Last week, we looked at why God allows pain and suffering, classically referred to as the
logical "Problem of Evil." This challenge attempts to present the
existence of evil as evidence that an all-good, all-loving, all-powerful
God is impossible because the claim is that both evil and God are
contradictory and therefore they could not both exist.
Today,
we are going to look at the more difficult side of this idea of God and
evil or suffering. The other aspect of this challenge has less to do
with the logical compatibility of God and a world in which there is evil
and more to do with how people can reconcile their faith in God when
they, or people they know and love, go through extremely difficult and
painful events.
Sometimes this issue is identified by questions that begin with some form of the phrase, "Where is God when...?" or, "How could God allow...?" The question is hardly surprising because we have all dealt with tragedy (some certainly more than others) and when such tragedy strikes, a common reaction to these events is to wonder why God allowed such a thing to happen.
Before I get too
far along here, I do want to point out that the answers and the thoughts
that I will offer here are likely to be less than satisfactory to
someone who is currently dealing with the pain of some form of tragedy
in their life. If that is you, if you just lost a loved one, if you just
found out your husband or wife or child has terminal cancer, if you
just found out your spouse has been having an affair, if you just lost
your job and are now losing your car and/or your home, if you or someone
you love was involved in an accident with a drunk driver and now they
are going to be paralyzed for the rest of their lives...please know that
my heart goes out to you and that this article is in no way attempting
to over-simplify or make light of your circumstances. This is just a bunch of words on a screen. It's an answer to a question, not an offer of comfort. Not that I wouldn't want to offer comfort, but I can't physically do that from my keyboard.
My
life, thankfully, is not currently experiencing the pain of any such
tragedy and because of that, I do not have to process the emotions that
go along with such situations. During a tragic time of a persons life,
the pain and anguish is so real and so visceral that it has an affect on
our perspectives, our perceptions and the way we think and reason. That
is certainly no put-down for those in the midst of such thing, but
rather a recognition that you are going through a difficult time and
that dealing with that situation is already enough. Trying to think
objectively about this sort of thing is nearly impossible when in the
midst of such trials and I do not expect you to.
That
said, let us move forward with this idea of where God is when tragedy
strikes and how a loving God could allow pain and suffering in the
world.
There are two types of
causes for pain and suffering. First, there is suffering brought on by
the actions of another human being. Secondly, there are those tragedies
which occur through such things as the forces of nature or even just
accidents involving people which were not done out of any malicious
intent but were completely unintended.
Any
evil willfully committed by another human being which results in the
suffering of another person is, of course, somewhat easily (though not
happily) attributed to the idea that we live in a fallen world and there
will be people who are mean, violent, greedy, angry, hurtful, etc. We
don't necessarily like that idea, but few people find an issue with
reconciling evil behavior with the teachings of the Bible, though we
might wonder how God could allow such things to happen to us.
What about suffering that is not
caused by fallen people with a sinful nature? What about those people
who are killed or maimed in earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes,
etc.? Sure, I could point out the fact that in Genesis 3 God said,
"Cursed is the ground because of you..." and point out that it was not
only human beings that were affected but it was the entire creation.
That doesn't seem to help much, does it?
But it is part of the answer. And the fact of the matter is, it seems to me, that only
God has a solution. The way God set things up, particularly for people
who love and follow Him, is that we would live in communities with other
like-minded people who love, serve and honor God. When we live in that
kind of community, we are surrounded by the comfort that helps us to get
through these things. When we share our lives with others, as God
intended, there are people there to walk through the pain and suffering
with us. God has the bases covered in that regard.
In
fact, God has built His people to the degree that they will often go
out of their way to identify and support people who are dealing with
tragedies and who are not part of their community...just
because they know how important it is! He is truly the "Father of
compassion and the God of all comfort." (2 Cor 1:3). He truly loves us
and does not want us to be alone in our suffering.
I am reminded about an anecdote regarding Bertrand Russell,
a well-known philosopher and atheist. He famously argued what the
Christian would say at the bedside of a dying child with respect to how
God is "love." The problem, as has been pointed out by people like William Lane Craig,
is that atheism does not make this situation any better! In fact, what
would such an atheist have to offer that dying child? "Too bad?" "Tough
luck?" "That's the way it goes?" Certainly the hope of an eternity with
the Creator of the universe is a better prospect than that!
In the end, and this is a very difficult realization to those in the middle of dealing with tragedy, God will bring good out of
any bad situation. I know that it sounds like a cop-out to say that we
may not ever know (at least in this life) what good came from a baby
dying minutes after birth or a teenager getting killed in an automobile
accident or a father being taken by cancer and leaving his wife and
three young children behind. I am aware of how that sounds. It's
certainly not easy. It provides those suffering with no closure.
Sometimes we do
get to realize the good from these situations, but not always. There
are times, I suspect, that our own suffering ends up benefiting someone else
rather then the person actually enduring the pain. Perhaps it could be
someone that the person suffering has never met...and maybe never will.
They might not even be born yet.
Again,
I know this sounds like a big, safety-net style, catch-all so that in
any awful situation we can just say something like, "You may never know
the good that will come out of this." I get that. I do! But just because
that seems like a cop-out, just because it seems like speculation, just because it seems perhaps a bit far-fetched...that does not make it untrue.
If
you were to actually do some research on it, you will find countless
stories of people who benefited from some tragic event that happened to
someone else whom the benefactor had never even met. And those are only
the situations in which people are actually able to make the connection
between the two events. I suspect that most of the time, nobody knows
how certain events are connected except for God, Himself.
As
I said at the beginning, this answer may be unsatisfactory to many
people. But it also seems quite plausibly true given the God that is
described in the Bible. In the book of Joshua, Rahab probably never
would know the part she played in salvation history. It's doubtful that
Ruth actually understood that she would be part of the lineage of the
eventual Messiah. While Jacob really wanted to marry Rachel, it was
through Leah's line that Jesus was born.
We
just don't have the knowledge and information and perspective that God
has in order to know whether or not any particular trauma or tragedy is
justified somehow, through someone, at some time. The unfortunate thing
is that this is something we can neither legitimately deny nor can we adequately prove. For that, I am sorry. I am sorry that I cannot provide a better answer.
However,
I think it is clear that this is ultimately supported by the Bible. And
Jesus indicated that the Bible was the Truth. And Jesus was raised from
the dead. If Jesus was raised from the dead, I am going to give Him the
benefit of the doubt that the things that He said carry some
substantial weight. And if He says the scriptures are inspired by God
and completely true, then I'm going to take the word of the guy that
conquered death itself by coming back to life. In my view, that tips the
scales in favor of the ideas that I have offered here. Not enough to
eliminate suffering, but at least enough to help me hold true to my
faith through suffering.
I
hope this helps. Even if it is not helpful today, I urge you to keep
this in the back of your mind and revisit it when you have processed
whatever trial you may be going through. When you're past the pain
enough to think about these things objectively, I hope you will find it
to be true. And if you know someone going through a significant
struggle, I only ask that you don't trot out this or other articles like
it while they're in the middle of that pain. Although I have never had
to deal with that kind of pain myself, it seems obvious that these
thoughts are not helpful to someone who is right in the middle of it.
So
wait a while, please. Don't offer answers. Don't offer justifications.
Just be there. Pray for them. Cry with them. Hold them. Be there for
whatever they need...but at that moment, the one thing they don't need is philosophy.
For more information on the "existential" or "pastoral" Problem of Evil:
For more information on the "existential" or "pastoral" Problem of Evil:
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