religion Homework study guide 6

Chapter 9

Introduction

Chapter 8 explored intellectual obstacles to wisdom that might keep a person from accepting a Christian worldview. Intellectual obstacles included the belief in Jesus as the only way to salvation, coming to a clear understanding of what one actually means by faith, and the problem of facing doubts as a Christian. As was seen in Chapter 8, such obstacles, while very real, are obstacles that also have clear answers. This chapter will explore experiential obstacles to wisdom, including the problems of evil, suffering, and the hiddenness of God.

Experiential Obstacles to Wisdom

A hurricane tears through a city leveling everything in its path. Trees snap. Windows shatter. Power lines crash down upon the earth. Beneath torrential rains, the sea breaks through the levees and sends a seemingly endless crush of water racing through the city streets. Cars are lifted up and carried along by the current. Water floods houses and schools. People bail the invading torrent and escape through windows, desperately scrambling up onto their rooftops and screaming for help. Meanwhile, those who are lucky enough to escape the floods cram on to highways packed with cars. People honk their horns in desperation at the long lines of fleeing vehicles that seemingly are going nowhere. Many people will be injured, lose their belongings, or even die. Rich or poor, young or old, the storm does not take notice of the conditions or the dispositions of the people caught in its clutches. Once the storm has passed, the survivors are grateful for their lives, but many came home to discover that they had nothing left but the foundations of their shattered houses and a few once treasured belongings now water-soaked and buried in mud.

Throughout the world, and in every town and city, people are hurting and dying right this very second. Right now, children and adults are suffering and dying from cancer, abuse, starvation, and scores of vicious diseases. Loved ones who fall victim to senseless acts of violence that far too often plague this world will fail to come home. Car crashes on the highways and accidents at work or in homes will snatch away even more people today in the midst of their primes, and they will feel helpless to stop it. Suffering can come in many forms, but, at some point, everyone will suffer deep pain or loss—it is an unavoidable fact of being human.

Some, who have yet to experience truly devastating suffering or loss, might feel that frustrations over grades, clashes with friends, the loss of a cell phone, or even a long line at a coffee shop are all valid reasons to bemoan their lives. Yet, when they enter into the darker valleys of life-altering suffering, their perspectives quickly may change. For those who have suddenly discovered that they have a condition such as cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, or that they have just lost a friend or family member, past complaints over nuisances such as a long line for coffee can become regrettable in light of life-changing news. When such devastating realities arrive, persons who are suffering will almost assuredly wonder about God. Amidst their grief, they will ask questions that have been repeated millions of times throughout the history of the world: Where is God? Why would a good and powerful God allow such suffering and evil in this world? Why does not he simply stop it? Can he? Does he want to? Is he good? Does he love me? Is he really there?

This chapter addresses questions of why a both good and powerful God would allow persons to suffer. For answers to these questions, and to explore the role that suffering can play in leading to dissatisfaction, disillusionment, and discontentment, attention will be paid to both the Bible as well as Irenaeus, a significant leader in the early Christian Church. . These questions will lead to answers that will not always be easy, but they will be answers that are authentic and that reveal the plan for a great and ultimate good that has been prepared by a loving Father for his beloved children.

Evil, Suffering, and the Hiddenness of God

What Are the Origins of Suffering and Evil?

Christians believe that God cares about all types of suffering. In his great patience for humans, he cares about minor tensions in their relationships and small worries just as much as he cares about their greater pain and dying. The Bible says that God wants people to bring all of their problems and worries to him because he deeply cares about them (1 Peter 5:7 English Standard Version). Christians also believe that the God who cares so much about humanity is both completely good and completely powerful. Within the Bible, the many people who encountered God, and who have handed down their accounts through the millennia, have shown again and again that God is always both completely good and completely powerful. So, if God truly cares for humans, God is completely good and God has the power to help people, why then is there so much suffering and evil in the world?

This first question about suffering is a philosophical question. In asking why a good and powerful God would allow suffering to enter the world, persons are trying to dig to understand why evil exists if a completely good God is indeed the source of all life and reality. The Christian worldview provides deep philosophical thinking concerning the problem of evil, and allows a deeper look into pastoral questions of how suffering affects people in their real lives, the obstacles it creates in their pursuit of wisdom and faith, and how they are called to live in concrete situations of suffering. While philosophical enquiries will focus on intellectual questions, concerns or objections, the pastoral enquiries will focus more on the experiential and psychological elements of suffering. Both lines of enquiry are vital in order to understand how much experiences and emotions often influence philosophical questions and objections.

Philosophical Questions

In the Christian worldview, suffering exists because humans wished to experience a world that was opposite from that which God intended, a world in which evil was possible as well as good. In Genesis 1-3, it is seen that suffering came into the world when the first humans wanted to experience what it was like to know the difference between good and evil in order to be like God. They got their wish, but knowing evil meant that they now both knew and experienced everything that God, who is perfectly good, would not do and also what he would not wish for humans.

In his great love, God allowed humans to have what they wanted, the chance to experience the opposite of his good. However, they did not realize that being allowed to know evil, the opposite of the good that God intended for them, and being allowed to be like God, meant that they now had to keep themselves alive and safe from harm. Because they were not God, all of their attempts to heal, save, protect, and keep themselves alive would not work. Humans were not God and could not create life, sustain life, or even keep their own relationships pure. Evil, suffering, lonely isolation, broken relationships, and death were now natural outcomes in humans’ lives—lives in which they no longer trusted God as their Father, protector, and sustainer. They had stepped outside God's parental wisdom to know what was good for themselves apart from he who alone was good and who created and defined the good.

Like a husband or wife who violates the deep trust between two spouses, humans had now violated that first, trusting innocence of their love relationship with God. Humans stepped outside of the pure relationship of love and trust that they had shared with God, leaving them with no way to enter back into that pure and trusting relationship again on their own. The relationship seemingly could never be the same again because they had betrayed God’s love and trust in their rebellion, making them persons who could and would do evil, something that God cannot tolerate in his holy presence where no evil existed (Psalm 5:4). How could humans even enter his pure and holy presence again now that they were tainted by evil and could not do perfect good on their own? God said that for humans even to look upon his holy face would now cause their deaths (Exodus 33:20). In the present world, a person carrying germs or disease might harm a patient in a sanitized hospital room, while with God it was the opposite. Bringing human sins into God’s pure presence would instead harm humans who would be unable to survive his holy presence without first undergoing a radical purification enabling them to do so.

As discussed, once humans chose to step outside of God’s wisdom, love, and protection to know and experience life apart from God’s will for them, and choose their own “good,” they now had to accept the consequences of living in a world where evil was a possibility. The possibility of evil included even natural disasters and diseases that have not been caused by humans, but are a part of this fallen world. Humans could now both hurt and be hurt in a world where they were now free to experience the consequences of their choices. Even worse, humans were now separated from the loving intimacy that they once shared with God, causing even more suffering in the experience of inner loneliness that humans feel without the intimate connection to their Creator for whom they were made. Yet, in Genesis 3:15, and in God’s subsequent promises to Adam and Eve’s descendants, God also begins to hint that someday someone is coming who will make things right again. Even in the moment of his being rejected by humans, as seen in Genesis 3, God shows his great goodness and love by alluding to the fact that he will one day pursue humans into the broken world of suffering, loneliness, and death on a rescue mission that will cost God even more pain in the death of his only begotten Son, Jesus.

Is Suffering Fair?

Some will naturally question whether it is fair of God to continue to let everyone suffer in this world because of a rebellion that took place so long ago. From a biblical perspective, all persons are now sinners from their births because they are all born into a sinful world (Psalm 51:5); all humanity is tainted by evil and all, eventually, will choose to sin. “All fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), forever failing to be pure enough to enter into God’s perfect presence again on their own. This broken world in which humans are born is a simple reality, a clear consequence of the first humans having chosen to step outside of God’s will for them and to go their own way. This may not seem fair, but, just like the presence of the laws of nature, it is an actuality that humans find themselves living within, both the young and old, believer and nonbeliever.

Christians believe that persons are born into a broken world where suffering is a reality that affects every person. However, Christians also believe that Jesus, as God, came into this same broken world and died in order to rescue them for eternal life with him. This act of saving is far more than fair, but, instead, is astonishingly full of grace, especially when one considers that Jesus died for the same humans who rejected God first in the Garden of Eden and then again, when they nailed Jesus to a cross. Yet, for those who refuse to believe and obey the good news of Jesus, while their suffering might provide opportunities to grow as persons or learn valuable lessons, the Bible shows that those who do not accept the purifying death of Jesus in their place will continue to suffer the consequences of humanity’s rebellion to God. Being allowed to suffer the consequences of humanity’s rebellion includes being allowed to suffer and eventually die without the joy, peace, and restoration promised to those who follow Jesus (1 Peter 4:17-18). It seems that God will not force persons to be rescued from this world of suffering if they do not want to be rescued, though it may break his heart.

Why Do Those Who Trust in God Suffer?

Then why are Christians still suffering so much now? The Bible promises followers of Jesus that they will be in eternal life in heaven with God where there will be no more death or tears (Revelation 21:4). What about the present? Should those who have confessed their sins to God, repented for their wrong choices, and asked Jesus to save them still be suffering so much in this world today? Would it not make sense that once someone trusts Jesus to save them from their sins, that he would not only take away sinful desires and loneliness from their hearts, but also would remove the consequences of sins and bring them healing, success, and complete fulfillment in their lives right now? Is it not unfair of God to let his most faithful followers suffer now as much as those who refuse to follow God and obey the good news of Jesus (1 Peter 1:12-18) or who habitually and intentionally do evil against God and others?

Christians admit that disobeying God and questioning God’s goodness is wrong, and they have trusted Jesus to save them. Thus, when truly deep suffering comes into their lives, Christians will often pray to God for healing or rescue. They will trust God for healing or rescue because they rightly believe that he both cares about them in his goodness and that he also has the ability to heal or rescue them in his power. However, while many have received answers to their prayers, others who have yet to experience healing or rescue will wonder why God has not yet answered their cries for help. Questions of why a good and powerful God would not appear to answer trusting believers' prayers for healing, at the very moment they ask, can lead to a crisis of faith for many as they wrestle with questions of their own beliefs, goodness, sins, self-worth, and relationships with God. Does he hear their prayers? Does he care about them?

The Bible clearly shows that God does care (John 3:16), that he has the power to heal (Psalm 103:2), that he can be trusted to keep his promises (2 Corinthians 7:1), and that he can do ultimate good for those who love him (Romans 8:28). However, even for those who believe the Bible, the process of waiting for healing or rescue can chip away at even the strongest faith. The bleakness of suffering can cause even faithful persons to boomerang back and forth from faith and hope to doubt and despair. One day they might be confident that God is with them and that they can wait for him patiently, while the next day they grow anxious, convinced that they are suffering because of some fault of their own. They might wonder if they need to take matters into their own hands and worry about how they themselves might fix their situations. The day after that they might change their perspective once again and grow angry with God, convinced that they are innocent and undeserving of their painful situations, wondering why he is taking so long to do right by them.

This same tortured human frustration appears in the Bible in which some of God’s people asked the same anxious questions that are asked today. Where is God amidst suffering? Why is he taking so long to answer prayers? These questions are not new. A great example of one person in the Bible who questioned fairness, justice, and the presence of God in the midst of suffering is found in the Book of Job, which is a powerful story of one man’s suffering and God’s eventual answer.

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Albrecht Durer, Job and his Wife, 1504. Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany.

In the Book of Job, the author narrates the story of a man named Job whose life quickly changes from one of prosperity to one of suffering. Job was a man of faith who loved God, lived a righteous life and even took care of the poor. Then, one day all of Job's animals were stolen and his servants killed. Following that, he lost his children in a tragic disaster and he became sick with a horrible disease all in one sweep. Job had not done anything wrong, had not made God angry, and was not being judged, so why him? Why was he suffering so much so suddenly? Imagine losing one’s family and suddenly being covered head-to-toe in sores. What could a person do? It is likely anyone would do as Job did: crash to the ground, sit in the dirt, and feel sorry for himself. Job’s wife, the only member of his family who did not die, in an all-time classless move, told him to curse God and then just go die.

As he sat on the ground, Job did not curse God, but he did grow angry. He did not feel that his suffering was fair, and he cursed the day he was born: “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived’” (Job 3:3). Some of Job’s friends came to visit him and did not even recognize him because of his sores. Repulsed by his condition, some of his friends tried to convince him that his suffering must have been because of some sin, or lack of faith, or some other reason that had to make sense; however, Job could not think of anything he had done to deserve this. He had led a good life. How could God let this happen to him? How was this fair? Job cried out to God:

My soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me … The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest … I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me … my bones burn with heat (Job 30:16-17, 20-21, 30).

For a good period of time, Job and his friends debated why Job is suffering. Some of them blamed Job, and others appeared to even question God. What they may have forgotten was that God can hear and see everything. At last, having heard enough, God appeared to Job and his friends, and spoke to them out of a storm and addressed their complaints. While God did not blame Job for asking questions or suffering in anxiety, God asked the astonished group of Job’s friends who had been blaming everyone and everything for Job’s suffering, even God, “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?” (Job 40:8-9).

After recovering from the shock of God’s arrival, how many persons would give anything to have God show up in such a visible and audible way and answer their questions? Job actually got his shot at being able to hear God audibly and speak to him. Instead of demanding that God treat him fairly, he listened to God recount his awesome power in creating and sustaining the world. Overwhelmed by God’s greatness, Job realized his ideas of what was fair and of what he deserved were ridiculous. In the face of the Creator of the universe, Job likely realized that he was a creature who did not even deserve to be alive, nor to hear, nor feel, nor see, nor speak. Did Job give himself life? No. Did he give himself the family, health, and wealth that he had before? No. It was all a gift from God. Fairness would have been for Job to have never even been born or to have come into existence. In the presence of his eternal Creator, Job seemed to realize the wonders God had worked in even allowing humans to know life or to even possess the mental ability to recognize and experience the good and the wonderful by which humans even understand evil and know that they are suffering in comparison. When Job finally answered God, he does so humbly:

I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know … I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42: 2-3, 5-6).

In God’s wonderful presence, Job was humbled like a child who had questioned the existence of the sun in the middle of the night. Before God, Job was satisfied that God had not afflicted him, nor abandoned him, but that God was always watching, always caring for him, and is completely good. He also realized that God does not have to justify himself to human beings any more than human beings have to answer to their household plants. Yet, in his mercy, God came to Job and answered him and his friends, revealing himself as good even in the act of answering them. Having repented for his questioning of God’s goodness to him, Job was healed and restored. Job experienced the truth that Paul later wrote about in the New Testament Book of Romans when he said, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). For those who, like Job, truly desire to love God and align with God’s purpose, they can trust that, even amidst the worst suffering, God will bring about his ultimate good. Fortunately, God’s good will also bring about the best possible good for those who love him.

The story of Job shows, first, that suffering comes to persons regardless of how righteous they are. Second, it shows that it is all right to ask questions of God. Third, the story shows that humans should not blame God for evil nor question his goodness. God has already shown his goodness in giving the gift of life itself. To demand that God make lives here-and-now go exactly as people wish them to be is to treat God as if he were genie for them to command or to act as if they had been appointed to a committee that oversees God’s actions. Fourth, the Book of Job illustrates that it should be enough for humans who do trust in God to know that their Creator sees them, hears them, loves them, is with them, and will be revealed as completely good in the end. Finally, in Job, the story gives a clear reminder that things will work together for good for those who love God.

Though the Book of Job provides some key answers, God does not seem to answer the “why” questions of suffering; rather, he focused on who he is, asking Job to trust in God himself and not in Job’s own comprehension of why he was suffering. Yet, some persons who trust in God today might continue to struggle with the question of why a completely good and powerful God has allowed suffering in the first place, especially for Christians. Fortunately, there are more in-depth answers to the “why” questions of suffering found within both the Bible and Christian theology.

Why Did Jesus Suffer?

People often ask why God lets good people suffer, or, at the very least, why he lets his people suffer; however, according to the Bible, there was only one truly good person who did not deserve to suffer—Jesus. Jesus came into this world as God the Father’s only begotten Son. He lived a life so characterized by love that, with the exception of Jesus' claims of divinity, even his enemies could find nothing wrong with him. Jesus' enemies could not get their minds around the idea that God really could be standing right in front of them. Jesus reached out to the poor, widows, orphans, the sick, the broken, the lonely, the lost, and the marginalized in a way that forever changed the world. He healed not only sick bodies, but also sick hearts and souls. The life of Jesus is the single greatest example of kindness, generosity, and love that has ever been seen upon this planet. Then, despite his love, Jesus was betrayed, abandoned by his friends, arrested though innocent, falsely charged, brutally beaten, tortured, and then executed by the Romans in the most horrific way imaginable.

Why did Jesus suffer so much? He suffered because he came to live a life entirely for others. His was the only human life that was ever lived not for a person’s own desires, not even in one selfish moment, but solely for God the Father and then also for those who would follow Jesus and trust in his life and death on their behalf (Bonhoeffer, 1953/1997). Jesus was the only person who could come into this world where evil was possible and live without questioning the Father or doing anything that departed from his Father’s will.

Unlike even Job, Jesus never asked whether his suffering was fair: It was not. He also did not demand that his Father deliver him from his suffering, though he knew it was possible for his Father to deliver him from the cross (Mark 14:36). Even more, as God, Jesus himself had the power to end his own suffering at any moment, but he did not. Why? His Father had sent him to suffer and die for those who would trust in him, living a perfect life in their place from the cradle to his death on the cross. Though it was not fair, Jesus had to trust that God was good and that, in the end, everything would be good for Jesus too. Such trust had to be kept through suffering and even to the last breath of life. Despite horrendous pain inflicted by the worst possible cruelties of human beings, Jesus remained true.

It is Jesus’ complete obedience to his Father, even unto his death for the sake of those whom the Father would give him, that proves Jesus is truly God. “This 'being there for others' maintained till death, that is the ground of his omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. Faith is participation in this being of Jesus (incarnation, cross, resurrection)” (Bonhoeffer, 1953/1997, pp. 381-382). Because Jesus lived this perfect life on behalf of those who would trust him, it not only can be seen that Jesus is truly God, but also that persons can also trust that he is able to make them pure and will bring them into intimate fellowship with the Triune God. All a person needs to do is believe in Jesus as, “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

Theodicy: A Defense of God’s Goodness and Power

A more in-depth theological explanation of, and defense for, why a good and powerful God would allow suffering and evil is called a theodicy. A theodicy, from the Greek words for God and justice, is a defense of God’s goodness and power despite the presence of evil and suffering in the world. Within the Bible and Christian history there are many more people whose lives provide answers to the “why” questions of suffering as well as show how God is good even amidst such evil in this world.

In his theodicy, Irenaeus, an early church father who suffered for his faith in Jesus, helps Christians understand why God allows evil and suffering to come to his children. His answer is that suffering helps to transform Christians into persons who are ready to live in God’s holy presence.

Irenaeus said that when Adam and Eve were first created, they resembled God’s full image (Genesis 1:26-27) in a way that humans would not be able to do after Adam and Eve sinned against God. Though God is spirit, and human beings, of course, have physical bodies, Adam and Eve resembled God in image in that, unlike animals that are only material beings, humans also had a soul or spirit. Even further, they originally were made in God’s moral likeness as well. Humans not only had souls or spirits, but also were morally pure. When, according to Irenaeus, they used their God-gifted freedom to simply follow their passions and do what felt good at the time by taking the fruit that God warned them not to eat, they ceased to resemble God in their character. Godly character would mean to trust and obey God, and, now, they no longer did this. Though humans still bore God’s image in the fact that they still had souls or spirits, they were no longer able to do perfect good on their own. Humans were now sinful and impure in their nature. All persons’ minds, abilities, and natures were now corrupted by sin; therefore, they could no longer reflect God’s full image by doing the soul-satisfying good that they knew they should do (Romans 7). Irenaeus, referencing Psalm 49, said:

Having been created a rational being … [humans] lost the true rationality, and living irrationally, opposed the righteousness of God, giving [themselves] over to every earthly spirit, and serving all lusts; as says the prophet, “Man, being in honour, did not understand: he was assimilated to senseless beasts, and made like to them (Irenaeus, 1884/2007, p. 466).

Irenaeus: A Receiver of the Teachings of the Apostles of Jesus

Irenaeus is considered a father of the Christian church, being one of the earliest leaders of the church after the time of Jesus and his disciples. Irenaeus was born sometime around 120 AD, fewer than 100 years after Jesus' death. When he was young, Irenaeus heard the teachings Polycarp, a Christian bishop who was discipled by one of the Twelve Disciples of Jesus, the Apostle John (Wace, 1994).

Irenaeus became the bishop of the Roman Empire city of Lyons, part of modern-day France, in a time when worshiping Jesus as God, and not Caesar, was punishable by death. In fact, the reason Ireneaus received this position was because the city's former bishop was killed for this very reason. Irenaeus would also be executed for being a follower of Jesus as God, but before his death, he would teach other Christians what he had learned about why God allows evil and suffering to come to his children and how humans might become the people God created them to be.

Humans had followed their passions and opposed God’s will and chased after things that God would not do or intend in order to try to satisfy and fulfill their material desires. This, in turn, led to separation from God and, eventually, death. Yet, all was not lost. God knew humans could never live a life of complete obedience and surrender in which they denied all of the sinful desires of the flesh that eventually lead to heartache, isolation, and death. So, he sent Jesus to live the life of complete obedience in their place. After Jesus' resurrection and reunion with his Father, according to Irenaeus, Jesus had now made it possible for human beings to become what they were originally created to be: God's image bearers, in image and likeness, meaning humans could have a character overflowing with purity, goodness, and love.

How could humans become complete persons again, persons who might reflect God’s good character and even look like Jesus in their purity, goodness, and love? Irenaeus said that when people surrender their lives and wills to God through the acceptance of the life and death of Jesus in their place, in their brokenness, humility, and confession, God gives himself to them by filling them with his Spirit. God promises to send his Spirit to those who trust in Jesus as their savior. By the power of his Spirit working in their lives, he will transform them into the persons that they could never become on their own—persons who are no longer controlled simply by selfish impulses and passions, but persons who are instead made more like Jesus. They will be persons who not only conceive of what a healthy and satisfying internal life might look like, but who actually become healthy and satisfied in their souls and minds (Romans 12:2). They also, by the work of God’s Spirit in their lives, will not simply talk about love, or love only in the flesh, but truly and deeply love one another in the way that Jesus loved his followers (John 13:35). Jesus laid down his life for people who rejected him and forgave them even as he was dying. What greater evidence of authentic, sacrificial love has ever been seen?

If Christians never suffered, they would never be forced to grow up to become their Father’s true image bearers: people who love, trust, do good to others, and forgive their enemies even amidst hurt, rejection, and brokenness. Suffering forces the issue. When Christians fall, they are forced to develop patience, hope, faith, love, and even courage. If God simply took away every problem the moment they asked, they would not have to trust God, nor realize the amazing love that God showed for his children in the death of Jesus. By accepting Jesus, even amidst suffering, Christians are able to both join Jesus in his suffering as well as in his resurrection (Romans 8:16-17).

Dissatisfaction, Discontentment, and Disillusionment

Whether or not persons might embrace the challenge of learning to mature in their faith and character amidst suffering, emotional experiences of suffering can still lead to moments of frustration, questioning, and feelings of hopelessness. Emotions are often more powerful persuaders than reason or evidence and quickly can become obstacles between a person and his or her faith in God.

Many people who are struggling with faith in God, or who do not have faith in God at all, have often chosen not to believe in God because of distressing incident in their lives. At some point, they or someone they loved was hurt, suffered, or died, and God did not appear to answer them or rescue them. In the moments and days that follow such a crisis, frustrations and emotional wounds often turn into anger at God and sometimes dissatisfaction, discontentment, and disillusionment with God. Because such views toward God are often emotionally based, one might ask whether people in such situations have really lost faith in God or whether, instead, they are truly hoping to provoke God in the hope that he will answer them. Yet, the same painful emotions are experienced by those who do, and continue to, believe in God and who are trying hard not to question him or be angry with him. Amidst the emotional pain caused by experiences of suffering, even the most faithful people can experience emotions such as anger or despair that appear as obstacles between themselves and their continued belief in a good and powerful God who loves them.

C.S. Lewis: A Life of Suffering and Questioning

During his life, C.S. Lewis went from faith, to atheism, and back to faith because of his own suffering. After losing his mother as a child, he came to deny God’s existence. Later, as an atheistic intellectual at Oxford University, through Christian friends, such as J.R.R. Tolkien, he began to realize that it actually was logically consistent to conclude that there was, in fact, a God. If not, his anger at the unjustness of his mother’s death made no sense because he would have nothing by which, in comparison, to call her death unjust if it was simply natural.

He, again, suffered and wrestled with God when his wife, Joy, died of cancer. Despite his grief, he concluded that what is important is that people let God love them on his terms, not theirs, and that people must trust that their suffering in this life is somehow part of entering into the eternal joy that is to come in heaven.

When C.S. Lewis lost his wife to cancer, despite being a leading apologist of the Christian faith, he found himself wrestling to discover how much he really trusted God’s goodness amidst so much emotional pain. “You never know how much you really believe until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you” (Lewis, 1983, p. 34). Before losing his wife, he had often said that suffering is God’s gift to Christians, a gift that helps them to grow up and leave a childish existence behind for a more mature one. Pain was a gift that helped people awaken to the real world so that they could hear and see God more clearly. Yet, did he really still trust in God’s goodness after his wife died of cancer? The experience of her suffering and death was so hard to take that he even prayed to die in her place. Yet, despite his faith and all the prayers and pleading with God, she still died.

As with Job, many of Lewis’ religious friends were not a big help, tossing religious sayings his way, such as that his wife was now “in God’s hands” (1983, p. 39). Lewis told such friends, “Don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand” (1983, p. 37). His friends may not have understood how flippant they sounded, quoting promises from a position of comfort while not actually sharing in the currently felt pain of the other person. Amidst his grief, all Lewis could focus on was the fact that after all the promises and beliefs, he just wanted to be with his wife, and he hurt for her presence.

Lewis would finally surrender his questions, angst, and pain to God. As he processed, he began to see that his wife had been at such peace as she died, knowing she was going to a better place. If she had truly gone to a better place, then to have her back again would be to retrieve her from the perfect eternal existence where pain and suffering were no more. In other words, would his wife wish to come back into a life of suffering, cancer, evil, and death after having now lived in a world of perfect peace with her Father? Lewis was finally able to trust God again, focusing on the coming of heaven and the life God’s children were truly made for, but only after a period of tremendous anger and doubting. Could it be that it is precisely that surrender itself, trusting God amidst anger, doubting and not-knowing, that gives one the victory God desires for those who trust in him?

Like Lewis, even the strongest Christians struggle with the fact that, though they believe that the biblical answers about how suffering matures followers of Jesus Christ into persons who are more like God, the Christian answers on suffering are not easy answers. The biblical answers on suffering can be among the most difficult answers provided by any worldview. When people want healing now, the return of a loved one, or to be saved from horrible situations, it can be hard to process that the answer from the Bible is to look to the life to come. In the same way patients trust that a good surgeon can handle a difficult procedure, so, too, must Christians trust that God is making them ready for heaven, which is often a painful journey of faith. Jesus promised that he is “making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Will Christians trust him to shape them and make them more like Christ until the process is finished? Will they trust God that, when their journey is complete, he will be revealed as having worked, “all things together for good” (Romans 8:28) in the end? Can Christians also trust that God loves them and is here with them via the presence of his Spirit even now? Can they really surrender to him despite the angst and questions and allow him to love them? What if this is all he wants, not people who never question nor grow angry, but people who amidst their doubts, anger, and hopelessness still surrender to God and allow themselves to love and be loved by the Father, saying, “God, I belong to you"?

Moral Failures within Christian Community

A faith in God that is only based upon God giving someone what he or she wants right now will not be a faith that is long lasting. Such a faith is based upon conditions that an individual has set for God and not upon trust in God himself. Yet, when people hurt or feel empty and do not believe that God is fulfilling their prayers and desires when or as they wish, many people, including Christians, have, at times, decided to take matters into their own hands, seeking to comfort or fulfill themselves with other relationships or things.

Idols

In ancient Israel, when people got tired of waiting for God to immediately bless them as they wished, or even lost faith that God would help them, many would turn to idols made of wood or stone and would worship them along with God, or even instead of God. Many in Israel would even take part in ritualistic prostitution in their search for solutions to their daily problems. They hoped that the idols they had made could work some magic and bring them healing or fulfillment, or that, at the very least, the wine, sex, and festivals of the pagan religions might serve as a crutch to ease their pain. Today, people might not see the actual worshiping of statues or religious prostitutes at shrines along highways, but it does not mean people do not still turn to other forms of idols when they grow disillusioned or waver in their faith in God.

Idols of Yesterday and Today

“For they also built for themselves high places and sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and beneath every luxuriant tree” (1 Kings 14:23). One can read throughout the Old Testament about Israel’s constant battle to trust God as a nation rather than fleeing to worship false idols and commit pagan acts whenever trouble came or God did not answer them immediately. One goddess, whose symbols they often worshiped, was the Semitic goddess of fertility, Asherah. Her symbol was a wooden pole or tree that likely had a connection with fertility rights.

God repeatedly commanded his children not to set up shrines to false gods or goddesses on their hilltops, but often, they would even place them beside altars to God, mixing idols with true religion. Their disobedience and failure to wait upon God and trust in his power and goodness were among the reasons for God’s eventual removal of his protection over Israel, and the smaller kingdom that split off from Israel, Judah. Why turn to idols on sacred hills and in sacred groves? Perhaps because they gave people places to go to for immediate gratification because the false priests or priestesses there made them promises they wanted to hear. Whatever the reasons, turning to idols to fulfill, help, and comfort them showed that they did not really trust God or believe in his power and goodness. What about people today? What might be the modern high places or idols that they turn to when people are sick, afraid, wounded, or ashamed? Do people know how to wait upon God, or do they search for immediate gratification to ease pain?

When modern people feel disillusioned, typically, they seek the comfort of modern idols that can include anything from addictions to things such as drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, pornography, or even the pornography of violent films or games, to more subtle forms of self-comfort that range from sports to TV shows, movies, shopping, video games, or comfort-eating. Further, modern idols could also include secular groups or activities, such as a political party, culture, subculture, or sports team in which people seek to find identity and fulfillment. Even the process of seeking to project an idealized image of one’s self via social networking sites could become an idol. The thing or activity actually can be very good; however, when people turn to this thing or activity as their salvation from their angst or emptiness rather than turning to God, that is when people risk making things, groups, or activities into idols.

Using social networking sites, for example, can be a great way to connect with others and share life. Yet, if people are turning to social networking in search of fulfillment, they often might end up feeling even more isolated than before, as if they are standing at a window observing the lives of other people who are living more fulfilling lives than their own. It is not that engagement in social networking leads to isolation, but it can be the result for a person using it to find fulfillment.

From the Christian perspective, the need for fulfillment that drives people from one thing to the next in search of satisfaction actually is the inherent human desire for God. A person surfing through countless websites, pictures, videos, and social media sites on the Internet might not realize that, in their search for illumination or fulfillment, what they truly are searching for is a love relationship with God. God offers people authentic and complete satisfaction in knowing and being known within a soul-satisfying relationship with him and with others who seek him. However, though people inherently know that material things have never before satisfied their souls, they continue to turn to momentary distractions, things, and activities to ease their pain. In the same way, ancient Israel also once turned to idols that they could touch, see, and feel rather than lifting up their eyes to the eternal God who offered them life.

From the Christian perspective, then, idols can be any things, activities, groups, or identities that stand in the way of God’s reaching peoples' hearts, filling them with his love, and helping them to surrender their lives to him so that they might enter into holistic, Christ-centered community. Idols are also those things that ultimately lead to isolation rather than fulfillment in community with others. While many of the things or activities already mentioned might be done in groups and bring great joy, if people turn to these things or activities alone as their hope for fulfillment, the end result is often the isolation of the individual. God does not desire for us to be lost to isolation but, instead, to know satisfying life together.

Comfort in Community

God has not left people alone to suffer or to have to turn to things, activities, or secular groups as their only sources of hope. God has promised to come and comfort people through his Holy Spirit if they will surrender to him and let themselves be loved. Just as wonderful, God also offers those who follow Jesus a human community, found in the church, where they can experience God’s love and presence daily through one another. All around the world there are people who have been transformed by the love of Jesus Christ and who have a capacity for great love and friendship. These people of Jesus, also called Christians, are people with whom one can share their burdens and wounds in a tangible, human way. God has filled Christians with his Spirit so that they might not only feel loved and fulfilled within themselves, but also so they can be the visible love and presence of Jesus to people all around them. God has made humans to be an authentic human community, living life together as people who help to carry each other’s pains and weaknesses rather than suffering alone; however, people often miss opportunities for real, life-giving fellowship because they have learned to hide their pain and themselves in different activities and distractions. Turning on a cell phone, computer, Netflix, sports, or a gaming console is often easier for people than confessing their pain and struggles to another living person who might look them in the eyes and gather them into their embrace. Without being authentic with other humans, people miss the experience of the love and presence of God that might be shared between two or more people, a satisfaction of God-filled community that no other thing can replace.

People want real, loving, and satisfying community with others. They want places where they can share their hopes, joys, wins, sins, fears, quirks, and pains. Yet, people often live alone in terms of being known authentically. People suffer alone because they have lived their lives alone. They protect their true selves from others for so long because of the fear of being known, being exposed, and being rejected for their shortcomings and doubts. Yet, this fear also often isolates them from authentic and satisfying life with others with whom Christ would unite them. What starts out as self-preservation in trying to hide one’s shortcomings, sins, or quirks often leads to one’s self-punishment when suffering enters into his or her life and it becomes clear that there is no one with whom to share the pain. People were not meant to live or suffer alone. God loves them and wants to share in both their joy and pain. To let God love them is to also let others know them, see them, hear them, and love them in authentic community. To be known authentically means to be known not only in times of pain, but even in times when people feel healthy and self-sufficient. How do people find such a community where true love could be experienced and burdens could be carried together? The first step is to go where loving and honest Christians are and ask to meet one-on-one or in small groups where they can begin to share their true selves together as the church, the body of Christ. Many have longed for exactly such a community where they can love and be known in authenticity without fear. Often, they are waiting desperately for someone else to reach out to them. Why, then, do so many Christians stay in isolation and avoid God’s gift of fellowship?

Unfortunately, far too many Christians, including some Christian pastors and leaders, have been unable to enter into a community where they can be known and loved in their unguarded, true selves. They might attend a church on Sunday but fail to join the church by truly entering into authentic community with other believers in Christ with whom they can make themselves transparent and vulnerable. They often long to find the presence of Christ among others and be in a community of grace and have their burdens taken away; however, they are afraid of the judgment that has been leveled far too often at Christians who confess their shortcomings. Because of this, many people remain isolated and trapped with their questions, doubts, addictions, and idols for fear of losing their reputations, families, churches, or ministries should their questions, struggles, or addictions become known.

The Apostle Paul tells Christians that there is, “Now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). What if Christians really believed this truth with their whole hearts? Can they truly be people who step away from idols and attempts to hide their true selves and into the light of community, trusting that, if they confess their sins and struggles to others, their unguarded confessions will not be used against them, but that there will instead be an effort to bring them into healing? Conversely, can followers of Jesus truly be people who provide that trusting community where others feel free to surrender their lives to God in authentic life together, knowing they will experience forgiveness, love, and the help of brothers and sisters in their journey toward transformation? How refreshing it would be to live in such trusting relationships. It would be like an ocean wave washing through their soul and setting them free in the joy of knowing and being known.

In the end, there are only two types of lives that will have been lived: surrendered lives and unsurrendered lives. People either allow God to be their father and the source of their satisfaction, or they continue to seek healing, satisfaction, and fulfillment on their own apart from God. One way that a person can surrender to God is to take the first difficult step into authentic community by confessing one's true heart, hopes, sins, fears, and wounds to other Christians; consequently, they can stop trying to fix or satisfy themselves with things and, instead, let God and others carry them into healing. People cannot remain in their sin and isolation forever if they want to be set free and made whole. The church of Jesus, his community of brothers and sisters found throughout the world, offers forgiveness, love, and transformation through the death of Jesus for their sins and the gift of the God’s Spirit who comes to comfort and transform people into the full likeness of God. With believers of Jesus present in every corner of the world, people do not have to remain alone in the darkness, but can live in the light of God’s community with their wounds, doubts, and frustrations, surrendering to God and sharing life with others, being known and truly loved.

Conclusion

In a person’s life and suffering, experiential obstacles to wisdom quickly arise, including the need to understand suffering, discover what is fair, be delivered from suffering, understand where God is in all of it, and trust that he can provide healing, love and fulfillment in this present world.

The experiential obstacles to wisdom are not impossible to overcome. Yet, to overcome such obstacles requires serious reflection upon what the Bible has to say about suffering, the goodness of God, his presence with people amidst their suffering, and faith that God will keep his word and bring those who trust him unto eternal life with him. Chapter 10 will examine emotional obstacles to wisdom and the ways in which Jesus helps people to overcome the feelings and responses that might threaten their faith and their continued pursuit of godly wisdom.

A Present and Future Hope?

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). In this psalm of King David, he acknowledges that, despite all of his suffering, including having to flee for his life, hide in caves, lose his friends, his wife, and even having his son wage war on him, God is with him everywhere. No matter how far he sinks in trouble or despair, even down into Sheol, as they called the place of the dead, still God is with him. God is both omniscient and omnipresent. He sees our hurts and pains, he cares and he is with us.

People realized God’s presence even more when Jesus came to earth physically. Through Jesus, God came in actual human flesh to suffer with humanity and die among them at their hands. Though people rejected him, he rose again to offer them a life with him in eternity where people will have new bodies just as Jesus did when he rose from the grave—bodies that will never die again. He stands with people now in their pain, and he promises them a day when those who love him will have no more pain:

He will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain (Revelation 21:3-4).

Chapter Review

Main Ideas

In a person’s life and suffering, people are often concerned with fairness, but God has offered each person more than what is fair. Human beings do not deserve to live life in the first place: it is a gift.
Suffering will come to every person in this fallen world no matter who they are. Even Jesus suffered. However, suffering also gives persons a chance to surrender to God and trust in his goodness, just as Jesus did, by accepting the life and death of Jesus in their place, and trusting that God will be revealed as good in the end. Further, if they will allow him, amidst the struggles of this present life God will shape those who trust Jesus into true children in his likeness, persons made ready for eternal life with him.
In suffering, emptiness, and wounding, everyone is tempted to turn to other people or things to ease their pain. Yet, God has not left them alone in the darkness. He already answered the prayers of those who trust him when he sent Jesus to suffer with humans and for them. Even more, God sends his Spirit to comfort those who follow Jesus and to transform their hearts and minds to be more like him in their character.
God has also provided other people all around the world who together form a community of sisters and brothers (the church) to illuminate the darkness and fill an individual’s emptiness with the love of God, shared together as they move toward their eternal lives in heaven.

Key Terms

Evil: something that is immoral, bad, and/or causes harm.
Image and Likeness: humans are a reflection of God's image in both their natural being and good character.
Omnipotence: all-powerful
Omniscience: all-knowing
Omnipresence: all-present
Omnibenevolence: all goodness
Pastoral: Related to ministry, including the giving of spiritual guidance and care.
Sheol: The underworld.
Suffering: pain or agony that can be experienced physically, mentally or spiritually.
Theodicy: the Christian defense of God’s infinite goodness and power despite the presence of evil and suffering.

Application of Knowledge

Suffering and pain come to all people. This can help people to focus not only on why they are suffering, or why such suffering is happening to them, but also on what they can learn amidst their suffering and how they can grow. It is not the fact that one suffers, but how one responds to that suffering that defines who he or she is.
A key purpose for people's lives on earth is to learn to surrender to God as their Father. This can be practiced by giving up ideas of what is just, what is seen as an entitlement, or what is thought to be deserved. This helps people, instead, focus on being grateful for what they have been given, even if it is only life itself. Surrendering looks different for each person, but control over life must be released, and trust placed in God to lead him or her into God's good plan for the life to come, no matter how much pain is being endured at the moment.
People also can practice surrendering to God by accepting that only Jesus could live a perfect life—no one else can and no one else has to. By letting Jesus live that life for them, and die in their place, people can come to terms with the fact that they cannot save themselves, but he can. Jesus is waiting for each individual to let him carry his or her burdens, pains, and selves (Isaiah 53:4-5). He is the cure for suffering. He is the one who opens the door for anyone who would trust him to step into a life with no more dying or pain, but life eternal.

Questions for Reflection

Why does God let even righteous people suffer in the Bible?
If Jesus was God, and never did evil, why did he have to suffer so much?
Does God simply leave people alone to suffer on earth in their lives here and now?

Resources for Further Reading

Lewis, C.S. (1996). The problem of pain. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. (Original work published in 1940).
Attenborough, R [Producer and Director]. (1993). Shadowlands [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom: HBO Home Video.
Vanauken, S. (1977). A severe mercy. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

References

Bonhoeffer, D. (1997). Letters and papers from prison. New York, NY: Touchstone. (Original work published in 1953)

Irenaeus. (2007). Against Heresies. In A. Roberts & J. Donaldson (Series Eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1. Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Inrenaeus (pp. 466) New York, NY: Cosimo. (Original work published 1885)

Lewis, C. S. (1983). A grief observed. New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group. (Original work published in 1961)

Wace, H (1994). Dictionary of Christian biography and literature to the end of the sixth century A.D., with an account of the principal sects and heresies. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. Retrieved from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Irenaeus,%20bp.%20of%20Lyons