W R I T I N G

A discussion on the issue of suffering, as it pertains to history and God’s character.

During my first days at school, nothing gave me greater pleasure than playing with clay. I could spend hours, carefully moulding clay figurines. I secretly hoped they would come to life. I could never understand why other children found the exercise so boring, or even revelled in destroying what they created. Why go to all the trouble to create something, only to destroy it?

We could ask the same question of the God, creator of this immensely beautiful, and yet tragically doomed world. What sort of God would make something so precious, only to watch it die? Why must it all go to waste, and why does God allow so much suffering in the process?

Not all religions address these issues with equal aptitude. In fact, most answer very poorly. The Christian response is by far the most articulate, but even amongst Christians, there is much confusion. This is partly due to the way in which modern Christian literature deals with the issue. Though many modern authors address the issue of personal suffering, they seldom explore its origins, or look at how it affects our view of God’s integrity. These shortcomings are unnecessary, for the Bible reflects exhaustively and coherently on all the aspects of suffering. Instead, it is the consequence of an abortive attempt to incorporate external ideologies (such as evolution) into the Bible.

The intent of this document is to redress these inadequacies, rather than to write another complete study on suffering. As we will see, the Bible answers the issue of suffering coherently and logically.

If suffering raises legitimate questions about God’s integrity and justice, we rightly expect religion to answer. Moreover, such answers as religion produces had better be thorough and coherent, for they relate to our daily reality. In effect, suffering provides an important check for our belief systems, helping us to weed out what is fanciful and meaningless.

A religion that fails to answer the issue of suffering, coherently and thoroughly, has nothing to say to the human condition. It has ceased to be useful, and we should discard it.

Even so, we should not expect a simple answer. Suffering is a complex issue, containing many different aspects, all of which demand to be answered. Here are some of the aspects:

- Why am I suffering? I have been born into suffering, and I am still suffering today. I have done nothing to deserve this. Why is it happening to me? Am I being punished for my sins? If Christianity is the correct faith, why do even reborn Christians suffer?

- What about prayer? Do prayers have any real function? Why do I continue suffering in spite of my prayers? Isn’t prayer supposed to relieve my situation?

- Is God good? How can we trust God, if He made a world that is so evil? Why does He allow all these atrocities to carry on? Does he know or care at all?

- Where does suffering come from? Has it always been part of the world? If the world is supposed to be like this, how can God be good?

- Will we ever see justice? Will there ever be any vindication? Will the suffering ever receive compensation, and will the wicked ever be punished? Who will punish and who will compensate them, and how?

- Will it ever end? Will suffering go on forever, as it has in the past? Do we have a hope of something better in the future?

- Didn’t God have any better choices? Why did God allow things to get this bad? If He is almighty, couldn’t He have done things differently?

What this document cannot do: As thorough as the Biblical response to suffering is, answers alone are not enough. Pain is a subjective experience, which words alone cannot alleviate. It will require more than knowledge to secure the peace of our hearts. The heart only responds to our deepest convictions, and those we can only redeem with the help of the Holy Spirit and with bold faith. This document may help to encourage one who is walking such a road, but much more will be required. A journey of healing is best undertaken by walking hand-in-hand with God.

Suffering is one of the central themes of the life as we know it. It is also central to the Bible, which makes sense of suffering by putting it in a historical context. The history of suffering, as the Bible explains it, forms the backbone of its messianic message, and is crucial to understanding the integrity of God. Here is what the Bible teaches on the history of suffering:

While the last two aspects of the Biblical account are well known, modern Christianity tends to neglect the first two. In so doing, the context is lost, and the story becomes incoherent. That imbalance now needs to be restored:

The Bible begins with God’s act of creation (Genesis 1), assuring us that God created the world perfect, and that even his method of creation was perfectly responsible and moral. Some may object by saying that the Bible never states this perfection outright. However, such objection would be meaningless, as even a superficial reading of the text reveals that perfection is implied:

- Since God is perfect, it follows that all his work, including creation, must also be perfect.

Deuteronomy 32:4 "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

Job 37:16 “Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge…”

- Throughout the (Genesis 1) creation account, God never changed his mind, but was always satisfied with the result. He makes no alterations and no corrections. The work was as perfect as its product.

- Scripture reveals some of God’s ideas about practical perfection. This includes such specifics as an absence of rust and thieves, the sanctity of animal life and the absence of death.

Matthew 6:20 “…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Isaiah 65:25 “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain," says the LORD.”

1Corinthians 15:54 “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

- Throughout the Bible, God always urges us to become perfect as He is. God is not satisfied with our current state and creation is no longer good in his eyes, as it was in the beginning. Scripture is clear that creation has deteriorated.

Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Hebrews 2:10 “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

In the beginning, creation was good in God’s eyes, and as a perfect God, he cannot be satisfied withy anything less than perfection. If we, who are imperfect beings, find it hard enough to live with any imperfections, how much more would it be true of him?

When we think of a perfect world, we usually conjure up some nebulous abstraction, but what God had in mind, was physics, not fantasy.

1Corinthians 15:45-46 “Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.”

Colossians 1:16-17 “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

Of course, physics are only possible as long as there are limitations (laws) and tolerances (dynamics) in place. Laws and tolerances were as much part of the perfect creation as it is of the fallen one. Limited tolerance allows room for dynamic systems, such as life, to exist. This suited God’s plans perfectly, for He wanted living organisms to be able to partake in the creative act by procreating. His creation was an ongoing dynamic, not a static thing.

Genesis 1:22-29 “And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth... And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. …And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”

Hard as it is to imagine a world without pain, suffering and death, let alone a perfect world, we all yearn for it. In our homemaking, gardening, animal husbandry, clothing, study and setting of morals standards, we continually strive to make our world a bit better. We want heaven, and we want it now. We cannot be satisfied with anything less than perfection, struggling to bring it about even when we don’t belie it is possible.

As modern Christians, we still believe in that future, perfect Heaven of the Bible, but then struggle to believe that a similar, past world could have existed. We look at our broken world as though it is all that had ever existed, doubting the same scriptures that speak of heaven. Yet this is exactly what the Bible teaches; a past perfect Eden, which will one day be restored to its former glory.

Beautiful as it is, this remains a world of misfortune, injustice and death. If all this suffering is the handiwork of God, we would have no reason to serve him, but the Bible teaches that man, not God, is to blame.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—“

How is it possible that man could have caused so much damage, and why did God allow it? The short answer is that God allows it because of the kind of people He wants, namely, beings similar to him.

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

God created us with such an immense creative capacity, and even in our broken state, He still regards us as gods.

John 10:34 “Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?”

Psalm 82:6 “I said, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you…’”

This should come as no surprise. We need only look around us, to see the immense reach of our capabilities. Our megacities and microscopes, arts and philosophies all attest to the immense range of our abilities. Most importantly, we are free to use this God-given power as we please. God has placed no restrictions on what we can do. The combination of power and freedom is a potent one, capable of turning us into gods or monsters. This is how it works:

- All creative activity has moral consequences: When God created the world, He set the perfect example of how to create responsibly. When we act creatively, we too have to face moral dilemmas. A builder cannot build without first bulldozing, just as an artist cannot paint without destroying a clean canvass. Our only hope is to create something better than that which was, thus redeeming the act of destruction.

- Creative potential equals destructive potential: The inventor of an axe is free to use it as he pleases, on firewood or on an enemy. His creative skills may equally serve good or evil, and the greater his ability, the greater his potential for good or evil. Any potential for good is an equal potential for evil, and in a world where there is love, there will be an equal potential for hate.

- Freedom is responsibility: Just as God put the power to create in our hands, the moral choice is also ours. The minute we choose to act, we choose to take responsibility. We have no one else to blame for the consequences, not God, nor our parents.

- Moreover, we are secondary creators, creating within the creation of God. As such, God can and will hold us responsible for everything we do. That includes even our thoughts, which we create within the minds that He had created for us. The Bible is quite clear that there will be a day of reckoning, and that everyone will have to answer for their deeds.

Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”

Romans 2:15 “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them…”

- Choice is what makes us individuals: God did not want automatons, but made us with the potential to make moral, emotional and aesthetical choices. The intention was not that we should choose badly, but that we should distinguish ourselves in our choices. We share this ability to choose with even the simplest of creatures. Though they lack the power of gods, uniquely bestowed on us, God did not leave them automatons either. Instead, He loved them enough to grant them the ability to choose. Choice flows from the fount of personality; it is the beginning of joy, and what a grand variety of choices God has granted us!

When the snake came into the garden to subvert Adam and Eve, his words held no magical sway over them. They knew God firsthand, physically walking with him every day, and fully aware of his goodness. They had no cause for rebellion, and yet they freely chose to listen to satan. If they felt in the least bit confused or uncertain, they would simply have waited for the appointed time to discuss it with God. After all, their relationship with him was innocent, free and transparent, so that there was no reason to fear such an interaction. Nevertheless, they made a conscious decision, choosing to allow themselves to be misled.

Genesis 3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

To us, living in a world where murder and other atrocities are commonplace, Adam and Eve’s sin seems ridiculously trivial. We may well ask what’s so terrible about eating a forbidden fruit? At first glance, the account of Adam and Eve seems naïve, even fanciful. How could such a small sin have caused such enormous destruction? How is it possible that all the suffering and tragedy of human history resulted from this insignificant act? Looking back through a long history of sin and depravation, we struggle to grasp what it must have been like in that perfect world. There can be no other answer than perfection. Just as a tiny stone can mark a car’s windscreen, the slight blemish of sin cracked the perfectly clear face of creation. Since that first sin, the crack steadily kept growing.

At this point, God reveals another aspect of his perfect creation: In its broken state, it would become an even more effective breeding ground for gods. Innocence lost, humanity would now learn to do battle with its own perversions. All is not lost, as satan has intended, but instead, much is to be gained.

At this junction, God made some radical adjustments to creation. In these adjustments, we already see something of size the impact sin was to have on creation. Some of the adjustments were to lessen man’s impact on the world around him by making life more difficult, while others has to do with restoring the ecological damage that would result from the introduction of death into the system.

Genesis 3:16-19 “To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."”

These adjustments did not restore creation, nor did God intend them to. Perfect creation could never be restored, because that perfection included a history in time, which had been blemished for always. The only sensible option was to recreate the whole. That, as we will see, will have to wait.

A hundred white ducks may cause us to conclude that all ducks are white, but it would only take a single black duck to prove us wrong. According to the philosopher Carl Popper, this (problem of induction) must apply to any absolute statement. Popper suggested that we could only claim something to be true as long as it remained open to disproof and yet continued proving to be right. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Popper )

What Popper describes is simply a consequence of our own limitations as observers. In the case of God alone can we overturn the statement, for in God we have the perfect observer. God is able to observe everything, past, present and future. God can observe absolutes, and this puts God above Popper’s dilemma. When God reacted to Adam’s sin, He perceived it as the only stain on an otherwise perfect creation. God knew that no other stain of equal proportions yet existed. In this way, Adam’s small sin acts as a measure of just how perfect God’s creation was.

What about astronomical damage? In our modern age, we are more than ever aware of the chaos that exists in the galaxies. “Black holes,” quasars and star system collapses seem to be commonplace. Is that also man’s fault? Because the stars are lifeless, we do not need to regard their destruction as a moral dilemma (unless it affects us). We therefore have no reason to insist that they were any more stable in the original, perfect creation. For all we know, galaxies could have been even more volatile then. Of their purpose, the Bible simply tells us that they were created to glorify God.

Even so, the galaxies seem to be subject to the same destructive laws that govern our planet, and therefore probably are “damaged goods” too. Even if we ignore the question of the stars, the same question persists closer to home, in the form of natural disaster, such as hurricanes and floods. Is man to blame for these? According to the Bible, the answer is yes, on all counts. There are at least two ways in which to make sense of it:

Particle (subatomic) physics seems to indicate that the entire universe acts as a unit. Although this research is still in its infancy, it indicates that factors affecting us may affect the stars as well. The Bible seems to confirm such a link, for it frequently deals with creation, life, humanity and nations as holistic units. When God made Adam, one of the first things He did was to acquaint this man with the animal kingdom, affirming man’s place in nature.

Genesis 2:19, 20 “Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.”

Notice how God, when He saved Noah and his family, once again included the animal kingdom in his rescue plan.

Genesis 7:7-9 “And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.”

Furthermore, the Bible frequently affirms that our actions (i.e. sins or good behaviour) influences nature.

Jeremiah 12:4 “How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? For the evil of those who dwell in it the beasts and the birds are swept away, because they said, "He will not see our latter end."

Hosea 4:1-3 “Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.”

It seems that we have a withered idea of God’s plan if we think that He created the entire universe, only to save a few human souls. God’s plan has always been for the entire creation, not just us, and in the original, perfect creation, everything operated with far greater synchronistic harmony.

God used to frequent his creation in glorified, physical form. When we think of contact with God, we immediately think of spiritual contact with the Holy Spirit. This is very different from the way it was in the beginning. The Bible is quite clear that in the original creation, and even shortly after the fall, God’s presence amongst men was in a physical form. God walked with Adam and Eve. God met and talked to Cain. He walked with Enoch. He appeared to Moses. We find this strange, because we no longer experience this direct interaction. Yet, this is exactly what God made creation for: a place of interaction.

Genesis 3:8 “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

Genesis 4:6 “The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?”

We should also be careful not to confuse God’s original presence with his later manifestation in Jesus, in human form. The mere act of God, to be born in the lineage of man, was an enormously humiliating sacrifice. Coming to earth as a man, He took on our broken form, in place if his glorious self. His first appearance on earth would have been quite unlike this. Coming in glorified form, as God, his presence would have been marked by the Shekinah glory.

Exodus 40:34-35 “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”

2 Chronicles 7:1-3 “As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."

Ezekiel 10:4 “And the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.”

Luke 2:9 “And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.”

Revelation 15:8 “…and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”

The Bible also tells us that God’s glorified presence caused Moses to shine with such radiance that he had to cover his face.

Exodus 34:29-35 “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God… …the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.”

These intimate visits from God used to be a regular feature of the perfect creation. Later on, these visits became a rarity. The most likely explanation is that God cannot exist in the same space with sin, without causing the sinner’s annihilation. God may withdraw simply to preserve us. The Bible tells us that at a specific time, men began to call on God, presumably because He wasn’t as often or as obviously present as before.

Genesis 4:26 “To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.”

Today, we still pray to God because of his physical absence. We should not be amazed when unbelievers ask us where our God is. It is a legitimate question, and we should answer it knowledgably.

One can only wonder what effect the physical presence of God had on the universe. His regular entrance must have been marked with wondrous consequences. We know just how far reaching and destructive our own physical presence is. God’s presence must have made a far bigger impact, and far more positive. Whatever that was, the loss of that presence may well be responsible for the cosmic catastrophes we see through our telescopes.

God stood in the gap by dying for our sins, so that we don’t have to die for them. The picture of Jesus, hanging in the cross, is a familiar one, but his death only makes sense within the context of the fall of man. If we ignore the history of sin, of Adam and Eve’s fall, the death of Jesus becomes pointless. We do well to hold onto the first part of the story if we plan to believe the latter.

The value of the sacrifice: If we were to die for our sins, we would still fall short of paying our debt. Our debt involves no less than to make compensation for the loss of the entire, perfect creation, as it used to be on day seven. We could never even hope to compensate for our own sins, let alone that perfection. We needed a substitute, but even a new, perfectly created substitute could never stand in for all of creation. Only God himself is of greater value and glory than all of perfect creation, and therefore only God himself could pay the price of substitution. Satan knew this, and saw in Adam a chance to strike at God. What he did not foresee is that God could use his rebellion to forge an even more formidable plan.

Genesis 22:8 “Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."’

John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

It was a man, on earth, who caused the destruction, and it was as a Man, on earth, that had to take the punishment. As always, only perfection satisfies God, and in this case, He demanded perfect justice. Such justice he alone could and did provide, coming as the perfect, physical Man to bear the full punishment for the sins of all humanity.

We have become so used to the sham justice that prevails in our courts that we no longer take the issue of justice seriously. Yet, to God, absolute justice is essential. He is adamant that perfect justice must prevail, including full punishment for the wicked and full restitution for the victims. From our earthly perspective, restitution may seem impossible, but with all eternity ahead, it will be established.

Malachi 3:2-3 “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.”

1 Corinthians 6:3 “Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!”

Revelation 3:11-12 “I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

Revelation 20:4 “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”

As harsh as Jesus’ death on the cross was, it is also a display of God’s immense grace. The fact that the event took place on earth, where humanity could witness and understand it, enables us to relate to what happened. We can understand the pain He endured and the salvation that He offers.

Seeing God as man in action enables us to distinguish between the fallen world and his perfect character. It confirms God’s commitment to this world, to us and to perfection.

As Adam freely chose to reject God, Jesus’ death on the cross sets us free to return to God. Even on this crucial issue, God does not force his will on us, but allows us the freedom to choose. Those who choose against him, foolishly choose to work their own salvation, effectively condemning themselves to an eternity of attempting the impossible. Those who accept his salvation will receive it, free of charge.

On the third day after crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead. This event is as important as his death on the cross. Rising from the dead was God’s first act of the restoration, proving that He has the power to overcome physical death, that He is more worthy than all creation, and that He is serious about restoring perfection. The Bible frequently reminds us of the promise of God to recreate the universe.

Romans 8:19-23 “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Isaiah 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind…”

See also Isaiah 66:22; Daniel 7:14; Luke 21:33; Matthew 5:18; II Peter 3:10-13; I Corinthians 13:10; II Corinthians 5:4-17; Revelation 3:12; 21:1-5).

The Bible assures us that there is a better world to come, where we will no longer be weak and corrupt.

Psalm 16:10 “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”

The new earth will be a perfect physical place, just as the old had once been. It will not be an endlessly flexible fantasy, nor inhabited by automatons, but an abundant, flourishing ecosystem, which will include a multitude of people. God will restore perfect justice, every wicked deed will be punished and every tribulation rewarded.

Isaiah 13:11 “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.”

See also: Isaiah 24:21; James 5:9; Hebrews 10:30; 12:23; 13:4; I Peter 4:5; II Timothy 4:1-8; Revelation 6:10; 20:4.

Looking at the Biblical account of the history of suffering, confirms God’s goodness. It assures us that justice will prevail and that suffering will eventually end with the advent of a new and perfect world.

Though serving God is no guarantee for a good life, knowing his plan for us helps us to persevere. That is why the Holy Spirit comforts and directs us through the knowledge of Christ, teaching us to focus on the things above.

Matthew 6:20 “…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Colossians 3:2 “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

The Bible shows us that God is not the originator of sin, but the question remains why He allows it to continue. Why, for instance, didn’t He put a stop to it, right in the beginning, when Adam first sinned, and why doesn’t He stop it now? What about our prayers; aren’t they supposed to affect everything? Let us look at these questions and see what God’s alternatives were:

Suppose God had taken Adam and Eve out of fallen creation and made a new world:

If God was going to make the entire creation anew, why hadn’t He done so right in the beginning? The Bible tells us that God is going to make a new creation, so what is holding him back? There are at least two issues could not be deal with this way:

It would not have resolved man’s guilt. God would still have had to resolve the issue of justice.

Once again, everything would be new and perfect, but this time it would include a new Adam and Eve.

That would mean death to the first Adam and Eve, and all of us, who were destined to come from their lineage.

Perfect as they would have been, the new Adam and Eve would have had to face the same choices and would have ended up making the same mistakes again.

The issue of justice would still have to be resolved. Somebody would still have had to be punished, and since the first Adam and Eve could not have carried the burden of their sin, even if they died for it, Jesus would still have had to be sacrificed.

This seems like the quickest way out, and nothing would have been lost in the process, but even this would not have worked:

Erasing time could not have corrected anything. Time was part of the prefect creation, and erasing a portion of it would render creation imperfect, even if the correction could not be detected.

The memory of the incident would still have been present in God and man’s minds, regardless of the fact that it was now an erased incident.

Erasing the memory of the event in man’s mind would have ensured that he made the same mistake again.

Suppose Jesus had died for Adam and Eve’s, and God then recreated the world:

Jesus came to die for our sins two thousand years ago, but why didn’t He come right in the beginning, when sin first appeared? Having paid the price, God could then have restored Adam, Eve and creation to perfection, and everything could have carried on as before. Unfortunately, this would have worked for Adam and Eve, but nor for us:

Born perfect, each consecutive generation would have had to face the same trail that Adam and Eve did, and each generation would have failed all over, re-destroying perfection and annulling Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus would have had to die multiple times or we would all be lost.

Accepting that God could not have intervened in the beginning, we may wonder why He still allows suffering to continue. Why does He allow us, thousands of years later, to still be victimized, and what about our prayers? Once again, let us look at what God’s options are:

God could continually intervene, stopping us from doing evil, or from coming to harm.

But this would have interfered with our freedom, reducing us to no more than automatons. Instead, god prefers us to become mature, autonomous beings.

To retain control of his interventions, God could have allowed us a set of correct prayer procedures to ensure his intervention.

In fact, we may easily think that that is exactly what the Bible does by giving us a standard for prayer. Many books proclaim that we can use prayer to achieve just that. There are many good scriptures to base this thinking on:

Matthew 21:22 “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."

John 16:24 “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

1John 3:22”…and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”

Mat 6:25,26 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

In his book, “Understanding the Purpose and Power of Prayer, Dr. Myles Munroe even calls prayer the “earthly license for heavenly interference.” His thesis is that God can do nothing in this world without our authorization through prayer. In other words, we are in control of this world, and God can only intervene if we pray - and pray correctly. Sadly, this thesis is not defensible through scripture.

Prayer is a personal and subjective experience, and as such it is hypocritical to judge another's experience. Some feel that it has immense value and others struggle to even believe in it. Besides the subjective aspect, God walks a different road with each of us, so that our experience of him remains meaningful to the individual. All of this makes it difficult to make legitimate generalizations about prayer. However, practice teaches us that prayer comes with no guarantees. Not only are the “rules” undefined, but abidance by them do not guarantee the fruits we are looking for. From the Bible it is clear that there are times when unanswered prayer perplexes the most dedicated believer. At such times, it takes real faith to respond like the prophet Habakuk:

Habakuk 3:16-18 “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

Rather than transporting us to paradise, God uses our current sufferings to achieve something in us:

1. Suffering builds character in us. God is more interested in what we will become (as eternal beings), than how much we suffer in this short period of life on earth. Suffering teaches us to become creative, to persist in our efforts and to find solutions. We learn to act with dignity and calm, to seek out the advantage in all things and to grow spiritually in the midst of horrendous suffering. If God healed the sick or supplied a meal every time we prayed for it, none of us would ever grow strong.

Philippians 3:7-15 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things… that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own… Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”

2. God’s long-term, prophesied plan for this world requires that we have to go though much tribulation. God is not deaf to our prayers, but overrules them for the sake of this long-term plan. The ways in which believers impact, fail to impact, and is perceived to impact the world, are crucial to this plan.

Mat 11:16-19 "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'

3. Suffering forces us to focus on the world around us and to involve ourselves in it. Without suffering, we would remain immature, becoming self-serving and self-focused brats. Instead, the Bible urges us to become outward focused, always working at political, economical and spiritual solutions.

Isa 58:6-14 "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

God is the ultimate Creator, who can work with anything, and his grace prevails everywhere. Instead of removing hardships from our lives, He uses it to mould us. It is a painful process, but the rewards are enormous. One need only think of the apostle Paul, who suffered greatly, and sat in jail for many years, not knowing that he was writing much of what would become the New Testament. If God interfered every time we asked him to, we would never grow mature.

We often hear people say that there is too much suffering. By this they mean that God should intervene before things get too bad. They want him to draw a line somewhere. In a way, we all do this, every time we ask God to intervene. Through our prayers we are actually saying; “God, this is too much. Please, stop it.” However, we never stop to think where God should draw the line. What qualifies as too much suffering? Look at this table of suffering and ask yourself: Where would you draw the line?

The first thing we notice about the table is that eternal suffering is right at the top. When we think of suffering, we tend to think only of the here and now, putting eternity out of our minds, rather than focusing on it. We focus so much on our pains that we forget the possibility of an eternal hell, or the rewards of an eternal heaven.

Secondly, we cannot agree about the arrangement of the table, nor where to draw the line. Everyone has a different list and a different arrangement. It all depends on our personal experience of suffering.

Thirdly, we still have to introduce the impact of time, deciding how frequently any given suffering may be experienced. Burning your hand is one thing, but burning it once a week is another.

Taking all these aspects in mind, we have to conclude that, in the long term, any suffering is too much. The perfect kingdom of God must exclude all pain and suffering, or it ceases to be perfect.

The good news is that God did actually draw some lines, and, believe it or not; we could have suffered more than we do. God’s lines are the limitations that He incorporated into creation, from the start:

The body: Our bodies can endure only a limited amount of pain. When it becomes too much, we pass out or die. This imposes a limit on what we may suffer.

Scale: Some things are so small, or so big, that we find them hard to understand, let alone tamper with.

Resources: Our energy, mineral, water and even agricultural reserves are limited. The difficult process of extracting these resources forces us to value and use them responsibly.

Fear: Imperfection means that we all live with a degree of personal insecurity. We all worry about such dangers as starvation and public acceptance, and these fears keep a check on our behaviour.

Conscience: As long as we don’t fry it with sin, our consciences continue to urge us to strive for moral perfection. The mere existence of the conscience, and its persistent nudging, frustrates even the most hardened atheist.

The spirit world: Blind to the spirit world and oblivious to the war of demons and angels, our actions remain limited to the physical world. We have no access to our spirits, and cannot tinker with them.

Salvation: God made salvation extremely easy, so that all may receive it. Jesus’ offer of salvation is freely available and merely requires a choice on our part. In this life, suffering is certain, but in the next, it is optional.

God could have been far more stringent, limiting our freedom far more and thereby limiting the effects of our suffering, but that would have equally affected our capacity to do good. Instead, He chose to make us more than the simple-minded animals that co-inhabit our world. Nor has God has forgotten us. He has sent his Holy Spirit to keep us company until He returns in glorified form, and thought it is not a regular feature at present, there are times when He does intervene.

“Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day.” (Charles Dickens, “Bleak House; the words of “Mr. Jarndyce”)

Reading these words, one might well think that God is completely absent, but as his writing attests, Dickens knew there was far more to the world than what may be seen at a glance. For those who wait patiently, God sometimes does reveal his goodness, or even intervenes miraculously. We should rejoice in these times and remember them, for God sends them to encourage and strengthen our faith. At one or another time, all Christians witness God’s intervention. We should keep a record of these interventions, telling our children ad their children about it, as the ancient Hebrews did.

As a reminder of God’s faithfulness, I include an account of a real-life miracle:

In the winter of June of 2004, three South African Christian women were driving on their way home. All three were members of Helderberg Christian Church, who were running a Christian crèche in the poverty-stricken area of Chris Nissan Park, outside Somerset West. Vloksie Botha, an elderly, white Afrikaner, was the driver, Marlise, a young girl from the Netherlands, sat beside her, and in the back sat Ntini, a young black woman, whom they were on their way to drop off in the black township of Nomzamo.

The roads through Nomzamo are narrow, and regularly filled with pedestrians, so that drivers often have to slow down to a second-gear crawl. Approaching a t-junction, Vloksie slowed almost to a halt, when five young men surrounded the car and shouted for them to get out. Vloksie knew they did not intend to hijack her old car. Instead, she realised they had been randomly picked as targets for a gang initiation killing. Seeing one gangster raise his gun, she turned the car up the t-junction and drove on. The gangsters opened fire. Some attacked the car with cement bricks and stones. Vloksie’s window exploded and a tyre blew out, but they continued down the road.

Some kilometres away, they stopped to check the damage. The car was riddled with bullets. Marlize had a burn mark on her hip where a bullet had grazed her, but amazingly, no one was seriously hurt. In spite of the short range, all the bullets had missed their mark. Some of the near-misses were quite unbelievable. The stuffing had been shot out of Vloksie’s seat, and the sleeve of her favourite turquoise sweater sported two holes, where a bullet had passed right through, barely missing her wrist. There was a similar hole in the belly of her sweater, with a corresponding hole in the safety belt, and another through the safety belt clasp, yet she didn’t have a scratch.

I am familiar with the area, I have seen the evidence, the newspaper clippings, and I know the women. I am convinced that nothing other than a miracle can explain how they escaped death.

God is sovereign. He intervenes when and as He chooses to. Not all of his interventions are supernatural and not all are equally visible. Six to eight thousand years after the fall of man, creation still runs with amazing efficiency. There is still much that is good and praiseworthy, and we must thank God for creating with such foresight. Neither is real beauty always discovered with our eyes. Some of God’s most dramatic interventions can only be seen through the spirit, and few things are as beautiful as the transformation that follows when a sinner gives his heart to God.

The Jewish Holocaust, the persecution of Christians in communist countries and the 2000 Tsunami are reminders of just how ghastly suffering can become. Yet, in a world of limitless suffering, there are limitless opportunities for innovation. Unbelievably, the good in the world and the good we do continue to outstrip the evil around us. The massive bulk of hard work, dedicated love and unselfish giving of millions of ordinary people continue to overshadow the horrific effects of suffering. We can and we do actively combat suffering. Even though we are trapped in a world of death and misery, we get on with the job of joyful living.

The best place to start is to give your life to Jesus, so that you can begin to draw your strength from him instead of from your own resources. Christianity is not supposed to be a feel-good positivism. The kind of logical positivism that is propagated by atheists, such as Stephen Hawking, only endures for as longs as we do not have to face extreme trauma. In contrast, Christ-in-us offers us a wellspring of joy and fulfilment that is not dependent on our efforts or on external circumstance.

Our first impulse should always be to avoid suffering, finding healing and correcting evil. Spiritual healing should be every Christian’s priority. It is often easier to attain, has a greater effect on our lives than physical healing, and tends to last longer.

Mechanised farming, medicines, industrial machinery and water purification all help to make our lives more endurable. The massive global population, that the earth currently carries, is only possible because of such human inventions. Science, art and industry are all expressions of our efforts to combat suffering. We should pursue these things vigorously.

Simple compassion can make a huge difference in someone’s life. Compassion forces us to be intimate, to connect heart-to-heart and to carry each other’s burdens. God calls us to be compassionate, and in our compassion, to be creative.

We absorb evil by not retaliating. Forgiving those who wrong us, may be one of the most difficult and valiant tasks we ever perform, for in doing so, we absorb the full impact of what has been done against us. Yet, forgiving is an essential part of social reform, destroying the effectiveness of evil and conserving the good in a people. That said, forgiving has to be applied wisely. Godly forgiving does not include a limp-wristed submissiveness that simply allows continued abuse.

The Bible teaches us that true religion consists of feeding the orphans and widows. The welfare of others should be the first concern of all followers of Jesus. Helping is not optional, and comes more easily to those who are weak with suffering; who have endured hardships and tasted defeat. It is not in making profits, making laws, or ruling, that we conserve society, but in the simple acts of helping.

To reduce suffering in others usually requires immersing ourselves in it. Without personal sacrifice, our efforts may have little effect, if any. Instead of running towards comfort and self-fulfillment, as the world does, we should pursue self-sacrifice and discomfort, wherever it serves the purposes of God.

Today, more than ever, many Christians are martyred for their faith. Persecuted by the demons of Mohammedanism, Communism and atheism, many have seen suffering in its fullest measure. We should remember these martyrs and their stories, finding encouragement in their words and bravery.

The greatest gift we can give is also the greatest gift anyone can ever hope to receive: eternal life. There is nothing better, nothing easier and nothing cheaper, so let’s give it. Those who have it, have a responsibility to share it. By simply sharing the gospel of Jesus, we help people to find joy, hope, and meaning and to live sensibly.

God allows suffering in our lives. However strange and senseless our suffering may seem, God allows it, and the fact that He allows it shows us that we can find a benefit in it. As a pearl that forms in pain, our suffering can produce a jewel through us. The acute and continued persistence of suffering forces us into deep places, where we wrestle with ourselves, with God and with the pain. If we allow God, He will bring something new out of this great sorrow. It may take many years, and many shapes, depending as much on our own creative urges as God’s persuasions. Instead of just sulking about it, we can use the pain to drive us to great heights. Paul did most of his remarkable writing from jail; Beethoven was deaf and in constant pain when he composed his masterpieces and Van Gogh painted hope in the throes of despair. How much poorer the world would have been without them! A pearl is never formed in comfort.

There is much to gain in heaven from what we do on earth. God has promised to reward our good deeds, and as sure as our suffering will one day end, our rewards will not. Focussing on the rewards above will give us courage to carry on the battle below.

However hard suffering becomes, however dark the shadow of hunger, despair or pain, it will eventually end, but the goodness of God will continue for eternity. The day will come that we will walk with him in Eden, and all this suffering will be over.

“…may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God!” Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May He be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.”

Does God allow suffering and death to rule our lives simply because He is cruel? As grown-ups, we have become accustomed to regarding death as part of the “cycle of life.” We have drifted away from our first our first impulse, shunning the reaction of a child, who cries over the death of a favourite pet. As such, we have become hardened, for the reaction of the child is more sensitive and more moral, seeing death for the true horror that it is. Death defies life. It is undesirable, proof that we are living in an imperfect world. No amount of eco-babble can justify it. If God included death as part of his act of creation, He is by definition a cruel God, and not worth serving. The child who cries over the death of a dog is more moral than such a God, and more worthy of our adoration

However, a cruel God would have had no motive for creating a loving child in the first place. Love would have been contrary to his nature. A God of destruction would create an evil, destructive world, excluding beauty and goodness on every count. This world includes too much beauty and goodness to be the work of such a God, and so, the origin of suffering has to be found elsewhere.

Some say that God’s actions are neither moral nor immoral, but amoral, “meaning that He is above the issue of morality.” This approach is especially prevalent amongst those who wish to defend a marriage of evolutionary theory (or old-earth geologic theory) and Christian theology. (See: “The Bloopers of Blending”)

However, the existence of such an amoral position (above morality) is mere speculation, and poor theorizing at that. Any action has moral implications, whether one wants to know it or not, and in the case of God, we can assume that He knows. Knowing would make him morally responsible, whether or not He prefers the “amoral higher ground.” At best, amorality is simply a fudge factor to compensate for weaknesses in the evolution-Christian link.

Besides being bad theory, an amoral God per se has no right to demand moral standards from us, which this leaves us without any moral basis for our actions. Of course, all this is contrary to the clear Biblical scriptures, which assure us that God perfectly moral and that his standard is in fact much higher than ours.

(Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”)

We tend to think that a perfect creation (such as heaven) must be endlessly flexible. By escaping physical constraints, we hope to escape suffering, but the exact opposite would be true.

Imagine walking down a road - and not walking down it but staying at home. Suddenly, a car hits you, stretching your endlessly flexible body like bubble gum across the tarmac, where it remains for a few weeks, even years, while you sit at home and go holidaying somewhere else. All the while, you are walking forward in time as well as going back to create alternative scenarios in the past.

In such a world, life would soon become meaningless. Nothing would matter; there would be no parameters by which to measure truth, morality, value, meaning, or love. Instead of escaping pain, such a world would become an inescapable hell.

Just as it could not have been an endlessly flexible fantasy, God’s perfect world could not be perfectly static either. God did not create enormous clockwork, but had a specific plan and purpose for creation, and that required a great degree of flexibility. In spite of the fact that it no longer operates perfectly, the universe is still governed by laws and tolerances.

Because of its strangeness, many people regard Eden as a kind of allegory. However, if Eden were not a real and perfect place, then Adam and Eve could not have been innocent and perfect creatures to start with, and their fall into sin becomes a meaningless story. The Bible clearly teaches that man brought sin and death into the world, and if there was no real event during which this happened, it would be nonsensical for a real Saviour to intercede. Jesus’ death on the cross would be meaningless. No real and perfect Adam = no real purpose for Jesus. This approach clearly contradicts Biblical scripture.

Modern churches often treat Eden as a myth, but in doing so fail to explain what the myth is supposed to mean. Myths are supposed to have some underlying meaning, but in the case of Eden this would be entirely missing. Many believe that Eden is a myth about sexual sin, derived from the fact that Adam and Eve were naked and "innocent." However, considering the fact that God had already instructed Adam and Eve to have sex (procreate and fill the earth), there is no basis for such thinking.

Some may argue that since God created man, He is responsible for man’s actions, and therefore guilty of man’s transgressions. This argument is only partially right.

Suppose a small boy practices cricket in the backyard of his home. His father has instructed him not to bat towards the house, but the boy does just that, and breaks a window.

Is the father is responsible? In a sense, he is, for he knew the risk. He chose to make allowance for the possibility that the window might be broken, in favour of teaching the boy cricket. The father had chosen responsibly, valuing the boy more than the windowpane. Even so, the father remains responsible for correcting the damage, which the boy is incapable of doing, and for correcting the boy, who requires a spanking.

Convinced of the Big Bang cosmological model, many people believe that the universe must be billions of years old. This implies that the decay in the stars existed before man, which would make God an imperfect creator, indirectly responsible for the fall of man.

However, there is a growing dissent amongst cosmologists about this model. Many have also produced alternative models (http://www.cosmology.info/). Dr. John Hartnett is one of many who believe in a seven-day creation.

The cosmos is enormous, and even the nearest stars are millions of light-years away. This makes observations difficult and hard to confirm. A lack of verifiable facts means that cosmological models continue to depend heavily on mathematical models. Until the situation changes, all such models must remain speculation.