Why does a good God allow suffering? part two

My experience with suffering, sorrow, disease, and death has led me to three conclusions. First, no one has the complete answer, accept God! To insist that every question about sorrow and disease must have a clinical or comprehensive answer is to reduce God to nothing more than a logical proposition or a mathematical formula. The fact that God is consistently wise, just, true and faithful is clear, but this is not to say that we can strip Him down and understand how He works, as if He were an internal combustion engine. God is beyond our understanding (Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 11:33). The mystery of God defies our attempt to tame it by reason. God's infinite transcendence means that there are issues on which we who are finite are simply unqualified to pronoun a definitive verdict.



Secondly, it is clear to me that God does not owe us an explanation. Where did we ever get the idea that God owes us anything, anyhow? As creatures, our lives are in His hand. He is God and we are not! If He chooses to make something clear to us, then we praise Him, if not, we praise Him still. Job ran up against this truth. The whole book of Job revolves around the question of suffering. Chapter one is a chronicle of Job's suffering. His initial response was one of faith. "Naked I came into the world; naked I will leave. But blest be the name of the Lord." After the counsel of his friends, and the continuation of his distress, he seemed to wavier in his trust. Finally, confused and confounded he strikes back at God. Why? Why has this happened to me? When God replies, He addresses Job's ignorance of the world's natural order to reveal his ignorance of the world's moral order.



"Who is this that darkens counsel without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you will make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have any understanding. Who determined its measure--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?..." (Job 38:2-11)



If job could not comprehend the workings of the physical order, how could he possibly understand God's mind and character? God did not give Job an explanation and He does not owe us one.



Thirdly, I believe we would do better to consider the issue a mystery rather than a problem. To call the question of sorrow, suffering, disease, and death a mystery is not to evade the issue; it simply suggests that we may not have all the data yet.



I actually see the issue of suffering and disease as four mysteries. One is the mystery of creation and moral choice. God created the universe and has absolute control over everything in it. Yet there are some things God can't do. He cannot violate His nature. For example, He cannot be cruel. He cannot lie. He cannot break a promise. And He cannot make a man who has freedom of will, then guarantee that he always chooses rightly. The point is simple, if God was going to make a world in which there were genuinely free moral beings, then He would have to create a world with the possibly that those free moral beings would choose wrongly.



Another mystery in the discussion I would call the mystery of blame and cause. When tragedy hits the front pages, God often gets the blame. Where was God when two planes hit the World Trade Center? Where was God when a tidal wave hit the shores of Indian Ocean rim and several thousand people were swept into eternity? Where was God when a sniper murdered a dozen folks along the Washington DC beltway? I would respond by saying, just how is all this God's fault? If man utilizes his moral freedom to defy God's laws and precepts, and thus launches a cause and effect chain of consequences that results in a groaning planet, or a murderous rampage, how can we blame God?



The still another mystery in the equation is the mystery of momentary pain and eternal pleasure. We are inclined to identify good with whatever is pleasant to us at the present, and evil with whatever is unpleasant, uncomfortable, or disturbing at the present. Yet from a Biblical perspective, good is not defined as that which produces personal pleasure, but that which works in us God's holiness. Further, Scripture sees pain as temporary, and holiness and the glory it reveals in us as permanent, eternal.



Finally the discussion addresses what I will call the mystery of a good God dying for sinful man. God did not create sin; He merely provided the options necessary for moral freedom. We choice sin, and with it set in motion a cause and effect world of sorrow, suffering, disease, and death. But God didn't stand back, content to watch the developing tragedy. He came to earth in the form of His son, subjected Himself to sorrow and death, dying to set us free from the terrible consequences our choices unleashed on us and the world. If you want to see how much God cares about our sorrow, suffering, disease, and death, look to the cross and see a good God dying for sinful man!