Why Does God Allow Suffering? Part Three
Part Two of this series explored the most famous responses to the problem of evil. In this post, I’ll tell you what I believe. Before I do that, let me start by saying I’m not a theologian. I know I don’t have all the answers, and even if I were a brilliant theologian, I don’t think I could have all the answers.
God is so much bigger than I am. His ways are higher than our ways. This doesn’t mean, like Susan Jacoby said in her quote from Part Two, that God is “a cruel, capricious Master of the Universe” who we will never be able to understand. This quote from C.S. Lewis in A Grief Observed sums up what I mean:
When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of ‘No answer.’ It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, ‘Peace, child; you don’t understand.’
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask – half our great theological and metaphysical problems – are like that.
And now that I come to think of it, there’s no practical problem before me at all. I know the two great commandments, and I’d better get on with them. . . .
Like Lewis says, at the end of the day, we know that it all comes down to love. 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love. Agape kind of love for ourselves, our neighbors, and God. And we have to know that God loves us. A couple of years ago, I wrote this in a letter to a friend:
Yes, I’m still studying and learning about politics and social justice and theology and how it’s all affected by my view of God. But everything else is garbage compared to knowing Him. If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, if I can explain the problem of evil in four pages or less (with sources), if I can figure out how to end world hunger and distribute housing fairly among different races in America, if I can define and explain the problems and benefits of Calvinism and Arminianism, if I can create peace between Israel and Palestine, but I don’t have love, I am nothing.
As we look at possible explanations of the problem of evil, please keep in mind that your ultimate goal should be deeper, more intimate relationship with God that drives you toward love for yourself and your neighbor. If any of these theological issues drive you crazy instead of driving you toward God, please put them on the backburner. Ask God to give you peace with not having an answer right now. Like Lewis said in the above quote, probably half of our big, hang-up theology issues are nonsense anyway. One day we will understand. If you like thinking about this stuff, or if you feel that you must have a reason to explain pain in your life, or if you want to have some resources to explain your faith to unbelievers, then by all means, read on. But if this is going to cause unnecessary doubt and anguish in your faith life, I’d rather have you ignore this post and spend time with the Lord instead.
With that LONG introduction, here’s my take on the problem of evil. Going back to Post Two, I don’t believe the first three responses have much merit to them. I think the atheist argument is right – if God is not good, or if God is not powerful, then He isn’t much of a God. We have to believe that Creator God is good and that He is all-powerful. Otherwise, He is no different from us.
On the other hand, I don’t think atheism works. There is too much purposefulness in humanity for it to have come from random chance. The very fact that we can think on a higher level of “How did we get here?” and “Why does evil exist?” indicates to me that there is something bigger and greater that gave us those capabilities. I suppose you can ignore all of that and still attribute it to random evolutionary progress, but I personally find it more convincing and comforting to believe that a good, all-powerful God had a purpose for everything.
So this leaves the final three responses. As much as my limited mind can conceive of it, I think the truth is a combination of all three. I believe in the actual existence of Satan. I think the Bible is perfectly clear that Satan is actively seeking to bring evil and destruction into the world. But that still doesn’t explain why God allowed Satan to turn away in the first place. And that’s where the other two perspectives come into play. I believe that God allows free will, even for the angels, because love is not love unless it’s freely given. Any parent knows, you can force your kids to obey you, but you can’t force your kids to love you. Hopefully, they will love you and honor you as you love them; but sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they turn away, and forcing them not to turn away means it’s no longer about love. It’s about coercion.
I think sin is not just turning away from God, but it’s also turning away from good, loving consequences. The Bible shows that there are times when God “causes” bad things to happen to people. But it also says that everyone has sinned. So the very title of Rabbi Kushner’s book Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? is kind of a moot point to me. I am not good apart from God’s grace. None of us are good.
Now, I’m not saying that a child who gets cancer was so evil and terrible that God brought that cancer upon them. I’m not saying, like some evangelicals have claimed, that the nation of Haiti made a pact with the devil and now God’s letting them have it by sending an earthquake. That kind of God is reflective of the God Susan Jacoby is afraid to believe in. I don’t think our God is a merciless judge.
But He is a judge. Justice is a part of His nature, just as much as mercy and love are a part of His nature. Throughout history, our species has been sinning and causing a lot of bad things to happen. We have created chemicals that cause cancer. We’ve promoted them because money was more important to us than making sure people are healthy and waste is disposed of safely. Nations have held other nations in bondage. Races have held other races in bondage. The poorer people of the world are helpless in the face of natural disasters, and that’s not all to do with the natural disaster. It has a lot to do with social injustices.
As I wrote under the Free Will section in Post Two, even creation is in bondage to the effects of sin and decay. I don’t know this for sure, but I think that when God restores the earth, destructive natural disasters won’t happen the way they do now. I believe at the very least that humans will co-exist with the earth in a completely safe, harmonious way.
So is God directly causing bad things to happen to us because of our sin? In a way, yes. I think the following analogy works well to explain my view. Let’s say a parent has a rule for their young child. – “no playing in the street.” The child can’t understand why the rule is in place. In the child’s mind, the street is a fun place. You can play all sorts of games there that you can’t play on grass. The child has never seen a car hit anyone before, and they can’t really conceive of the danger that could come from playing in the street. But the parent is more knowledgeable; they can see how things will turn out if the child mindlessly plays in a dangerous place. So every day when the child ignores the rule they don’t see a need for, the parent intervenes. They remove the child from the street until the next day, when the whole process starts again. If one day, the parent doesn’t intervene, and a car hits the child, is it the parent’s “fault?”
In a way, it is the parent’s decision to allow the consequences to occur. The parent is smarter than the child. Maybe they should have always intervened. But the first time the child sees a speeding car coming toward them, the first time the child fears for their life, a few things happen. They begin to understand why the rule was in place. They begin to see disobedience as having consequences. They grow a little smarter. They are being shaped into maturity by the suffering.
Does God allow us to suffer consequences of sin (whether our own or the general sin of humanity)? Absolutely. But He doesn’t want us to suffer just for suffering’s sake. He isn’t like a bad parent who needs to punish their children to feel better about their own authority. See? Serves you right to get hit by that car! I hope you learned your lesson! No. In our human weakness, we often respond like that, but I think God is more likely to respond with sadness that things had to go so far before we took Him seriously. If God never allowed consequences, we would never grow. We all know spoiled children, whose parents constantly intervene and never hold them to consequences. Those children inevitably turn out selfish and unpleasant to be around. Our God is a loving Father who knows exactly what kind of discipline will grow us up into mature, wise, beautiful people.
Finally, if my last few paragraphs give the impression that God is a cruel Father who would allow His children to get run over by a car rather than save them every time, let me end with this thought. In the midst of all of our sinning and suffering, God sent Christ to die for our sins and reconcile us to God. The theology of the atonement of Christ is a whole series in itself, so I won’t get into how it all works now. But suffice it to say, we believe that faith in Christ restores us to God and provides a means of ultimate escape from the sin and suffering we have chosen individually and collectively. When we die, it’s not the end. When a young child dies prematurely, it seems unfair that they are paying for the sins of those who have gone before them. But even in that situation, God provides a means of escape from ultimate death. When Christ returns to the earth and the resurrection happens, I believe those children and all who have died in Christ, whether from “natural” deaths or “premature” deaths, will have restored bodies and lives. In the midst of the tragedy in our broken world, we have great hope. Let us not lose sight of that, even as we mourn with those who mourn and work to relieve suffering in this present age.
