Q & A Series: How Can God Allow So Much Suffering?

Posted on by July 20, 2012
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Question:
I think the toughest argument I hear people asking is, “Why would an all-powerful God allow so much suffering in the world? If he does, he must either not be all powerful, or he is not good. Why would I want to believe in a God like that?”

Answer:
[This Q & A is from my original blog in 2009, it has been slightly updated since the original post.] This is perhaps the most common question that people struggle with when it comes to Christianity. I believe the answer can be found if people will simply take God at His word. The difficulty comes when we start to doubt certain parts of the Bible. Once we fail to accept certain portions of God’s word, then we can no longer provide an answer to this ever-important question.

Before answering the question, I would like to point out that no other belief system or philosophy can provide a suitable answer to the problems of suffering and/or evil. For example, atheists and agnostics do not have an absolute moral basis, so they cannot legitimately claim that something is good or bad. If evolution is true, then everything that happens is just part of the natural order of things. We were brought into existence through millions of years of death and suffering, and there is nothing inherently good or bad about it.

The other religions cannot provide an answer, either. For example, in Islam, everything that happens is because Allah has willed it. So every rape, murder, and every other evil has occurred because he wanted it that way. In Mormonism, the first sin is considered a good thing because now Mormons can prove themselves by living “good” lives and earning their salvation. Buddhism denies the existence of suffering and evil by claiming that it is all an illusion. I spend an entire chapter just on this topic in my book, God and Cancer.

Now, what is the biblical answer? The Bible tells us that God made a perfect world. There was no death, no disease, no suffering, and no bloodshed. After He made everything, He looked at creation and said it was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the world was cursed. As a result, death, disease, suffering, and bloodshed entered the world. Notice who is at fault for this—man, not God. God created a perfect world and we ruined it by our sinful choices.

If you are a Christian who does not accept the straightforward reading of the Genesis account of creation (and try to insert the billions of years in there somehow), then you can no longer answer this question. This is because you necessarily make God the author of all the death and suffering in the world since countless creatures would have suffered and died for billions of years prior to Adam.

So why does He allow so much suffering? I believe part of the answer is that He is allowing us to get a small taste of what we deserve. The Bible tells us that God is patient and giving man time to repent, which is the appropriate response when we are confronted with our own sinfulness. At some point, Christ will return and will eventually put an end to sin, suffering, disease, bloodshed, and death. The reason He has not returned yet is because God wants more people to turn to Him (see 2 Peter 3:8–9). In the meantime, man has become more and more wicked as he strays farther and farther away from God.

But, someone might ask, what about all the innocent people that suffer? The answer is that none of us are truly innocent. This was a hard concept for me to grasp at one time, because I could not understand how an infant could be considered a sinner. But the Bible is clear that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and that we all have a sinful nature from the first moment of our conception because of Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:12–21).

It makes sense logically, too. How can two imperfect people make a perfect child? It’s impossible. Those of you who have been around infants, how do little children learn how to be selfish? We don’t have to teach them that. They are inherently selfish and start exhibiting that behavior at a very early age.

Because we are all sinners, we all deserve God’s judgment, which is death (Rom. 6:23). We don’t deserve to live because we have violated the law of a perfectly holy God, but He graciously allows us to live for a certain amount of time. When I was hospitalized with leukemia, and very close to death, I did not ask “Why me?” I knew why. As a sinner, I deserve death and suffering. I actually wondered why God had given me so much time and I was grateful for the time He had given me.

God is all-loving and He is all-powerful. The existence of suffering and evil does not militate against this. Instead, these things actually prove He exists, because if He did not, we could not even recognize that these things are bad. God allows suffering and evil to exist for a time, but will one day He will do away with it all. 1 Corinthians 15:26 tells us that death is the last enemy that will be destroyed. When we are with Him there will be no more tears, sorrow, grief, suffering, bloodshed, or death (Revelation 21:3–4).

The Bible not only gives the only legitimate explanation for the existence of death and suffering, it also provides the only solution. This subject is explained in much greater detail in my book, available in print from my online store God and Cancer: Finding Hope In the Midst of Life’s Trials or at a great discount for Kindle.

Commonly Misused Bible Verses: Matthew 19:26

Posted on by July 14, 2015
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It is common to hear Christians claim that God can do anything, using Matthew 19:26 to support such a notion. But how can this be true, since the Bible also says that God cannot lie?

The goal of this series is to help the reader pay close attention to the biblical text. Rather than repeating what we’ve often heard, or skimming over details because we think we already know what it says, Christians need to know what the Bible actually says. Sadly, many do not know the Bible very well. So once again we find ourselves looking at a very popular verse that is frequently misused by Christians.

How many times have you been told that God can do anything? Is that accurate? Where does the Bible teach this?

Commonly Misused Bible Verse #7: Matthew 19:26

The Bible teaches that God is omnipotent, meaning that He is all-powerful. So that means He can do everything, right? Well, that’s what some people think. After all, how could we possibly deny the following words of Jesus?

But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26, NKJV)

Since “all things are possible” with God, then He must be able to do anything, right? But how can He do all things, if it is impossible for Him to lie (“in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began…” Titus 1:2, emphasis added; see also Hebrews 6:18)? So is this a contradiction? Absolutely not.

The problem is that we have not checked the context of Matthew 19:26. Jesus had just told His disciples that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it would be for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. His disciples were amazed by this, and asked, “Who then can be saved?” (Matthew 19:23–25, NKJV).

So that is the backdrop for our verse. Jesus was talking about salvation when He said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” And that’s true. Apart from God, no one can be saved. We cannot save ourselves because we are sinful, and we need Christ to save us.

But Jesus was not teaching that God can do everything. We know there are many things that God cannot do. He cannot cease to exist. He cannot sin. “He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). Nor can He do the logically absurd. He cannot make a square circle or create an uncreated being (since any created being is, by definition, not uncreated).

The truth is that God can do all things that are consistent with His nature, and it is very important to understand this distinction. Too many Christians have fallen for the trap laid by skeptics and atheists. They will ask, “Do you believe God is all powerful?” The Christian says, “Yes.” Then they ask, “Do you believe God can do anything?” Once again, the well-meaning (but naive) Christian says, “Yes.” So the skeptic moves in for the kill by asking, “So can God make a rock so big that He cannot move it?” End of debate. The score: Skeptic – 1, Christian – 0.

But you see, it doesn’t have to be this way. The Christian loses as soon as He falls for the trap of agreeing that God can do anything. If believers would take the time to study their Bibles, they should know that there are many things that God cannot do, as we listed above. Making a rock so big that He cannot lift it is another example of the logically absurd. If Christians would learn to simply say, “No, God cannot do all things,” we would be a lot better off. Not only would it probably take the skeptic by surprise to hear the biblical answer (which they probably haven’t heard before), but it would give you an opportunity to share the truth with them.

There are two other aspects of this passage we need to discuss. Some pastors have claimed that “the eye of the needle” referred to by Jesus was a gate in Jerusalem in which the camel would have to be unloaded before ducking down to get through. This is false. There was no “Needle’s Eye” gate in Jerusalem at the time. Furthermore, Jesus compared this scenario to the “odds” of a rich man getting into heaven on his own. He said it was impossible for the rich man, but if the analogy was to a camel getting through a gate in Jerusalem with some difficulty, He should have said that it was difficult or somewhat inconvenient. Since a camel could get through the gate, Jesus clearly was not referring to such a thing.

Finally, Jesus was not merely singling out the rich in this passage. He had just finished speaking to a young rich man who had done a pretty good job in keeping the Old Testament law. However, when Jesus told him to sell everything and give to the poor, the man went away sad. Apparently, Jesus knew that the man would cling to his wealth, so it seems that His point was that the rich are often distracted because of their wealth. They don’t often think about their need for salvation, because their wealth affords them the ability to buy enough stuff or to be continually entertained, so that they do not stop to think about what is truly important.

But Jesus did not let the poor or the middle class off the hook. We are all guilty of sinning against the infinitely holy God, and without Christ, it is impossible for any of us to enter heaven. Praise God that He saves all who call upon the name of the Lord, both poor and rich.