Why is there suffering?

THE title of the sermon advertised on the poster outside the church caught my eye. It made me stop and think. It was: ‘Where was God in Auschwitz?’

It is a profound and challenging question. There have been many other examples of humans’ capacity for evil, but the Holocaust still shocks and disturbs people today.

Prison camp image the suffering that the Jews experienced is central to Frank Cottrell Boyce’s film God on Trial. Set in the Nazi concentration camp, it asks a question that has challenged theologians and thinkers through the centuries: ‘If God is good, why is there evil and suffering?’

Some people use the existence of evil in the world as evidence that God, certainly a loving God, does not exist.

But the Bible says that God’s plan at Creation was to allow humans to make their own choices. Our choices can result in good, but sometimes we make bad decisions that lead to suffering. If God didn’t allow us to make those bad choices – despite their consequences – we would merely be puppets with no will of our own.

God has always dealt with humankind this way. He allowed Adam and Eve to make choices. In the account in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve made bad decisions in the Garden of Eden which resulted in suffering and chaos being brought into the world.

The reality is that much of the pain and evil in the world is indeed brought about by bad human choices. It is humanly caused pain – the result of human sin.

But God’s work in the world is not finished. The Bible promises that God will create a new Heaven and a new earth and that there will be no more suffering or pain. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain’ (Revelation 21:4 New International Version).

In this new creation sin will be gone, and God’s perfect way will be followed. But that is still to come. In the meantime, while we may have questions, there is hope. God has not abandoned humankind, and he has promised to help us through times when others are causing us to suffer. God will be there in our tough times if we are ready to look for him.

UK War Cry 2010