If there is a God: The Problem of Human Suffering

Bart Ehrman, the man who lost his faith

Dr. Bart D. Ehrman is a New Testament scholar with a Ph.D. He has written or edited thirty-four books. His books include the six New York Times bestsellers: Misquoting Jesus, God’s Problem, Jesus Interrupted, How Jesus Became God, Forged, and The Triumph of Christianity. His books are much in demand in theological circles. If you have read his earlier books, you'd know and appreciate his excellent insight into the Bible and the history of the Christian Church.

So, why did he become an agnostic atheist? He couldn't understand why the loving God, the Almighty God, with whom nothing is impossible, allows so much evil and suffering in the world. He wrote the book "God's Problem" in which he challenges the contradictory biblical explanations for why an all-powerful God allows us to suffer.

If we doubt the Sovereign God and his word, it's our problem for not trusting the all-knowing God. It's not God's problem.

Something is wrong with the world

One doesn’t have to be a great Bible scholar or highly educated or a great thinker to understand that something is wrong with the world. Look around you, the answer may be nearer to you than you thought. The world is ravaged by problems and suffering of all sorts. These are not confined to mankind alone but even nature. Nature is indeed beautiful but not free from the contamination of sin. The calm rivers can become devastating floods. A volcano can suddenly erupt and destroy whole towns with everyone living there. Earthquakes can cause widespread havoc, leading to death and destruction. Cyclones can ransack towns, farms, and kill both man and animals.

The big questions of ‘Why?’

The most common questions often asked to debunk the existence of God are,

“If there is a God, why is he not doing anything about all the human suffering in the world?”

“Is God sadistic? Watching without any emotion at what is happening?”

“How can we say there is a loving God when he allows killing, murder, and lets innocent little children die in wars, disease, or hunger?”

The Cause behind the Effects

Our worldly problems, trials, and difficulties do not mean there is no God. A person becomes ill because something is making him or her sick. Something is terribly wrong with the world. Think logically, there must be a cause behind the effects.

Action and reaction go hand in hand. Through the disobedience of Adam, sin entered man and our relation with God was severed. This is the original sin. Besides this, we have a tendency to commit sins. These are personal sins, which are in fact the influence of the original sin.

We are sinners living in a fallen world. Hunger and poverty, personal and social problems, wars and strife, natural disasters and calamities, sickness and death, will always be there with us until the Second Coming of Christ.

Physical and Spiritual Death

Of all personal, community, national, or global problems, sin is our greatest problem. It has corrupted the entire universe. Physical death is inevitable. It will come sooner or later. Worse than physical death is spiritual death, which is eternal separation from God.

The Assurance of Faith

In conclusion, faith is the key. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. And by grace through faith in him we can have eternal life…. reconciled and united with God.

Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

Romans 8:18 “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Faith gives us convictions about creation. Belief in the existence of the world is not faith, nor is it faith when people hold that the world was made out of some preexisting “stuff.” But when we understand that it was the word of God that produced all things, that is faith.

The visible universe is not sufficient to account for itself. But it is faith, not something material, that assures us that it originated with God. This world is God’s world, and faith assures us that God originated it. Further, nothing is permanent in this troubled and chaotic world. Everything in this world is temporary. We don’t have a permanent residence in this world.  “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). But it is faith that enables us to see a glimpse of heaven. By faith, we are assured of our invisible, permanent, and eternal home. Therein lies our hope and our joy.

Selie Visa