One the strongest arguments made by unbelievers against the existence of God is the problem of human suffering. If God is all-knowing and all-powerful and all-loving, they ask, why does He permit so much suffering in the world? They reason that if He knows about all of it, and if He is all-loving, He must be powerless to stop it. Or if He knows about it and has the power to stop it, He must not be all-loving.

That's been a troublesome question for believers as well as unbelievers for--well, always I suppose. If God is an all-powerful and all-loving personal Being as He's said to be in the Scriptures, why does He permit good people to suffer so, when others don't? Doesn't He care that innocent babies are born into this world with crippling defects, paralyzed, deformed and maimed? Can't He stop the abuse and destruction of helpless little children either before birth or after? Why doesn't He intervene in the lives of good people so as to protect them or deliver them from tragic accidents and prolonged illnesses that so completely drain families of their physical, financial, emotional and even their spiritual resources? Or, is He powerless to do anything about such things?

Well, there are no easy answers. The fellow who thinks he has all the answers to these questions is sure to be proven wrong. Job's friends thought they knew, and in their attempt to comfort Job, they would have done him a favor to have stayed home. But, because we can't answer every question about the mind of God, is no reason to reject Him. There are many things we don't understand, but we accept them. It's impossible by searching to know the mind of God completely, but we can find some possible answers and we're certain to find much comfort for the hour of our own sufferings and the strength to see us through.

I had a funeral recently and had to drive quite a distance to be there. To shorten the time, I turned on the radio which was tuned to a talk show. I don't even remember what the subject was for discussion that day, but I was impressed with one woman who called in to talk about a tragedy that had befallen their family. The hostess asked about her personal response or reaction, and she said something to the effect that at first she was very angry toward God about it. "Why would God let something like this happen to our family?"

A fellow with a real big problem came to see me. This poor man's life has been one continuous disaster. I mean he's had more than his share of trouble.  His question was, "Why has God sent this on me?"

We make a mistake when we blame God for all our problems. We may not know how or why it all happens, but we should think about it before we blame God for it. Very often people think God is punishing them for some unusual sin in their lives. Let's examine some possible causes for human suffering.

Is extraordinary suffering punishment for extraordinary sin? This is probably the oldest and one of the most common explanations for the existence evil. You may remember, this was the rationalization of Job's friends. Job, what terrible sin have you done, that so much evil has come upon you? Well, that isn't very comforting when you're suffering like Job was. Also, in John 9 Jesus is said to have seen a blind man, who had been so from birth. "And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" Do you see what I'm saying? They just assumed that the birth of a blind baby had to be punishment for some sin. And in Luke 13 it's said that some people told Jesus of some Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus asked them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." Then He spoke to them about another tragic event down in Jerusalem with the same conclusion. People still think this way, but it's false reasoning.

Personally, I've always found comfort in the fact that some of the people in the Bible who lived and worked closest with God, were some who seemed to have suffered greatly and even unjustly. There were Joseph and Moses and Job and Elijah and John the Baptist and Peter and James and Paul and the apostle John exiled on Patmos for the word of God, not to mention the Son of God himself. You could name others, I'm sure, which all goes to show that, in spite of the "gospel of health and wealth" that's being preached all over the country nowadays, becoming a child of God and living for Him does not immunize a person from suffering.

Matthew Henry, a scholar and author among  the Methodist  said, "Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary grace."

Often it's easy to explain anything that happens to us as being, "God's will," but we need to be careful about that. Not everything that happens to us is arbitrarily the will of God for our lives. Some things may be the working of Satan. Job comes to mind again. Satan said to God, Job only serves you for the blessings you give him, and if you hadn't built a wall of protection around him and his family so I can't touch him, He would curse you and die. So, God stood aside while Satan made attack after attack. By it all Job's unmovable faith was well confirmed.

And in Luke 13:11-17 there's the woman whom Jesus healed who had been "bowed together" or "bent over" so that she couldn't straighten up, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. So some things are the workings of Satan. But listen to me carefully now, my friend. If some terrible tragedy should strike you or your family, you beware of and avoid that person who tells you that it's because you are possessed of the Devil. I can conceive of no better way of compounding the problem of human suffering than by telling the suffering person its because he's demon possessed! I don't mind telling you, it angers me to hear that some self-styled so called spirit-filled preacher who has told a poor distraught, agonizing soul that he has a devil. Demon possession ended with the close of the apostolic age after the written word was confirmed with signs and wonders following-Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:1-4; 1 Corinthians 13:8-13; James 1:25.

Then too, some of our suffering is our own doing. Yes, that's what I mean, we bring some of our problems on ourselves. God has an immutable law which some people either don't believe or they're trying to prove it wrong. It says, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." We reap what we sow. Oh yes, we do. Jesus taught that.

The Bible says that when Jesus was on trial, "Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear" (John 18:10). Jesus' response to that was, "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matt. 26:52). Violence begets violence. People who live violent lives, shouldn't be surprised if they suffer violence. When people ignore God and His word; when we leave Him out of our lives, we subject ourselves to whatever the evil world can thrust in our ways.

God has made us with free will, the exercise of which may bring evil as well as good on ourselves, or on those whose lives are affected by ours. We're free to act carelessly or thoughtlessly. Most accidents are the result of carelessness or thoughtlessness. If the person or persons involved had been more alert or cautious, much suffering could have been avoided. We're also free to act ignorantly, and we often suffer for it. We just don't know any better than to do some of the things we do from which we suffer terrible consequences. We're free to act deceitfully and maliciously. Cain maliciously murdered his brother Abel (Gen. 4:1-15). Jacob deceitfully obtained the blessing that belonged to his brother Esau (Gen. 27). David acted deceitfully to cause Uriah's death and is as guilty as if he had committed the deed himself (II Sam. 11:14-21).

Much of the evil in the world is because people choose to be vicious and mean to one another. And, we're free to sin, which is the cause of --not all --but very much of our suffering. The Bible says, "The way of transgressors is hard" (Prov. 13:15). Again it says, "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked" (Psalm 32:10), and it's been demonstrated over and over again in our own experiences.

God gave man this freedom of will, knowing well that it involved the possibility of our making wrong choices and suffering for it. But, He was willing to take that risk so He might deal with us through persuasion, not force, not as robots, but as moral and spiritual beings like Himself. By His creating us so, He imposed a limitation upon Himself to always have His way and do His will in our lives.

But someone is sure to be thinking that if God is all-knowing and all-powerful and all loving, why does He stand aside and let evil prevail in the lives of the innocent, as in the case of the baby born blind that we mentioned awhile ago, or the man in Acts 3 who was born a cripple? Why does He permit the rape or robbery or killing of honest, upright, hard-working, decent, God-fearing citizens? Such suffering may not be God-sent, but as in the case of Job, it couldn't happen if He would only exercise His power to prevent it. And that's a legitimate question to which there are different answers, but let me suggest just one --the one that's mentioned in the passage from II Corinthians 12 that we read earlier.

In the earlier verses Paul had related an unusual --even a unique --a once and for all --experience. His being taken up into the third heaven or paradise and seeing things which God forbad him to repeat down here on earth, has never happened to any other human being. Paul knew that. He only referred to it in self-defense. But such rich experiences as that --unique to him only --could have made him a proud and arrogant man. That would have destroyed his effectiveness in the Lord's work. So, what happened?

He says, "Lest I should be exalted above measure [lest he should be self-exalted, proud, haughty, high-minded] through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh," he said. Now we're not concerned at the moment about what this "thorn in the flesh" was, rather we're interested in why this dedicated man of God was given this cause of suffering. Why must this saint have to suffer so? He did suffer greatly with it because he said he besought the Lord three times to remove it and He wouldn't do it. Why? Augustine, fifth century theologian-philosopher said, "God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist. There's the answer. " No, God didn't send it. Paul said it was "a messenger of Satan to buffet me." But God brought good out of the evil by It keeping Paul a humble man. And God had given Paul sufficient grace to suffer victoriously. That's what Matthew Henry meant as we mentioned earlier, "Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary grace." So God says, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

Suffering refines character. Lives immersed in tragedy are not merely touched, but they're turned 180 degrees in their course. The dross of pride and self glory and vanity and presumptuousness are purged in the sweltering furnace of affliction. Adversity is the garden in which bloom humility and patience and fortitude and thanksgiving and trust and hope. So, Paul says in Romans 5:3-4, "We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope."

No discussion of the subject of suffering would be complete without reference to at least one other passage that bears strongly on it. It's II Corinthians 4:17 and it says, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Whatever may be the extent of our suffering, it is light and but for a moment when it is compared with the eternal weight of glory which awaits the sufferer who is a faithful Christian in heaven. The whole story of suffering can't be totally explained by me or anyone else. There's no possible way we can know all the concerns, thoughts and perhaps even doubts that pass through the mind of people in pain. We've tried to present some of the thoughts we've gleaned from the study of God's word  that might be a source of help and strength for some struggling soul who reads this article.  I have a desire to encourage you to become a Christian. The Christian has more with which to fight the evils that come barging into all our lives than the unbeliever. I sincerely hope you will renounce sin by repenting and turn to Christ confessing Him as your Lord before men and be immersed into Christ to have your sins forgiven in His blood to rise to live the new life of the Christian the rest of your days here (John 8:24; Luke 13:3; Romans 10:9-10; Romans 6:3-6; Acts 2:38,40-41,47.  If you'd like to know more about salvation and how to be saved, please get in touch with us at once.

Call 1 (309) 347-2582 that's the office number or call me Kenneth E. Thomas 1 (309) 347-5645