Chapter 7

Pain and Suffering

Unlocking Truth tackles one of humanity's most profound questions: If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why does evil and suffering persist in our world? This comprehensive exploration offers both intellectual rigor and pastoral wisdom, presenting a compelling case for how Christianity uniquely addresses the problem of evil while challenging skeptical assumptions about faith and suffering.

The Problem of Evil: A Universal Challenge

The book begins by acknowledging that evil and suffering challenge all worldviews, not just religious ones. While atheists recognize evil's existence, they struggle to explain its origin and persistence within a purely materialistic framework. The author argues that without God, there can be no objective morality—humans become mere biological machines, and moral conclusions are simply random byproducts of natural forces. This creates what Francis Schaeffer called the "Two-Story Universe," where atheists make philosophical leaps toward moral concepts that actually align more with a theistic worldview.

Christianity's Unique Response

Unlocking Truth represents Christianity's distinctive approach to understanding evil and suffering. Rather than viewing evil as an independent force, Christianity sees it as a corruption of good—like tooth decay requiring healthy teeth to exist. The book explains how God created humans with free will, which necessarily allows for both good and evil choices. Sin, defined as acting against God's will, becomes the root of all evil and suffering.

The author draws on C.S. Lewis's journey to faith, noting how recognizing injustice presupposes an objective standard of justice, ultimately pointing toward God's existence. Christianity asserts that the very presence of evil actually points toward God, as He provides the moral standard by which we recognize injustice.

Intellectual Foundations

The book addresses both the logical and evidential problems of evil with sophisticated philosophical reasoning. It explores Plantinga's Free Will Defense, arguing that God's existence is not logically inconsistent with evil. A world with free moral agents choosing between good and evil is more valuable than one without genuine freedom. The possibility of moral error is necessary for authentic choice and love.

Moving beyond logical arguments, the book examines the evidential challenge—whether the extent of suffering makes God's existence improbable. The author responds by highlighting human understanding's limitations, encouraging readers to consider broader evidence for God's existence including arguments from morality, cosmology, fine-tuning, and the resurrection.

The Meaning and Purpose of Suffering

Unlocking Truth argues that suffering serves profound purposes in God's design. It allows for the development of virtues like love, courage, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice—qualities that require adversity to exist. The book contrasts atheistic perspectives, which see suffering as merely a byproduct of an indifferent universe, with Christianity's view that suffering has meaning and serves God's greater purposes.

The author explores how suffering can serve as a wake-up call, drawing people back to God and fostering spiritual growth. Historical figures from Rūmī to Elisabeth Elliot found profound inspiration in suffering, demonstrating its transformative power. The book warns against the spiritual dangers of comfort and prosperity, which can foster self-sufficiency and complacency.

God's Personal Response

Perhaps most powerfully, Unlocking Truth emphasizes that Christianity offers more than intellectual explanations—it presents a God who entered human suffering through Jesus Christ. Jesus' life and sacrifice demonstrate that God is not indifferent to suffering but intimately acquainted with it. Christianity promises ultimate restoration and redemption, emphasizing love, empathy, and presence over mere intellectual explanations.

A Challenge to Skeptics

The book concludes by challenging skeptics to consider that rejecting God due to suffering doesn't resolve the problem—it remains a reality regardless of our beliefs. If Christianity is true, suffering is not unexpected but part of a larger narrative of redemption and hope. The author presents suffering not as evidence against God's existence, but rather as a pointer to the need for divine redemption and an eternal perspective.

Unlocking Truth offers both believers and skeptics a thoughtful, compassionate examination of life's most difficult questions, providing intellectual substance while maintaining pastoral sensitivity to human pain and doubt.

Points to Ponder

– A detailed discussion is presented in Chapter 7 of the book.

1. Tragedy can disrupt the very foundations of our worldview
2. Which worldview offers the most rational and emotionally fulfilling explanation for the reality of evil?
3. Christianity argues that evil, rather than disproving God, ultimately points toward Him.
4. To disprove God logically, one would have to prove two impossibilities: that true freedom cannot exist and that God could have no good reason for suffering.
5. The balance of cumulative evidence for God favors the existence of an all-loving, all-knowing God, even amid the presence of evil.
6. While God exists necessarily, evil is dependent on good for its existence, defined entirely by its departure from the perfection and order inherent in God.
7. Augustine affirms both divine goodness and human responsibility for evil.
8. God created an unstable world to make freedom and creativity possible.
9. God allows suffering because, as a perfect being, He would create a world that maximizes the greatest possible good.
   
10. People tend to search for God in times of adversity, while those enjoying great comfort and wealth often shake their fist at Him in defiance.
11. Although suffering can serve a greater divine purpose, it should not be mistaken as inherently good.
12. Suffering can drive you like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.