The Problem of Evil and Suffering

"Why Me?" Sickness, disease, bereavement, or misfortune suddenly engulfs us and we find ourselves asking that very question. Our mind is baffled and our heart is confused. We can find no explanation and little comfort. Suffering and evil seem to be woven into the fabric of everyday life. Not a day passes when we do not read of some disaster that claims the lives of yet more people: Earthquakes, floods, fires, bombs, terrorist attacks. Most recently, the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean that has claimed over 150,000 lives. The suffering is staggering. Tragedy and suffering are constantly in our presence. Of course none of us are immune to pain and suffering, and when it happens to us we cry out, "Why me?" In the whole realm of human experience there is perhaps no problem so mysterious as the problem of undeserved suffering. This paper is an attempt to explore this issue and the larger issue of evil and suffering in general. The paper will explore the problem of evil and suffering by asking four important questions. 1) Why is there evil and suffering in general? 2) Who or what causes individual suffering? 3) How should we respond in the face of personal suffering? and 4) How can an all-powerful, loving God allow suffering? So as to avoid theorizing and trivializing such monumental questions, we will concurrently study a real-life story of suffering and evil as seen in the book of Job. Although the book of Job does not provide all the answers, it certainly gives many important insights into the issue of evil and suffering.

As the book of Job begins we learn that Job is a wealthy man who is "blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil."¹ The scene then switches to the heavenly realm where the reader witnesses a conversation between God and Satan. Satan declares that the reason Job fears God and does what is right is because of how God blesses him materially. Satan then challenges God predicting that if God takes away Job’s possessions then he will surely "curse you to your face." (Job 1:11) God takes up Satan’s challenge saying, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger." (Job 1:12) Job is a man going about his business unaware that his life has now become the battleground for a conflict between God and Satan.² Immediately the scene shifts from the heavenly realm to the earthly realm where in a period of one day Job loses all his oxen, all his sheep, all his camels, and finally all of his children. In response to these traumatic events, Job responds, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." (Job 1:21) Contrary to Satan’s prediction, Job does not curse God. Thus ends chapter one. Chapter two again sees Satan challenge God’s government. This time Satan is allowed to inflict pain and suffering on Job’s flesh and bones. Despite the presence of painful sores all over his body and even at the insistence of his wife, Job still does not curse God.

At this point the book of Job shifts its focus. The rest of the book predominately consists of speeches. Three of Job’s friends show up and after some initial empathy they resort to offering an explanation of why Job is suffering. Although they speak separately they all essentially offer the same explanation: Job is suffering because he has committed a terrible sin that God is punishing him for. Throughout these speeches Job’s response and defense of this accusation are also recorded. As the speeches progress, Job becomes increasingly frustrated and angry. He refuses to accept that God is punishing him for a specific sin. After all, Job knows that he is blameless. Even God has told us that (Job 1:1). Job is bewildered as to why he is suffering. "Why me?" he asks. However, as the story progresses, Job’s thoughts seems to shift away from the problem of his suffering to the apparent injustice of it all. What confronts Job with fresh force is the idea that the world does not seem to be governed in accordance with principles of justice. After all, Job himself is innocent and yet suffers. Meanwhile he observes, "Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them." (Job 21:7-9) The injustice of it all stares back at Job defiantly. Finally, by chapter thirty-eight God appears and addresses Job. Does he answer Job’s questions? Does he tell Job why he is suffering? No. He asks a series of rhetorical questions recorded in chapters thirty-eight to forty. These questions take Job on a tour of the created order. Job, overwhelmed by this theophany, responds in utter humility and repentance: "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6) The book closes with an astonishing reversal of fortunes for Job. God restores everything to Job that he lost and more. Job is given double what he had before.

WHY IS THERE EVIL & SUFFERING IN GENERAL?

The presence of evil and suffering cause many to disbelieve in the God of the Bible. The famous Charles Darwin rejected Christianity after the death of his daughter. The billionaire Ted Turner, a famous media mogul, says he lost his faith after his sister died.³ What does the Bible say about the origins of evil and suffering? The Bible clearly indicates that there was no suffering or death when God originally created all things. The world is described by God himself as "very good". (Genesis 1:31) However, the state of goodness did not last long. The entrance of evil and suffering enter the world was due to a grand but terrible quality of human beings – freedom. God didn’t create humans to be like robots. G. K Chesterton explains that, "In making the world, He set it free. God had written, not so much a poem but rather a play; a play He had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who have since made a great mess of it."⁴ The rebellion or sin of Adam brought an intruder into the world – death. God had already warned Adam that this would be the result of rebellion. (Genesis 2:17) After all God is the author of life. Therefore, death is the natural by-product of choosing freedom without God, the giver of life. In addition, because God is perfect and just, there has to be a penalty for sin. The curses God pronounces on Adam and Eve are the first mention of suffering. (Genesis 3:16-19) Thus we see that death and suffering were not part of God’s original creation . According to the Genesis account, we know that we are now looking at a fallen, cursed world.

WHO OR WHAT CAUSES INDIVIDUAL SUFFERING?

The Fall may explain the presence of suffering in general, but what about cases of individual suffering, more specifically senseless suffering? Of the many dimensions of suffering, Job’s experience informs us that the greatest is the spiritual agony of God’s apparent silence and the consequent despair of meaninglessness.⁵ The recurring question is always, "Why me?" The Bible indicates various causes for individual suffering.

1. Individual Suffering may be caused because the world is in a fallen or cursed state.

The first example of this kind of suffering is seen in earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters. They just happen because of the fallen condition of the world. The world is out of sync with its original state of being "very good". The Bible records that, "The creation was subjected to frustration." (Romans 8:20) as a result of the sin of Adam.

The second example of suffering due to a fallen or cursed state is seen in human choices – ours or that of someone else. God has created a world full of cause and effect. For example, if we run in front of a truck we may die. If we smoke we may contract lung cancer. If we eat nothing but junk food we may clog our arteries. In such cases suffering is experienced because of an unwise human choice. However what really hurts is when someone else’s choice or lack of choice affects us. For example, when a parent abuses their child, or when a pedestrian is killed by a drunk driver, or when a bridge collapses due to poor engineering. It would seem that there is no moral significance to this kind of suffering. It is neither because we are good or evil – rather because we are imperfect and fallen. Speaking about this kind of senseless suffering Jesus once said, "Those 18 who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them, do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no!" (Luke 13:4) Individual suffering may be caused just because we live in a fallen world.

2. Individual Suffering may be caused by Satan.

The Bible indicates that Satan or his evil cohorts may be directly behind the suffering that we experience. In the case of Job his senseless suffering was due to Satan’s harassment. The book of Job records, "The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.’" (Job 2:6) Satan is the agent that causes Job’s suffering. Satan’s objective with Job and us is that we would curse God and turn away from the source of life. However, Satan has limits. In the case of Job, God only lets Satan go so far. He doesn’t allow Satan to actually kill Job.

3. Individual Suffering may be caused by God.

Why would God who is good actually cause someone to suffer? What kind of God is He? Let us examine this issue more carefully. The first category of suffering caused by God is called "discipline" or "chastisement". The Bible teaches us that God, who is our heavenly Father, disciplines or chastises his children at certain times:

"Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. (Deut. 8:5)

"My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline…because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." (Prov. 3:11)

"Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent" (Rev 3:19)

Why would God do this? Is it because he gets a kick out of it? Certainly not. It is because this kind of suffering may be necessary to correct us from going down a destructive course and to make us holy. (Hebrews 12:9-10) God also does this so that we will not be "condemned with the world." (1 Cor. 11:32) The book of Amos records an example of how God disciplined the Israelites. He gave them empty stomachs, he withheld rain, he struck their vineyards with blight and mildew, he sent locusts, he sent plagues, soldiers were killed in battle, and possessions were seized. (Amos 4:6-12) Most of these events seem to fit into the category of natural disasters. Yet, the prophet Amos says they are in fact acts of God’s judgment to get the attention of his people so that they will turn back to Him.

There is also another category of suffering caused by God. It is called "divine retribution": God punishes sin and rewards obedience. The Old Testament reiterates this idea over and over in the Decalogue (Ex 20:1-21), The Covenant Code (Ex. 20:22-23:33) and the Holiness Code (Lev. 16-26). It is also a major theme of Deuteronomy (ch.4-11, 28-30). Suffering as a punishment for sin is a recurrent motif in the historical books (1 Kings 16:17-19), the Psalms (eg: Ps. 1), the Prophets (Is. 58:6-14; Jer. 7:5-7), and Proverbs.⁶ The covenantal formula ‘If you sin then you will suffer’ is not meant to be an absolute principle. Despite their disagreements, a common denominator between the theology of Job and his three friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar is their belief in the doctrine of divine retribution. However, Job’s friends misapply the doctrine to Job’s situation, falsely presuming that the reverse ‘If you suffer it is because you have sinned’ must be true. The book of Job guards against an "overreading and mechanical application of a proper biblical retribution theology"⁷ by showing us a man who is suffering for a reason other than his sin. Even Jesus spoke out against the idea that suffering must be always linked to individual sin. On one occasion after seeing a man blind from birth his disciples asked him, "‘Rabbi who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned. But this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in him.’" (John 9:2-3) The book of Job also refutes the corollary that God owed material blessings to Job for his obedience. Job’s faith and understanding of God says that if you trust God you will be rewarded. Job’s experience says the opposite.

So what or who is the cause of Job’s suffering? Is it the result of living in a fallen world, is it Satan, or is it God? Chapters 1 and 2 say that Satan is the agent, and yet they also describe God as the one who makes Job a focus point for Satan. After all, God is the one who brings Job up with Satan: "Have you considered my servant Job?" (Job 1:8) as if to coax Satan on. Job himself recognizes that God is ultimately the one responsible: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away." (Job 1:21) So what is the solution? Is Job a helpless pawn for God to prove a point to Satan? If so, since when does God do anything for Satan? Or, could it be that we are asking the wrong questions? Greg Parsons, theologian and author, suggestions that maybe we are asking the wrong questions:

Though many suppose that the main purpose of the book of Job is to explain the mystery of the suffering of the righteous, it does not provide a definite answer to this matter (and neither do the Lord’s speeches address it directly); Therefore, it must not be the main issue. Rather the problem of innocent suffering serves as a catalyst for the question of the proper motive for man to relate to God (Job 1:9). Thus the main purpose of the book seems to be to show that the proper relationship between God and humankind (in all circumstances) is based solely on God’s sovereign grace and the human response of faith and submissive trust.⁸

Philip Yancey, in his book Where is God when it Hurts, says that suffering involves two main issues: 1) Whoever caused my discomfort, and 2) my response. Most people expend their energy trying to figure out the cause of their pain before they decide how to respond. Yancey logically concludes:

"In Job, the portion of the Bible which most vividly poses the question ‘Who causes pain?’, God deliberately sidesteps the issue. He never explained the cause to Job. All the way through, the Bible steers from the issue of cause to the issue of response. Pain and suffering have happened – now what will you do? The great discussers of cause, Job’s three friends, are dismissed with a scowl [Job 42:7]. The Bible is so clear on this point that I must conclude the real issue before Christians is not ‘Is God responsible?’ but ‘How should I react now that this terrible thing has happened?"⁹

Since God never tells Job the answer to his question "Why me?" we must therefore conclude with Yancey and Parsons that the real issue is how do we relate to God in the midst of suffering?

HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND IN THE FACE OF SUFFERING?

At the end of the book of Job, after God’s speech to Job, God speaks to Eliphaz saying, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." (Job 42:7) A Professor of Philosopy at Boston College, Peter Kreeft, in his book Three Philosophies of Life, advocates that Job remained a mystery to him until he was helped by two great writers: J.R. Tolkien and Martin Buber. Tolkien translated Job for the Jerusalem Bible. His translation of Job 42:7 reads as follows: "I burn with anger against you and your two friends, for not speaking truthfully about me as my servant Job has done."¹⁰ Kreeft points out: not that Job spoke the truth at all times, but that he spoke truthfully, and not that Job’s friends did not speak truth but that they did not speak truthfully, as Job did. What does this mean? Firstly, it means that Job sticks to God, retains intimacy and passion and realness while the three friends are satisfied with a correctness of words or, in the words of Chesterton, "dead orthodoxy". It is as if Job stays married to God and throws dishes at him; while the three friends have a polite nonmarriage, with separate bedrooms and separate vacations.¹¹ Moreover, it means (in the words of Martin Buber) that "The three friends speak about God while Job speaks to God."¹²

Kreeft goes on to explain the significance of this:

Suppose I am in your presence, and you start talking to a third party about me, ignoring me. Not only is this highly insulting; it is also metaphysically inaccurate. It treats the real as the unreal; it treats presence as if it were absence. And that is what the three friends always do. They never pray, only preach. Job is always praying like Augustine in the Confessions: every word is uttered either to God or in his presence. That is why there is such blinding light even amid the confusion: Job insists on standing in the presence of God, who is light. The three friends try to generate their own light by reasoning about God as a proper concept. God is right there all the time, between Job and the friends…Job believes this fundamental truth and therefore speaks truthfully (that is to the God who really is present), while the three friends act as if God were absent.¹³

The most important practical lesson we can learn from Job’s response to suffering is the lesson that Brother Lawrence learned: "the practice of the presence of God."¹⁴ Job and brother Lawrence both lived and breathed the most fundamental reality that God is ever-present.

Two qualities of Job that stand out during his suffering are his honesty and his trust. Firstly, Job is an example to us of the need to be honest with God during suffering. Job’s honesty at times even caused him to curse the day of his birth (Job 3:1-26) and to accuse God of being his enemy (Job 6:4; 16:10-14; 13:24). At other times his honesty causes him to express strong emotions of indignation and disappointment (7:11; 10:1) Yet God, at the end of the book, does not blast him for speaking like this; instead God says it was okay because it was done truthfully – or honesty speaking. Secondly, Job is an example to us of the need to trust God no matter what the circumstances of life bring us. One of the most profound utterances from Job’s mouth comes in chapter 19 when he says, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;" (v.25-26) Job was speaking of the fact that God would sustain him until death and beyond it to the Resurrection of the Dead. Although Job vacillates in his faith, at no point did Job abandon his faith in God or follow his wife’s advice to curse God. (Job 2:9). One of the great messages of Job is that we need to trust that God in his grace will accomplish that which is worthwhile through our suffering and as our Redeemer he will ultimately vindicate his own. The book of Job teaches us that nothing happens to us which is not ultimately controlled by the knowledge, love, wisdom, and power of God. When all rational and relational efforts fail to explain suffering, the only proper response is to trust God.

HOW CAN AN ALL-POWERFUL, LOVING GOD ALLOW SUFFERING?

How can an all-powerful, loving God allow suffering? If he is all-powerful and loving, why doesn’t God remove suffering? Is it because he is not in fact all-powerful or not in fact loving at all? Certainly not. God’s revelation of himself in the Scriptures makes it clear from beginning to end that He is both loving and all-powerful. But why doesn’t God then remove all suffering from our world now? He has power; why doesn’t He use it for the good of mankind now? Billy Graham, in his book Till Armageddon: A Perspective on Suffering, points out that if God were to eradicate all suffering and evil from the planet immediately, He would have to eradicate all people all together because "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23) God would rather transform the evil person than eradicate him.¹⁵ God uses suffering to actually transform us. Here are some of the ways that God uses suffering for good to transform us. Suffering can:

1. Refine and purify our faith. (1 Peter 1:5-7)
2. Make us mature (James 1:2-4)
3. Allow an opportunity to display the works and power of God. (John 9:1-3)
4. Allow an opportunity to silence the enemies of God. (Job 1:11,22, 1 Peter 2:15)
5. Conform us to the image of Christ. (Rom. 8:28-29)
6. Produce in us perseverance and character (Rom 5:3-5)
7. Prevent us from becoming too comfortable in this world and remind us that we have an eternal house in heaven. (2 Cor. 5:1-5)
8. Enable us to sympathize with and comfort others in their suffering. (2 Cor. 1:3-4)
9. Make us thankful. (Phil. 4:12-13)
10. Teach us how to pray. (Romans 8:26)

If God were to remove all evil from our world (but somehow leave man on the planet), it would mean that the essence of humanness would be destroyed. In other words if God programmed man to perform only good acts, we would lose our distinguishing mark – the freedom to make choices. Or if God intervened prior to every evil act or suffering, He would be intervening 24/7, and man would no longer be a free moral agent – the exact thing that God intended man to be. Man would thus be reduced to a mere robot. Robots cannot love freely. They are forced or programmed. God does not want to force us to love him because that would not ultimately be love. True love presupposes choice on the part of both sides.

People who accuse God of sitting back and doing nothing while we suffer are missing a vital truth. According to the Bible God has already done everything you would want a loving God to do – and infinitely more. God entered into our world of suffering and evil in the person of His Son. "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) God, as it were, wrote himself into the script of his own play. More than that, he became one of the actors himself. Jesus suffered was crucified, died, and was buried. Three days later Jesus rose again from the dead and is now seated at God’s right hand. The Bible teaches us that those who believe in Jesus and those who receive him as their Lord and Savior will spend eternity with God: an eternity where there is no more suffering, no more tears, no more pain, no more evil, and no more death. (Rev 21:4) Christ’s suffering and death mean that God himself can personally empathize with our suffering because he has experienced it.

The climax of Job’s thoughts, prayers, and questions comes in chapter 42 after God has appeared to him. In humility and awe Job responds with the following words:

Why was Job so satisfied in the end? After all, God didn’t answer any of his questions. Peter Kreeft suggests that the reason Job is so satisfied is because God answers Job not his questions. Just as Jesus answered the questioner, not the question, the heart and not necessarily the words, so here God answers Job’s deepest heart quest: to see his God face to face; to see Truth, not truths; to meet Truth, not just to know it."¹⁶ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (42:5-6) This is the climax of the entire book. Kreeft describes the significance of this theophany:

Seeing God with his own eyes make sense out of everything. All questions seem irrelevant. The problem of evil and suffering is complex. However, "He who knows the why can bear with any how…After his encounter with God, Job still did not know the why. Yet he seems to accept the how. The reason – he knows the who. He who knows the who can bear with the how, even though he does not know the why."¹⁸