AboutDon Hurray Expertise Presbyterian minister (PCUSA)with 23 years experience.
Have served as military and police chaplain
Well versed in reformed theology belonging to professional groups
Grew up Roman Catholic
Well acquainted with most Christian and Jewish faiths
Experience Parish ministry 24 years
Served as volunteer military and police chaplain, hospice, etc.
Organizations Reformed Group
Ministerial Associations
Publications Monday Morning
Presbyterian Layman
Education/Credentials College in US and Sweden
M.Div plus advanced work
Question I have been interested in understanding how different world religions explain the pain and suffering that is so pervasive in this world.
The way God has been introduced to us, i.e. as all knowing, omnipotent, and omnipresent, it seems impossible to believe that anyting happens independent of God's will.
I have heard number of common explanations, but none of them our completely satisfactory. So I was wondering if you could tell me more or refer me to some reading materials. Explanations I have heard are:
1. We deserve the suffering because of our sins.
2. God is testing our faith.
3. The suffering is caused by the evil in the world and not God.
4. We simply don't know, i.e. God works in mysterious ways.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Adrien
Answer Hello Adrien,
You ask a very important question. You explain sin and suffering and you explain everything else in life.
These questions are answered in the Bible but it takes a lifetime of learning and experience and we still don't fully have a handle on it.
But we do know that God is good and that He suffers along with us (we see this all through scripture from the Exodus to the prophets to God sending His own Son to suffer for us, to the sufferings and death of the apostles, etc).
In Christ we know that there is purpose and redemption with suffering because there was so with His suffering.
We also know from scripture that suffering was not God's intention for humanity but came from our first parents bad choice to believe the serpent.
Suffering is never good but God will use it to bring about good. Many people seek God during times of suffering and He uses it to draw us to Jesus Christ. When times are good we horribly and falsely believe that we don't need God. Thus like a cancer, we think things are well but they are not. We only see suffering from one angle this way.
I can see from a practical standpoint that when everything goes well with us we drift away from God. Suffering, many times, brings us back to God as we see our true frailty and weakness.
Speak to any pastor about what happened after Sept. llth. My church was packed for weeks afterwards. Why? Because people awoke (temporarily) to humanity's true frailness and the danger of being without God. As things got better people drifted back into the old humdrums of life without God. Humanity in this way shows extreme stupidity.
Despite it's evil, suffering awakens us to our need for God. In doing so suffering works for our long term good.
