Suffering and Evil – A Different View of God?

by Philip Sudworth.

In the previous two articles on suffering and evil (Our Fault? and For our benefit?), we’ve explored various explanations of why a loving and all-powerful God might send, or not prevent, suffering.  It is possible that God is not entirely loving or not all-powerful or has voluntarily given up some power, or isn’t the sort of God who directs everything that happens.

Christian tradition presents images of God that go beyond the loving father, suffering servant and shepherd to include a mighty king who demands obedience and an avenging judge.  In the Old Testament, God’s nature is depicted as including jealousy, anger, vengeance and a strict sense of justice alongside his love for his chosen people.  John Stott, a leading evangelical writer, speaks of: “an inner tension between his ‘compassion’ and his ‘fierce anger”’.[1]   Righteousness and justice are seen as important aspects of the nature of God. Although the main message of Christianity these days is one of love, traditionally the church has not only acknowledged this need to fear God but has used the threat of judgement and eternal torment for the non-Christian in its evangelism.  Images of the expected Second Coming of Jesus are full of reward and retribution.

Could God be entirely good if he planned before time began for children to die painfully as part of his scheme for the salvation of humanity?  This is echoed in the cry of Ivan in Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov: “If the sufferings of children … [are] necessary for the purchase of truth, then I say beforehand that the entire truth is not worth such a price.”[2]

It is sometimes claimed that God’s plan for the ultimate welfare of the universe is well worth the suffering of individuals.  Few great victories have been achieved without casualties or martyrs.  (There were more Christian martyrs in the 20^th century than in all the previous 19 centuries put together.) The battle against evil may also demand sacrifices.  This presumes that God isn’t all-powerful in the struggle against the forces of evil. 

Peter Vardy rejects the view that God is in total control and suggests that a God who would deliberately cause the painful death of a child would not be worth worshipping.   “A God who can control everything that happens and who allows so much suffering is a malevolent God.”[3]  He suggests that God’s freedom of action in the world “is limited by the universe he has chosen to create.”[4]  More direct intervention by God would destroy human freedom and their ability to choose their response to him.

An alternative view of God is that he is not a being out there somewhere, watching and directing what happens in the world, but is within us and within everyone else as well.  This gives a different perspective.  God is no longer outside observing the suffering, he is undergoing it with us.  One of the things that helped Archbishop Desmond Tutu to keep going during his people’s suffering under Apartheid was the story of the fiery furnace.  Nebuchadnezzar was amazed to see that not only were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego not burnt but he could see a fourth figure in the furnace with them.  Tutu realised the story was saying was that God wasn’t sitting up in Heaven watching, he was in the middle of the suffering with them.  No matter how tough things got, they’d never be alone; God would be in there with them. 

In his book, Night, about his experiences in Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel recounts how, a young boy is hanged in front of the whole camp for breaching a minor rule. The two men hanged with him died quickly but the small, half-starved boy took half an hour to die. As he writhed in his agony, Elie heard someone behind him ask – “‘Where is your God now?’” Elie relates that he heard a voice within him answer: “‘Where is he?  Here he is – he is hanging here on the gallows.’”[5] ⁴

The view of God within us holds out the prospect and hope of man as a race evolving spiritually and morally as well as physically and mentally.  It requires us to look forward at how we can help to work towards a better future for humankind.  The more we attune ourselves to the God within us, the better we will be prepared to tackle the problems in the world. 

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[1] Stott J.R.W. (1986) – The Cross of Christ (Inter-Varsity Press)

[2] Dostoevsky F. [1880] – The Brothers Karamazov (Quartett Books)

^[3] Vardy P. (1992) – The Puzzle of Evil (HarperCollins.)

[4] ibid.

[5] Wiesel E. (1982) – Night (Penguin)