Statement of Problem
Hurricane Ian, once again, raises the most difficult question that people of faith in the God of the Bible face. Given that nothing produces nothing, defending the idea of a Personal, Infinite, Creator is fairly straightforward. The most difficult question we face does not involve God and science, but God and suffering.
The classic formulation of this problem is:
How can one reconcile an all-good and all-powerful God with evil and suffering? Since, there is both evil and suffering, if there is a God, that Being cannot be both all-good and all-powerful.
This is the most common argument made by atheists today. Some claim that if the God of the Bible exists, He is positively evil. But, they claim, He does not. The Universe just is, and it’s indifferent to suffering because it has a merely impersonal, mechanical, nature.
Disasters Happen and People Suffer
We do ourselves no favors by ignoring or dismissing this. Nor is it helpful to treat this as simply an intellectual puzzle. We, of all people, must engage with compassion. Before we tackle the assertion that the universe is mindless and uncaring, we need to be both mindful and caring. How can anyone look at the devastation this hurricane caused, without hurting alongside those who suffer? Thankfully, Christians are responding with empathy and tangible help!
C. S. Lewis wrote a very helpful book on this subject entitled, The Problem of Pain. Yet, after his wife, Helen Joy Gresham, died, he wrote a very different kind of book entitled, A Grief Observed. He did not contradict his earlier book, but his own grief shaped how he understood suffering. To take this question seriously, we need to have “skin in the game.” If we’ve lived long enough, we do. Our own grief and suffering should be embraced as we face this troubling question.
What follows does not answer this problem! We must wait for that full answer. What I suggest here, are observations that may give some perspective.
God is Good, but How?
It is almost a Christian chant, “God is good, all the time.” What do we mean by that? Might it be, we romanticize this to mean that God is always nice? Let’s remember that this good God flooded the world, sent plagues, and ordained a lake of fire for the wicked. Goodness, in the Bible, is a moral quality that responds to evil forcefully, even if peacefully.
We believe that Jesus is God’s goodness, incarnate. Yet, Jesus speaks more about judgement and hell (Gehenna) than anyone in the Bible. It is not that God takes pleasure in human suffering, but He clearly allows it. Affirming God’s goodness is a confession that He has purposes in this, many of which are beyond our comprehension.
It is also a confession that among what God allows are the consequences of our own choices. The “curses,” in Genesis 3 are best understood, not as what God prefers, but as His reluctant allowance of the consequences of human rebellion. If we choose to jump off a cliff, His not suspending the law of gravity does not make Him less good.
But what about the suffering that comes apart from our choices, such as this hurricane or cancer?
Demanding Eden
The creation narrative in Genesis 1 is immeasurably important in understanding who we are. We are earthly, created on the same day as other creatures. We share common physical aspects with the animal world, and we are inexorably linked with the created order. And yet, we uniquely bear God’s image. In chapter 2, the image-bearers are placed in a Paradise without suffering or death, but also with a call to live in obedient faith with the loving Creator.
However, they/we don’t, and in chapter 3, EVERYTHING changes. Not only do the man, woman, and serpent face the consequence of their rebellion, but creation, itself, is altered. Excluded from the Garden, they face a world filled with the possibility of suffering and the assurance of death. And yet, God does not abandon His image bearers or the world in which they live.
Many, both unbelievers and believers, wonder why God didn’t create a world free from even the possibility of disasters, pain, and death. In other words, why isn’t our world, Eden? If God is truly good and able, they claim, it ought to be.
There is an answer, that’s not the full answer. That answer is, He did, and He placed in that world people free to say yes or no. The Biblical God honors the freedom He gives. He also honors the “natural” laws He establishes. Rain gives life, but can also bring death in the world that is. We may imagine a world where the bad things are prohibited, but that’s not our fallen world.
Tales of Two Storms
If the world just is the way it is, should we pray? My answer is, absolutely yes! God honors the laws He established to govern His creation, but He hasn’t locked Himself out of it. He both listens and responds to His people. The Bible is full of moments where God intervened. But importantly, most of our lives have those moments. Many interventions are guidance and protection we recognize only in looking back, but many are dramatic and profound.
Two different stories may illustrate God’s presence in storms. In Luke 8:22-25, we are told of a storm that threatened the boat and the lives of Jesus’s disciples. The sleeping Jesus seems unconcerned, but wakes and “rebukes” the wind and waves, instantly calming the sea. The power of God through Jesus produced a deep, holy, fear in the disciples. The sovereign power and authority of Jesus, not the miracle, was the point. Only Jesus, the Messiah, had this divine authority.
The second story Luke tells is in Acts 27:13-44. Paul (with Luke) was on his way to Rome by sea. As in the earlier story, a storm breaks out, threatening the ship and its passengers. Unlike the earlier story, no one rebuked the storm, and it did its damage. Instead, Paul served as God’s prophetic servant, calling people to faith and trust in God as the storm battered them. God was not absent! His will was done, and life was preserved, through the storm.
Ian wreaked its full fury and horror on Florida, with devastating results. Many of us fervently prayed that Florida would be spared, but it was not. Unlike Jesus, we do not have the authority to rebuke the winds and water, but we have God’s full authority to call on Him, our Abba.
We may condemn ourselves, or others, for not having sufficient faith; for not praying hard enough, often enough, or long enough. We may argue that God promises (especially in the writings of John) to give us whatever we ask in faith. And yet, we know of sincere, passionate prayers for the healing of someone we love, and remember those prayers at their funerals. Is God not true to His promises? Before we decide that He may not be, perhaps we need to see the promises in the context of the Father’s will. I don’t believe that God ever obligated Himself to grant our every wish. Faithful saints suffer, have thorns, and drink the cup of woe. This leads us to our next observation.
On a Cross and in Our Storms
The Christian faith has much in common with other faiths, especially that of our faith ancestors, the Jews. Yet, the heart of our faith is unique. Our rescue in this world of suffering is centered in suffering, but not our suffering. It is centered in the suffering of God, Incarnate!
Before the Passion, Jesus passionately prayed three times. His sincere plea was for the cup (I believe of God’s wrath) to pass from Him—yet He drank it fully. Each of these times of prayer ended with, “Not my will, but Yours be done,” and God’s will was done. If the cup didn’t pass, were the prayers pointless? Not at all! For Jesus, prayer is not about getting what we desire, but being in relationship with our Father, who gives what is good, especially, Himself, through His Spirit. The prayers of Gethsemane prepared Jesus for the crisis of the Passion.
Unlike any other faith of which I know, the death of its Founder is at the heart of its message. The message that God’s Messiah, God Incarnate, had been crucified, was not only a unique message, but said something important about God and suffering. The purely naturalistic, godless universe of the atheist is incapable of feeling. The distant Designer of Deism feels nothing about the suffering in the “clockwork” he left behind. The God of the Bible, both Old and New Testament, is profoundly different—He is present, feels, and cares. Nowhere is that more starkly seen than on the cross. God has skin in the game!
Resurrection and Eyes of Faith
If the cross was the final word, we might find some comfort at the expense of believing in an omnipotent God. We might recall, as we suffer, that Jesus also suffered. We might remember that Jesus died a horrible death as we face our own death. But there is precious little comfort and no hope, if that’s all there is to our story.
But Sunday came! Good Friday led to Easter Sunday and, again, EVERYTHING changed! Captured by the risen Messiah, Paul can joyfully say, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.” (Romans 8:18-19 NIV). We, and creation, itself, have a future greater than our suffering.
Can we prove that? No, we cannot absolutely prove it. However, there are powerful reasons to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, including the unlikely existence of the church. There is also a growing body of evidence, in near-death experiences, that defy naturalistic explanations of life and death. Again, this is not proof, but it is real evidence. As for proof, why should the burden fall only on believers? Everyone on every side must believe what cannot be proven.
If there is real life with the Lord, beyond this life, our view of suffering and pain is transformed. If our eyes could open to see that life, we may see millions of those who were lost in life’s storms, not lost at all, but in joyous fellowship with the Lord. And, we may envision ourselves greeted by His nail-pierced hands.
* I am particularly indebted to two Oxford professors on this subject. The first is C. S. Lewis in two of his books, The Problem of Pain (for a summary, see https://samselikoff.com/writings/cs-lewis-problem-of-pain) and A Grief Observed (https://www.supersummary.com/a-grief-observed/summary). The second is John C. Lennox, Professor of Mathematics. His video lectures speak powerfully. A brief introduction can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFt4cRPGI74