We have learned the doctrine that evil means pain, and the revolt against pain in all its forms has grown more and more marked. From societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals up to socialism, we express in numberless ways the notion that suffering is a wrong which can be and ought to be prevented, and a whole literature of sympathy has sprung into being.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., 1895

Is pain and suffering evil?

I hate pain, and I know you hate pain, we all hate pain. We try to avoid it at all costs, everyone I know does. If you don’t then there probably is something seriously wrong with you. Emotionally mature people I know cringe and want to curse the skies when someone they love is in misery. Or when we see the senseless shooting in our public high schools and on our city streets, caring and compassionate citizens demand answers because this sick behavior is not right! It is evil, and evil must be stopped!

Ever since the mid-1800s when the enlightenment set reason free and humanitarianism was just coming on the social scene,  the view of God in the minds of the public began to soften, he became civilized. His rough edges were sanded off. Now we are told and taught to accept the idea that in order for God to be good he must be kind, generous and fair. Theologians like Horace Bushnell “revolted from the notion of everlasting punishment” because the idea of Hell was just too cruel if God was truly loving.  God has to be better than that. At least he has to be kinder than your average reasonable adult, and most reasonable adults wouldn’t send anybody to hell.

Even now in the year 2019, our own philosophical gurus like Rob Bell agree with this modern sentiment when he says, “If your God is loving one second and cruel the next, if your God will punish people for all eternity for sins committed in a few short years, no amount of clever marketing or compelling language or good music or great coffee will be able to disguise that one, true, glaring, untenable, acceptable, awful reality….sometimes the reason people have a problem accepting  ‘the gospel’ is that they sense that the God lurking behind Jesus isn’t safe, loving, or good.”

So in a general sense, a good God will do and must do all he can to alleviate suffering not just for eternity, but also in this immediate moment. He is supposed to be kind, isn’t he? So he should take care of me. Now that we have medicines, hospitals, and science we too must do all we can to stop the pain. Pain is not welcome here!

But nonetheless, there it is! It still haunts me almost daily. Pain is always waiting to jump out of the shadows of life. With its cold cynical grin, it seems to spring into action the moment I let down my guard. I’m a nice guy, all I want to do is enjoy the day, pain-free…is that too much to ask? But no, it seems like every week something unexpected happens where pain, suffering, and sadness brings me to my knees. How can any effects of pain ever be good?

Suffering on the human level just doesn’t seem fair. And as Gehard Forde writes, “Our current age has come to believe that we apparently are no longer sinners, but rather victims, oppressed by sinister victimizers whom we relentlessly seek to track down and accuse…they did it to us!” And as a victim, the pain I feel must not be my fault. Someone out of ill wanted to hurt me. Therefore it must be evil. But if pain is evil, why is it still allowed to hang around? Wouldn’t God have eradicated it years ago?

He’s still a good God, isn’t he?

Herein lies the problem of theodicy: Those who believe pain to be evil are forced to come to two conclusions when it occurs: (1) God is either too weak to stop it, or (2) God allowed it. And if God can’t stop it, he must not be God. And if he allowed it, he must be evil. And to believe in an evil God has to be sin.

As the writer Henry Adams said in the late 19th century after he watched his sister die from a dreaded disease said, “The idea that any personal deity could find pleasure or profit in torturing a poor woman, by accident, with a fiendish cruelty known to man only in perverted and insane temperaments, could not be held for a moment. For pure blasphemy, it made pure atheism a comfort.” Think about this for a second, this man sees belief in God as blasphemy. He has just placed himself over God as being more kind, and gracious than a God who would allow any amount of pain. And that is a dangerous place to put yourself.

When David was under the throws of suffering he strongly questioned God in Psalm 13, “How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?” But he never took it a step further and placed himself above God. Even though he didn’t get the answers he wanted he still “trusted in God’s unfailing love.”

Habakkuk wondered about pain too. He had the courage to ask God, “Why do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” God’s answer was blunt and firm, “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” God is God, so tread lightly.

Too often we don’t stay silent, but we take pride that we can voice our anger willy-nilly. The immature soul is quick to blame God when we hurt, in fact, we actually think we are something because we can challenge God. James says we need to be very careful when we entertain such thoughts about God. He says, “When tempted by evil, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” Paul really brings this home in Romans when he says, “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?”

So if God allows pain, and scripture would even go further and says he even ordains and decrees pain, is pain even evil? It sure seems like he uses pain, suffering and temptation as a holy tool. He wants us to be conformed into the image of his Son, the same Son who “took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” The same Son who, “was considered stricken by God, smitten by him, an afflicted.” Pierced, crushed, oppressed and afflicted.

So he uses pain to transform us. 

That doesn’t mean I have to like it, but it does mean when I feel pain God is up to something in my life. Gerhard Forde writes, “Suffering happens because we are at odds with God…and that suffering is the unconditional working of God upon us.” In other words, it is purposeful, not sinful.

And the highest point of belief, is to still hang on to God even when I hurt.  “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharoah’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” (Hebrews 11:24-26)

For Moses, and people of faith, enduring pain is part of true worship.