God, Satan, and Suffering # 1

I have been reading a lot of Dietrich Bonhoeffer lately and my attention has been turned to the problem of suffering in the world. Perhaps it is because suffering is a major theme in Bonhoeffer's work; he proclaimed a Christian life that embraces suffering for the cause of Christ. His adult life consisted in much suffering as he faced Nazi persecution and time in a concentration camp where he was hanged. His work, I believe, is very relevant to today's American Christian, not because we face suffering, but because we do not. Our Christian life is comfortable and easy. We do not face persecution like many in other countries do. Rather, we live our lives happily in our multi-million dollar churches, driving our new cars, wearing our Christian T-shirts, listening to preachers tell us that it is God's will for us to have material success and to live a happy and comfortable life. While I could delve into that subject, my purpose today is to address a certain idea (heresy?) that I came across yesterday evening.

I was surfing around youtube watching some John Piper and Paul Washer videos. My attention turned to suffering, as I still had Dietrich Bonhoeffer on my mind and I thought I would watch some videos on that subject. Not wanting to be one-sided, I looked up some videos done by a well-known pastor who has a huge church in the Redding area. What I heard from him on the problem of suffering sounded great in my head, but ran in direct contradiction with scripture. His argument followed as such: "God is good, Satan is bad. Cancer is bad, therefore, Satan causes cancer." He went on to explain how it is always God's will that we do not have any sickness in our lives. That God never allows sickness into our lives so that we may grow in Him and provide sympathy and support to others. All problems we have stem from Satan, and if we are truly Christians, we'll have a life free from suffering.

This is not the first time I have heard this argument. I have heard it many times before from his followers. They have made claims such as, "I would never make one of my kids suffer in order to teach them something, that's child abuse. The standards I have for what is good, I need to apply that to God, because God is good." This sounds very nice at first, but it does not line up with scripture. When we look at this theory closely, we see that it strips God of His sovereignty.

The first problem I would like to point out in this post is with the first premise that Satan is the cause of all of our problems. I would like to point out that we live in a fallen world where death and sickness is a reality for human beings. Ever since man was removed from the Garden of Eden and lost access to the Tree of Life, he has been cursed with death and disease that he did not have before. We live in a world of suffering that is awaiting the time when God will restore it completely and do away with human suffering. In the meantime, we will get sick and get injured. This is where the controversy starts. If God is good, then he cannot allow us to suffer. He wants us to be happy. This is a really great idea that is popular in countries like America that have no suffering. However, Christianity means embracing suffering as discipline from God (note I said discipline, not punishment. Discipline means training.). Lets look at what the Bible says...

Job 1-2: Satan comes into God's presence and God asks him if he has "considered My servant Job?" Satan then proceeds to torment Job, but only doing what God allows him to do. What is he argument here? God is in charge of our suffering (in this instance he initiated it). I is also interesting to note that at the end, when God finally answers Job, He does not say the reason for the suffering is Satan being bad, He simply says Job is merely a man, and God is in charge of what happens.

Matt. 5:10: "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Their is blessing in persecution and suffering.

2 Cor. 12: 7-10: Paul explains that he was given a "thorn in the flesh" to keep him from exalting himself. Whether this was physical or mental pain, he prayed three times to God that He might remove it. However, God tells him that "My Grace is sufficient for you" and that God is glorified through the sufferings of Paul. Did Paul not have enough faith? If it is God's will that we have no suffering and our healing is guaranteed, why did it not go away?

1 Peter 3:13-22, 4:1-2: Peter explains the role of suffering in the lives of Christians. He makes the argument that we are blessed in our sufferings because we are witnesses to Christ and his suffering. In 4:1, Peter even says that since Christ suffered, we should too, because it helps us to conquer our sin.

While the theology of material blessing, health and wealth is appealing to us comfortable Christians with itching ears, the Bible does not agree with that idea. So either the Bible is wrong and this new theology is right, or the theology is wrong and the Bible is right. I'll throw my lot in with the Bible. To say that it is not God's will for us to suffer so that we may share in the sufferings of Christ and grow closer to God as He guides us is wrong. I only quoted a couple verses on suffering, but would be happy to provide an extensive list. In my next post I shall explain how denying what the Bible says about God and suffering strips God of His sovereignty and leads to a shallow and insufficient faith.