Suffering and Evil; and the Loving, Sovereign God

Introduction

We live in a world that is far from ideal. Our earth is plagued by disasters that claim thousands of lives; earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis. Not only that, there are atrocities committed by various parties; the 9/11 incident comes to mine, Hitler’s reign, names like Pol Pot and Chairman Mao come to mind as well, all responsible for the uncountable lost of lives. Of course there are tragedies that are closer to the heart as well; the passing on of loved ones, betrayal, struggle of daily life. None are exempt. Pain knows no discrimination, and pain is very much real. Of course many have tried to make light of this issue.

Atheists would say that the it is just the way things are, that everything is just the result of particles colliding and rearranging themselves. If that were the case, what rational person should feel any outrage before ostensible “evils” at all? Then there is the pantheist view, adopted by most Hindus and New Age movements. They suggest that the entire universe belongs to one another, that there is not transcendent being in charge. There are only several levels of attainment. Progressive self-realisation and self-improvement would cure the world of all its ills, claims the pantheist. There is also the deist point of view. Deism claims that there is indeed a God, but he is like a clockmaker who simply puts all the pieces together and then winds it up and pretty much leaves it to run its own course. This God of deism is simply too “big” or transcendent to be bothered by our “puny concerns” of evil and suffering.

Of course, all those views do not fit into the biblical description of God. Indeed, the bible very clearly says that God is not only loving, He is sovereign as well. However, many simply cannot reconcile the fact that God is both loving and sovereign, but yet there are suffering and evil. It is easier to accept these two premises. One being that God is indeed loving, but He is not sovereign; therefore He cannot do anything about the ills that befall us. The problem here is that it paints a picture of a God who is simply helpless. He would love to help but He cannot! Putting faith in such a God would be meaningless, after all what good could it possibly bring us? The other would be that God is sovereign, but not loving. He could do something about the things happening here on earth, but He chooses not to. That would quite simply mean that God is a sadist, no different from any of the atrocious characters mentioned before. Why would anyone want to worship or trust this God then? As much as these two premises would soothe the intellectual protest of many, it is simply not biblical. But yet the problem still persists, God is loving and sovereign; but the world is still filled with evil and suffering. Certain points can be made for God’s case in this matter.

Free Will and Sin

Everyone is familiar with the Genesis account of creation. God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1-2) and His verdict repeatedly was that His efforts were “all good”. Next came about the creation of the parents of humankind, Adam and Eve. This is where things get tricky. It must be made clear however, that God was under no obligation to create man. He did it out of His own will and fancy, and He desired to have close relationship with them. The fact that they were both naked and felt no shame before the Lord (Gen2:25) was symbolic of the covenant they shared with God, nothing was kept hidden from one another. God gave them the freedom to eat from any tree they wish, except for the Tree of Life. God strictly warned them that if they were to eat from that tree, they would sure die. (Gen 2:17)

Some would say, why bother putting that tree there in the first place if it would cause so many problems in the end? The simple answer is this: love cannot exist without freedom of choice. An analogy to support this: if a man were to lock up a woman in a room, gave her all that she needed and the only person she ever saw was him, what kind of love would she feel for him? Perhaps she would be grateful that he provides for her, but can he be assured of genuine adoration toward him? Another scenario: if a man provided all a woman needed, but gave her the freedom to venture out to the world and be exposed to other things and other people, but at the end of the day she chose to come back to him, would not this be genuine, sincere love as opposed to the first scenario? That was what God desired. A true loving relationship between Him and mankind.

But of course, Adam and Eve made a wrong choice. They rebelled against God by giving into the serpent’s temptations. This marked the onset of suffering, toil, pain and death (Gen 3). The end of the bible is a promise that there will be repair and restoration, that God will once again dwell amongst His people, and that every tear will be wiped from eyes (Rev 21). The whole idea is that sin, that separation from God, is the original problem. Mankind basically declared that we could make it on our own. That is why years of so called advancement and enlightenment of the human race has not improved matters. The fact is, we need God.

God’s perfect love for us was shown through Jesus Christ, whom He sent to pay the price for reconciliation between mankind and God. That rather than continuously trying to figure things out, we should acknowledge our need of Him and turn to Him.

Becoming a Christian however, does not immunise one from the tragedies of this world. It is simply because though we have been restored and renewed in Christ, we still live in a fallen world. It is like carrying an umbrella through a storm. Though we are shielded from most of its effects, we cannot help that some drops will still splatter unto us.

Is God truly Sovereign?

Since we have established that God is loving, next we will need to address whether He is truly sovereign. Larry D. Hart makes a very good point, that “some things that God desires and God determines, other things that God desires and we determine, and finally there are things that we desire and God permits. He dispels what he calls “muddled thinking”: that God must determine everything in order to be truly sovereign and that his foreknowledge of our decision determines them. His infinite knowledge and his transcendence of time enables him to know the contingencies of the future as contingencies and to foreknow our choices. It is only by His grace that we can make the decision to receive His forgiveness and salvation, but that does not relieve us of our responsibility. D.A Carson presents what is called compatibilism, and they are based on two premises:

God is absolutely sovereign, but His sovereignty never functions in such a way that human responsibility is negated
Human beings are morally responsible creatures – they are accountable for their own actions; but this never works in a way that God is absolutely contingent.

This is evident in the case of Job, who suffered viciously under Satan’s attack. But the extent of the damage Satan could do was only what God permitted. Job however had the choice to curse God or turn away from Him. But Job did not, and eventually God restored Job.

Another myth that must be dispelled is that God can do absolutely everything. Being omnipotent simply means that God can do what is physically impossible, but not what is logically impossible. God most certainly cannot create a round square, nor is He able to make a rock too large for Him to carry. Those are simply further muddled thinking. Therefore this re-emphasies the fact that God cannot simply just wipe out sin, which would actually mean wiping out free will. As we established earlier without free will true love cannot exist and God is a God of love.

Why Does God Allow Suffering?

To say that anyone actually has the answer to this profound mystery would be fictitious. But there are reasons that can be thought of. C.S Lewis said that “God whispers in our pleasure; speaks in our conscience; but shouts in our pain. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” This could be seen even from the start. The consequence of the Adam and Eve’s rebellion was pain. Without pain, we would never know that anything is wrong. The fact is most people would never think of God until a problem arises or a tragedy occurs. That is a sad but real truth; people sometimes only turn to God when they have exhausted all other options.

Sometimes our suffering is necessary for our refinement and building of character. The bible clearly depicts as God as a loving parent who disciplines His children (Deut 8:2-5, Heb 12). We are very finite beings and we tend to view things from a very confined point of view. It is like going very closely to scrutinise the details of the bark of a tree, pointing out all its rough edges as oppose to taking a step back and looking at the tree as of whole. That is how God functions, He is more than capable for turning any evil into something that is good (Gen 50:20), the story of Joseph attests to this.

Conclusion

What is discussed here is merely the throw of a pebble across the surface of a lake. Not all questions can be answered to the satisfaction of everyone. Turkish theologian Ziya Meral said that “the silence of God does not mean the absence of God.” It is with that knowledge, that in all our troubles, He is there for us and is more than able to help us. In the chaos and confusion, He is sovereign still. Having said that, in the most dire circumstances, there is One whom we can put our hope in.

Bibliography:

Carson, D.A - How Long O Lord?
Hard, Larry D- Truth Aflame
Piper, John & Taylor, Justin - Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
Strobel, Lee - The Case for Faith
Yancey, Philip - Where is God when it Hurts?