The Problem of Pain: Part 1
The Single Greatest Challenge
Every believer, at some point in their journey of faith, struggles with the reality of human suffering. When we experience personal tragedy or see terrible things happening in the world, we always ask the same question: If God is so good, why do I feel so bad?
A famous Christian teacher named Dr. John Stott once wrote:
“The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith and has been so in every generation.”
This question hits our hearts very hard. We look at the news, or we look in the mirror, and we ask: Why don’t you stop this, God? Why don’t you help us? Why are you taking so long?
When we talk about this topic, we must understand that suffering is not just a test question in a classroom. It is not just an idea for smart people to debate. This question is heavy because behind every question is a real human being who is hurting.
We do not ask this question during calm debates. We ask it when a young parent gets a terrible medical report, when a child is hurt by someone else, or when we sit quietly in a hospital room watching someone we love fight cancer.
Facing Our Doubts Openly
Because the emotions are so strong, many Christians feel worried when they have these doubts. We fear that asking hard questions means our faith is weak. We worry that the Christian faith does not have good answers for hard questions.
So, we run away from the problem. We make excuses, we ignore the pain of other people, or we give simple answers like, "The Bible says it, and that settles it."
But the Bible shows us a completely different way. The Bible is not afraid of human pain. It can handle our toughest questions because God Himself invites us to be completely honest with Him.
The book of Psalms is full of believers who are honest about their anger and sadness with God. They cry out because they are confused and hurting.
"God invites our tough questions. We do not need to feel sorry for having faith, and we do not need to accept defeat and say we don't know. We can give intelligent, thoughtful, and powerful answers about why we believe."
Instead of running away from our doubts, we can follow them. Our doubts can help us move past a simple, childish religion. They can lead us to a deeper, stronger experience with the living God.
The Tension Every Worldview Must Face
To find a good way forward, we must first look at the classic way people explain this problem. Historically, the problem of pain is built around three simple statements. These three ideas seem to fight against each other:
A skeptic looks at these three statements and says they cannot all be true at the same time. They argue that if God were truly all-powerful, He would have the power to stop evil. If He were truly all-good, He would want to stop it. Because evil clearly exists, the skeptic says that God must be weak, cruel, or not real at all.
However, we must remember that suffering is not only a Christian problem. It is a problem for every human being alive. Every worldview, religion, and philosophy must explain these three statements.
An atheist does not escape the problem of pain by saying there is no God. They must still explain where the idea of "good" and "evil" comes from if the universe is just a random accident.
In the next posts in this series, we will look at how different religions try to solve this problem. We will see why the Bible’s answers give the most hope and comfort to a broken world.
Every believer, at some point in their journey of faith, struggles with the reality of human suffering. When we experience personal tragedy or see terrible things happening in the world, we always ask the same question: If God is so good, why do I feel so bad?
A famous Christian teacher named Dr. John Stott once wrote:
“The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith and has been so in every generation.”
This question hits our hearts very hard. We look at the news, or we look in the mirror, and we ask: Why don’t you stop this, God? Why don’t you help us? Why are you taking so long?
When we talk about this topic, we must understand that suffering is not just a test question in a classroom. It is not just an idea for smart people to debate. This question is heavy because behind every question is a real human being who is hurting.
We do not ask this question during calm debates. We ask it when a young parent gets a terrible medical report, when a child is hurt by someone else, or when we sit quietly in a hospital room watching someone we love fight cancer.
Facing Our Doubts Openly
Because the emotions are so strong, many Christians feel worried when they have these doubts. We fear that asking hard questions means our faith is weak. We worry that the Christian faith does not have good answers for hard questions.
So, we run away from the problem. We make excuses, we ignore the pain of other people, or we give simple answers like, "The Bible says it, and that settles it."
But the Bible shows us a completely different way. The Bible is not afraid of human pain. It can handle our toughest questions because God Himself invites us to be completely honest with Him.
The book of Psalms is full of believers who are honest about their anger and sadness with God. They cry out because they are confused and hurting.
"God invites our tough questions. We do not need to feel sorry for having faith, and we do not need to accept defeat and say we don't know. We can give intelligent, thoughtful, and powerful answers about why we believe."
Instead of running away from our doubts, we can follow them. Our doubts can help us move past a simple, childish religion. They can lead us to a deeper, stronger experience with the living God.
The Tension Every Worldview Must Face
To find a good way forward, we must first look at the classic way people explain this problem. Historically, the problem of pain is built around three simple statements. These three ideas seem to fight against each other:
- God is all-good.
- God is all-powerful.
- Evil and suffering exist.
A skeptic looks at these three statements and says they cannot all be true at the same time. They argue that if God were truly all-powerful, He would have the power to stop evil. If He were truly all-good, He would want to stop it. Because evil clearly exists, the skeptic says that God must be weak, cruel, or not real at all.
However, we must remember that suffering is not only a Christian problem. It is a problem for every human being alive. Every worldview, religion, and philosophy must explain these three statements.
An atheist does not escape the problem of pain by saying there is no God. They must still explain where the idea of "good" and "evil" comes from if the universe is just a random accident.
In the next posts in this series, we will look at how different religions try to solve this problem. We will see why the Bible’s answers give the most hope and comfort to a broken world.
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