Why Does God Allow Suffering?
A Barna Christian research group
asked, “If you could ask God only one question, what would you ask?” The most
common response was, “Why is there
pain and suffering in the world?”[1]
An atheist Bart Ehrman writes, “I came to think that there is not a God who is
actively involved with this world of pain and misery—if he is, why doesn’t he do something about it?”[2]
If there is a God, and if God is
good, why does he let us suffer? Why all this evil and suffering? This is
a very important and rich question. And there are lots of ways to approach this
question. In fact, the Book of Revelation gives us a good insight and hint to
help us get the right answers.
The Time Is Near
The Bible is very clear about the
following truth: God does not cause
suffering and evil, but in his providence God allows and permits them to
accomplish the greater good. One of the main reasons why and how God uses
suffering is to get our attention, wake
us up, and turn us back to him. C. S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in
our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His
megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”[3]
In today’s passage we see four horsemen who bring suffering to
the world. They bring war (sword), famine, persecution, plague, and death. They
bring natural and political disasters. These four horsemen represent satanic
forces – Satan’s agents. But some reason Christ opens the seals and allows the four horsemen to bring those
disasters to the world. It’s very hard to understand why. But if we look at today’s text in the larger context, we
begin to see that Christ uses suffering
and evil for his redemptive purpose.
In particular, suffering gives us a sense of time. It’s God’s loud and
clear wake-up call: “Wake up from your sleep! The time is near!” (cf. Rev 1:3).
If you know anything about casinos, you know that historically they were built
without any windows. And that’s on purpose. The idea is they don’t want the
people gambling to have a sense of time. They don’t want you to distinguish
daylight from dark. In a casino there is no sense of rhythm.[4]
Many of us today live a casino-like life – life
without a sense of time, life like running on a treadmill. We want to stop
and get off, but don’t know how. So
God sometimes uses suffering to wake us up, slow us down, or make us stop and
think what’s most important in life. I still remember one particular church
family at my home church in Korea. They had a beautiful family – one daughter
and one son about my age. The father was a very successful businessman. But one
day his daughter was killed by a car, a hit and run. The family was devastated.
But later on, he said to my parents something like this: “My daughter’s death
did draw my attention to what really matters. I no longer live for this world.
Now I always look up to heaven and set my heart on things above where my
daughter is.” Suffering, such as death, is a wake-up call, God’s gracious
reminder that our time here is fleeting, and that we must be ready for the Day.
The Best Answer
Do you remember the question raised
by an atheist Bart Ehrman, “If God is good, why doesn’t he do something about
evil and suffering?” Actually, God already did answer this question. The best
answer God gave us is a person – Jesus
Christ, Star-Child.
John Stott, in his book The Cross of Christ, tells a story
about billions of people seated on a great plain before God’s throne at the end
of time. Most shrank back, while some crowded to the front, raising angry
voices. They said, “Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?” snapped
one woman, ripping a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi
concentration camp. “We endured terror…beatings…torture…death!” Other sufferers
expressed their complaints against God for the evil and suffering He had
permitted. “What did God know of weeping, hunger, and hatred? God leads a
sheltered life in Heaven,” they said. A Jew, a Negro, someone from Hiroshima,
people born deformed, others murdered, each sent forward a leader. They
concluded that before God could judge them, he should be sentenced to live on
Earth as a man to endure the
suffering they had endured. Then they pronounced a sentence as follows:
“Let him be born
a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted… Let him be betrayed by his
closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and
convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured. Let him be utterly alone.
Then, bloody and forsaken, let him die.”
As each leader announced his
portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the crowd. But
when the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence.
No-one said another word. No-one moved. For suddenly, all knew that God had already served his sentence.[5]
For the Highest Good
When we see Jesus as he really is –
how he was born, how he suffered, how he died, we begin to realize how much God
loves us. Nowadays our disciple groups study prophetic books of the Bible. For
me personally, the main message that I have been learning is this: God never
gives up on his people. He even allows suffering to accomplish the highest
good, which is to draw us close to him
and to Christ. Have you met this God? Have you met this wonderful Savior? My
prayer is that all of us in this room may know Jesus firsthand as we celebrate the
coming of Messiah. Amen.
[1] Randy
Alcorn, If God Is Good (The Crown
Publishing Group, 2009), 11.
[2] Ibid.,
206.
[3] Ibid.,
417.
[5] John
Stott, The Cross of Christ (InterVarsity
Press, 2006), kindle location 6673 of 10583.
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