This is one of the most difficult questions for Christians to answer.
The “problem of pain and suffering” is atheism’s most potent weapon against the Christian faith.
All true science and history, understood correctly supports the fact of God. This evidence is so strong that, as the Bible says “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” in Psalm 14:1.
You see atheists, have no solid evidence on which to base their faith in there is “no God”, so what do they do? Resort finally to what they think is levelheaded objections. And this problem of pain and suffering is the devils choice of weapon.
That is, they say, how can a God of love permit such things in His world as war, sickness, pain, and death, especially when their effects often are felt mostly by those who are apparently innocent? Either He is not a God of love and is indifferent to human suffering, or else He is not a God of power and is therefore helpless to do anything about it. In either case, the Biblical God who is supposedly one of both absolute power and perfect love becomes an impossible reality. Or so they claim!
This is a real difficulty, but atheism is certainly not the answer, and neither is agnosticism. While there is much evil in the world, there is even more that is good. This is proved by the fact that people normally try to hang on to life as long as they can. One thing to also keep in mind most everyone recognizes that “good” is a higher order than “bad.”
We need also to recognize that our minds were created by God. We can only use these minds to the extent that He allows, and it is, so then it is wrong for us to use them to question Him and His motives. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). “Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, why hast Thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20). We ourselves do not decide the standards of what is right. Only the Creator of all reality can do that. We need to settle it, in our minds and hearts, whether we understand it or not, that whatever God does is right.
Having settled this by faith, we are then free to seek for ways in which we can profit spiritually from the sufferings in life as well as the blessings. As we consider such matters, it is helpful to keep the following great truths continually in our minds.
There is really no such thing as the innocent suffering. Since “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), there is no one who has the right to freedom from God’s wrath based innocence.
As far as babies are concerned, and others who may be incompetent mentally to distinguish right and wrong, it is clear from Scripture that they are sinners by nature and thus will inevitably become sinners by choice as soon as they are able to do so.
The world is now under God’s Curse according to Genesis 3:17 because of man’s rebellion against God’s Word. The apostle Peter warned his readers by using an example right out of the Old Testament Specifically the book of Isaiah in chapter 22. You will see how judgment came upon Jerusalem in spite of all the prophet’s warnings. This chapter contains a good example of a society that sinned away its day of grace. Jerusalem and Judah had crossed a line-and there was no turning back. The people were backslidden and were living as if though they were atheists. So God instructed Isaiah to prophesy to the people and warn them of a dreadful judgment! Our nation is headed to that same demise.
This bondage of corruption with the “whole world groaning and travailing together in pain” as described in Romans 8:21, 22, is pretty much universal, affecting all men and women and children everywhere. Our nation is on a collision course to collapse. Our government is functioning under the fact that it has rejected God in our society.
It is true. We really are on a “collision course” with disaster, but most Americans don’t realize what is happening. Most Americans seem to believe that there will never be any serious consequences for all the borrowing and spending that we have been doing. And that is because most Americans don’t understand basic economics. When your debt rises much faster than your income does for an extended period of time, it is always going to result in pain. Every single time. If you have ever found yourself drowning in debt, you know exactly what I am talking about. Well, now our entire country is drowning in debt, and our politicians are adding hundreds of billions more to that debt every single month. This is not going to end well, and that should be obvious to everyone.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who was the only truly “innocent” and “righteous” man in all of history has suffered more than anyone else who ever lived. And this He did for us! “Christ died for our sins” (I Corinthians 15:3). He suffered and died, in order that ultimately He might deliver the world from the Curse, and that, even now, He can deliver from sin and its bondage anyone who will receive Him in faith as personal Lord and Savior. This great deliverance from the penalty of inherent sin, as well as of overt sins, very possibly also assures the salvation of those who have died before reaching an age of conscious choice of wrong over right. With our full faith in God’s goodness and in Christ’s redemption, we can recognize that our present sufferings can be turned to His glory and our good. The sufferings of unsaved men are often used by the Holy Spirit to cause them to realize their needs of salvation and to turn to Christ in repentance and faith. The sufferings of Christians should always be the means of developing a stronger dependence on God and a more Christ like character, if they are properly applied.
God is loving and merciful even when He allows trials and sufferings to come in our lives.
“For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Blessings to all!
