The Problem of Suffering

1. If God is perfectly good, God is willing to prevent all suffering.
2. If God is all-powerful, God is able to prevent all suffering.
3. If God is able and willing to prevent all suffering, then all suffering is prevented.
4. Not all suffering is prevented.
5. Therefore, there is no perfectly good, all-powerful God.

Let's attempt to unravel the multiple layers of sophistry embedded into this ostensibly simple set of assertions...

First of all, the term "suffering" is undefined. But we can infer a lot of meaning by simple logic. We can confidently say that "suffering" in this context is ephemeral. We can also confidently say that God, on the other hand is eternal. There are also many different sorts of things we can attribute to "suffering." Physical discomfort and biological pain come to mind, but then again, most philosophical disciplines teach that suffering is psychological, that suffering is the refusal to accept things as they are, that suffering equals resistance and cognitive dissonance. Jesus Himself also said the following with regard to ephemeral suffering contrasted with eternal existence:

Matthew 5:30
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

So, suffering is a relative condition and must be evaluated in terms of other, more weighty factors.

Second, let's examine the overarching assertion that God *should* proactively prevent all suffering. How and why? Do parents who love their children always and unconditionally prevent all suffering of their children? Why or why not? How might we describe an adult whose parents never allowed them any form of suffering whatsoever when they grew up? Quite likely a selfish and evil human being lacking either empathy or any idea of consequences.

Third, the premise of this argument is that suffering is "bad" and that not suffering is "good"--so much so that God's very existence hinges on this one question. Is there any reasonable basis for making this assumption, that this singular, arbitrary measure is the defacto highest moral test in the universe? Does not suffering guide us into doing better so as to avoid it in the future? How could any biological or moral entity achieve success in any domain without suffering to goad them or to guide them?

Fourth, the premise of this argument is that God owes His creation the duty to constantly intervene in all of their affairs, whether He is asked to or not. This implies two things: 1, that God is obligated to prevent us from experiencing the consequences of our own choices and actions, and 2, that God should somehow prevent us from making our own bad choices before we have made them. So, on the one hand, a God we don't believe in and refuse to obey is nevertheless bound to constantly perform miracles on our behalf so as to provide us with a trouble-free existence. And on the other, a God we don't believe in nor obey is also somehow immoral if He does not violate our moral sovereignty and freedom of choice.

So, God is expected to be our slave and our master at the same time? Does this sound like a valid test for anything at all? The premise is rife with contradictions and faulty assumptions.

It is evident that the God of the Bible prioritizes free will and the well-being of the soul over the absence of fleeting and temporal suffering. This exposes the fatal flaw of the "Problem of Suffering" rhetoric. Without free will, man is not a sovereign individual and is incapable of true love or truly living. With free will, suffering is inevitable, especially of the sort that stems from the bad choices of *others*, but man is then able to progress and reach his highest potential.

Romans 5:3
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;

Romans 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Let's examine what God says He has already done: He has taken on Himself mankind's humanity and foibles and weaknesses, through the Incarnation. Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world on the cross. Jesus endured the punishment for those sins and then rose from the dead, victorious. Jesus gives us His victory over sin and death. So, God did indeed provide the means to actually avoid all suffering: adoption as sons with equal rights and privileges as the Son of God, for eternity.

Philippians 2:5-11 (NRSV)
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

1 John 2:2
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

1 John 5:4
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Romans 8:1-11
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of (or "to") sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Ephesians 1:3-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Ephesians 2:4-10
But God, Who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

This is the plain text of the Bible and yet is somehow ignored by self-proclaimed "philosophers" of the world who are bent on rejecting God through any contrivance, chiefly that of omission. By not considering the Bible, with its many historical proofs, in their arguments, they fool themselves into thinking they've "disproven" His existence and thereby completely lose out on God's great and precious promises. If you will only look unto Jesus, you will find everything you've ever longed for.