THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING

by Dr Steve Withington

The theological and philosophical problem of suffering is, no doubt, as old as the experience of suffering itself. Many of the profound questions related to suffering so often thrown angrily, or desperately, at Christians today have been addressed in a book as ancient as Job.

The present Western obsession with hedonism, however, has raised it to the status of chief objection against Christianity in the eyes of many. Put simply: "Why does an all-powerful, all-good God allow so much suffering?" And no glib, matter-of-fact answers will ever ease the agony of those who ask from experience.

At the risk of appearing indifferent, although the relief of suffering is my full-time occupation,1 I would like to offer the following observations. Despite adding up to a rather complex jigsaw puzzle as opposed to a concise reasoned argument, they have helped my thinking on the subject, and eased my own grieving:

1. The objection, as raised above is, at heart, an expression of moral outrage that things are not what they ought to be, that this situation is somehow not fair, that we were not destined for this. The very moral outrage itself, natural to so many, is best explained within a Christian worldview, where morality is valid (absolutes hold true and good and bad have defined reference points), and where fairness is based on an immutable Justice. Also, as humans made in God's image, we were not destined for this. We live in a fallen world, but another world without suffering and death is yet to come.
   
   

2. While often not direct or invariable in specific cases, there is a link between sin and suffering. Genesis 3 clearly teaches that suffering and death entered our world through sin, through the original Fall. Many of the most terrible forms of suffering are the direct result of human sin eg. the holocaust, the slaughter of the innocents (Matt. 2:16-18), the agony of divorce after unfaithfulness.2 Suffering caused by so-called "Acts of God" eg. famines and floods, is invariably potentially able to be eased to a considerable degree by genuine kindness, generosity, self-sacrifice and understanding. If only we would have it so.
   
   

3. While unpleasant, to say the least, suffering is not inherently and invariably bad. It may yield good, even very good outcomes. As with Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4) and Saul of Tarsus (Acts 8), it is frequently a means by which people are brought back to God and a life of kindness and love after having turned their back on both for most of their lives (Ps. 107).
   
   

4. Conversely, the absence of suffering may have disastrous results. Consider the leper who loses his fingers little by little because his disease prevents him from feeling pain in his extremities so he is unable to avoid dangerous things eg. prolonged burns. Or the spoiled child, brought up to enjoy everything and endure nothing, who becomes an adult nobody can enjoy or endure.
   
   

5. The personal endurance of suffering is not something from which God remains aloof. As Job prophesied many hundreds of years before Christ: "as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth" (Job 19:25). His redeemer and ours "bore our griefs", "carried our sorrows", "was pierced through for our transgressions" (Is. 53 :4-5), suffering more rejection, loneliness, loss and physical pain than any of us will ever have to bear. And all this innocently, and for our sake.
   
   

6. In following the call of Christ to "take up our cross and follow him" (Lk. 9:23), we have an opportunity to discover, but only by His grace, that in the embrace of suffering and death, and living, for others who suffer, there is also 'resurrection', peace and a hope that transcends.
   
   

7. Were there no joy beyond suffering, life beyond death, justice beyond injustice, no awesome final vision (such as Job's) of One who can be trusted with a higher purpose, then let us all without further ado end it all like the true caring but convinced atheist. But what of the shadowy, sometimes disguised, dream of all these things implanted by Him who put "eternity in our hearts" (Ecc. 3:11).

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Footnotes

1. Dr Withington is Senior Medical Registrar at Health Care Hawke's Bay, and a specialist in infectious diseases. He is a member of our Apologetics Society.  Return to text

2. The related important question: "Why does a good God allow so much human sin?" merits a very thorough theological treatment, but those who raise it in anger are generally quickly disposed to drop it when faced with Scripture's exposure of universal sinfulness (Rom. 3:9ff.). If God were to destroy evil, He would need to destroy us all.  Return to text

©2000 Wellington Christian Apologetics Society (Inc.) All Rights Reserved.

Previously published in
Apologia (The Journal of the Wellington Christian Apologetics Society)
vol. 4, no.2 (1995): 45

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