so many people’s lives? The problem of evil and suffering devastates so many people’s view of God, and if you ever talk to somebody about Jesus these days, it’s bound to come up. 

            When somebody argues against God with the problem of evil and suffering, their logic is usually something like this:

1.      God and evil cannot co-exist.

2.      Evil surrounds us.

3.      Therefore, God cannot exist.

This seems pretty sound at first glance, right? Well, this would be correct, if each of the first two steps were completely accurate. The only one that needs tweaking is the first one.

Let’s rephrase it in two parallel sentences to see where the skeptic needs to be challenged.

1.      An all-powerful, all loving God exists.

2.      Suffering exists.  

The atheist is going to say that these statements describe contradictory realities. Is this true? Are these contradictory statements of reality? No, not really. I am married. I am single. Those are contradictory. So the problem in their logic is with some unstated, underlying assumptions that are being made. Here’s the first one.

            If God were all-powerful, He could create any world He wants.

This is true, but what if God’s infinite wisdom prefers a world that allows for free-will? Then He is not the only one making the choices. Even though He is in control and sovereign over what happens, He does not force people to choose what is right or good. And therefore, God did create the world that He wanted, but that does not necessarily mean that His power is responsible for the pain we see today.

            If God were truly loving, He would want to stop evil from happening.

Again, this falsely puts us inside the mind of God. How can we possibly know what He wants? And how can we possibly know what is best? We simply have no idea as limited, finite human beings how an isolated incident can have a sort of ripple effect throughout history. The intended effect may not emerge with the result God intended for centuries and maybe on the other side of the world. And since we cannot know all the possibilities or even probabilities, we are in no place to judge the goodness or character of God.

This assumption is really sort of selfish. It pictures our existence as one big house, and God is our owner, and we are His pets. And His mission is to make our life enjoyable and happy and pleasant. But His goal, in fact, according to Christian doctrine is not our happiness; it’s that people would know Him and enjoy Him for all of eternity. Of course, that does not mean that everything bad that happens is a punishment for sin or a call for people to turn to God.

And we see small examples of pain’s being used for good every day. Have you ever gone to the dentist for a cavity? Did you ever have a bone reset or a shoulder put back in place? It was painful, right? But that pain was used for a much better purpose. That’s an overly simple illustration and not intended to relate to any or all of your life experiences.

Now, what would happen in the mind of the atheist if the problem of evil and suffering vanished? What would happen if all that existed were good things and God? Would they turn to Him then? No? How come? Because their pride has led them to take credit for their good life. And their pain has hardened their heart against Him instead of becoming dependent upon Him.

Go read Romans 1 some time. This is exactly what happens all throughout history. Pride ruins mankind, not pain and evil and suffering.

Does the Bible offer any answers on the purpose of pain and suffering, tribulation and trial? Sure, it does. Here are just a few passages on God’s Use of Suffering:

            James 1:2, 12; Count it joy when you meet trials, for the testing of faith produces steadfastness or endurance. It continues to say that you will be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

            2 Corinthians 12:7; Paul’s thorn in the flesh was given to him for what reason? To keep him from becoming conceited.

            Romans 8:28-30; All things work together for the good of the believer, which is growth toward Christlikeness and ultimately glorification.

            2 Cor 1:3-4; We are comforted in affliction, so that we can comfort those who are in any affliction.

           We know these passages. We may even have them highlighted in our Bibles or on our Bible apps. We know that God in His wisdom sees what’s best, but for some reason it’s still so difficult to accept a situation when we face it. It’s still so difficult to have faith. 1 Peter 5:6 commands that we “Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.” Contextually, it means during the trial, you accept the situation and stop trying to escape it. It means instead to fall on your knees in prayer. It means to pull a Job in chapter 40 and simply put your hand on your mouth and stop talking back. There are things we simply don’t understand.

        God’s wisdom always knows better than we do.

            And we know that. And you know, to some extent, so does the world. We can be armored with something very similar to what I’ve just covered with you. Answering their objections. We have abundance evidence for the reliability of the Scriptures, the existence of God, the resurrection of Jesus. And sometimes we enter these conversations with them, and we think, How can they not see? What’s wrong with my presentation? I’m never trying again. No, nothing’s wrong with you. First, Satan has blinded them.

            But you know, I have been a Christian for over 20 years now, and I’ve been to school for what seems like much longer than that. I’ve been in church longer than that, I know. So sure, I may be able to argue for Christianity. I may be able to defend my faith and the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus. 

9 out of 10 people don’t have a problem with God or Christianity because of logical problems, or Christianity just sounds silly. We have evidence. When we enter conversations, we absolutely need to be prepared with evidence and be able to reason with people. But I’ve heard it over and over and over.

If you’ll just listen and let them talk past their first ten minutes of “logic and reasons,” which they probably got from the internet somewhere or the History channel’s latest special, there’s a story. 

There’s the emotional problem of pain and suffering. 

There’s a shooting. There’s the pandemic. There’s a famine or drought around the world. There’s sex-trafficking or maybe something more personal: a death in the family or a bad diagnosis, sometimes from 20 or 30 years ago. Guess what? They’re absolutely right.

They’re hurt, and no amount of logic and 10 reasons why Jesus rose from the dead is going to persuade them, though they need to hear that. Save that for later.

1.      First step: Listen to them.                  

2.      Second step: Give them a hug and cry with them.

3.      Third step: Try to relate with them with a story of your own.

4.      Fourth step: Point them to God’s true character. See, God is good and loving. And He is not some distant angry God hurling pain onto His minions for no reason. He entered our world of suffering. He was willing to face death and even hell for our sake! Why? So that we—the one’s who caused all this mess to begin with—could escape and overcome this evil world and enjoy Him, the greatest good and ultimate fulfillment forever. So this puts the problem of evil in a whole new light, because in a world with just evil and suffering and no God, we have no hope. But God is the only answer to the problem.

5.      Fifth step: Maybe they’ll reach a place to talk about Jesus. He is the source of that hope. The incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection shows Immanuel in the most absolute sense. 

Let the light shine: Matthew 5:14-16

Jesus says, All of you, disciples, are the light. Actually, you are a city of light—on a hill. Weary travelers can look off in the distance and know where to go. They can know where their destination is. They can know where to rest. On a dark night, out in the country, a city on a hilltop would shine super bright. This is the equivalent of rounding a bend on today’s road and seeing a skyline lit up with all the lights. 

Why? Why should we shine? The purpose statements are given in v. 16.

(1) So they may see your good works and do what?

(2) Glorify your Father in heaven.

 

Okay, so I shine my light, and people see it, and God gets glory, but did you catch that? What is my light? I am supposed to “Let my light shine,” which is what people see. What do people see in that first purpose statement? My good works. My good works should be on full display. How are you doing there? Poor? Mediocre? Good? Excellent? Are you a 20-watt bulb or a 100? Are you looking for opportunities to serve others, to be obedient, to live a pure life?

Here’s the connection that I want to make. Because when you display a life of good works in the middle of a world of hurt and pain and suffering, you may just give someone an opportunity to glorify God.

When you say, “Hey, I know you’re probably bitter right now. I understand. Your dad just got diagnosed with this. Or your best friend just completely left you out in the cold. Or you wrestle with anxiety, but can I do anything for you? Can I help you with anything? Because when I was angry and when I was suffering, my God helped me. And He came and served me in my deepest need, and so I feel like I can share some of His compassion towards you.”

And when you actually mean that, and you become the hands and feet of Jesus, they may just go, “Wow, I am still angry, but I’m just willing enough to give God a chance. Could He really be that good?”

“Yea. Yea, He is. Let me show you how we can praise Him, even if we don’t understand Him.”

By letting our light shine through good works, we may be able to soften the emotional problem with God and the existence of suffering.