Thoughts on Pain, Suffering, Evil, and God

by Mark Nenadov (Written April 9, 2008. Last revised April 14, 2008)

Pain, suffering, and evil present a dilemma to us. From the moment we were kids, we've lived under the notion that there is justice and we expect things to be orderly and good. But we quickly learn that things go awry and things are not as they should be. Christianity teaches that God is good and He is in control. But it acknowledges that the current state of the world is disarray. While some element of order still exists, since the Fall things have been abnormal. But this leads to a difficulty: If God is good and in control, how can things be so hopelessly out of order that there is so much pain, suffering, and violence on the earth?

Some respond to this dilemma by rejecting the existence of God. By doing that, they get around having to explain why God would allow such a state of existence. But that still leaves the root of the dilemma unanswered. There is still unexplainable pain, suffering, and evil. Without God, though, the bad circumstances are just floating out there in the realm of impersonal "fate" or "chance". Without God there is (A) nobody personal to even blame for it and (B) no "higher court" of appeal to judge these problems. What I'm saying is this: If there is no personal God, there is no absolute basis for expecting things to be orderly and there is no absolute basis for determining the current state of things to be wrong. In that case, all suffering and evil is basically another part of the rhythm of nature. In a nutshell, if what Christianity is saying is false, things like death, murder, diseases, etc. are all part of the natural cycle and are not abnormal in any sense. Without God we might be able to stand there and say "This is unjust", but how can we appeal to any sort of justice if we don't have any absolute standard of justice? With relative morality we are just left with one man's opinion against another, but not finality or absolute law.

So, ultimately, rather than being refuted by the existence of evil and suffering, I'd say that Christianity is really the only world-view that provides a meaningful framework to account for the existence of it (atheism and eastern religions such as Buddhism provide no real basis on which to assert justice, mainly because those patterns of thought don't provide a sufficient basis to separate good from evil).

When I see things that just don't make sense, suffering/injustice/unexplainable things, I as a Christian find it difficult to explain and reconcile. More often than not it just leaves me speechless. And maybe angry. But because of what I know about God and the universe He's created, I know that the King of the Universe is just. I know there's more to the story than I can see. I don't mean that we can justify that is happening now, I just mean that the problems we see in the immediate are not the final analysis nor are they eternal. And God sympathizes with both our minor and major troubles, suffering, etc. In fact, Christians holds forth Christ's crucifixion on the cross as being the ultimate "innocent man suffering". And in the murder of Jesus Christ, eternal healing and redemption is held forth to a suffering world.

And, as I think through my frustration with a lot of what goes on in the world, I realize that the last one I should blame for the predicament we are in is God. Even if He were blameworthy (which He is not), we will not get anywhere shaking our fist at Him. If hypothetically He does not exist, it would be an exercise in futility. If He does exist, then we'd be essentially biting the hand that feeds us. He is the one who instilled in me the sense of justice in the first place (the very sense of justice that is offended when bad things happened). He is the one who gave life (not only to me, but to the people that are suffering too). And if it were not God who sets these horrible things right in some way, then there are no answers, there is no meaning to life, etc.

The philosophers who stated "God is Dead" didn't come to that conclusion with any sort of joy, they said it in despair. Many saw death as being good because it was an escape from meaninglessness. That is all that is left in a universe without God. Despair. Emptiness. But I think there is a good case to be made that there is much more to life. But that must be found in something sufficiently "other" than us, and I believe the God of Christianity is just that, rooting and grounding our being in a way that nothing else can. When I see suffering, I see an enigma, something which can't be explained away easily. And we shouldn't even pretend we can explain it away easy. And its alright if it causes us to be confused and frustrated (if you've ever read the Psalms in the Bible.. there's a whole lot of that in there. David says what he thinks, pulling no punches!!!!). But, if the Christian conception of God is true (that He is just, loving, all-powerful), then these horrible circumstances must fit somewhere into the flow of history and are by no means the final word. If the murder of the most innocent human ever to walk on the face of the earth (Jesus) wasn't the a final plunge into despair, but was the floodgate of the redemption of humanity, neither will any hardship we face be the final answer of despair when we are resting in the triune God who sovereignly rules the universe.