Pain and suffering and injustice in the world is an emotional and powerful and moving argument when you hear people make it, especially when it’s based on their own personal experience...I totally get it. I understand...the best I can...the emotion and the question in light of the awfulness.
The problem of pain and suffering and injustice in the world has been a problem for many in maintaining faith in God. Many people have stepped back from God because of their inability to reconcile a good and loving God with the pain and suffering and injustice in the world.
Some people leverage pain and suffering and injustice in the world to argue against God, or to argue against one’s personal relationship with God. They even commandeer other people’s pain and suffering and injustice to build a case against God.
But pain and suffering and injustice in the world...for many people...actually ends up being a path which leads to God. Extraordinary pain and suffering and injustice in the world often leads to extraordinary confidence in God. For many it’s a reminder that they actually need God.
Christianity has never made an argument for God’s existence or involvement based on a world where bad things never happen to good people. Jesus’ early followers paid dearly for their faith, they were treated incredibly unjustly, they were persecuted for believing something, many were tortured and killed, and yet they embraced God.
Pain and suffering and injustice in the world are not arguments against the existence of God; to me, they are evidence that we need God, that we need His grace, that we His need mercy.
