Why Does GOD Allow Pain And Suffering?

The following article is Lesson 17 from my book, Superhero University: The Ultimate Superhero Training Manual:

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Pain and Suffering:

Superheroes are not perfect. All superheroes need other superheroes because no one superhero is capable of being in all places at all times. And because superheroes unite together as a team, more people will have the opportunity to be saved than if one superhero acted on his/her own. And because superheroes are not perfect, they are able to understand pain and suffering. And because superheroes are able to understand pain and suffering, they are able to empathize with others; from this empathy, superheroes become motivated to take action. 

Pain and suffering is a sad reality of life on this earth. Bad things happen to good people; bad things happen to GOD’s people. Sadly, what often follows disasters, devastation, discomfort, and distress isn’t dedication to the divine but disbelief in a desirable deity. Pain and suffering typically produces a bout of doubt and leaves us with the age-old question, “Why?” If the Supreme Superhero exists, why does the Savior allow pain and suffering? 

First, I will summarize the objection of pain and suffering, then I will summarize the argument for the necessity of pain and suffering, and then I will expound upon the summarized argument. 

Objection 

If the Supreme Superhero is all-powerful and all-good, pain and suffering wouldn’t exist. If the Savior were all-powerful, the Lord could prevent pain and suffering. If GOD were all-good, then He would prevent pain and suffering. Because both pain and suffering exist, either the Supreme Superhero doesn’t exist at all, the Savior is all-good but not all-powerful, or the Savior is all-powerful but not all-good. 

Argument 

The objection is false because it presupposes that the allowance of temporary pain and/or suffering is an act of evil. From the beginning, it is important to recognize that without GOD, neither pain nor pleasure can be adequately explained. Without GOD, there’s no purpose. Without purpose, both pain and pleasure are meaningless because they meet at the same end and become one in the finality of death. If life is purposeless, complaining about pain and suffering is ludicrous. Pain and suffering can only be questioned in the light of the existence of GOD. But pain and suffering does serve a purpose. GOD is who GOD says He is (discussed in Lesson 32). Pain and suffering exists for many reasons, but all reasons amount to one ultimate good purpose even though suffering is not good in and of itself at the time it is experienced. Free will is absolutely necessary for love (discussed in Lesson 41). The Fall (separation due to sin) was a failure out from free will, not from a lack of GOD’s goodness or power. Pain and suffering are not parts of the ultimate plan on the New Earth under the new heavens, but they were necessary in the original plan and became reality due to the Fall; consequently, pain and suffering are now unavoidable in this lifetime. Though pain and suffering do not exist in the life to come, it is a current reality of life here on this earth. Suffering is a symptom of evil (discussed in Lesson 1), which is the privation of the providential plan. Humanity has fallen and is broken. Pain and suffering are constant reminders of our brokenness. Suffering is sickness from sin. Sin is the brokenness of the soul, a wound that is deep and systemic, and pain is the symptom. Pain is the acknowledgment of our brokenness; suffering is the process of healing and restoration. Handling pain and suffering inappropriately increases the agony. The disconnect of the design from the Designer demands death (Rom. 6:23); the split between the substance and the Source should be a permanent separation from salvation (Matt. 19:25–26; Mark 10:26–27; Luke 18:26–27). Only a sacrifice, much like a blood transfusion, can save us from suffering. Due to the rebellion and rejection, only the resurrection could redeem and restore humanity. It is necessary to experience pain and suffering in this life on earth if life is to be fully lived, rightly understood, and truly appreciated. Without pain and suffering, gratitude of the Relentless Rescue and celebration of restoration isn’t possible. Current suffering will eventually be memories of the past, which will cause the celebration in the future to be full of exuberance. Pain and suffering produce the humility necessary to prevent pride, which ultimately prevents another Fall in the future (Prov. 16:18). When we truly comprehend GOD’s goodness, we will understand this limited life in context of the larger picture of GOD’s unlimited love in eternity. This life on earth is merely a lengthy lesson that trains us and prepares us for the real life that is to come. 

Explanation of the Argument 

How does one even make the charge that GOD is not doing the loving thing by allowing pain and suffering without presupposing how love is defined? If man becomes the measure of all things, then who is that man? Or woman? Whose definition supersedes all others (discussed in Lesson 2)? What would we know about love without suffering and sacrifice? Would empathy be possible without pain and suffering? Would we truly be grateful for health without sickness? For life without death? For eyesight without the blind? For legs without the lame? Is someone grateful for food after having been hungry for a while? How would we even know of the pleasure of a good meal and a full stomach if we never experienced what it was like to be hungry? Is someone grateful for water after having been thirsty for a while? Doesn’t a woman love and appreciate a good man all the more if she had previously been in an abusive relationship? Can a person understand and appreciate an entire song if all he hears of it is the first word of the first verse? Doesn’t the first few strokes of a paint brush seem to be chaos on a canvas? Should we decide if a movie is good or bad by only watching the first few minutes? Is it a quid pro quo that if you love someone, you will make his/ her life completely free from any and all pain? Further, does love always mean giving one the freedom to have or do whatever one wishes? Is it loving to remove boundaries? Can experiencing pain now for the benefit of some ultimate purpose in the future satisfy us in the moment? 

If people become skeptics about GOD in response to suffering, we must assume that the antidote, pleasure, must mean perpetual happiness. But that is simply not true. The pursuit of pleasure and happiness is ultimately meaningless without purpose. There is a purpose to pain, and it is through suffering that one will truly understand salvation. Would anyone ever thank a superhero who never saved him/her? Would a superhero ever be praised for conquering a villain if evil never existed? No— superheroes are only considered to be such because they save us from all the pain and suffering we do experience yet don’t want to experience. Likewise, the Savior and Supreme Superhero, Jesus, will ultimately save us and bring us into salvation away from pain and suffering. 

From our limited perspective, the loving thing to do is to ease the pain of someone you love and, if at all possible, eliminate all suffering. But is that truly what is best? Is it possible that much of our pain and suffering is due to unrealistic expectations? Is it realistic and reasonable for us to expect a life without pain and suffering? Do you even comprehend what you’re asking to receive or not receive? Would sacrifice be possible? Forgiveness? Reconciliation? Compassion? Courage? How could there be heroes? Love itself would even be called into question. Isn’t the gap of understanding between human parents and a child great? Should we be surprised, then, that the gap of understanding between GOD and humans is even greater? 

Women willingly go through the pain of giving birth because they rightly understand the blessing that they will receive after experiencing the pain that will inevitably come to an end. The parents also realize that by having a child, the parents will be risking the possibility of serious suffering for the child in life. The starting point of dealing with pain is to understand and accept that there is a purpose for our lives. If there is good reason to think that human procreation can be an act of love—despite its great cost—then there is also good reason to think that GOD’s creation of the world we live in could be an act of love. Whereas human parents are often helpless to eliminate suffering in the lives of their children, GOD possesses the power to offer each created person the ultimate elimination of suffering in a heavenly and eternal Home with Him. And this will happen one day. But first, we must grow and learn from this life. 

There exists a rare disease called CIPA (congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis). In short, the body simply does not feel pain. The body can still be wounded and even damaged beyond repair, but it simply cannot register the pain associated with such wounds—even if the wounds are life-threatening. Therein lies the danger of the disease. Someone could get stabbed and not realize it until it’s too late due to the amount of blood loss. In contrast, think of a child who overreacts to a scary situation and believes the pain to be greater than it actually is. I once saw an adult place a harmless bug on the arm of a young child. Simply because the child was afraid of the unknown, he suddenly believed his situation to be more dire than it actually was, and he cried while he screamed in agony of the “pain” the bug supposedly inflicted upon his arm. Yet the bug wasn’t attacking the child; it was merely moving. In both scenarios, pain can be seen as something good, beneficial, and/or necessary. In scenario 1, the human doesn’t feel pain, bleeds out, and dies because the reality of the situation wasn’t rightly understood. In scenario 2, the human experiences real suffering due to unwarranted perceived pain because the reality of the situation wasn’t rightly understood. 

Worldview must be put through the sieve of our reasoning process to examine if we have done justice to the facts and to logic or have merely forced conclusions from them that amputate other realities. A wise man—I believe his name was Ravi—once told me that in the West, the difficulty behind the question is juxtaposing overall purpose and love. In the East, the problem is stated so that the focus is on the cause of a specific suffering and how to eliminate it. In the West, the material nature of life is central; in the East, the spiritual nature of life is central. In the West, the body debates the reality of the soul; in the East, the soul debates the reality of the body. In the West, the soul becomes an illusion; in the East, the body becomes an illusion. In the West, the pursuit of control over pain is the responsibility of society, and the effort is made to eliminate pain; in the East, the pursuit of control over pain is the responsibility of the individual, and the effort is made to eliminate the personal cause of pain and suffering by exulting in the pain and changing it from a negative to a positive. However, logic is always the same whether you are in the West or the East, North or South. Logic is never “both-and” but is always “either-or” reasoning (discussed in Lesson 24). 

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis provides for us a good analogy by stating that when a ship is on the high seas, it must answer three questions. The first is how to keep from sinking (personal ethics); the second is how to keep from bumping into other ships (social ethics); and the third is the most important of all—to know why the ship is out on the high seas in the first place (the essence of ethics). People often desire to present the “problem” of pain and suffering without offering a good solution as to why we are even able to experience it at all. We must seek the Source. Why would it matter if your ship sank or bumped into other ships if there’s no purpose to anyone’s sailing? And why are there boats? Why is there an ocean? Why are we sailing? Where are we going? Why is there life at all? What is the meaning to life? Is there purpose? If not, then everything is random and meaningless, and nothing matters because everything is mere matter. But if everything is mere matter and merely reacting rather than responding with purpose, how can a person even trust him/herself if he/she believes he/she is experiencing pain and/or suffering? Reaction of mere matter cannot be trusted for a reasonable response to a problem to produce a solution with preventative measures. In other words, mere matter merely reacts and cannot produce solutions to problems that do not yet exist. Yet humans produce preventative measures, thereby responding rather than reacting. We plan ahead; we don’t merely react. Why? Purpose has its place. 

If you’re merely matter and not an everlasting soul, what does it matter? The abandonment of purpose opens the floodgate of nonsense and closes the door for any reason to file a complaint at all for suffering. For if there is no purpose, then you should never expect to experience joy; you should never expect for things to go “right.” In a random and purposeless existence, pain and suffering should be expected due to the inevitable destruction due to chaos and disorder. Without intelligent design, all that exists is unintentional creation destined for disaster. The purpose of life underlies all approaches to solving the mystery of evil and suffering. Without creative purpose, the atheist has no reason to complain. Without purpose, suffering is unexplainable and should be expected. Without love, the meaning of life is unknowable. The strength of any explanation depends on the plausibility of alternative explanations. Explaining the absoluteness of evil within the theistic paradigm is far more rational than trying to explain the absoluteness of good within the atheistic paradigm. How can anyone complain about what is bad unless we have a standard of what is good by which to compare? By whose definition is good known? Without GOD, there simply cannot be such an absolute as good, only something that is preferable over something else. Preferable to whom? The person experiencing whatever it is he/she prefers? A planet of self-centered feelings and desires can only come into contradiction and conflict with one another. Evil is precisely the privation of the providential plan and causes pain and suffering. Pain and suffering is the experienced evidence of the separation from the Source. 

We often wish we could take suffering out of the world while keeping everything else the same, but it simply will not work. Changing anything changes everything, and everyone. How many people of greatness are great because of everything they endured and overcame? But then why would we call them great if they never overcame anything? How can anyone be called a victor unless they beat the odds? 

Love comes at the greatest cost and, when the cost is paid, brings the greatest reward. In creating this world, GOD didn’t merely accept the cost, but He absorbed the cost and suffered the loss. The deepest betrayal is sin against the One who loves you the most. And though we deny the Savior time and time again, Jesus chose to die for us on the cross. That’s love at its best! Justice demands judgment. Love demands mercy. Only at the cross of Jesus do we find both. Only at the cross do we find perfect love and perfect justice in perfect intersection. 

Where there is the possibility of love, there must be the reality of freedom. Where there is the reality of freedom, there must be the possibility of pain. Where there is the reality of pain and suffering, there is the need for a Savior. Where there is a Savior, there is the possibility of redemption and restoration. Jesus conquered evil by absorbing all of our pain and suffering—you simply haven’t yet experienced the restoration of the Relentless Rescue. But one day, you will. 

Knowing what we now know, let’s consider who suffers most. Is it us in our temporary time or GOD who is rejected by His creation, even after giving them life and dying for them? Jesus was literally dying to be with us. Jesus suffered hunger and overcame temptation (Matt. 4:1–11), had been betrayed (Matt. 26:14–16, 45–56), mocked, spit on and slapped (Matt. 26:67–68; 27:27–31), beaten and had the flesh of His body torn off (Matt. 27:26; John 19:1), was ridiculed (Luke 23:39), and thirsted for life (John 19:28)—all while sacrificing Himself for us (John 10:17–18). The cross is where GOD protested that it’s not acceptable to merely look the other way when people are beaten, abused, enslaved, tortured, and murdered. Jesus’s life reveals that He didn’t only live for the absolute moral standard and holiness, but He was willing to die for sinners (Rom. 5:6–8). There are serious consequences for sin, and the guilty will find themselves in Hell. But Jesus will justly invite the least of all people into His presence for eternal joy in Heaven (Matt. 19:30; 20:16). Jesus displayed His love in such an extravagant way that we have strong reason to trust Him, even when we don’t fully understand His ways. And truly, we’re not going to completely comprehend GOD’s ways while in this life here on earth (Isa. 55:8–9). 

In philosophy, this type of knowledge is referred to as nonpropositional knowledge, which is to say that it can’t be fully conveyed by words, by writing it down in a book to be read. Nonpropositional knowledge can be known, but only by experiencing it firsthand. And think about this: much of our knowledge is knowledge gained by experience, above and beyond anything that can be known by description or argumentation. We can explain love, but until you experience it, you’ll never fully understand it. 

Something important to remember: evil exists in time. Why is that important? GOD is eternal. Evil is here now but will be quarantined later. Pain and suffering exists now but will not exist later while we live in the presence of the Savior. We already know how the story ends. The Supreme Superhero knows that one day soon, He will take us out of suffering and into a great state of joy. The Savior will wipe away every tear (Isa. 25:8; Rev. 7:17; 21:4). GOD also knows that from the perspective of eternity, the period of time spent in pain and suffering will be remembered as a mere moment. Imagine someone getting trapped in a burning house but is then rescued, pulled out by the firefighters. Would that one moment within a lifetime be enough to say that the life itself was horrible? Even if that person died in the fire, the time spent in suffering on earth will be but a mere moment. Life here on earth might seem like a raging fire, but the fire will eventually get put out and a new house will be built. That’s what will happen when GOD brings us to the New Earth under the new heavens (Rev. 21–22). 

I wonder how much suffering results from unrealistic expectations and from wishing we were someone else and to have what we do not have. GOD never wishes you were anyone else, but GOD does desire for you to be somewhere else—with Him! And we will be with Him one day! And on that day, we will all understand that what we believed to be a horrible life was actually the greatest lesson that will become our amazing attitude of great gratitude in the life to come. Look at the entire painting, not the mere first few brushstrokes. We must see life in the context of the entire picture of eternity. If the bad you’re experiencing right now will help you comprehend the goodness of your life to come, is it truly bad? 

In John 11:21, 32, both Martha and Mary told Jesus that if He had been there, their brother, Lazarus, would not have died. So why didn’t Jesus prevent Lazarus from dying? The answer is found in verses 25–26, when Jesus said that eternal life exists through Him: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” And if we look back at verses 14–15, it becomes evident that Jesus allowed the death of Lazarus to take place so that people would believe in the Savior. After all, had the death of Lazarus never happened, it would never have been documented and you would never have read about it. Likewise, it is written in John 9:1–3 that a man had been born blind so that the Lord could showcase His power to restore and His love of doing so, as is evident in verses 6–7. Thus, we will all be grateful for the good we will experience on the New Earth under the new heavens because the bad we had once experienced will no longer exist. 

Reflection 

(John 16:20–22, ESV)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

So ask yourself, do you understand pain and suffering? All superheroes are able to understand pain and suffering in light of eternity. And because they understand pain and suffering, they are able to empathize with others. Empathy in light of eternity helps superheroes to save people. If you believe that pain and suffering serves the purpose of helping us appreciate salvation and eternal joy, then you possess one of the qualities of a superhero, and you just might be one someday!