Chapter 20-The Problem of Suffering

Chapter 20
The Problem Of
Suffering
Topic Outlines
• A. The Butterfly Story
• B. Why God Allows Pain and Suffering?
– B.1 Does God exist?
» B.1.1 The Story of a customer and a barber
– B.2. Pope John Paul II’s Answer to the Problem of Pain
» B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature
» B.2.2 Charity
» B.2.3Humility
» B.2.4 Transformation
» B.2.5 Punishment
» B.2.6 A Reason to Live
A. The Butterfly
Story
A. The Butterfly Story
• We all need to experience challenges and

difficulties in our lives.
• If God would allow us to live our lives without

obstacles, we would be weak.
(we could never gain the strength of character
he need us to have in order to succeed in life.)
A. The Butterfly Story
• Without pain, suffering, and challenges, we could never fly.

( These required for growing up)
• “ I asked for strength, and god gave me difficulties to make me

strong.”
• “I asked for courage, and God gave me obstacles to overcome.”
• “I asked for love, and God put people with problems in my

path for me to help.”
Christian Perspective:
B. Why does God allow pain and suffering?
1. Where do suffering and sorrow come from?
The Beginning of Suffering and Sorrow
2. Does God exist?

The story of a customer and a barber
3. Why does God allow pain and suffering?

» Pope John Paul II’s Answer to the Problem of
Pain
http://www.biblebelievers.com/jmelton/suffer.html
• There was a time on this earth when suffering

and sorrow did not exist.
• When God first created man upon the earth,

everything was perfect.
• (We also know that God created man with a free

will — giving Adam and Eve the ability to make
choices )
• There was no sickness, no pain, no sorrow of

any kind. ( Pain and suffering were not
present)
• It was God's plan for man to live in peace and
harmony never having to experience sorrow.
• But what happened ?

http://www.rforh.com/uncategorized/why-does-god-allow-pain-and-suffering/
• But sadly Adam And Eve chose to disobey

God and eat of the forbidden fruit.
• In doing so they broke the perfect communion
that they had with God and plunged the world
into sin and darkness.
• It was at this point that evil, sickness,
disease, and death entered the world — and
along with it pain and suffering. -
• According to Genesis chapter three, it wasn't until man chose the

way of Satan, rather than the way of God, that sorrow entered the
world.
• Man sins against God in Genesis 3:6-7, and God reveals to Adam
and Eve the consequences of sin in Genesis 3:16-19. God told
Adam and Eve that they would now
experience SORROW and DEATH.
• Therefore, the suffering and sorrow that you and I face today is
not the work of an unjust God; it's the consequences of sin. We
suffer because we are sinners. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of
sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord."
• You may probably say;

• "I didn't do anything wrong.
• Why am I a sinner?"
We are all born with a sin nature. We inherited our fallen sin
nature from Adam and Eve. Romans 5:12 says, "Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" We read in
Romans 3:23 that ALL HAVE SINNED and come short of the glory
of God. Why do we suffer? We suffer because we are sinners by
nature.
B. Why does God allow pain and suffering?
• Why do some innocent children suffer?
• Why must I suffer?
• Why are honest people persecuted?
• Does God really exist?
• Why does God allow pain and suffering?

Does God exist?
Is there evidence for the existence of God?"
http://www.gotquestions.org/Does-God-exist.html
• The existence of God cannot be proved or disproved.
• The Bible says that we must accept by faith the fact

that God exists:
• “And without faith it is impossible to please God,

because anyone who comes to Him must believe that
He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly
seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6)
Does God exist?
http://www.gotquestions.org/Does-God-exist.html
• If God so desired, He could simply appear and

prove to the whole world that He exists.
• But if He did that, there would be no need for

faith. “Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen
me, you have believed; blessed are those who have
not seen and yet have believed’” (John 20:29)
From The Story of a customer and a barber
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work,
they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When
they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said:
"I don't believe that God exists."
"Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that
God doesn't exist.
Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people?
Would there be abandoned children?
"Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that
God doesn't exist.
Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people?
Would there be abandoned children?
If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain.
I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things."
The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument.
The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a
man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard.
He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said
to the barber:
"You know what? Barbers do not exist."
"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber.
"I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!"
"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with
dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."
"Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me."
"Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist!
That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help.
That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."
BE BLESSED AND BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS!!!
Does God exist?
• It implies that God, Does exist!
• If we have faith and believe in God. We obey Him.

We personally hear the inner voice of God speaking
to our hearts. For those who listen, God becomes a
personal reality in their lives.
• If we go to Him and look to Him for help. Pain and

Suffering can be healed.
Does God exist?
https://philosophynow.org/issues/99/Does_God_Exist
• God can be personally experienced and known.

( The belief in God is for those who seek Him a properly
basic belief grounded in their experience of God. )
• The Bible promises, “Draw near to God and he will

draw near to you.” (James 4:8)
Does God exist?
Why does God allow pain and suffering?
http://www.gotquestions.org/innocent-suffer.html#ixzz3U9epIkb5
If God does exist, why do some innocent children

suffer?
No one is innocent in the sense of being sinless.

Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve rebelled
against God in the Garden of Eden, and mankind has
been in rebellion ever since. Sin’s effects permeate
everything, and the suffering we see all around us is
a direct result of that sin.
• God did not leave us here to suffer pointlessly.

• Our loving and merciful God has a perfect plan to use that
suffering to accomplish His threefold purpose:
– 1. God uses pain and suffering to draw us to

Himself so that we will cling to Him.
(It is in times of despair and sorrow that we reach out to Him,

and, if we are His children, we always find Him there waiting
to comfort and uphold us through it all. In this way, He
proves His faithfulness to us and ensures that we will stay
close to Him.)
– 2.God proves to us that our faith is real through the suffering

and pain that are inevitable in this life.
-How we respond to suffering is determined by the genuineness of our

faith.
-Those are the ones who do not shake their fists at God or question His
goodness, but instead “count it all joy” (James 1:2), knowing that trials
prove that they are truly the children of God.
- “Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because having been

approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised
to those who love Him” (James 1:12))
3. God uses suffering to take our eyes off this world

and put them on the next.
– The Bible continually exhorts us to not get caught up in the things of this
world, but to look forward to the world to come.
– This world and all that is in it will pass away, but the kingdom of God is
eternal. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), and
those who would follow Him must not see the things of this life, both good
and bad, as the end of the story.
– Even the sufferings we endure and which seem so terrible “are not worthy
to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
B.2 Pope John Paul II’s Answer to the Problem of Pain
– B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature

– B.2.2 Charity
– B.2.3Humility
– B.2.4 Transformation
– B.2.5 Punishment
– B.2.6 A Reason to Live
http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/a-pope%E2%80%99s-answer-
to-the-problem-of-pain
• He was in third grade when his mother died; his only sibling, an
older brother, died three years later; he discovered his father
dead on the floor in their apartment. Karol Wojtyla was an
orphan at twenty. Nor were his troubles were not limited to the
loss of his whole family. The Nazis overran his country, and he
did hard labor in a stone quarry. During the Nazi rule, many of
his friends were killed, some in concentration camps, others
shot by the Gestapo for the crime of studying for the
priesthood. He was run down by a German truck and nearly
died. When the Nazis finally left his beloved Poland, he and his
countrymen again came under the rule of a dictator when the
iron boot of Joseph Stalin replaced that of Adolf Hitler
http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/a-pope%E2%80%99s-answer-
to-the-problem-of-pain
• Later in life, his beloved Church was torn apart by the storm that
followed the Second Vatican Council. At sixty, an Islamic assassin
shot him in his own front yard, and he nearly died again. As an
old man, he suffered from debilitating Parkinson’s disease that
rendered him immobile, distorted his physical appearance, and
finally took his ability to speak. Pope John Paul II knew about
human suffering.
• Yet, as was evident to all who saw him, he was a man
overflowing with joy. He experienced the mystery of suffering
and the affliction endured by every single human person, but he
also discovered the meaning of suffering. He had found an
"answer" to the problem of pain.
http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/a-pope%E2%80%99s-answer-to-the-
problem-of-pain
• B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature
• ***Suffering is part of human existence from

birth until death.
• **** And every human person suffers in a

variety of ways: physically, psychologically,
socially, and spiritually.
problem-of-pain

• ***The Bible provides many examples:
– one’s own death,
– the danger of death,
– the death of children or friends,
– sterility, homesickness ,persecution , mockery, scorn,
loneliness, abandonment, remorse,
– watching the wicked prosper while the just suffer,
– the unfaithfulness of spouse and friends,
• and the misfortunes of one’s homeland (SD 6).
problem-of-pain

• ****Suffering in one form or another
accompanies each of us every day.
• *** It is an inescapable feature of human

existence.
problem-of-pain

• Suffering naturally leads to questioning.
– Why do I suffer?
– Why do others suffer?
– How can suffering be overcome?
-- Is there any meaning to suffering?
• To find an answer, John Paul turned to
revelation:
problem-of-pain
• B.2.1An Inescapable Feature

• In order to perceive the true answer to
the "why" of suffering, we must look to
the revelation of divine love, the
ultimate source of the meaning of
everything that exists.
problem-of-pain

• Christ causes us to enter into the mystery and
to discover the "why" of suffering, as far as we
are capable of gasping the sublimity of divine
love. In order to discover the profound
meaning of suffering . . . we must above all
accept the light of revelation. . . . Love is also
the fullest source of the answer to the
question of the meaning of suffering.
problem-of-pain

• For John Paul, the story of Jesus Christ is the story of humanity. Every human life
is a question, and it is the Lord who answers the question. Therefore we must
look to Christ to understand the meaning of suffering. But our understanding of
God is fragile and incomplete, because we are not capable of comprehending
pure love and goodness. It follows, then, that our understanding of suffering
cannot be definitive. This is especially true when we are dealing with suffering in
its subjective dimension. Words fall far short when we are undergoing suffering,
and reasoning cannot remedy the profound sense of the offensiveness of
suffering.
• In looking for an answer to the "problem of pain," the Pope avoided reducing
all suffering to a single justification but looked at various. aspects and meanings
of suffering. Reducing suffering to a single solution does not do justice to its
complexities.
problem-of-pain
• B.2.2 Charity-
• ***Sometimes suffering makes an important good
possible. If God eliminated that suffering, the
corresponding good also would be eliminated.
***(And allow us to see love in our heart)
We could say that suffering . . . is present in order to unleash love in the
human person, that unselfish gift of one’s "I" on behalf of other people,
especially those who suffer. The world of human suffering unceasingly
calls for, so to speak, another world: the world of human love; and in a
certain sense man owes to suffering that unselfish love that stirs in his
heart and actions. (SD 29)
problem-of-pain
• B.2.3 Humility
• ***Suffering can bring us closer to what is good and can

draw us away from obstacles to achieving happiness.
• Pain can prompt rehabilitation, a turning from evil to

embrace stronger relationships with others and with God
(SD 12).
(**** Allow us seek God and Stay Close to HIM)
problem-of-pain
• B.2.3 Humility
• ***Suffering breaks down that most
fundamental of human proclivities(a natural
inclination): our desire to be God.
• (*** Allow us to accept the reality that we
are= We are NOT God)
problem-of-pain
• B.2.3 Humility
• ( Allow us to accept the reality that we are. “ We are not God”)
• The atheistic existentialist Jean Paul Sartre wrote: "To be man is
to reach toward being God. Or, if you prefer, man fundamentally
is the desire to be God." The original sin of Adam and Eve was an
attempt to reorder the universe so they could determine what is
good and what is evil. This is replicated in every human sin. The
sinner orders the universe according to his own will and sets
aside the will of God. Suffering is redemptive in part because it
reveals to man that he is not God, rendering him more receptive
to the divine:
problem-of-pain
• B.2.3 Humility -
• To suffer means to become particularly susceptible,
particularly open to the working of the salvific powers of
God, offered to humanity in Christ.
• In him God has confirmed his desire to act especially through

suffering, which is man’s weakness and emptying of self,
and he wishes to make his power known precisely in this
weakness and emptying of self. (SD 23)
• Only when we are weak do many of us rely on God and

explicitly repudiate our own divine ambitions.
problem-of-pain
• B.2.3 Humility -
• (*** When something happens we unable to handle,
when we turn to God He will provide us what we need
to go through it. = Suffering Gives Opportunity To
Trust God, He will give us the comfort, peace, patience
and strength we need. =And God confirms the fact that
we are fragile (easily broken) beings.
• God is loving and merciful, kind and good, all-knowing
and perfect in all His ways. God never makes mistakes.)
• http://www.rforh.com/uncategorized/why-does-god-allow-pain-and-suffering /
problem-of-pain
• B.2.4. Transformation
• ***History provides many examples of sinners
transformed into saints through suffering.
• ****It may be that some suffering is permitted

by God as a way of waking someone from a
dream of self-sufficiency or illusory happiness.
Life-saving surgery is painful.
problem-of-pain
• B.2.4. Transformation
• ***Suffering there is concealed a particular power that draws a person
interiorly close to Christ,
• ****Such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, owe their

profound conversion.
• A result of such a conversion is not only that the individual discovers

the salvific meaning of suffering but above all that he becomes a
completely new person. He discovers a new dimension, as it were, of
his entire life and vocation. (SD 26)
• (Salvific=Having the intention or power to bring about salvation or

redemption)
problem-of-pain
• B.2.5 Punishment
• ***Often our sinful actions lead directly to painful
repercussions—
– the drinking binge leads to the hangover,
– unreasonable anger to injured relationships,
– laziness to lack of achievement.
*** Suffering can serve as punishment for wrongdoing,
a just retribution for personal sins.
• (Retribution=Punishment administered in return for a wrong
committed.)
problem-of-pain
• ***The friends of Job sought to universalize
this judgment, falsely concluding that all
suffering is the direct result of a person’s sin.
• If Job is punished, they reasoned, he must
have sinned against God. But the innocent do
suffer:
problem-of-pain
• **While it is true that suffering has a meaning as

punishment, when it is connected with a fault, it
is not true that all suffering is a consequence of
a fault and has the nature of a punishment. The
figure of the just man Job is a special proof of this
in the Old Testament. (SD 11)
• Suffering Comes With The Freedom To Choose
problem-of-pain
• B.2.6. A Reason to live

• Christ’s approach to the problem of pain is not an
intellectual answer to an academic puzzle.
• Not every problem is abstract, intellectual, or academic.
• Theodicy—reconciling the existence of an all-good God with

evil—can be tackled in this manner, but the problem of real
pain is concrete, experiential, and personal. Its resolution
does not come through words but through the Word alone.
problem-of-pain
• B.2.6. A Reason to live

• The author Victor Frankel in his book Man’s Search for Meaning
describes his horrifying experiences in Nazi concentration camps. He
notes that although all the prisoners were in the same material
circumstances—the most horrible imaginable—they did not all react
in the same way. Some prisoners killed themselves by walking into
electrified fences; others clung to life and even found joy despite the
atrocities occurring around them daily. What made the difference?
One way to put it is that man can endure anything if he has a reason
(logos) to live. Conversely, man can endure nothing if he does not.
• (Suffering allows us to reflect on our own endurance for a reason to
live)
Summary:
• 1. Suffering is part of human existence from birth
until death.
• 2.It is an inescapable feature of human existence.
• 3. We suffer because we are sinners by nature.
• BUT
• 4.Pain and suffering can be a blessing.

Summary:
• Because
• 5.Suffering makes an important good possible.
• 6.Suffering allows us to see unselfish love in our

hearts and actions.
• 7.Suffering can bring us closer to what is good and

can draw us away from obstacles to achieving
happiness.
Summary:
• 8.Pain can prompt rehabilitation, a turning from evil to
embrace stronger relationships with others and with God.
( This implies that pain/suffering allows us seek God and
Stay Close to HIM)
9.Suffering allow us to accept the reality that we are. We

are NOT God. We are fragile beings)
Summary:
10. Suffering Gives Opportunity To Trust God. He will give
us the comfort, peace, patience and strength we need.
11. Suffering is permitted by God as a way of waking

someone from a dream of self-sufficiency or illusory
happiness.
(To transform oneself successfully, To become a new
person eg, sinners to saints )
Summary:
• 12. Suffering can serve as punishment for
wrongdoing, a just retribution for personal
sins.
• However, it is not true that all suffering is
a consequence of a fault and has the
nature of a punishment. And it is true that
suffering has a meaning as punishment,
when it is connected with a fault.
Summary:
• 12. Suffering can serve as punishment for wrongdoing,
a just retribution for personal sins.
– 12.1Suffering Comes With The Freedom To Choose
• However, it is not true that all suffering is a

consequence of a fault and has the nature of a
punishment. And it is true that suffering has a
meaning as punishment, when it is connected with a
fault.
Summary:
• 13. Suffering allows us to reflect on our
own endurance for a reason to live.
Bibliography
• http://www.gotquestions.org/innocent-suffer.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTW2-r7dOeA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Spfp_DRVw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUeM8MbaIk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88ZQE_Kcfr0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Eo3C2u-dFE
• http://www.christianpost.com/news/lee-strobel-why-does-god-allow-pain-suffering-7120
1/
• http://www.biblebelievers.com/jmelton/suffer.html
• http://www.rforh.com/uncategorized/why-does-god-allow-pain-and-suffering/
• http://discoveryseries.org/ten-reasons/in-a-god-who-allows-suffering/
• http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2012/july-online-only/doesgodallowtragedy.html
• http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/sacraments/anointing-of-the-sick/st-p
aul-explains-the-meaning-of-suffering
/
• http://
www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/a-pope%E2%80%99s-answer-to-the-problem-of-p
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Chapter 20

• We all need to experience challenges and

• If God would allow us to live our lives without

• Without pain, suffering, and challenges, we could never fly.

• “ I asked for strength, and god gave me difficulties to make me

• “I asked for courage, and God gave me obstacles to overcome.”

• “I asked for love, and God put people with problems in my

2. Does God exist?

3. Why does God allow pain and suffering?

• There was a time on this earth when suffering

• When God first created man upon the earth,

• (We also know that God created man with a free

• There was no sickness, no pain, no sorrow of

• But what happened ?

• But sadly Adam And Eve chose to disobey

• According to Genesis chapter three, it wasn't until man chose the

• You may probably say;

• Why do some innocent children suffer?

• Why must I suffer?

• Why are honest people persecuted?

• Does God really exist?

• Why does God allow pain and suffering?

• The existence of God cannot be proved or disproved.

• The Bible says that we must accept by faith the fact

• “And without faith it is impossible to please God,

• If God so desired, He could simply appear and

• But if He did that, there would be no need for

• It implies that God, Does exist!

• If we have faith and believe in God. We obey Him.

• If we go to Him and look to Him for help. Pain and

• God can be personally experienced and known.

• The Bible promises, “Draw near to God and he will

If God does exist, why do some innocent children

No one is innocent in the sense of being sinless.

• God did not leave us here to suffer pointlessly.

– 1. God uses pain and suffering to draw us to

(It is in times of despair and sorrow that we reach out to Him,

– 2.God proves to us that our faith is real through the suffering

-How we respond to suffering is determined by the genuineness of our

- “Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because having been

3. God uses suffering to take our eyes off this world

– B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature

• B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature

• ***Suffering is part of human existence from

• **** And every human person suffers in a

• B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature

• B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature

• *** It is an inescapable feature of human

• B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature

• B.2.1An Inescapable Feature

• B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature

• B.2.1 An Inescapable Feature

• ***Suffering can bring us closer to what is good and can

• Pain can prompt rehabilitation, a turning from evil to

• In him God has confirmed his desire to act especially through

• Only when we are weak do many of us rely on God and

• ****It may be that some suffering is permitted