Why Do Evil and Suffering Exist?

Let us look at three essential purposes suffering fills:

1. Problems are Due to Humanity’s Bad Choices

Some suffering is due to people abusing their freedom to choose. In his book, The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel quotes Peter Kreefer on this subject:

“After creation, he (God) declared that the world was ‘good.’ People were free to choose to love God or turn away from him. However, such a world is necessarily a place where sin is freely possible—and, indeed, that potentiality for sin was actualized not by God, but by people. The blame, ultimately, lies with us. He did his part perfectly; we’re the ones who messed up.”

We might ask God why he allows poverty, injustice, and all manner of suffering. But upon consideration, could God not, even more justifiably, ask us that question?

God chose that we must build a personal relationship with Him, and rely on Him to help us make correct decisions. Only by God’s help can we reach a condition of good. When we “turn our backs on God,” He uses suffering, and “the school of hard knocks” as a tool to lovingly draw us closer to Himself. For these reasons, many of our problems are a result of humanity’s bad decisions. And they could be replaced with desirable situations if we humans would admit our mistakes and take steps to correct them.

God loves us humans. It grieves Him to watch folks go through vast amounts of suffering that traces back to the bad choices they made for the sake of having their way. These people are painfully trekking through life without the unlimited benefits God would freely hand out to them if they would only listen to His advice.

Therefore, God may use natural disasters, diseases, and other negative experiences as a dramatic way of getting our attention and teaching us lessons. Like the old story of a farmer who was hitting his stubborn mule with a 2×4. A spectator from the city asked, “Why are you beating your own mule?” The farmer replied, “It’s the only way I can get his attention.”

Mules are known to be exceptionally headstrong creatures. Although they are strong animals that can effectively do hard labor for their masters, mule owners soon find they need to be very assertive with them if they are to expect their mules to work.

Sometimes God needs to get aggressive, like that farmer, to get our attention. My experience at my first job is a good example. He uses these events for our good to teach us valuable lessons. And if we do not learn the first time, He might have to “hit” us again. Solomon stated in Proverbs 3:11-12, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.” (NKJV).  

Earth’s climate was mild and balmy before the global flood (Genesis 6 & 7). This flood was likely the first natural disaster humanity had experienced. Due to mass corruption and indifference towards His will, God caused the flood with the intent of destroying the wicked people.

Is it not logical that Earth now has a harsher environment? This gives us humans more to think about, so we spend less time getting into trouble? And have we not brought these severe conditions-including natural disasters-upon ourselves through our persistent obstinance and disobedience? (We do not mean disaster victims are the ones to blame. Nor do we mean that the people who do not experience disasters are better than the victims. I intend to be referring to humanity in general as having “earned” these severe conditions; and thus, humanity in general experiences them.)

If we had no pain, we would not see a need for God to lift our heavy burdens while here on Earth and prepare a heaven for us where we can eternally rest from all evil. If early humanity had just taken God’s word for it from the beginning and done what He told them, we likely would not have near as much pain now. But are we not being just as stubborn? God could hardly get us stiff-necked folk to choose to associate with Him if He did not offer us relief from our problems. It is when God helps us through our troubles that we can feel the most certain about His existence.

As for poverty and famine, is it not the responsibility of the wealthy to support the needy? I feel certain, if we all worked together, there could be enough food and clothing to reach around. And if us rich folks would care about them as much as we care about ourselves, we would find ways to educate the poor in this world in the areas of hygiene and work ethic.

But it is humanity’s corruption and self-centeredness that hinders these processes. If we all loved other people as we love ourselves, as the Bible suggests, many of these problems could be greatly improved, at the least. If you do not like the poverty that abounds on this earth, make sure you are doing what you can to make a difference.

2. Problems Teach us Lessons

God loves us dearly, and He helps us overcome our foolishness and become wise folk by utilizing suffering. Behind each of our problems is a lesson to be learned.

For the last number of years, as each problem arose in my life, I tried to think of what good might come out of it. I cannot remember ever getting a problem from which I could not find a good outcome. This practice, of finding purpose for my problems, has aided me in accepting those problems and even appreciating them. I can look back at any difficulty I faced and be glad I experienced it because the positive results were well worth the pain.

Although we might have avoided some of our problems if we would have behaved more wisely, many of these issues are unavoidable, on our part. They are there, mostly to fine-tune our character and teach us any level or category of knowledge that we will need to know in the future. Sometimes they may serve as a test to see how we react and to reveal our maturity or education level.

Everybody that lives on God’s earth experiences suffering as it fills these essential roles. And the folks that repeatedly disregard God’s will shall generally receive the higher dose.

But some problems, like rape and murder, have seemingly no merit. These people are just victims of aggressive selfies out to gratify their selfish desires. These problems are of the type that arise when humanity abuses its privilege of choice. (This time, however, negatively affecting the victims more than the abuser himself.)

If you suppose you have a lot more painful experiences then you deserve, I recommend you read the first and last chapter of Job. In a nutshell, Job was a very godly man that endured severe suffering as a test to see how he responds. And, in the end, he passed the test and gained many benefits from the patience he demonstrated. Peter Kreeft said, about Job, “God didn’t let Job suffer because he lacked love, but because he did love, in order to bring Job to the point of encountering God face to face, which is humanity’s supreme happiness. Job’s suffering hollowed out a big space in him so that God and joy could fill it.”

In the February 14^th, 2019 entry of a devotional series by Still Waters Ministries, Leon Horning mentioned, “If truth, mercy, and knowledge of God are removed, there is nothing left to alleviate (ease) suffering. On the other hand, these three things are God’s simple remedy for the ills of humanity.”

3. Pain Serves as a Guard Rail

3) A significant role pain fills, is to serve as a guard rail, so to speak, so we do not continually do destructive things. Imagine trying to raise a child that could not feel pain. If you would let them run about without shoes on, you would need to bandage up their bleeding feet before sending them to bed because of the sharp objects they stepped on that day. Then you would need to somehow clean all the blood off the floor because your child did not stop going when its feet started bleeding. Imagine eating that delicious hamburger until you literally cannot swallow anymore, because you do not feel pain.

Yes, despite the heartaches, pain and suffering are a valuable part of our life.

A skeptic may say, “If God was all-powerful, he could work this system without needing suffering. The fact that we suffer is evidence that God is either not all-powerful or not all-loving.”

When I get told this, I inform the skeptic, “You are merely trying to stuff God into ‘your basket.’”

If I state, “If we, in our technical advancement, cannot create life, then it is too technical to have evolved.” .Is evolution debunked now because it does not fit in my basket?

Our “empty baskets” do not always prove anything. They might only illustrate that we either do not want to believe, due to the inconvenience of such action, or do not know our subject well enough.

God operates on a vastly different level than we do, and we cannot understand everything about the way He functions. Isaiah 55:8-9 records, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

In the first chapter of the book, The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel thoroughly covers this subject of evil and God co-existing.

All things work for our good,
Tho sometimes we can’t see how they could.
Struggles that break our hearts in two
Sometimes blind us to the truth.
Our Father knows what's best for us;
His ways are not our own.
So when you're pathway grows dim,
And you just can't see him,
Remember, you're never alone!

He sees the master plan,
– He holds the future and His hands,
So don't live as those who have no hope;
All our hope is found in Him.
We see the present clearly,
He sees the first and last,
And like a tapestry,
He's weaving you and me,
To someday be just like Him.
                    -- Babbie Mason & Eddie Carswell