Pointless Suffering?

When people ask the question "How can an all powerful and all good God allow suffering and evil in the world?" they are upset because they assume that suffering is pointless and serves no good purpose. But is this true?

1. This argument doesn't stand to logic. 

Some say "I don’t understand how good could come from evil". Well, sorry to tell you this, but your inability to comprehend something doesn’t make it untrue. Astro-physics isn’t a bunch of nonsense just because you don’t understand it. In the same way, you can’t conclude that it’s nonsense that good can come from evil just because you don’t understand how that could be. It is wrong to conclude "Evil and suffering appear pointless to me, so it must be pointless." 

Let me illustrate what I’m saying this way...There are certain sounds that dogs can hear that humans can’t, right? Well just because we can’t hear them, does that mean they don’t exist? No! In the same way, sometimes, even though we can’t see it, good comes from evil. But just because we can’t see the good, does that mean it doesn’t exist? No, of course not! 

I was at a wedding recently and met someone who attends New Day. I asked this young lady how she started coming to New Day and she told me that after I spoke at the funeral of her friend that she started coming. This young lady is now a Christian and is dating a Christian. Let me ask you: If I never heard her story, would that mean no good came from her friend's death? Of course not! Friends, in heaven we'll hear all the stories. 

2. This argument doesn't stand to human experience. 

We all know from human experience that good can come even from painful experiences. For example: Every Thursday I go through a painful process called a sermon run through. I pour everything I have into my sermon. I read so many books and study for so many hours. And at the sermon run through I invite constructive criticism from my staff so the message can get better for Sunday. You have no idea how painful this process is, but it always, without fail, makes my sermon better than it would’ve been without it.

3. This argument doesn't stand to the teaching of Scripture. 

Take Joseph (from the Old Testament) for example. Joseph was an arrogant young man who was hated by his brothers. In their anger at him, they imprisoned him in a pit and then sold him into a life of slavery and misery in Egypt. Doubtless Joseph prayed to God to help him escape, but no help was forthcoming, and into slavery he went. Though he experienced years of imprisonment and misery, Joseph’s character was refined and strengthened by his trails. Eventually he rose up to become prime minister of Egypt and saved thousands upon thousands of lives and even his own family from starvation. If God had not allowed Joseph’s years of suffering, he never would have been in the position to save all those lives. In this situation we see ultimate good coming from ultimate evil. In Joseph’s own words in Genesis 50:20, Joseph told his brothers “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (NIV). The apostle Paul was no doubt reflecting on this example of Joseph when we penned Romans 8:28 which says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NIV) 

Or take Jesus (from the New Testament) for example. Homicide is man killing another man. Suicide is man killing himself and deicide is man killing God. And that's what happened to Jesus. He suffered horrible evils, yet out of his suffering came the salvation of mankind.

You can say that suffering and evil are pointless and serve no good purpose, but as we've seen, that argument defies logic, human experience and the teaching of Scripture.

Even though God is all-good, He might well have good reasons for permitting pain and suffering in the world. When people say “an all-good and powerful God would not permit such things to happen” they are assuming that God cannot have morally sufficient reasons for permitting the amount and kinds of evil that exist. The problem with this assumption is that it’s simply not true. The Christian believes that God has overriding reasons for permitting even terrible atrocities to occur. And just because you can’t see them or understand them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. We are simply not in a position to know why God permits various evils to occur. Certainly many evils seem pointless and gratuitous to us - but how can we be sure they really are? Perhaps they fit into a wider picture. We just don’t know how the sufferings we endure might be used of God in our lives or, if not in ours, in the lives of those around us. Yes, they often look pointless, but we are simply not in a position to judge. The brutal murder of an innocent man or a child’s dying of leukemia could send a ripple effect through history so that God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting it might not emerge until centuries later or perhaps in another country. Events which appear disastrous in the short-term may contribute to the greatest good. We just don’t know. But what we do know is this: There's no such thing as pointless suffering.