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Chandler Crawford
Doug Morgan
World Religions
10 February 2016
Suffering: The Christian Perspective
People often question the existence of God because of the existence of suffering. They
think there can be no god, or if there is, that whatever god exists is inherently bad for allowing
suffering. But there is a deeper truth – one with Biblical foundation. We often wonder why there
is any suffering in the world, why God would allow humans – who He claims to love – to suffer
horrible things, and how to end suffering. It is here that I seek to answer these questions from the
Christian perspective.
Some people claim that our sufferings are to teach us lessons, or because we have
unfulfilled desires. Many of our afflictions, however, do not teach us lessons and have nothing to
do with our desire: disease, death, natural disasters. We suffer on earth because of Satan’s pride,
God’s perfection, and our faith.
When God’s creation was finished, “He looked over all he had made, and He saw that it
was excellent in every way” (Genesis 1:31). He did not say it was mostly good, but that
everything in all of creation – which includes the heavens – was excellent. Sometime during the
course of chapter 2, something changed, because immediately in chapter 3 we are introduced to
the devil working against God. Satan was an angel who tried to claim the power of God for his
own and lead other angels against God as well, so he was banished and sent to roam the earth. It
was Satan’s pride that lead to his descent from heaven. Satan is still trying to prove himself to be
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more powerful than God by trying to bring as many people away from God and, by default, to
him. This is one reason we suffer: because of Satan’s pride.
In Genesis 3, God banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, and tells them they
will have to struggle to work the ground forever. This was the door that opened to the
opportunity for suffering. “Our suffering is directly related to the curse that came upon the earth
as a result of sin,” (Smith). Students in my Sunday school class asked why God could not just
forgive them and let them into the Garden again so they wouldn’t have to suffer. In Genesis 2,
God told them the consequences of disobeying Him, but they did it anyway. Going back on His
word, His promise, would make Him imperfect, changing who God is. But God is unchanging,
“the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” (Hebrews 13:8). If God were to change who He is,
He would not be God. We experience suffering because God is perfect and unchanging.
The book of Job starts with a description of Job’s life: he was wealthy with many
children and many flocks of animals; he had blessings beyond compare. The Lord took pride in
him, because he was a man of integrity, the finest man on earth. Satan said to the Lord, “Job
fears God, but not without good reason.” He went on to list the many blessings in Job’s life. “But
take away everything he has, and surely he will curse you to your face.” God allowed Satan to
test Job. He lost his wealth, his family, his health, everything except for his life. Yet through it
all, Job had faith in God, even when those around him begged him to curse the Lord. “His wife
said to him, ‘Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.’ But Job replied,
‘You talk like a godless woman, should we accept only good things from the hand of God and
never anything bad?’” At the end of the book, the Lord restores to Job twice what he had lost
through the trials from Satan.
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It was not God that gave Job suffering but Satan himself. The Devil knows his own fate
and is spiteful and selfish, so he will bring with him all of the people he can when he descends
into the Lake of Fire that is Hell. “Christians suffer because when we accepted Jesus, we entered
into spiritual warfare with the devil himself” (Brown). Satan will do all he can to bring us away
from God. Because of our faith in the Almighty God, we suffer.
Some will say that even though God may not be the direct cause of our suffering, He is
wrong in not preventing it and protecting the ones He loves from it. But before we can speak of
God’s intentions, we must examine his character: God is creator – He is Father of everything and
He loves His creation; God is omnipotent – He is all-powerful and can accomplish anything, no
matter the impossibility; God is omniscient – He knows everything, every action, every thought,
and every pain; God is omnipresent – He exists outside the realm of time and space, so He is
everywhere at all times. God allows us to suffer because of his promise for free will, to protect
our eternal lives, to increase the good in our lives, to protect us from His wrath, and to
demonstrate His power and love.
God gave us the free will to choose to follow Him and to choose how to live our lives, so
He must allow us to see the consequences of our choices. God is omniscient and omnipotent, so
“[although] God does not approve of sin or its consequences, it is here by His permission,”
(Smith). He could have removed the option of sin by never allowing sin into the world, but
without options or choices, there is no real free will. Throughout the Old Testament, there are
times of blessings and times of sufferings. When the Israelites were following God’s instructions
and keeping to His law, God blessed them and they prospered. When they turned away from
God, He was required by the covenant made in Deuteronomy to remove His blessings from
them. God wanted to bless them, but could not because of the covenant made in the time of
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Moses. The only way to keep us in perfect blessing is to keep all people in perfect commitment
to God. For that to happen, God would have to remove our free will and reveal to every eye His
glory. But worship without choosing to do so, and without true faith, is not true worship, and the
Lord requires true worship. Therefore, the option of sin – and by default, suffering – was offered
to Man. “Again, the freedom of a creature must mean the freedom to choose: and choice implies
the existence of two things to choose between” (Lewis). God has to allow suffering because he
has given us free will.
Jesus, the son of God, taught us to care for the sick, the poor, and the needy. He told us to
go and share the Gospel - about Him and His salvation. It is often easiest and best to do these
things simultaneously. Each serves the other. It is rarely seen where a person goes to the wealthy
to share their faith with them. Perhaps we neglect to share the gospel with those more fortunate
because Jesus told us how hard it is for them to “inherit the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew
19:24). In fact, Jesus also said, “God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.
God blesses you who are hungry now, for you will be satisfied. God blesses you who weep now,
for in due time you will laugh.” (Luke 6:20-21). In later verses, He describes the sorrow that
awaits those who seem to live blessed lives now, saying that it is only temporary (Luke 6:26).
This is because those who live wonderful lives believe it is by their own work, so they do not
think they have a need for a god, even if one does exist. "Sometimes Satan allows us to live a life
free from trouble so we never feel the need to turn to God" (God's Not Dead). The Word of God
is more likely to be brought to those in need and they are more likely to accept it, so God allows
people to live lives of hardship. He would rather us suffer now on earth and live eternally with
Him than allow us to live blessed lives on earth and spend an eternity in hell, apart from Him.
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God allows suffering to protect our eternal lives – to protect us from eternal separation from
Him.
For those who accept Jesus, there is a promise: “we know in all things God works for the
good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
God will take the hurt and pain we experience in our lives and use it to bring joy and peace and
to further his Kingdom. Nick Vujicic is a man who was born with no arms or legs. Naturally, he
grew up questioning God and His plan. But he realized that God could use his condition to
amplify the Kingdom and bring more good into other’s lives. “God doesn’t bring pain, but
whatever the enemy gives us to work against us, God will use for good” (Vujicic). He will take
what was once seen as tragedy and use it in unexpected ways. Just as we see in Romans 8, God
will use our poor circumstances to grow our lives and increase what good comes to us and from
us in ways that could not be done if we had not struggled.
In answering the question of God’s allowance for suffering, Richard Bewes points out
that, because sin is within us, and because our suffering is a direct effect of that sin, to wipe out
suffering would be to wipe out sin, thereby destroying every human. It is by God’s grace that He
has not yet destroyed sin – and through that, mankind – and has instead given time for people to
repent from their sin. To abolish suffering would be to inflict His wrath and bring destruction on
every human. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ
Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 6:23). All sin, big or small, leads to death. “But because of God’s
mercy, sin is paid through the death of Jesus Christ, instead of the death of you and me,” (Chan).
All people deserve death, but God’s grace allows those who accept it to live eternally in his
Kingdom. God allows us to suffer to protect us from His wrath.
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Job, after experiencing so much suffering, cried out to God in anger and questioned His
power, as we so often do. But the Lord, being the omniscient and omnipotent God He is, refused
to cater to such whims. He went about a series of questions to Job, describing His power, thereby
reducing the image of Man to its rightful place. “Will you discredit my justice and condemn me
just to prove you are right? Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like His?
[…] Then even I would praise you, for your own strength would save you” (Job 40:8-9, 14). If a
person believes in the omniscient, omnipotent God, then there can be no question of His power
and glory. There is none that can compare, so there is none who can question. “For [God’s]
thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are [His] ways our ways,” (Isaiah 55:8-9). We cannot seek to
understand an all-knowing God. We often forget our place with the Lord, so we must be
reminded. We must trust that He loves us and we must trust in the power of His name.
Many assume that God is impersonal – that a personal God would never let anything bad
happen to us. This assumption negates His own pain and suffering through His sacrifice. He
came down to earth as the Son of God to live among humans – wholly God, and wholly man.
Because He was wholly God, He was the perfect sacrifice. Because He was wholly man, He
experienced every pain: loss, temptation, wickedness, hatred. People had so much hate for Him
that they treated Him in ways most humans can never imagine. Truman Davis wrote an article on
the physiological experience of The Passion describing the physical anguish that came with His
crucifixion; it was one of the most severe tortures used by the Romans, and they spared no
extremities with Jesus. His knowledge of the pain to come was so overwhelming that He even
sweat blood in anticipation. It is because of the pain He suffered – the trials He endured – that we
will be rid of suffering. God created the world to be perfect and He intends for it to return to its
perfection. At that point, there will be no more suffering and we will be with God forever. This
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world is temporary, as is the suffering in it. God promises eternal and perfect life for those who
accept Him and His sacrifice. There is no need for us to try to end all suffering forever because it
has already been done; the only thing left is to share the new life offered by God through Christ
Jesus.
The ultimate end to suffering is coming, but while we wait until then, we are to soften the
experience of pain. “We are not expected to take it on the chin without a whimper. The Bible
urges us to do what we can to relieve suffering. […] We are also urged to cry out to God, to
petition him who loves us,” (Smith). In doing this, He will provide comfort and rest. “Even when
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.” (Psalm
23:4). God promises to be with us; it is part of who He is as an omnipresent being. Nothing can
separate us from His love. “God allows things that we don’t understand, but if you hold onto
Him, He’ll hold onto you. If you trust in the Lord with all your heart, even when you cannot
walk, He will carry you” (Vujicic).
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Works Cited
Bewes, Richard. The Top 100 Questions: Biblical Answers to Popular Questions plus
Explanations of 50 Difficult Bible Passages. Charlotte, NC: Billy Graham Evangelistic
Ass., 2002. Print.
Brown, Matt. "Luke 2: How to Handle Temptation." 252. Sandals Church, Riverside. 24 Jan.
2016. Speech.
Chan, Francis, and Danae Yankoski. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. Colorado
Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2013. Print.
Davis, C. Truman "The Crucifixion." Gospel Outreach. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.
“Genesis, Job, Psalm, Matthew, Luke, Romans, Hebrews.” New Living Translation. Metal Vers.
Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale Charitable Trust, 1996. Print.
God's Not Dead. Dir. Harold Cronk. Perf. Kevin Sorbo, Shane Harper, Corey Oliver, and Hadeel
Sittu. PureFlix, 2014. Film.
Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. New York, NY: HarperOne, 2001. Print.
Smith, Lee J. "Why Does God Allow Suffering?" Back to the Bible. Good News Broadcasting
Association, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.
Vujicic, Nick. "Learn To Live the Life God Has Called You To With Nick Vujicic at Saddleback
Church." YouTube, 6 May 2014. Web. 03 Feb. 2016.
