The problem of Suffering

Why doesn’t God intervene and keep suffering from happening?  How do you explain suffering?

The explanation that it is a consequence of free will is objected to since free won’t cause natural disasters.  Whose free will caused a Tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands, complains Dr. Bart Ehrman, New Testament scholar and writer who apostatized from Christianity over among other things, the problem of human suffering?

Ehrman argues that the Bible gives inconsistent reasons as to why people suffer or should not suffer.  Israel suffered because of the evils that they did. But what about Job?  What evil did he do to suffer so horribly?  And what kind of answer did God give for it?

If suffering is due to free will, and if there will be free will in heaven with no suffering, why couldn’t God have created such a world with both free will and no suffering?   Couldn’t God have created a world without natural disasters?  

Not liking the world we have doesn’t prove that God didn't create it.  But one may say suffering is inconsistently explained or not adequately explained in the Bible, and therefore, the God of the Bible is to be questioned as to how he is revealed or as to his very existence.

I believe the Bible gives reasons for suffering, but there is a definite unfairness to suffering. 

I believe free will does figure into the reasons for suffering, though it may not be one’s free will choices that are behind one’s particular suffering. Suffering could be due to another person's or being's free will.  

I prefer to speak of free will as being a “measure" of free will, because obviously, we can not do just anything we imagine to do.   The measure we now have can be different than the measure we will have in the world to come.  

The world that now exists has been subjected to natural disaster as a consequence of Adam’s free will, and it could be that natural disaster has been amplified following the destruction of the world in the days of Noah.   God could have created a different world,  but he created this world in which we have a measure of free will, and such free will as it is, involves suffering from nature and other free will creatures, both human and angelic.  

I believe God has designed creation so that nature mostly takes it course.  God may not intervene to stop nature in its destructive course.  God may not intervene to stop man in his evil.  He may not intervene to warn someone of the consequences of His actions.   Did God intervene to stop King David from having an affair with Bathsheba or from plotting the murder of Uriah?  Did God intervene to stop King Herod from killing the children that were 2 years and younger in his attempt to kill the young Jesus?  When one suffers, it may be due to his own actions or the actions of others or by the destructiveness of nature, either in his or her own body or the planet.  

We can know the general reason for suffering from Scripture, but we may not know the specific reason for suffering apart from further special revelation.  Try reading Job chapter one with verses 6 through 12 missing.

I think we need to keep in mind that since sin entered the world, death entered the world, first in a spiritual sense, being alienated from God, but then in a physical sense, as stated in the curse to Adam, for God said, "For dust you are, and to dust you will return," Genesis 3.19. And the first couple were driven from the garden of Eden, lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever.

Everyone is appointed to death and judgment, Hebrews 9:27.  How and when death comes is not necessarily fair.  It can come because of one’s own actions or from another's actions or by nature, internally or externally.   Everyone dies, some sooner than others, some in more tragic ways than others.    It's not fair.   

Job’s 10 children all died at once—very unfair, and at such a young age--all very tragic.  God allowed it, but it was a result of persecution—from Satan, who accused Job of only fearing God because God protected and blessed him. Therefore, God allowed Satan to persecute Job so horribly to show that Satan was wrong.  Poor Job didn’t know the why of it. Job’s 3 friends thought Job's personal sin was the cause, but Job denied it. Of course, we have the Book of Job that tells us what was going on.    

I think one should understand that the causes of personal suffering don’t apply the same when looking at the blessings and curses as seen in the book of Deuteronomy given to a corporate, national entity like Israel, for they were promised blessing in the land if they obeyed God, but that applied to Israel as a corporate entity, not to individuals who obey God.  Individuals who obey God will be persecuted by those who don’t,  but Israel as a distinct body of people would have dwelt safely in the land of Promise if they obeyed God.   But the nation did not obey God, and so the northern Kingdom of 10 tribes were taken into captivity by the Assyrians in the 8th century, and the southern Kingdom of Judah and Benjamin was taken captive in the 7th and 6th  centuries by the Babylonians.

I’m thinking that the kind of and source of suffering we have in this life is consistent with the measure of free will that we have.  Though one could still argue that God could have created a world in which we have this measure of free will and yet suffer less, I would counter that God in his wisdom chose this present world because of the measure of free will that we have.   

But concerning the kind of natural disasters we have, it could be that the world was a very different one before the flood of Noah.  The fact that some people lived to be almost 1000 years old reveals that it was a different world.  The natural disasters we now have were probably not in Noah's world, and if that world had the same measure of free will as we have, it still reached a degree of evil that God had to destroy it.   Genesis chapter 6 says that the wickedness of man was so great in the earth that God was grieved he created man and determined to destroy him, except for Noah and his family.  

Maybe the natural disasters that came after the flood serve to keep evil in check to a greater degree, to slow down the evil course of the world towards another Divine judgment.  There still will be a lot of believers on earth when Christ comes again, and so in that sense it won't be entirely like it was in the days of Noah when the world perished with a flood.  But it will be as in the days of Noah when the Lord comes again, being the "Day of the Lord," in which multitudes will be unprepared for the direct judgment of God on earth.

The consequence of sin—Adam’s sin—was death, and death will come: suffering is often the course we take because of that consequence; it just doesn’t come fairly to all.  Suffering may precede death, and those close to the ones who die suffer as well.   The book of James says that "Life is but a vapor." You should not merely seek the temporal, because it is passing away.  

I tend to think God rarely intervenes with physical deliverance, though we seem to pray for physical deliverance the most (like from illness).  His intervention, in response to prayer, would seem more often of a spiritual nature: God gives grace to endure. But it is true that certain suffering can be overwhelming, and its hard to respond in a God-honoring-way without some relief.  Job did a lot of complaining in his suffering, but his 3 friends made accusations against him, and so they were in bigger trouble with God than Job.  Remember that Job lost all 10 of his children at once, along with all his thousands of livestock and servants (except for a few who escaped), and his body was covered with boils.

One complaint some might make against God is that He is like the Cosmic bully, with Him saying to someone like Job “I’m God and you’re just a peon.”  But He is God, the creator of all things, and whatever befalls us in this life can be totally and fully replaced in the world to come:  the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us, according to Paul in Romans 8.   

Another complaint is that we shouldn’t have to be second guessing God.  The problem is that we don’t get special revelation from God concerning a specific case of personal suffering.  A general reason for suffering doesn't usual seem to suffice.   Suffering could be due to personal sin.  God could directly bring suffering on a person for sin, as we read about in the Corinthian church--some were sick and dying because of their mistreatment of one-another. David's child through Bathsheba would die.  Sin can have a cause and effect built into it: the alcoholic can suffer in a number of ways due to his alcoholism.  But again, like in the case of Job, his reason for suffering was not revealed to him or his friends.  And when he suffers so much so quickly, one would think something definitely abnormal is going on.  But no one at the time knew the reason for it.   Again, in Job’s case, it was suffering by Divine permission to allow Satan to persecute Job, to silence Satan's accusations against Job, that he was in a kind of quid pro quo relationship with God. 

James Reitman in his commentary on Job and Ecclesiastes writes, “In describing Job’s futile appeal to his friends for compassion and his plea to God to relieve his suffering, the author [of Job] shows that neither compassion from others nor relief from God are guaranteed in this life, so that his readers might look to God in the face of unexplained suffering with greater tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty and greater compassion for others.”  “Unlocking Wisdom—Forming Agents of God in the House of Mourning:  A Canonical-linguistic exposition of the books of Job and Ecclesiastes,” by James Reitman, p.84, 2008, 21st Century Press

The free-will-complaint is said not to work in the case where 100s of thousands die in a Tsunami.  Whose free will caused that?  The answer that it was Adam's free will probably would not suffice the complaint, but it did start with Adam, and maybe the evil reached in Noah's day showed the need for a greater degree of difficulty from nature, to slow down the advance and pervasiveness of evil.  

Romans 8 speaks of the creation being subjected to futility.  We are part of this creation and groan along with it.  This futility of creation could be the “all things” that Paul speaks of as “working together for good.”   Some natural disasters catch one by surprise, and they may die from it.  Others can be escaped by careful planning.  A dam breaking can result in many deaths.   Maybe one shouldn't build his house in its path.  Famine brings death, but sometimes bad government makes it more likely when they interfere with the distribution of aid.  God not intervening allows for other things to come into play, such as people determining to make better choices, or such as providing opportunity to help others.   Suffering can teach mankind the consequences of sin.   Suffering may even cause some to turn to the true God.