Why does God allow suffering? In the western world, it is probably the most common objection to the God of the Bible.
If God is loving and all-powerful, why does He not end all suffering now? Why do good things happen to “bad” people, and bad things to “good” people?
The world clearly does not work as it should. No society has solved the problem, whether it is a democracy or a dictatorship, liberal or conservative, religious or secular.
Consider the evidence. Medical technology has never been more advanced, yet it is often used for harm. Corruption exists in every sphere of society, in every nation. Famine, storms and earthquakes are increasing in number and intensity, bringing misery and heartbreak to millions.
The problem is also personal. We want to do what is right, yet we often get it wrong, and others’ failures affect us in turn. Why is the world in such a mess?
Even those with comfortable lives live under the curse of death. Every one of us has a death sentence we cannot reverse. Some die suddenly. Most of us slowly ebb towards it, with no escape.
The Bible never avoids the subject of suffering. It helps us to begin to understand God’s perspective, and the purpose suffering serves in our lives.
Suffering we experience and see
Suffering takes many forms and has many causes. The types overlap, and it is usually a combination of factors that causes us to suffer. Here we look at four obvious examples.
Poverty
Most suffering results from the careless or selfish actions of humanity. Poverty is the clearest example.
God has provided a world that can easily feed every person on the planet. Yet millions endure scarcity and famine. At the same time, many in the West “suffer” from obesity and throw away their surplus food.
In almost every place where famine kills millions, rulers deliberately or negligently block food from reaching those in need. Their aim is to retain power, increase wealth or pursue another selfish agenda.
Worse still, wealthy nations often ignore this corruption to protect their own extravagant lifestyles.
In almost every country, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. How can this be so in such a “civilised” world?
Personal suffering
Many people suffer terribly through no obvious fault of their own. Children are born under a death sentence of disease, disability, poverty or other severe hardship. Others are orphaned when their families are caught up in war. Even in our own society, some children are born into homes where abuse and exploitation are endured with no escape.
Adults are frequently affected by illness, disease, accident and crime. Even when we escape these things, the fear of them can bring anxiety and distress, or lead to a nihilistic approach to life.
We all experience bereavement at some point, but some seem to suffer more than their fair share. This often appears random and unfair, with no explanation as to why some suffer more than others.
Addiction ensnares people from all walks of life. It often destroys their own lives and causes immense distress to those around them. It is not linked to age, class, location or culture. It appears to be a universal “disease” of humanity.
All of us suffer in some form. At times, the severity seems the result of a cosmic lottery. It is a symptom of a broken world that does not function as it should.
Wars and conflicts
War has always been part of human existence, but the last 150 years have seen an explosion of it. The twentieth century was by far the bloodiest in history, culminating in two world wars that claimed many millions of lives.
Conflict between nations and fierce civil wars have continued since. Organisations such as NATO and the UN were formed to keep the peace, yet there is no sign that the intensity of war is easing.
Oppression and exploitation go hand in hand with war. To be born into a conflict zone is to live where human life is cheap and misery is immense. Where is God in the midst of this? An evil force seems to have a firm grip on the world.
Natural disasters
The natural world appears unstable and at odds with itself. Animals seem to live in a state of aggression and hostility towards one another and towards humans.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and other weather events devastate many regions, with frequency and intensity increasing almost yearly. Unusual weather patterns threaten food supplies just as the world population rapidly grows.
The world seems to be creaking and groaning. Even those who do not live in direct danger cannot escape its effects, or the fear of one day experiencing them.
Many more examples could be given. It is enough to say that the world is often a hostile and uncertain place.
Who is to blame for suffering?
Suffering is rarely caused by one factor or one person. The Bible indicates that human suffering is often the result of the actions of humanity, the work of Satan, or the permissive will of God.
Humanity
An honest look at our own suffering shows that it is usually linked to our own unwise or negligent decisions.
Human beings appear to be inherently selfish. This runs contrary to modern psychology and secular humanism, but we would argue that selfishness is the human default. We have to make a conscious effort to avoid self-centred behaviour. We rarely have to stop ourselves from doing too much good. A small child shows this programming without any help from anyone.
Consider our tax returns. Who has to stop themselves from giving the taxman extra? Our default is to give less than we should. When someone wrongs us, do we have to restrain ourselves from repaying evil with good? Of course not. Our default is to repay evil with more evil.
This is the story of humanity. We all find it difficult to do what we know is morally right, and this causes the vast majority of suffering in the world. Any action carried out with a selfish motive is almost certainly carried out at someone else’s expense. Bad decisions almost always cause some suffering.
No political system or government can fully protect people from the consequences of their decisions. No member of our family is immune from the suffering caused by our own mistakes or selfishness. We cannot avoid causing suffering to ourselves and to others.
Satan
The Bible makes it clear that Satan presently has dominion over the earth until the Lord Jesus returns to establish everlasting righteousness.
Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:30-32 NIV)
A large proportion of suffering is therefore due to Satan. He may act directly, or he may empower people to harm one another.
For example, we would argue that there is a Satanic influence over any society that permits and encourages the killing of babies who are “inconvenient” or “not financially viable”. The same process is gaining momentum against the elderly. It will not be long before society is also “playing God” with their lives, encouraging many to “choose” death.
Human selfishness is certainly a factor. Yet Satan also moves subtly through society, fostering the attitudes and hatred that attack the sanctity of life.
The book of Job gives a biblical account of Satan directly engaging in human affairs to cause harm.
God
The Bible gives many examples of God permitting suffering, such as Job. In Job’s case, however, God did not cause the suffering. He permitted Satan to be the perpetrator.
There is no dispute that God often permits humanity to suffer. He allows us to bear the consequences of our mistakes and bad decisions. This can make Him appear distant and detached from our lives.
The Bible also shows believers suffering as a direct result of disobeying God. Ananias and Sapphira are the most notable New Testament example (Acts 5:1-11). The prophet Jonah suffered greatly because he refused to take a message of hope to the people of Nineveh. He suffered until he changed his mind. God then graciously rescued him, and Jonah went on with the work God had called him to do.
If we disobey God, it is certainly possible that He will permit suffering to bring us back to obedience.Satan
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. (Revelation 3:19 NIV)
When God disciplines us, it is because He loves us, and it should lead us back to Him. When Satan causes suffering, his intent is to destroy us and break our relationship with God. This difference is crucial.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Witnessing the suffering of people we consider “good” can be distressing and bewildering. From God’s perspective, however, there is no such thing as a “good” person. We all live in a state of hostility against God. The Bible consistently teaches that no one can point to their good works as a reason to be protected from judgement or suffering.
When a man addressed Jesus as “good teacher” and asked how to inherit eternal life, Jesus replied:
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone. (Mark 10:18 NIV)
Jesus made the same point elsewhere. Everyone who sins is affected by the condition of sin:
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34 NIV)
Every person is guilty of rebellion, and anyone who sins at all is essentially a slave to sin. Measured against God’s standards of holiness, every human being falls short. No one will be able to claim to be “good” in the presence of God.
This is why God appears to be absent from this imperfect world. A perfectly pure God has to distance Himself from an impure people, otherwise His own purity is compromised. The only possible solution was for God Himself to take the form of a human being and pay the penalty for impurity on our behalf.
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:10, 23-24 NIV)
The Bible acknowledges the reality of suffering
From beginning to end, the Bible never pretends that the world is perfect. It makes no apology for the way the world is. Every book of Scripture describes the hardship of life as a stark reality.
The most acute account of suffering is the book of Job. After approaching God, Satan was permitted to “test” Job’s faith with incredible “affliction”. Towards the end of the account, Job asks questions that will resonate with many:
I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. I say to God: Do not declare me guilty, but tell me what charges you have against me. Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked? Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees? Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a strong man, that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin– though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand? Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? [Job 10:1-9 NIV]
God’s response is striking. Job chapters 38-42 are worth reading in full. God presents Job with a series of awesome questions that Job cannot answer. He does not explain or justify suffering. Instead, He directs Job to look to Him by demonstrating His creative power.
Job has no argument to offer in reply. He repents and submits:
Then Job replied to the LORD: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1-6 NIV)
This is the appropriate response. The world is cursed at every level, and we all live with the effects of that curse. God lovingly wants us to turn to Him for salvation and redemption. Suffering is one of the tools He uses to gain our attention.
Why can’t the world be perfect?
The world was perfect. Part of that perfection was God’s creation of beings with the capacity to receive love, and to love their Creator in return.
God gave us the freedom to make our own choices. This includes the freedom to love or to hurt others and the world around us. That freedom is a perfect demonstration of God’s love. Had we been created as robots, programmed by God to make decisions, we would be incapable of love. We could then accuse God of being cold and unloving. In fact, it is impossible to know what love is without also knowing hate, or to know joy without knowing suffering.
The first three chapters of the Bible describe the original cause of all suffering. God created the world perfectly, as a paradise to be enjoyed entirely. The rebellion of humanity fractured that creation. Now no part of it is untouched by the fall.
Imperfection intrudes into every aspect of our existence. We all live with the clock counting down to death. Whether we die young or old, we will all die. The Bible is honest about this and explains that the world is not the way it should be:
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22-23 NIV)
Even the laws of thermodynamics dictate that systems begin in an orderly state, and that entropy (disorder) increases until the system becomes chaotic and dysfunctional. We can observe this in every feature of life. For humans, it ends in death.
Death is the climax of sin, or rebellion against God. It is the direct result of the fall, and it cannot be reversed. We will all die, and then face our Creator to give an account of our lives.
This raises the question: why does God not put an end to all suffering now?
Why doesn’t God put an end to suffering now?
For many people, this is the biggest question. Why does God not simply end the suffering? Why does He not stop war and genocide, or put a stop to the lies, deceit, corruption and greed we witness every day?
The answer is simple. If God were to judge all sin on the planet at this moment, He would also have to judge every unsaved person. No one would be exempt.
It would be unfair for God to judge the acts of others while ignoring the times we have done wrong. That would be “selective” justice, which is not justice at all.
The only reason God does not end all suffering now is that He is graciously allowing time for more people to discover salvation through Jesus Christ. This delay is a demonstration of His patient love.
We cannot currently see things from God’s perspective. He has a plan, and it is unfolding in line with Scripture. It may feel an uncomfortable ride, but God has told us what will happen and what to expect in the world around us.
Make no mistake: time is running out. Suffering will end completely one day. The paradise we were created for will be established forever, with Jesus Christ as King of kings.
It is vital to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour before that day, so as not to miss the chance of enjoying eternity in God’s presence. See How to be Saved.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:9-10 NIV)
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31 NIV)
The purpose of suffering
Christians are not immune from suffering. The Bible makes it clear that followers of Christ will endure hardship. Yet this suffering is never without purpose.
We believe God uses suffering to galvanise His Church and to keep it focused on heaven. In a sense, suffering is a sign of a healthy relationship with God, because it should turn us towards Him.
The growth of the Christian faith is telling. It increases far faster in the parts of the world with the greatest suffering than in those where people live in “comfort”. Where the faith is most brutally suppressed, it often grows quickest.
Christianity is generally acknowledged to be in decline in Western nations, where humanism, new age beliefs and materialism have largely replaced it. Yet many millions are coming to Christ in places such as Africa and South Asia, where the faith attracts severe persecution.
God uses suffering to bring people to Him. It causes people to look upwards, to care less about this life and to focus on the life to come.
Suffering should cause us to look to God and to consider life’s biggest questions. Only the follower of Christ can hope with confidence in the perfect world to come. Suffering should also make us yearn for heaven, and be determined to point others to salvation in Jesus.
Can suffering be explained without God?
Many claim that suffering is the very reason they do not believe in God. How, then, does suffering fit into a world without God?
Suppose humanity evolved from a single cell, and our thoughts and actions are only the result of chemical reactions in the brain. On what basis could we judge anything to be good or bad? The same chemical reactions occur in Adolf Hitler and in Mother Teresa. What grounds do we have for saying whose actions were better?
Surely Hitler’s actions, which we would all agree were evil, were simply “survival of the fittest” in action. They fit a godless, naturalistic explanation of the world. If the theory of evolution is true, on what basis can anyone say his actions were wrong? To which moral standard, or to which adjudicator, are we appealing?
Only belief in God gives us an objective moral standard by which to judge suffering. Such a standard transcends any personal human standard, and it is not possible without a Creator God.
Suffering in context with eternity
Jesus never avoided the subject of suffering. He made it clear that suffering is part of this imperfect world, and that those who follow Him would suffer. The Bible acknowledges this as a fact of life. It gives no explanation as to why some people endure more than others.
When asked about the apparently random suffering of others, Jesus replied:
Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them–do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? (Luke 13:2-4 NIV)
In effect, Jesus is saying that the victims were no more guilty of sin than anyone else. All of us will face judgement, and all will perish without faith in Christ. His emphasis is that each person should examine their own life and recognise that the penalty of death awaits us all because of sin.
Jesus was unique in displaying complete power and authority over every cause of human suffering. The Gospels record Him healing the lame, the blind, the deaf and the diseased. He controlled the weather and even raised people from the dead. No one else in history has shown the power to heal any ailment or condition.
This makes Jesus uniquely qualified to teach us how to escape the bondage of sin and suffering, and to be set free:
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32 NIV)
For the Christian, there is always hope in the midst of suffering, because the believer lives with a heavenly perspective. We have the comforting knowledge that, once this short life is over, we inherit eternal life with our Creator in heaven. No other religion or belief system offers this certainty.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. … For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:18, 24-25 NIV)
A simple illustration
Imagine a very long white rope with a small red handle at one end. The rope is endless in length and represents our eternal existence. The red handle is only a few inches long and represents our present earthly life.
Most people spend their whole lives preparing for, and worrying about, the red section. They give little or no thought to the endless white section.
The follower of Christ has taken care of the white section, and is less concerned about the red. Whatever suffering is endured in this life seems like nothing compared with the eternity the Christian will spend in heaven.
The ultimate example of suffering
The Christian faith is unique in recognising that the greatest suffering in history rests in the life of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus endured every type of suffering: a birth clouded by scandal, hunger, violence, rejection and false accusation, culminating in a brutal death. He suffered all this willingly.
Most of all, He endured the complete wrath of the Father on the cross, despite His own perfection. He did this on our account, to provide a way for our relationship with God to be restored. We cannot fully understand this.
The day of judgement is coming, and Jesus has paid our penalty. He volunteered for unparalleled suffering because He loves each one of us. What an insult it would be to reject this.
The Christian faith is the only faith that makes sense of the world around us. The Bible tackles suffering openly, and enables us to understand it from God’s perspective. It is better to suffer now in the pursuit of truth and a relationship with the Lord God, our Creator, than to use suffering as an excuse to reject Christ and then experience an eternity of suffering.
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9 NIV)