This thread came about when I read this ( in response to why God would have used what we call evolution - IF He used it):
Why didn’t God just zap us into existence fully formed? We might as well ask why God didn’t just create a perfect and final heaven and populate it with us from the start. I’m not sure we can say much more to such questions than that God seems to delight in partnering with his creation in order to bring about his intentions. And those intentions seem to be for transformation—not some far off neverland of a heaven that has no connection to this world. If that were the intention, God would have just done that directly. But as Wright keeps reminding us, God is in the business of re-creating this world into the new heavens and new earth, and of transforming us through Christ from what we were into what he would have us be. “The point of it all, once more, is vocational: if we can study Genesis and human origins without hearing the call to be an image-bearing human being renewed in Jesus, we are massively missing the point” (p. 39).
Which reminded me about my own personal view about why God allows suffering:
Only through suffering do we as humans develop compassion ( it literally means "to suffer with others") and compassion is, quite possibly, the highest expression of selfless/other-centered Love.
Which lead me to create this thread about why think about " Why does God..."
Refinement Through Suffering
Irenaeus (c. 130-c. 202 AD), an early Christian Father, saw two stages to God's creation of human beings. In the first stage, Irenaeus saw human beings as being brought into existence as immature intelligent creatures with the capacity for immense moral and spiritual growth and development.3 The second stage of creation was believed to consist of gradually being transformed through their own free responses from human animals into "children of God."4 Accordingly, God's purpose in creating this world was not to construct a hedonistic paradise whose inhabitants would experience a maximum of pleasure and minimum of pain. Rather this world is to be viewed as a place of "soul making," where free beings can still enjoy life's pleasures, while having to grapple with life's pitfalls in order to become be furnished into "children of God."
For brevities sake, we will not go further into Irenaeus' theodicy, however we wish to highlight an important point. Spiritual growth and maturing appears to be possible because of pain and suffering. As a parent would know, there are many cases where allowing pain and suffering to occur in their child's life is beneficial in order to bring about some greater good, or because there is some sufficient reason for allowing it. In James 1:2-4 we are told perseverance through trials matures us and makes us complete. Additionally, 1 Peter 1:6-7 acknowledges some as suffering all sorts of grief, because they are being refined as though by fire, to prove their faith is pure and genuine towards God.
God may therefore permit the process of suffering in our lives to mature us or to test us, or for some overriding end. C.S. Lewis on the death of his wife discovered this process can be very painful, and reflecting upon these concepts of a good God allowing pain and suffering mused:
CS Lewis wrote:
The terrible thing is that a perfectly good God is hardly less formidable than a Cosmic Sadist. The more we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there is any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might be bribed, might grow tired of his vile sport, might have temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless.
What do people mean when they say, "I am not afraid of God because I know He is good"? Have they never even been to a dentist?5
Within Christianity, it is believed this process of maturing and testing will come to an end when this temporary world passes away. Yet, God promises to set up a new world wherein He will dwell with His people, and "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4) Bearing all this in mind, the second assumption that an all-good God would prefer a world without the evils of pain and suffering, is far from obvious. God may very well have sufficient reasons for allowing pain and suffering, and so consequently, this second assumption is not necessarily true.
"Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13)
The Q of suffering is usually and naturally thought of from the perspective of our fears.
The Bible says that "fear hath torment" and that we are subject to bondage, all of our life time, through the fear of death.
We are in bondage and in torment through fears which are ultimately based on the fear of death.
And rightly so, since death is God's "last enemy" - the final enemy to be destroyed.
We were created to live forever, therefore anything that threatens that life is to be hated and avoided by nature.
Without sin we would never have died.
The Q of suffering has another perspective, from the view of the conflict between good and evil, God and the rebellion of Satan and his hosts, including earthlings. This crisis is of great interest and concern to many other intelligent worlds.
Some are concerned about the impact it will have on the universe, since God has taken on Himself the weight of sin from the world. Other intelligences recognize that the entire universe is up held by Christ, and that it is designed to be harmonious, and interactive on many levels, so that the entry of sin and its miserable consequences has the potential to affect the entire universe, not just earth, if it is not resolved.
There are many issues of justice and mercy at stake, in the unfolding and exposure of evil in this world.
There are accusations which Satan has made which can only surface if allowed to develop to their fullest extent. The issue of loyalty to God and the Q of sin and its consequences as well as the mercy of God, are being either disgraced or honored in the lives of men. If the accusations against God's government by Satan are true, and there are no faithful on earth, he will claim the earth as a case against God, declaring that the law of God is not appropriate to intelligent creatures - who should be free of any law, but God has predicted that there will be faithful on earth and that He will be honored. Just as there were faithful few in the past.
The Q is - can love and loyalty be destroyed through circumstances? And the answer is no. Every bravery in this world is a testimony to Christ - the victory of love over death, disease and injustice. All who fall in this world honoring that principle will be raised to eternal life, a life equivalent with God Himself - never to experience death again.
Having a life free of trouble or death is not necessary a testimony to the truth, whatever happens in this world is either a testimony to the rebellion or love. We have plenty of people, even children who are testimonies of love under all circumstances. These are the victors who will "abide under the wings of the Almighty."
God is not willing that any should suffer, but every life which testifies of bravery is a badge of honor to God. Eternal life to every child of God is the one and only goal of all and any of God's dealings with men, despite the unfortunate circumstances which they even bring onto themselves, and if Divine healing and intervention brings the same results He does it.
Talking about intervention and Divine protection, every individual has that protection, and intervention of angels in their behalf, that they may have the opportunity to look upward and be saved. For many this grace is worthless, because they do not appreciate it, neither are they thankful.
We have no idea how God is honored by our faith and love under trials, but we also have no idea how and why suffering can do any good to anyone at anytime. We are also prone to believing that sin is not as bad as God says it is, neither do we expect that it should have any dominance in any circumstance. The truth is, that wrong choices have real consequences bringing dire results which could be a lot worse, has not God weighed the trials that every individual can bear, and intervened, on the basis of Christ removing the full consequences of sin from the world in behalf of their freedom of choice.
We do suffer because of choices made, sometimes for our own mistakes, other times from the mistakes of others, but never more than we can bear, and never too great for our faith to fail. That is a guarantee.
Fear has the worst effect on us, and so perfect love is designed to remove all fear - eventually.
The rewards of the next life are so great that nothing can be of any dreadful significance in this temporary experience.
