The problem of the existence of evil and suffering has long been used as a reason to doubt and disbelieve in the existence of a good and powerful God. The argument goes like this, either God can’t stop evil and suffering and so he isn’t good, or he won’t stop evil and suffering and so he isn’t good. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. However, this objection carries assumptions about God’s power and his goodness that need to be examined.
Firstly it assumes that God’s power is like human power, that is, it’s displayed and measured by its ability to overcome rival powers. The more powerful things a person can stop, the more powerful the person is. But God’s power in incomparable to ours, in fact, all power that we have is only ours because God gave it to us (John 19:11). The bible teaches us that no one escapes God’s sovereign will (Rom 9:19), God is in control of everything (Rom 8:28, Eph 1:11). Power isn’t opposed by God because it’s derived from God, evil and suffering can occur with or without God, but never instead of God.
Secondly, and more importantly, it assumes that God’s goodness is to be judged by us, as opposed to our ‘goodness’ judged by God. Because we are limited in time, space and knowledge we can never see the full consequences of any action, we only see its immediate effects and make judgments on partial knowledge. The goodness that can come from evil and suffering is often difficult if not impossible to see when it happens, but that doesn’t mean that no good can come of it. In an evil event, the perpetrators intend it for harm but God intends it for good (Gen 50:20, Acts 2:23), even if we cannot see the good that God will bring out of it at the time.
Furthermore, the objection assumes that God is big enough to blame for evil and suffering but not big enough to have reasons for it. We want God to be omnipotent enough to be able to blame, but not omniscient enough to have reasons for it that we don’t know. If God is big enough to be in control of evil and suffering, then surely he is big enough to have reasons for it that we don’t necessarily know. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
The problem of evil and suffering is actually more profound for those who don’t believe in God, for without God we have no basis to label or even believe in evil. The simple fact is, if there is no God then there is no objective good or evil, only opinions of them. The entire subject of ethics boils down to people saying yum or yuck. Moreover, if we’re so happy to affirm the strong eating the weak in evolution, then why are we so upset about the strong eating the weak in society? Why do we cry out against injustice? How can we have an inherent sense of good and evil unless God has written it on our hearts (Rom 2:15)?
While this might start to answer some of the intellectual difficulties we have with evil and suffering, is doesn’t even scratch the surface of difficulties that we have when we experience evil and suffering ourselves. This is quite a different objection that requires an even more different response. Just as Jesus responds differently to the same objection of Lazarus’ sisters (John 11:21-27 cf. 11:32-35), we must respond to intellectual question intellectually and pastoral questions pastorally.
When we experience evil and suffering, the bible points us to three points in history: the beginning, the centre, and the end. In the beginning of history we see that the reason that evil and suffering exists is because we chose it. Sin is more about law making than law breaking, evil and suffering enters the world because we call what God calls evil, good. In the centre of history we see Jesus dying on the cross, experiencing the height of evil and suffering being forsaken by God, so that we wouldn’t have to. God the son dies for us so that God the father can end evil and suffering without ending us.
Finally, when we suffer, the bible lifts our eyes to the end of history when God will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Rev 21:4). The bitterness of life on earth will only make heaven all the more sweet. Like waking up from a bad dream, we will be able to appreciate God’s goodness so much more having experienced the evil of the world. Heaven is the best possible world, but unfortunately we have to go through earth to get there.
