Suffering
Romans 1:28
Introduction:
1. Atheists love to play this card, it is their trump card
• The Problem of Evil takes the following form:
A God that is all powerful would be able to prevent evil and suffering.
A God that is all knowing would know that evil and suffering happen.
A God that is all loving wouldn't want evil and suffering to happen and would take needed action to stop it.
Evil and suffering happen.
Since evil and/or suffering happen, these statements are contradictory. An all powerful, all knowing and all loving god cannot exist while suffering continues.
• Epicurean paradox:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? –Epicurus (Greek philosopher, 341-270 BCE)
• We live in a world in which a child dies every five seconds of starvation. Every five seconds. Every minute there are twenty-five people who die because they do not have clean water to drink. Every hour 700 people die of malaria. Where is God in all this? “How the Problem of Pain Ruined My Faith.”
2. If there was a God, there would be no suffering
a. I say, because there is suffering, there is a God
i. How are we here to enjoy pleasures or suffer from troubles?
b. I say, suffering teaches me to look elsewhere.
Discussion:
1. Suffering is a result of what we did and do, not what God did or doesn’t do.
2. Suffering is a part of freedom of choice
a. We confuse kindness with love.
b. "Kindness cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, provided only that it escapes suffering", while Love "would rather see [the loved ones] suffer much than be happy in contemptible and estranging modes" CS Lewis
c. Yes, God allows us to suffer because that is the right and loving thing to do.
i. We get cancer, we have surgery and treatment, all of which makes us suffer. So why do we do it? Childbirth is nearly insufferable, why go through that?
ii. We suffer because we have the right to choose, and we make bad choices.
iii. Life is choices, without choices we have no life. E.g. the person who is on a respirator and without brain function, they have life, they are not suffering.
d. One more thing about kindness, we are willing to extend kindness to another as long as they do not infringe upon us.
3. Using this as an argument against Faith, is hypocritical
a. I use this term in 2 different senses:
i. In the classic meaning of the word, they (atheists) condemn in others what they practice themselves. They look down on others for doing the same thing that they themselves do all the time.
ii. They are also hypo-critical
1. Critical=involving skillful judgment as to truth, merit, etc.; judicial:
2. Hypo=under (Gr)
3. In other words they are not using true critical thinking, but they pretend to.
b. We don’t care if we suffer or cause others to suffer.
i. E.g. war
ii. Why are those children starving and there is no clean water? Because they are in a constant state of war. God provided plenty of water and food for these children, we steal it from them.
iii. Guarantee-God could rain down manna from heaven to these poor countries where children are starving and others would steal it from them and they would still be hungry.
c. We are hypocrites because we fault God for allowing suffering in man, but we turn around and cause suffering to other creatures lower than us.
d. We do the same thing. We have children. We open the door for their suffering.
i. Why don’t we put them in a bubble, feed them through a slot?
ii. Why do we allow them to learn to drive?
iii. Why do we allow them to get married?
iv. Why do we have children? That’s suffering.
e. If God eliminated suffering, we still wouldn’t believe
i. Garden of Eden
ii. Exodus
iii. Jesus’ miracles
Matthew 11:23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.
4. Suffering can be a blessing
a. Children are a case in point.
b. If there were no suffering, we would not appreciate our blessings
• In Jerusalem there is a Holocaust Museum dedicated to the memory of the millions of Jews who were killed by the Nazis in World War II. It has been said that going through the museum is a very depressing experience because you see these horrible pictures and read the accounts of the ghettos and the concentration camps. But in the midst of all the dark tales of suffering, there is one amazing story of how God can transform horror into hope.
In one of the German concentration camps there was a young lady named Rachel. She endured great hardship from being made to work in the snow with inadequate clothing. She watched in horror as many of her friends and family members were killed.
Then one day, the guards left unexpectedly. She didn't know the war was over. Later that day some American soldiers arrived to set the prisoners free. One young American soldier told Rachel he had come to rescue her and for her to gather her few possessions. Then he held the door for her and said, "After you, ma'am."
Rachel started to cry. He asked, "What's wrong, ma'am?"
She said, "I can't remember the last time someone held a door open for me. It's the nicest thing anyone has done for me in a long time." The soldier stayed in touch with Rachel after she was relocated, and they became friends. Later they fell in love and were married.
That's what God can do. He can take the most terrible situation imaginable and make something beautiful out of it. Our God is an awesome God and I'm glad He's in control. Whenever you go through tough times, you can either look for the junk or you can look for the joy. Job looked for the joy and in the end; God rewarded Job's persistence and patience. It says in Job 42:12 that "the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first."
• For example, in late fall of 1777, General George Washington and his rag tag army of militiamen suffered 2 defeats at the hands of the British at Brandywine and Germantown. He and his 11,000 men retreated to Valley Forge, PA to establish winter headquarters. It was a dark time for the revolution. Many died of starvation or cold, never more than half of the force was in any shape to battle at one time. Many deserted the cause, because the stress and suffering was too great. But thousand others remained faithful. They stayed in there, despite frozen bodies, starvation, sickness and bone-biting coldness, because they had a goal and a purpose for being there - that was more important to them than personal comfort or even safety. In February they began a regrouping that prepared them for pursuing the British all the way across New Jersey in June of 1778.
c. God does help us
Psalm 102:17 He will listen to the prayers of the destitute. He will not reject their pleas.
i. But here again, this is used as a hypocritical excuse not to believe in God.
ii. “I asked God to help me, and he didn’t, he let me suffer.”
iii. How do you know God didn’t help you?
iv. We are hypocritical because we want God to answer our prayers the way we want them answered and when we want them answered. If he doesn’t then we shun him.
v. Do we do this with our children? Do we give them everything they want when they want it? Do we let them do anything they want?
Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
5. Suffering points to a time of bliss-heaven
Luke 6:23 Rejoice you in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers to the prophets.
a. Where and when was it ever promised that we would not suffer here on this earth?
1 Peter 3:17 Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!
6. Jesus suffered
Luke 9:22 "The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things," he said. "He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead."
Conclusion:
1. We suffer, that’s true, but not because God wants us to.
2. He has done everything he could to keep us from suffering now and in the future.
3. The choice is yours. You will suffer now, whether you are a Christian or not, but if you want to avoid future suffering the Lord begs you to open your heart.
