Why All The Suffering?

Even if the Bible is true and reliable, many believe that following the Bible hasn’t always been beneficial.  Why has Christianity done so much harm?

1.     People often masquerade as followers of Christ, and we must not assume that they are.

2.     Even if someone is following Christ they have the freewill to do what they choose. It doesn’t mean God has anything to do with it.

Well, maybe he has nothing to do with it, but WHY does he allow it or any other suffering? Why is there so much suffering?

1.     Most of the suffering is caused by people, even many of the “natural disasters”.

2.     Much of the suffering could be prevented.

3.     Much of the suffering is an attitude of mind. (“We are, all of us, living in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”)

4.     Often the sufferer knows he is benefiting from the suffering. II Corinthians 4:17-18: “Our suffering is light and temporary and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine.  We don’t look for things that can be seen but for things that can’t be seen. Things that can be seen are only temporary. But things that can’t be seen last forever.”²

5.     It is easy to misuse the world.  If the air is thin enough to breathe, it must be thin enough to not break my fall.  If a rock can support me, it must be hard enough to hurt me if I fall onto it.

6.     The freedom to love needs the freedom to hurt. A world where there is a Mother Teresa is also a world where there can be a Hitler.

7.     We must not overlook the future when the present sufferings will be in the dim past. A seed perishes so that a plant may live and thrive.

Is freedom worth all that suffering?

1.     The risk of freedom is proportional to the potential for good.

2.     Anybody who has ever loved has also suffered.  God could have refused to create the world so that he wouldn’t have had to lose his son. 

3.     Is this short life all there is?  Romans 8:18: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”