Why Does God Allow Suffering?

Poverty, genocide, a school shooting. A tsunami or earthquake that wipes out thousands of lives and leaves behind mourning family members.

Or something more personal—childhood trauma, chronic illness, or a loved one battling a cancer diagnosis.

Suffering looks different for different people. It might happen on a large scale or a small scale. Each experience is valid. And each one is noticed by God.

But if God notices, why doesn’t He do anything about all these bad things?

You might have even asked a Christian this question and received an unsatisfactory or incomplete answer.

But the Bible encourages us to ask the hard questions. And to wrestle with the difficult realities of living as a human being with a “fallen nature.”

And it offers us a surprising answer: God allows sin and evil to run its course, not because He wants us to suffer—but because it’s the only way for freedom and love to exist. They both require free will.

But there will be an end to human suffering. God has a plan that will make it possible for us to one day live forever in a sinless, perfect world.

But how?

Let’s seek out the Scriptural explanations to tough questions like:

• Where did suffering and evil come from?
• Is suffering part of God’s plan?
• How do we find hope in the middle of suffering?

And as we discuss this, we want to be clear that no one’s suffering should be taken lightly. It’s real. It’s deep. It’s painful. And no one, not even God, is asking you to dismiss it or ignore it.

Know that you’re seen and heard as we study this heavy topic.

Where did suffering and evil come from?

Suffering and evil aren’t things that God created or established. But the record of their earliest appearance came about when the angel Lucifer (now Satan) became power-hungry and chose to rebel against God’s kingdom of love.

As he rallied other angels around him, his inner rebellion turned into a full-out revolt that resulted in him being exiled from heaven (Revelation 12:7-9). He brought his ideas to earth, where he convinced the first humans to accept them, giving suffering and evil entrance to our world (Genesis 3).

This means God is not the source of evil. He didn’t create it.

But that still leaves us with plenty of questions.

Why did He allow Lucifer to rebel? Or why did He create a being with the capacity to rebel? And why did He allow Satan to have contact with humanity?

The Bible helps us understand that God operates on the principle of freedom (Joshua 24:15). He Himself embodies love (1 John 4:8), and pure love cannot exist without free will.

So, yes, God could have created beings who were incapable of choosing evil.

But then He would have made a being that wasn’t much more than a robot.

In the world of AI, we know all too well that a robot can’t love. A robot doesn’t choose how to feel and act towards others. It’s only doing what it’s been programmed to do—and that makes it impossible to have a truly mutual relationship. It wouldn’t even feel real.

In this sense, then, even an all-powerful God chooses to work within limitations, as Seventh-day Adventist Pastor Nathan Renner, MDiv, points out.¹ God cannot force love because that would prevent the exact kind of relationship He wants with us.

Renner says,

“True love must give the right to not love.… [and that] freedom involves risk…. Why would God take the risk? Because He wants to achieve the best possible world. … [a world of] absolute freedom and universal love.”

By creating beings that could love Him in return, God took the risk that they also could choose not to love Him. They could even become enemies.

The possibility of an enemy

In Matthew 13, Jesus Christ tells a parable that helps us understand the conundrum of a world of suffering and evil. In the parable, a landowner planted seed in his field. Not just any seed but “good seed” (Matthew 13:24, ESV).

Unfortunately, that landowner had some enemies who decided to play a mean trick. They planted weeds in his field—specifically those that would look very similar to the grain growing there. It would be nearly impossible to separate the weeds from the grain until harvest time.

“So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also” (Matthew 13:27, ESV).

The landowner’s servants were truly confused. They asked him:

“Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?” (Matthew 13:26, ESV)

The landowner answered:

“An enemy has done this” (Matthew 13:28, ESV).

This parable offers us some important thoughts about the evil and suffering we see in our world. The Bible teaches us that God created a world in which everything was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). But as we look around, we can see that everything is clearly not good.

What happened?

It’s tempting to blame God. To assume He’s responsible.

But this parable reminds us: An enemy has done this.

First Peter 5:8 goes further and identifies that enemy:

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (ESV).

Let’s learn a bit more about where this “devil” came from.

The rebellion in heaven

As mentioned earlier, Revelation 12:7-9 tells us of a war in heaven in which the devil and his angels rebelled against God, resulting in their removal from heaven.

But it didn’t start out as an open rebellion.

It all started as subtle doubts in the mind of the angel Lucifer, who was a “covering cherub,” one of the angels who stood before God’s throne (Ezekiel 28:14; Psalm 99:1).

He began to feel a sense of pride and self-importance (Isaiah 14:12-17). These thoughts grew in his heart, eventually turning into a rebellion that many of the other angels joined. He was opposing God’s rulership, which meant he was opposing the way God ruled—by His law of love.

Lucifer, who became known as Satan or the devil, carried his angst and lies with him to the earth after being cast out of heaven. And there, he spoke those lies to manipulate Eve, the first woman:

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1, ESV)

When Eve explained the warning God had given her, the devil went on to contradict the warning:

“You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5, ESV).

The serpent implied that God was holding something back. He’s selfish and hoarding power. He’s not worth obeying.

But even with all his lies, there was a grain of truth.

He revealed to them that there were two sides to things, when up until then, they had only experienced one side. So now they’ve been told that they could know evil as well as good.

And so, Adam and Eve, by choosing to do what the devil told them, did come to know the other side. The other choice.

They had begun to know evil. And they would keep learning more and more about it, as it would wreak havoc on our planet from then on.

But then that leads us to another question. Why didn’t God stop it sooner? Why are we still experiencing evil’s effects?

Is suffering part of God’s plan?

Suffering was never part of God’s ideal plan for humans.

He doesn’t desire any of us to suffer. But because of free will, we now live in a broken world that has welcomed the knowledge of both good and evil. We experience suffering on a personal level, a collective level, and a historical level. We now know pain, injustice, betrayal, neglect, envy, greed…

But the good news is that someday, this will all be made right. And we will be able to live in a world completely free from sin, because each of us will know full well the path it leads to. We will fully understand the opposing forces: good vs. evil, love vs. sin, right vs. wrong, etc.

No one will be able to say that they never got a chance to fully explore what sin was all about. No one will be able to say that we never understood the options.

So yes, God could have wiped out the rebellion in heaven. In fact, He could’ve wiped Lucifer out before any of the other angels joined him in his rebellion.

But don’t you think that would’ve left everyone else feeling afraid? Wouldn’t they have wondered, Could Lucifer have been right about God’s character after all?

God would’ve stopped the rebellion, yes, but He also would’ve stopped the opportunity for free will. He would’ve set a new precedent. And He’d look more like a dictator who was to be obeyed without question.

That’s not who He is.

God welcomes our questions and our doubts. He wants us to see the evidence for His goodness and love. And that requires time—time for evil to play out so that we can truly see the results of going against God’s law of love.

And for the time being, that means we also experience suffering—the effects of evil in this sin-filled world.

These effects could be consequences of our own actions, consequences of others’ actions, or random unfortunate circumstances that result from a long, twisted history of sin-affected events.

Again, though, God doesn’t take delight in our suffering by any means (Lamentations 3:32-33). Rather, He has done something incredible:

He came down to our level and suffered with us.

He is there with us through our suffering. And what’s more, He can even take our pain and suffering and use it for good (Romans 8:28; Psalm 119:71). In the midst of everything we go through, we can find something to hang onto—something to give us purpose through it all.

Can suffering sometimes be a good thing?

We also need to address something else at this point.

A common perspective is that suffering can be one of life’s best teachers. And while this can indeed be true, we also have to be careful with this perspective.

There’s no denying that suffering can often teach us some painful yet powerful lessons that help us in our current, earthly lives. But that doesn’t mean that every time we suffer it’s “for our own good,” or it’s deserved, or it’s the direct will of God.

But there are times when suffering can steer our lives in a better direction. And there have been plenty of times in Scripture when God let the rebelling Israelites experience the consequences of following their own fleeting desires.

It might seem like God could simply tell people about sin and warn them to stay away from it. But humans often choose to learn the hard way—through experience.

This was the case with Adam and Eve. Though God warned them about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:16-17), they were attracted to the idea of knowing good and evil for themselves (Genesis 3:5-6). And they did—through very painful consequences.

One way to think about this might be similar to a child² who is told not to eat too much candy, or they’ll feel sick.

But the moment the parents leave the room, the child goes for the candy.

This keeps happening, over and over. The parents have to keep stopping the child, hiding the candy, or giving them yet another talk about how too much sugar is bad for you, etc.

But the child has never had too much sugar before. The child thinks they’ll be fine. And they just really want the candy.

So instead of having to keep policing their child’s candy intake, or wondering if they’ll ever be able to leave their child alone with candy, the parents decide that it’s time to leave the choice with the child. Even with the risk of disobedience.

And not long after, the child ends up eating a ton of candy and feels awful for hours. Maybe they end up actually getting sick.

It certainly wasn’t the parents’ will for them to get sick. They take absolutely no joy in watching their child suffer. But they also knew that their child needed to learn the consequences of their actions and become able to take responsibility for them.

(Otherwise, they’d probably be micromanaging their child’s candy intake indefinitely.)

But even considering the previous example, not all suffering is directly constructive or the result of personal cause-and-effect. And no one should make you feel like every time you suffer, you surely brought it on yourself. Or that every experience of suffering means you’re being taught a lesson.

When good and evil are constantly in conflict every day, in a world where everyone has free will, evil things happen on a chaotic and global scale as well.

And often it’s not fair.

Often it’s not personal—it’s random, coincidental, circumstantial, and outside of our control.

Often it feels like there’s nothing anyone could have possibly done to deserve it.

That’s the nature of sin that causes suffering. And as history progresses, we see more and more of its true colors.

Sin is so awful…but it can also be so deceptive. And collectively, we’ve demonstrated that we have to see it to believe it. So we’re getting the very knowledge we were enticed by in the Garden of Eden.

And after all of humanity has witnessed and experienced this world’s sinful history, there’s no way we’ll fall for that again.

We’re seeing the big difference between sin, selfishness, and fear…and the perfect, loving way of God.

But even after we grasp this…what about right now? We’re still living in this sinful world fraught with pain. What can we do in the meantime? What hope do we have for the present day?

How do we find hope in the middle of suffering?

Even with the understanding that sin and suffering will one day end, the Bible doesn’t teach us to gloss over or ignore our pain. Rather, it gives us room to struggle, to grieve, to question. It shows us a God who suffers with us, empathizing with what we’re going through. And finally, it offers us hope for a better world to come.

Humans weren’t made to suffer. When suffering slams us in the face and pushes us down, we question it. Why the car accident? Why the ugly divorce? Why the crippling anxiety?

The way we feel toward suffering reminds us that we weren’t meant for a world like this. We were meant for something so much better.

But until then, how do we find the strength to get through today?

It’s okay to struggle

If you’re facing a difficult situation and feeling frustrated and broken, first acknowledge what you’re going through and how difficult it is. There’s no guilt or shame in wrestling with your situation and asking the hard questions.

Job, a God-following man who experienced the devil’s attacks on his life, did just that.

After losing his livestock and livelihood to raiders, losing his children to natural disasters, and coming down with a horrific skin condition, Job didn’t know what to think. All he could do was cry out to God, feeling helpless and angry (Job 1-2).

Many chapters in the Old Testament book of Job record the way he questioned, cried out to God, and wrestled with the seeming hopelessness of his situation. And that can be a comfort to us: It’s okay to grieve the suffering we’re in.

In fact, it’s good and right to grieve these things. Our grief is a way of recognizing the injustice and unfairness of sin and longing for the good God wants to give us.

Jesus Himself grieved. He gave us an example of what to do in suffering. While in Gethsemane and on the Cross, He cried out to God and was open and honest about His pain (Mark 14:32-36; Matthew 27:46).

God suffers with us

God doesn’t watch us suffer from afar, the way you might turn on the TV and watch a catastrophe unfolding in a far-off country. Instead, He’s right there with us, feeling our pain.

This was the case with the people of Israel, as Isaiah 63:9 tells us:

“In all their affliction, He was afflicted” (ESV).

What’s more, Jesus Christ also came to this earth to suffer for us. He became a human to go through the same pain, struggles, and temptations we face and affirm that there is a way out (Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:14-16).

He knows what it’s like to go through:

• Deprivation
• Abuse
• Prejudice
• Pain
• Betrayal
• Rejection

Just to name a few.

He experienced all of that so that we could have even a small amount of comfort in the middle of our suffering and hope for a better future. God wants so much good for us—and the suffering of Jesus is evidence of that:

“He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32, ESV).

And ultimately, when He died on the Cross and experienced the fullness of separation from the rest of the Trinity…He did that so we don’t have to. Instead, we can accept His sacrifice with our own free will, and be changed and cleansed for eternity when He returns at the Second Coming.

Suffering will come to an end

Jesus’ suffering on the Cross and His victory over death assures us that we don’t have to live in a world of suffering forever.

Rather, we are living in a world that will eventually lead to “the best possible world,” as Renner put it.

Revelation 21 paints a picture of this world of perfect harmony, peace, and love. In it, God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4, ESV).

When will we be able to access this world?

Revelation 20 and 21 show us that after the complete destruction of sin, evil, and wickedness on this earth, God will recreate the earth. It will be like Eden all over again.

Only better.

This time, everyone on earth will have so clearly seen the results of sin and Satan’s ideas that no one will desire any other way than the way of love. Evil will not rise up again (Nahum 1:9).

The apostle Paul, who himself faced many challenges—persecution, rejection, beatings, imprisonment, a personal struggle (possibly blindness), a shipwreck, and more—reminds us:

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, ESV).

That’s truly a hope to hold onto.

Finding meaning through suffering

Suffering is one of those parts of life that we’d much rather avoid, and when it hits us, we’re quick to question, to cry out, to seek answers.

The Scriptures acknowledge our pain and grief rather than minimizing them. It empathizes with the harsh realities of a sinful world, helping us to see that sin is no more God’s desire than it is ours. And yet, for love to exist, God had to take the risk of giving us freedom.

And the Bible goes beyond just explaining where suffering comes from. It shows us that God loves us so much and suffers for and with us.

With this perspective, we can find meaning and hope even while we are suffering. Pastor Ty Gibson, MDiv, offers this perspective:

“If we begin with a resting premise of faith that God exists and God is love, then we can legitimately:

• long for and expect the triumph of good over evil,
• hate the evil that confronts us,
• throw our own volitional weight into that ultimate triumph,
• validate the pain and rage of those that suffer,
• and rest in the assurance that all will be made right in the end.”³

We don’t have to like what we’re facing, and no one is expecting us to. Instead, we can see it as a reminder that we were made for a better world. A better world that is coming soon.