A good friend of mine asked me, “why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” The heart of this question can be summed up as, “why does God allow suffering?” And suffering is a very big topic to cover.
I’ve been studying this topic for a few weeks now in order to answer that question as best I can, and I find that in order to really get a satisfactory answer you have to zoom out - way out.
We can’t understand why God allows suffering just by looking at it from our own point of view. We have to try to look at it from God’s perspective, and that’s not an easy feat to accomplish, but it’s what I’m going to try to do. Of course, I am not claiming to know the mind of God - I’m just trying to expand my thinking on this as much as possible. God does not owe me an explanation - I am just searching for wisdom and knowledge.
The whole Bible talks about the topic of suffering in one way or another. It seems that our life on earth is largely defined by it. From Adam and Eve being exiled from the garden of Eden, to Satan torturing Job, to Israel wondering in the wilderness, to Jesus dying on the cross - the Bible has no shortage of commentary on the topic of suffering.
In order to get a proper perspective on suffering we must start at the beginning and see how things have developed from there.
God Did Not Create Suffering
Genesis 1:1 (NLT) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
God created the heavens and the earth at the same time. They are two parts of a whole. They are linked together and operate together. God created them in harmony with each other.
Genesis 1:26-28 (NLT)Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
God created us and gave us authority over the earth. He did not give us authority over heaven, but He did command us to fill the earth and govern it. The earth belongs to God, but He gave it to us as our responsibility.
We are supposed to take care of the earth the same way we would expect a house-sitter to take care of our house. We may leave the house in someone else’s care, but that doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want. They are supposed to take care of it in our place, according to our rules and instructions. He gave us authority, but it comes with responsibility.
Genesis 1:31 (NLT) Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
After God created everything and gave us authority, and responsibility, over the earth He said that it was all “very good!”
At that point there was nothing out of place. God was pleased with everything He made, and we were living in a paradise where God supplied everything we needed. There was no suffering because there was no rebellion against God at that point. Everything was working the way it was made to work.
God did not create suffering, but suffering came into the picture as a result of God’s creation rebelling against Him. When something doesn’t work the way it was designed to, then it’s going to break. And when God’s creation started behaving in ways it was not designed to it started to fall apart.
Free Will
It’s at this point that we need to consider what free will is.
Why did God give us free will?
God made us to have a loving relationship with Him. He wants to love us, and He wants us to love Him.
But you can’t force love.
Think of it in terms of marriage. Would you rather marry someone you love, or would you rather have an arranged marriage where you have to marry a stranger that someone else picked for you?
I think it’s pretty certain that we would all rather marry for love, right.
Well, God is no different. In fact, maybe we feel that way because He feels that way and we are made in His image.
If we were merely the result of some random chaotic science experiment then who we married wouldn’t matter as long as we got to procreate. But that’s not how God made us, and that’s not what He made us for!
God gave us the ability to rebel against Him because it is the only way that we could also choose to love Him. And I think He must have given the angels free will also because Satan and some of the angels were able to choose to rebel against Him.
So God designed us to work in cooperation and harmony with Him, but He allows us to rebel and separate ourselves from Him. It’s not that He’s happy about us rebelling, but it’s the price He’s willing to pay in order to have true love from those who do not rebel against Him.
Again, I’m not speaking for God here, I’m just working this out, and these are the conclusions I’m coming to…
One thing is for sure - God desires us to be faithful to Him, to obey Him, and to love Him - and those things are not possible if they are not decisions. Faith, obedience, and love are not words you use to describe the actions of a robot.
When a robot is behaving according to its programming, then it is simply doing what it is supposed to do. In fact, even when it makes an error it is only doing exactly what it was programmed to do, and you would expect the programmer to fix that by changing the code and not allowing the robot to behave that way any more. If the robot had a choice as to whether it would follow its programming or not, then you could start to ascribe things like goodness and badness to its actions. A robot does not have free will because it cannot chose whether it will follow its programming or not. Even when making errors, the robot is only doing exactly what it was programmed to do.
God did not make us like that, though. God made us to be able to choose whether or not we will be faithful to Him, obey Him, and truly love Him. God is not a programmer who just wants an army of robots to perform mundane tasks. God is a creative Father who wants children that love and adore Him, and who He can also love and adore.
Heaven And Earth Divided
Somewhere between God saying that everything was “very good” and the serpent speaking to Eve in the garden, Satan and some angels rebelled against God and He cast them down to earth. The Book of Enoch dives deeper into this topic, but Genesis only gives us a hint of it in Genesis chapter 6.
Rebellion against God began in heaven, but God did not allow it to remain in heaven. It’s as if God is keeping heaven pure - a place where only those who faithfully love Him can dwell. And He is allowing all the rebels to roam the earth for a time before He judges them and destroys those who have completely turned away from Him.
So heaven and earth have been separated into two camps. One, heaven, is reserved only for those who are faithful and true to God. The other, earth, has been handed over to those who have rebelled against God - both humans and demons (formerly angels).
Demons (formerly angels) are created in heaven and cast down to the earth - so they have experienced heaven and then been kicked out. Humans, on the other hand, were born into the camp of the rebels. We haven’t experienced heaven yet, so we only know what it’s like to live in rebellion.
Demons have had their chance, so to speak, to be in heaven, but humans haven’t. But God has given us a way to have our chance.
We start out as rebels by default, because we are born in the rebel camp, but God came into the rebel camp and opened a path for us to follow over to the side of the faithful and true. Jesus said that He is the door, He is the gate, He is the narrow way, He is the way and the truth and the life. It is by placing our faith in Jesus that we get to follow Him into heaven - the camp of those who are faithful and true to God.
Matthew 7:13-14 (NLT) “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.
John 10:9 (NLT) Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.
John 14:6 (NLT) Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
Blessings And Curses
When we do what we are supposed to do we are rewarded, right. The harder the task, usually, the bigger the reward.
So, when we follow God and obey Him He blesses us.
Likewise, when we do what we are not supposed to do we are punished. The bigger the offense, the bigger the punishment, usually.
So, when we do not follow and obey God He curses us.
It’s not a hard connection to make. Blessings are rewards, or gifts, and are usually bestowed on those that please God - although He does sometimes give them to those He is not pleased with. And curses are punishments - or perhaps a better word is consequences - that result from not doing what God wants us to do.
Again, God is a Father who instructs and corrects His children - He is not a programmer that writes code for His robots.
When Satan disobeyed God he got kicked out of heaven. When Adam and Eve, whom God put in charge of the earth, disobeyed God He cursed the earth.
Genesis 3:17-19 (NLT) “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
Suffering entered our lives as a result of us chosing not to follow God.
Sin - rebelling against God - is a stain that once you are tainted by it never goes away - at least not in this life. And sin isn’t just a bad grade on a report card. It has consequences - and the consequences of sin is suffering, and ultimately death.
Death
Now consider this. When God saw that Adam and Eve were tainted by sin His main concern became that they would eat from the tree of life and live forever.
Genesis 3:22-24 (NLT) Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Why was God concerned about us living forever? I think it’s because God doesn’t want us to be separated from Him - in a state of sin - forever. He made us so He could be in relationship with us. If we were stuck in a state of sin forever then He would never be able to have that relationship that He wants with us.
So, He made a way for us to have a second chance. By denying us the tree of life He made it so that we would all die. And in death we would be released from our sin-stained earthly existence.
By allowing us to die, God made a way for us to escape the rebel camp! Death is actually a result of God’s mercy on us!
But dying is not enough. Heaven is reserved only for those who faithfully love God. So, in order to go to heaven after you die, you have to already have faithfully been loving God. Otherwise the only other option is the third camp - I’ll just call it the camp of destruction.
But how are we supposed to express our faithful love for God when all we have ever known is the rebel camp? Well, God came into the rebel camp and allowed us to see Him and know Him as one of us. Not only did He come and look like us, but He came and experienced the depths of what it is to be one of us - to show us that He loves and understands us.
He came as Jesus. He was conceived by His own spirit in the virgin Mary. And He manifested into His own image and became a man. He wasn’t made in the image of God - He IS the image of God; the perfect human - what we were meant to be.
And then He did what only He can do. He made a way for us to get to heaven to be with Him. He went down the path that we must follow. He died, as we must die. But He did something that we cannot. He came back to life. And by doing that He unlocked the door through which we must travel if we want to go to heaven to be with Him.
The door is not open to just anyone, though. In order to find it and walk through it we must follow Him, and Him only. Without Him we will never find the door. He doesn’t just know the way, He is the way!
John 3:16 (NLT) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Suffering
God did not create suffering, but He did create us (and the angels) with the ability to cause suffering through our freedom to choose. Suffering is the consequence of rebelling against God, and not working in and with His original design for us.
But God did not give up on us! He works all things for His good, and He made a way for us to get out of suffering and be with Him in paradise once again. Not because we deserve it, but because He wants us to have it.
Suffering is a consequence of rebellion, but it only exists because God is mercifully giving us time. God tolerates suffering because if He didn’t then we would not exist. He would destroy us at the first sin, and none of us would survive. But He wants to have relationship with us, so He, in His mercy, is giving us a chance to turn back to Him. We are only able to suffer because God has mercy on us and does not immediately destroy us when we deserve it.
And He will not tolerate sin or suffering forever. There will come a day when He says “ENOUGH!”
On that day He will judge the living and the dead. After that day - for those who faithfully love Him and join Him in heaven - there will be no more sadness, sorrow, or suffering. There will come a time when there will be nothing but joy, gladness and peace for those who love God. For all others there will only be destruction - and perhaps endless suffering…
2 Peter 2:9 (NLT) So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment.
2 Peter 3:7 (NLT) And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
1 John 4:17 (NLT) And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
Revelation 21:4 (NLT) He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
God is merciful. God is patient. God is good.
Well, that’s my take on the high level view of the situation we’re in.
But what about suffering? I know there’s more to it than this, and there has to be more specific details…
There’s a lot more to it! In fact, the whole Bible talks about suffering. And I want to keep digging into this topic, I just needed to zoom out far enough to find the right perspective to approach it from.
I hope this has given you a new perspective to view suffering from and a new appreciation for your relationship with God.
Remember, suffering, in all its forms, is only temporary for those that love God. For us, there is hope, and peace, and joy everlasting!
God bless you!