The Problem of Pain

“…the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together unto now —Romans 8:22

A preacher was sitting on a park bench reading his Bible when an atheist sat down beside him and simply said, “I don’t believe in God.”

The preacher answered, “Really. Well, tell me what the God you don’t believe in is like.”

“What do you mean. I don’t believe in God.”

“Yes” the preacher continued, “but you must have some concept of what the God you reject is supposed to be like. How can you reject what you cannot describe?”

The atheist saw his point. “I don’t believe in a God way up there in heaven while there’s all this pain down here on earth. He could stop it all but he doesn’t do a thing. He’s supposed to be all loving but he obviously doesn’t care about anybody but himself. That’s the God I don’t believe in.”

“That’s good” says the preacher. “I wouldn’t believe in that kind of God either. The God I believe in is nothing like that at all.  He has done something about what causes all the pain here on earth. The cause of pain and suffering is sin.  Because God loves us, He sent His only begotten Son to die for the sins of the world. When He returns He will put an end to all the pain on earth.”

We cannot blame God for the existence of pain.  Much of the pain we experience we bring upon ourselves because we choose to go contrary to the ways of God. Thank God, there is coming a day when “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4).