Suffering vs. Evil
I’ve been pondering the concept of suffering for over a month now. It all started with this article. The central question is: Does God cause suffering? When asked about 9/11, Katrina, Tsunami, why people die, get into accidents, or other forms of suffering, people like to say “God allowed this to happen.” Adam’s goes on to say that if you believe in the sovereignty of God, then you cannot say ‘God allowed’. He either causes suffering or is not in control.
God causes suffering. This isn’t a popular thing to say. When someone’s mom dies, do you say “God killed her” or “God wanted her to die”? I’m sure you can say it in better ways but this is in essence the truth. The problem is that we often equate suffering with evil.
Suffering is not evil. As I was thinking about this, this was the crucial point. If suffering is evil, God could not cause suffering. But God does cause suffering. I was thinking of some value to add to this or an eloquent way of explaining this random. Fortunately, Pastor John Swanson preached an awesome message today about the purpose of suffering. His sermon completed all the ideas in my mind. I highly suggest listening to it. (Sorry for the anti-climatic ending of this blog post.)