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http://www.cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20201007-NoSuffering.mp3
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A perennial challenge to belief in God is human suffering. If God is all good and all powerful, it is asked, why do the good and innocent suffer? All of us can probably name at least one friend or family member who has lost faith because of suffering—either their own or the suffering of others.
But while all of this is true, there’s this little anomaly that’s been bothering me lately—the fact that in societies with less suffering, there is more unbelief on account of it. Or, put another way, for centuries there have been countries with large Christian populations where suffering was prevalent and expected—people, even babies and young children, died of diseases that are easily treated today. But in the privileged west, where technology and free markets have alleviated so much of our suffering and lengthened our lives, and where death is often hidden from our view, suffering has become a fixation. It’s almost become a phobia. We suffer so little, comparatively, but we are inordinately terrified of suffering and death. Our comfort has become so important to us that the very thought that it might, some day, be challenged by sickness or death upsets our sense of a good world where God is in control. Instead of Jesus being the good news, we have made our false belief in a world that can alleviate all pain into our gospel. When we realize that this can’t happen, that there is no gospel of no-suffering, we cease to believe in the God that we constructed to reign over such a world—and we assume that the God we no longer believe in is the Christian God.
But here’s the problem—the Christian God never claimed that we wouldn’t suffer. For almost two millennia, Christians expected suffering as the natural course of life. In fact, if they read their New Testaments or heard them read, they would see that Christians were told to expect a greater portion of suffering than the rest of the world. The promise of the gospel was not seen as a promise that we would not suffer. Suffering was a given. That’s just obviously sewn into the fabric of life in this world. The gospel promise was that despite suffering and death, there would be a resurrection, a healing, a defeat of death, a God who would personally wipe away our tears, and a holding to account for those who caused their fellow human beings pain.
So, Jesus doesn’t save us from suffering. Not yet, anyway. But that isn’t the gospel message. The gospel is not the denial of suffering, but the answer to it. God will not prevent our suffering, but He will redeem our suffering. Don’t put your faith in a false gospel that can’t save. We’re going to suffer. That’s a given. The question is this—is our pain purposeless, meaningless? Or is there a Redeemer?
Music credit:
F E E F I F O by Failed Kingdoms. Available here: https://soundcloud.com/failedk