Apologetics: The Basics
Session 12 – Evil and Suffering
Ten Things I Believe about Evil, Suffering, and the existence of God
Probably the number 1 issue raised against the beliefs of the Christian…it certainly seems to be the overwhelming argument of the Angry Atheist…
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the work of a demon, rather than the work of God.” – Thomas Paine
The argument basically goes something like this…the God of the Bible is supposed to be all powerful and all loving…but if God was all powerful and all loving, he would eliminate evil and he would eliminate suffering… since evil and suffering exist, that demonstrates the God of the Bible does not..
“…it was the picture of a woman in northern Africa. They were experiencing a devastating drought and she was holding her dead baby in her arms and looking up to heaven with the most forlorn expression. I looked at it and I thought, ‘Is it possible to believe that there is a loving or caring Creator when all this woman needed was rain?’ How could a loving God do this to that woman? Who runs the rain? I don’t, you don’t. He does – or that’s what I thought. But when I saw that photograph, I immediately knew it is not possible for this to happen and for there to be a loving God. There was no way. Who else but a fiend could destroy a baby and virtually kill its mother with agony – when all that was needed was rain?” – Charles Templeton
We are going to be taking an objective look at an emotional issue. Our view is this… evil and suffering are VERY REAL and the emotional issues associated with them are VERY REAL, and Jesus Christ is the only real answer.
The next few minutes are NOT going to solve anyone’s concerns about evil and suffering, we merely intend to demonstrate that this issue does not work as an argument against God’s existence, but in fact it is actually an argument FOR God’s existence, as well as the question of God’s love…
I could be wrong…feel free to disagree
(1) We are in no position to second guess God.
We spent 6 sessions presenting evidence and making reasoned arguments for the God of the Bible…this objection feels like…
“I see all the objective evidence but since I don’t like his handling of evil
and suffering, this nullifies all that evidence. I am justified in rejecting his
offer of salvation and even his existence because he did not address evil
and suffering the same way I would have.”
When you create your own universe, you can make whatever rules you want.
(2) Evil and suffering are not the same thing
My position: God is the only possible source of defining what is good and evil…evil is a transgression of God’s moral will…it is a spiritual thing.
Suffering is a physical or mental thing…
They are different things and we will look at them separately…suffering first…
(3) Suffering is not contrary to God’s nature
Evil and suffering are not a denial of the Christian message…they are central to it
Scripture doesn’t deny evil…it explains it
Suffering was a huge part of Jesus life.
Even before ‘the fall’…I have no doubt that Adam could have stubbed his toe in the Garden of Eden.
(4) Suffering can be the source of short and long-term benefit
“God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” – C.S. Lewis, CFF, p44
“…suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” – Paul, Romans 5:3-4
(5) How much suffering is too much?
If you want to use human suffering as an argument against God’s existence, ala Charles Templeton, et al…then…what level of suffering is no longer an argument against his existence?
“well, he would just need to get rid of the worst choices…”?
How do you know he hasn’t?
Who gets to decide what is the ‘worst’?
(6) Most human suffering is the result of a rejection of the values and Lordship of Jesus Christ (aka ‘evil’)
What about the human suffering not caused by this rejection? THIS is the question for which I do not like any of the answers…however, the questions I DO know the answer to, tell me there IS an answer to the question…and, if he chooses to, He will tell me that answer some day
(7) The existence of evil is actually an argument FOR the existence of God
It is impossible to argue against real evil without running smack into the Moral Argument for the existence of God
(8) God does not cause or choose evil, we do, but he does allow it
(9) Freedom of choice is the source of evil, but also of love
How would you eliminate bad choices and still retain the ability for good choices?
(10) This entire argument is based on a curious assumption… that God’s number 1 priority is our comfort
Scripture makes it VERY clear…God’s priorities are more on the eternal, not the temporary. Suffering was something believers were promised we WOULD experience, not that we would avoid it.
“Pain and suffering are frequently the means by which we become motivated to finally surrender to God and seek the cure of Christ. That’s what we need most desperately. That’s what will bring us the supreme joy of knowing Jesus. Any suffering, the great Christians from history will tell you, is worth that result.” – Peter Kreeft, CFF, p44
(11*) God’s answer to evil and suffering is the same… the cross and the resurrection
“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross…In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?…in my imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged into God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ…is God’s only self-justification in such a world’ as ours.” – John R.W. Stott, CFF, p54
“God’s answer to the problem of suffering is that he came right down into it. Many Christians try to get God off the hook for suffering; God put himself on the hook, so to speak – on the cross. And therefore the practical conclusion is that if we want to be with God, we have to be with suffering, we have to not avoid the cross, either in thought or in fact. We must go where he is and the cross is one of the places where he is.” – Peter Kreeft, CFF, p46
Conclusion:
Why doesn’t God eliminate evil and suffering?
He will. He has told us he will and he has proven he will do what he said he will do. But he has higher priorities between now and then.
In the meantime, when you wonder about how God feels about evil and suffering, look at what he endured…just for you…two thousand years ago.
“…compared with knowing God eternally, compared to the intimacy with God that Scripture calls a spiritual marriage, nothing else counts. If the way to that is through torture, well, torture is nothing compared to that. Yes, it’s enormous in itself, but compared to that, it’s nothing.” – Peter Kreeft, CFF, p48
“In light of heaven, the worst suffering on the earth, a life full of the most atrocious tortures on earth, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.” – Saint Teresa, CFF, p47
Know what you believe
Know why you believe it