When Everything Hurts

Nobody picks up a theology book in the middle of a crisis. Most of us don't wrestle with pain in a library - we meet it in emergency rooms, at kitchen tables stacked with bills, or in the quiet of a bedroom where sleep won't come. So if you're asking why evil exists, you're probably not just being philosophical. Something real happened. And you deserve a real answer.

The Question That Won't Go Away

The problem of evil is one of the oldest challenges to faith. It boils down to the apparent contradiction between three statements that many believers hold to be true: God is good, God is omnipotent, and there is much evil in the world. If all three are true at once, how do we make sense of cancer, war, grief, and abuse?

"The problem of evil" appeals to the phenomenon of evil as evidence against the existence of God. For many, this evidence appears decisive, because if God existed, he would be powerful enough to prevent such evil, and good enough to want to prevent such evil. Since there is evil, no such powerful and good being exists. That's the argument, stated plainly.

Theologians call the attempt to answer this question theodicy, a word that comes from the Greek theos (God) and dikē (justice). Theodicy is the explanation of why a perfectly good, almighty, and all-knowing God permits evil. It literally means "justifying God." And it's been debated for two thousand years.

Why Does Evil Exist? The Main Answers

Christianity doesn't offer one single tidy explanation. It offers several, and they each capture something true.

1. The Free Will Defense. God gave humanity genuine freedom. God is omnipotent, meaning He has the power to do anything, and He is good, meaning He always prefers good over evil, so if evil exists it is because He made an intentional choice to allow it. Real love requires real choice. A world of robots who can't choose evil is also a world of robots who can't truly love.

2. The Consequence of the Fall. The Bible is clear that suffering is not part of God's original creation. In Genesis 1 - 2, God declares His creation "very good." There is no death, no pain, no sorrow. Humanity lives in perfect fellowship with God, in a world marked by order, goodness, and life. That changed in Genesis 3. Before the fall of mankind there was no death, pain, or suffering, but Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and because of that, sin came into the world. The reality of sin is the reason we see so much suffering and heartache in the world today.

3. Soul-Making and Growth. Natural evils can cultivate virtues through hardship. Hardships are insignificant compared to the rewards of the afterlife, preparing individuals through moral training and maturation. The Irenaean theodicy (from the 2nd-century bishop Irenaeus) argues that humans aren't born perfect. We grow into goodness, and struggle is part of that growth.

4. Divine Mystery. God may very well have a good reason for allowing the evil he does allow, a reason compatible with his holy and good character. The fact that unbelievers may not be able to discern or correctly guess at God's justifying reason for allowing evil is no good reason to think he doesn't have a reason.

None of these answers fully satisfies every case of suffering. Christians must also acknowledge mystery in the problem of evil, recognizing that God's reasons for permitting evil are beyond human understanding. And that's okay. Honesty about what we don't know is its own kind of faith.

Job, Paul, and the People Who Lived It

The Bible doesn't just theorize about suffering. It shows us people drowning in it.

Job lost everything - children, health, wealth - in rapid succession. He cried out. He demanded answers. He got none, not really. What he got was a direct encounter with God in Job 38 - 40, where God essentially asks: "Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Job never learned the hidden counsels of God, yet encountered the One who holds creation together.

The Psalms are full of lament too. Psalm 22 opens with the words Jesus would later quote from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That's not a verse of calm resignation. That's raw, honest pain directed straight at God.

In his epistle to the Romans, Paul speaks of the transformative power of suffering, stating that it produces perseverance, character, and ultimately, hope. This progression underscores the redemptive potential in hardship, suggesting that trials can lead to spiritual growth and a more profound understanding of divine love.

Paul's own life, marked by numerous trials and imprisonments, serves as a testament to this enduring hope. He wasn't writing from a comfortable armchair. He was writing from prison.

God Didn't Stay at a Distance

Here's what separates the Christian view of suffering from almost every other religious or philosophical framework: God got into the mess.

The Christian God takes on human flesh, lives a life unshielded from pain and suffering with us, offers Himself as the payment for human evil, and conquers the consequence of evil, which is death, through bodily resurrection. Jesus didn't send a memo from heaven. He came here.

Christianity is unique in that it faces suffering head on, speaks directly to it, and binds it into the process of salvation. The cross isn't a PR problem for Christianity. It's the answer.

God's response to suffering is not distance but presence. When we pray, we are not composing essays for heaven; we are placing our lives into hands marked by nails. While we might not receive every answer we want, we are not abandoned in the questions.

Where Hope Actually Comes From

Hope isn't wishful thinking. In the Bible, hope is a confident expectation based on what God has already done.

While suffering can be a result of sin, all creation, even the righteous, will groan under the weight of sin and suffering. Only in heaven is there no pain, death or grief. That groaning matters. It tells us we're not wrong to feel that something is broken. The world is broken.

But Romans 8:28 says something stunning: "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." He is moving in our lives - even in the suffering, even in the temptation, and in the very middle of our sin.

And the story ends somewhere very specific. What we suffer now will be outweighed to a ludicrous degree by the age to come and the joy of a new creation with Christ. Faithfulness will be rewarded.

Sometimes, God uses suffering to bring you closer to Him. He can also use it to increase your faith or refine your character. Often, He uses it to increase your compassion and ability to care for others who are suffering.

There's something almost counterintuitive about that. The people who've suffered deeply often become the most capable of comforting others. They're not soft platitude-dispensers. They know.

The question "why does evil exist?" may never get a complete answer on this side of eternity. But Scripture gives us something better than an answer. One of the most difficult, yet essential, truths the Bible teaches is that suffering is not outside of God's control. The God who rules over suffering is the same God who redeems it.

That's not a philosophy. That's a promise.