Life’s Puzzling Question: Why Do We Suffer? (2)

Satan: Source of Suffering
God didn’t create the Universe to be what someone has called the ‘chamber of horrors’. Everything has been carefully designed, down to the minutest details. There’s no any sort of ‘defect’ in God’s creation. As would be expected of a perfect God’s handiwork, the cosmos bears all the hallmarks of perfection and purpose.

For example, scientists tell us that our planet is habitable, thanks to its atmosphere. Within the stratosphere is ozone, a trioxygen, which, together with Earth’s magnetic field, blocks out the cancer-causing radiation emanating from the Sun. It also shields us from meteors which could have otherwise reached us here, wreaking havoc.

Our atmosphere is made up of gases mixed in exact proportions required to sustain life—78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.03% carbon dioxide and 0.97% other gases. Oxygen, as we all know, is vital to animal life, so its percentage by volume of air is important to all non-plant life. However, if its volume should increase to 24%, oxygen would be causing frequent fire outbreaks difficult to bring under control.

The nitrogen component of our atmosphere isn’t put there for the fun of it. It dilutes the oxygen in the air and acts as fertilizer. Every day, lightning bolts combine oxygen and nitrogen together to yield a compound which is then washed down by rain, where it enriches the soil.

The carbon dioxide in the air is utilized by green plants during photosynthesis. Green plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen which is needed by humans and animals. Thus animal life and plant life sustain each other.

Earth’s atmosphere didn’t evolve by mere chance—God personally put every thing in place for us to enjoy a perfect earthly home. His great plan has always been to see us live in an earthly paradise totally devoid of pain and suffering. In fact, Genesis 1:31 reveals that everything God had made was good.

But Satan has chosen to cause suffering in our world. Ever since he was sent out of Heaven, Satan and his demons have been causing us humans anguish. Jesus described him as ‘the evil’ (John 17:15). In 1 John 5:19, Satan is called ‘the wicked one’, under whose sway the whole world lies. His desire is to ‘sift [us] as wheat’ (Luke 22:31), that is, destroy us.

The Bible depicts Satan as the instigator of Job’s calamity. While walking this planet, Jesus went about doing good, delivering ‘all who were oppressed by the devil’ (Acts 10:38). Two classic examples of such deliverance are the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20) and the healing of a woman ‘whom Satan has bound for eighteen years’ (Luke 13:16).

The Power of Choice
Free will is one of God’s greatest gifts to us humans. This gift distinguishes us from and sets us above other earthly creatures. Without free will, we’d be human robots, programmed to obey every command. A force outside ourselves would have been in charge of our lives.

Human beings are unlike animals which are largely driven by instincts. God has created us with the capacity to make choices. He wants us to be responsible for whatever happens to us. ‘I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live’ (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Sadly, we’ve always abused every of God’s gift to us—free will inclusive. We make wrong choices and not properly informed ones. We choose to tread the path of destruction instead of the path of life. All the wrong decisions we make in life inevitably fetch grave consequences.

Take the case of a teenager who hits the road at dawn, after an all-night party. Suddenly, his car hurtles off the roadway and makes a head-on collision with a parked double decker. He never makes it out of the car alive. The police blames the crash on drunk driving, since the guy’s lifeless body reeks of alcohol. Apparently, the deceased has started off homewards after having a booze.

Do we blame God for the incident above? It would be most unfair to do so. The teenager reaps the fruit of his action. Remember, every individual will reap whatever they sow (Galatians 6:7-8).

An End to Suffering
Obviously, not all sufferings can be blamed on Satan and free will. We even wonder why God doesn’t stop Satan and those who hurt others in the exercise of their free will. Is He powerless to do so? Perhaps we may never be able to solve this puzzle.

Here’s the good news: the Bible speaks of a new world where suffering in any form will be unheard of. (Revelation 21:1-27). In this coming world, humans will live above death, sickness, crime, poverty, disasters, political turmoil, and any thing that causes suffering. Let’s labour to become citizens of this ‘new Jerusalem’.

Life’s Puzzling Question: Why Do We Suffer?

Suppose a superhuman should produce an encyclopaedia of all disasters in history. Imagine the size and number of the volumes that would be produced! Flipping through the work, you surely would read about the disastrous events below.

The Great Lisbon Earthquake
On Saturday 1 November 1755, a deadly earthquake struck Lisbon, Portugal. The seismic disaster is now known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake. Seismologists today believe that the Lisbon earthquake
approached 9.0 in magnitude, since shocks from it were felt in North Africa and in as far away as Finland. Famous buildings, libraries and palaces were wrecked by the earthquake, and heavy loss of life
recorded.

A combination of tsunami and fire followed the earthquake. The tsunami swept across and damaged several coastal towns in Portugal, Spain and Morocco. Away from the Portugese coast, fires raged on for five days, shattering several more buildings. A fire even gutted the country’s largest public hospital at the time, killing hundreds of patients. All deaths arising from the earthquake and the resulting tsunami and fire reached 100,000. It was indeed a dark All Saints Day.

The Holocaust
WW2 is certainly one of the darkest chapters in human history. During this period, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Germany carried out a systematic massacre of the Jews residing in Europe. Approximately 6 million Jews (including children and women) were killed in airtight gas chambers and at various concentration camps across that continent. Recent estimates have shown that the Nazi regime also murdered more than 10 million civilians, disabled persons and prisoners of war. Even so, it’s very difficult for the 21st-century mind to grasp fully the enormity of Hitler’s iniquities.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy
On the night of 2 December 1984, at the Union Carbide India Limited plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, water entered a storage tank containing tons of methyl isocyanate. This initiated a runaway reaction, releasing large volumes of toxic gases into the atmosphere. The gases were quickly blown over a densely populated area near the chemical plant. Several mass funerals and mass cremations were conducted on the next day. Some 2,000 bloated animal carcasses had to be disposed of.

There were mass evacuations; food supply dropped, as fish were declared unfit for consumption. Stillbirth rate rose sharply, and thousands suffered brief or permanent disabling ailments. It’s claimed today that 16,000 people were killed in that unfortunate incident, which is regarded as the worst of all industrial disasters ever.

The Big Smoke
In 1952, a dense layer of fog blanketed London. No, this wasn’t like the ‘pea souper’, to which Britain had been accustomed. The fog which descended upon the capital city on 5 December cleared off on the 9th, but only after claiming 4,000 lives.

The Big Question
Now, the inevitable question is why do calamitous events happen? Every rational mind has asked that question at one time or another. When tragedy strikes, when a loved one dies, when some raving lunatic goes on a shooting rampage, we’re shocked and then ask ‘Why?’ We just can’t figure out why a loving and an all-powerful God would allow suffering.

Asking the why-question isn’t a 3rd millenium concept; people from time immemorial have always asked that sort of question. Job is described in the Bible as being ‘perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil’. Yet, Job’s fine qualities couldn’t shield him from trouble. He lost his children, wealth, and health. In his hours of misery, Job asked in chapter 3, verse 20 to 23:

‘Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?’

Similarly, the Prophet Habakkuk asked why injustice, bloodshed, violence and such other wicked acts abounded in the land where he dwelt. And he did direct his question to God! In chapter 1 verse 3 of the book that bears his name, Habakkuk queries the LORD:

‘Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.’

Sadly, no human being has satisfying answers to all the puzzling whys in this life. And surely like Adams tells Lana in ‘Smallville (season 3, episode 16)’, ‘If I had the answer to half the whys in this [world], I’d have a bestseller on my hands’. The Bible does however explain why bad things happen to us. It shows that suffering is caused by Satan and
mankind’s misuse of freewill.

Rest for your Soul

Have you lost a loved one in death? Have you been incapacitated by sickness, housebound or bedridden? Are your nights filled with misery, devoid of happiness? Are you locked in the abyss of poverty?

Is divorce threatening to pull down the wall of your marriage? Are you a victim of racial discrimination or rape? Is there a void in your life?

Perhaps life seems cruel and unfair to you. You wonder why you’re going through a dark chapter. You’ve got many puzzling questions but few or no satisfactory answers.

I don’t have answers to your questions, but I do know someone who does. His name’s Jesus. Jesus has an answer to every question, solution to every problem. In His right hand is the key which unlocks all doors. Jesus wants to give rest to your soul.

‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ ―Matthew 11:28, RSV

Jesus is the best friend you could ever share your burden with. He alone can heal your wounds. He alone can give to your troubled soul the kind of rest found nowhere else. Will you come to Him now?