The Origin of Suffering

One thing confusing many Christians is the origin of suffering. In my last post I explained the inevitability of suffering. But why do we suffer in the first place? Many Christians see suffering as contrary to God’s plan for their lives. Indeed, I grew up involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, now Cru, and I memorized the Four Spiritual Laws which was a tract that culminated in people praying the sinner’s prayer. I used it many times. Law 1 of The Four Spiritual Laws is “God LOVES you and has a wonderful PLAN for your life.”[1] That’s not wrong, exactly, but it’s open to misunderstanding. God does love us, no doubt (John 3:16), but “wonderful PLAN for your life” can be taken as a wonderful life here on planet Earth and that’s often not true (I’ve had some Christians get very angry with me when I have pointed this out).

Now for most of us it is true that if we turn ourselves over to Jesus that our lives will improve here, now, on earth, but for many, especially those living in Muslim countries, becoming a Christian doesn’t give them an improved lifestyle here. Some who converted from Islam to Christianity have had their daughters abducted, raped, and forced to sign a confession to Islam, and then their families were told that they would never seem them again.[2] Then the parents themselves are threatened with death if not actually killed. I have a student who converted to Christianity from Islam and her brother reported her to the authorities, so now she has no family, no home, and no country. Now, of course she has peace with God which she literally wouldn’t trade for the whole world, but you get my point. Also, as I said in my last post, becoming a Christian doesn’t mean that you won’t die of heart disease or cancer. Becoming a Christian doesn’t mean that your marriage will improve if your spouse isn’t a Christian. One married student told me that her non-Christian husband literally “went through the five stages of death and dying” over her becoming a Christian and he is still not saved.

Jesus doesn’t promise that your lifestyle will improve here. But He does promise that if you come to Him you will know peace with God and enjoy eternal life in His kingdom! Thus, as I mentioned in my prior post, we need to pray for a revelation of the glory that will await us forever in heaven.

The Origin of Suffering

So why do Christians—and everyone else—suffer? There are many reasons but in this post I will briefly discuss the main causes. First, we suffer and die due to the pestilence and disease enabled when the Lord cursed the ground after Adam and Eve sinned (Genesis 3:17). What pestilence and disease cannot have been enabled, or at least worsened, when God looked at planet Earth and said, “I curse you”?

Then after the Lord cursed the ground, He banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, thus removing humans from the rejuvenating power of the Tree of Life. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil “you will surely die” (Gen 2:17), and He didn’t add “at a ripe old age of natural causes.” He just said, “You will surely die,” and we’ve been attending funerals ever since.

Second, we suffer and die because of the mistakes and sins of others, such as leaving a pool gate unsecured, drunk driving, murder, and so on. That God doesn’t interfere with out free will more often than He does to prevent these sufferings is thoroughly examined in my book, Why Does God Allow Evil?

Third, we suffer and die because natural laws work in regular ways: The gravity that keeps us on planet Earth also enables fatal falls; the fire that warms also burns; the water we drink and in which we swim can also drown. Without natural laws working in regular ways, our actions wouldn’t mean very much. We’d be living in a cartoon world like the one where Wile E. Coyote falls off a cliff and then a giant boulder falls on his head but the next moment he is back to chasing the Roadrunner. That’s a cartoon world. In a world where natural laws work in regular ways, your actions are extremely meaningful and have moral consequences. Of course, many questions arise about this but, again, they are answered in my book, Why Does God Allow Evil? I know I’ve mentioned my book twice now, but in future posts that will become less frequent because in future posts about suffering I will examine things not discussed in that book.

In fact, in the next posts we’ll see how God specifically uses suffering to bless us here and for eternity.

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[1] Elsewhere I’ve seen it revised as: Law 1: “God loves you and created you to know Him personally.” That’s much improved!

[2] Jean E. and I support ministries to the persecuted church such as Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs and they chronicle this kind of thing.