How could a loving God allow so much suffering?

How could a loving God
allow so much suffering?

The Question
This question is often referred to as the Problem of Pain. John Stott, a famous Christian theologian, once said this about the issue: “The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been in every generation. Its distribution and degree appear to be entirely random and therefore unfair. Sensitive spirits ask if it can possibly be reconciled with God’s justice and love.”

The problem of pain is, perhaps, best posed by the Greek Philosopher Epicurus: “Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to; or he cannot and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, and does not want to, he is wicked. But if God both can and wants to abolish evil, then how comes evil in the world?”

Thus, there are 4 claims in play here:
1. God exists
2. God is perfectly good
3. God has unlimited power
4. Evil exists

It seems to many that the first three claims cannot be reconciled with the fourth claim. But the fourth claim feels like the one that is the most evidently true! Is it possible to reconcile the idea of a loving God with the existence of evil (pain, suffering & death)?

The Answer
We agree with John Stott that the Problem of Pain is the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith (and to the belief in God in general). For this reason, we are devoting more room to this issue (usually, each tract tackles two questions). That beings said, we recognize that a subject as big and close to home as this cannot be adequately dealt with in a lengthy book, let alone a single piece of paper. We aim only to provide some helpful starting points.

We believe that the best way to start thinking about a solution to the Problem of Pain is to consider it with a past, present & future Christian perspective.

The Past Perspective
A non-Christian might wonder why a loving God would create a world that was so messed up, but the Christian response is that the loving God did NOT create a messed up world. The Bible says that when God finished creating, the result was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31). God created paradise.

From a Christian perspective, the Problem of Pain only entered into the world through the Fall of Humanity. When human beings decided to reject God, there were negative results. Humanity began to experience problems like physical pain (3:15), broken human relationships (3:16b), problems with the natural world (3:17-18), and spiritual conflict (3:15 & 23). These problems did not originate with God’s creation, but with the poor choices of humanity.

The Present Perspective
If we only consider the past perspective, however, the Christian answer to the Problem of Pain might seem too easy. Even if we grant that God created a good world to begin with, we may question why God created a world that could go so wrong? Why give human beings the ability to mess up a good world? Why grant free will?

But consider God’s options: 1) He could have created no living beings 2) He could have created good beings without free will 3) He could have created beings with free will. 4) He could have created bad beings without free will.

We can easily recognize that options 1 & 4 would be terrible from a human perspective! Option 2 only looks attractive at first glance. Would we really want to exist without choice? Wouldn’t that make us more like machines than like human beings? It turns out that option 3 is actually the best option.

But even if we say option 3 is to be preferred, we are still left with a number of significant questions. 1) Why doesn’t God give us a slightly different version of option 3 in which the degree and/or scope of pain is lessened? 2) Is there something valuable about suffering that causes God to allow it? 3) How can God observe all this suffering and not do something about it?

As to the first question, who is to say that God hasn’t limited the amount of pain and suffering that we experience? Maybe this is the best version of option 3. The degree and scope of pain and suffering surely is limited.
As to the second question, we need to recognize that many positives come from pain. Everyone from world class athletes to first time mothers realize that much gain can come through pain, but sometimes we don’t recognize this when we are angry with God. Truth be told, most of us can think of good results that came out of painful situations in our lives.

As to how God could sit up in heaven watching all this pain and suffering and not do anything about it, the Christian answer is that God does no such thing. Instead, in Christian theology, God became flesh (Jesus) and suffered an excruciating death on a cross. And because Jesus suffered and died, a future free from such things has been assured for those who find life in Christ.

The Future Perspective
No Christian response to the problem of pain is complete without reference to the future. In Christian theology, God has promised to bring an end to all pain and to death itself. The problem will not last. One should not judge God solely on the present when so many of the promises are focused on the future. And this hope of a future resolution to the Problem of Pain is not a blind hope, but one based God’s established record of keeping promises.

Thus, when we thoughtfully consider all of the above, the Problem of Pain becomes less of an argument against God’s existence and more of an opportunity to reflect who God is, who we are, and where we are headed in light of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.