The Problem of Pain
The Problem of Pain
Our days may come to seventy years,
Psalm 90:10
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
The Objection
All suffer, so God is either not Good, not Strong or not There!
Pain is not always evil
An attacker and a surgeon both use a sharp knife, one for evil, one for good.
Pain is the result of human wickedness – Paradise Lost
God is not the author of needless suffering – we humans are, directly and indirectly. The fall of Man was real, and the Earth he was to rule fell with him. Murder, war, disease, death followed in the wake of mankind’s rebellion.
Pain is not God’s ultimate intention
For he does not willingly bring affliction
Lamentations 3:33
or grief to anyone.
God permitted Satan to cruelly afflict Job (who never found out why). We, however, can see how Satan was put to shame, how Job’s friends were shamed for their simplistic “you must have sinned!” answers, how Job learned so much more of himself and God, and how he was doubly blessed at the end.
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I shall depart.[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.’22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Job chapter 1
For our good:
“an ounce of sin can harm us more than a ton of suffering. Sin can harden our hearts so we lose everything, but suffering, if handled rightly, can me us wiser, happier, and deeper.”
Tim Keller, from “My Rock, My Redeemer” on Psalm 121
For others’ good: Nothing but our own sufferings equip us to help and sympathise with those who suffer.
[God] who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:4
Pain was embraced by God – Jesus is the ultimate Sufferer
… Jesus cried out in a loud voice, … ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’.
Mark 15:34
Pain will END – Paradise Restored
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, for the former things have passed away.
Revelation 21:4
The hand-out document mentioned in the video/audio is available here as an A4 PDF.
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