Some apologists lump the problem of evil and the problem of pain and suffering together when they try to counter the objections that an all-loving, all-good, and all-powerful God could allow evil, pain, and suffering to exist in His Creation. They are closely related but I have separated the problem of evil from the problem of pain and suffering because there are a couple of different points I want to touch on. I have already written on the problem of evil and you can read it here, this is meant to be its companion piece.

The logic goes like this:

• An all-powerful God could stop pain and suffering
• There is pain and suffering
• God is not all-powerful

This is followed by:

• An all-good God would want to end pain and suffering
• There is pain and suffering
• God is not good

According to Genesis God created everything and he declared that it was good.¹ At this point there was no pain or suffering, Adam and Eve lived in full communion with God. God gave them one law to follow, but he also gave them the freedom to do things their own way if they wanted to. We know what happened, and pain and suffering was brought into the world.²

God warned them not to do something and He warned them for their own good. God knew what pain and suffering would come from it if they disobeyed Him. Adam and Eve, like children when they are told not to do something, were tempted, couldn’t help themselves, and they disobeyed.

When children do something they were warned not to do and they get hurt the parents are angry and punishment follows, but even in their anger their love still shines through and they help the child to heal.

God, even while chastising them, showed them mercy and forgiveness, and even in His anger He began the process of helping Adam and Eve heal by clothing them.³ The plan of redemption was put into motion, but suffering was brought into the world through that one simple act of disobedience. Much like the problem of evil, we cannot blame God for the suffering which was brought on by disobedience to His law when obedience to his law would have prevented it.

Why does God continue to allow pain and suffering to continue? Like the problem of evil, this one is hard to understand other than to say that man’s point of view is limited while God’s is unlimited. Man’s point of view is linear while God’s is all encompassing. We see everything in a straight line from where we were, to where we are, and to where we are going, while God is above it all, around it all, and encompassing it all, looking down on the whole from outside of time while we are living in a moment of time. From this perspective we cannot see or understand the reason.

The fact that God has not yet ended pain and suffering does not mean that God enjoys watching us suffer. Much like the parents mentioned above, it grieves God that we have chosen the path of suffering. But He does not ignore us or laugh at us in our suffering. There is no schadenfreude or “I told you so.” He is there with us when we suffer or hurt to comfort us, to strengthen us, and to guide us through it. We saw this with Adam and Eve.

We are strengthened in our trials, and we can use our suffering to draw nearer to God. As Paul puts it:

³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ⁴

In our suffering we are being molded and shaped, and we learn to rely on God, for God’s grace is sufficient.⁵ God is there and “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”⁶ Just like He was in the Garden of Eden, God is there to help us heal. He will never leave us or forsake us.⁷

God will eventually end all of the suffering when the time is right. God’s timing is always perfect, the problem is that we are impatient. At that point “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore”⁸

We should not forget that God put the plan of redemption in place, and that redemption comes through Jesus Christ. Who suffered more pain and humiliation than God himself when Jesus came down to earth to be tortured and murdered on the cross? God is not only there for us when we suffer, but He suffered for us.

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1. Genesis 1:31 ↩︎
2. Genesis 3:16-19 ↩︎
3. Genesis 3:21 ↩︎
4. Romans 5:3-5 ESV ↩︎
5. 2 Corinthians 12:9 ↩︎
6. Psalm 147:3 ↩︎
7. Paraphrase of Hebrews 13:5 ↩︎
8. Revelation 21:4 ↩︎