All Verses are from the ESV, English Standard Version.
Almost every American has wrestled with and questioned the correlation between a loving God that is all powerful and the existence of pain. When we ask this question, we aren't judging the veracity of every religion. We are questioning the Judeo-Christian God. The idea of a loving God is unique to Jadaism and Christianity. Most religions don't have a god in the first place. They have multiple gods, or everything is "god" or one spirit, or everything is an illusion, and so on. So, we are judging the Bible. So, let's see what the Bible has to say about suffering. You can't pick and choose to believe only some parts or others.
What you will see below is that suffering is prolific throughout the Bible. Pick a major character in the Bible and read their story. You will find great suffering. Most of the commands in the Bible revolve around suffering. The Bible says to have courage, to be patient, to persevere. All of those wonderful characteristics exist only in the face of suffering. Courage is being able to overcome your fear. Fear is tied to suffering. Patience is when we suffer through the frustration of waiting with grace. Persevere. We do not persevere through things that we love. I don't persevere through eating steak. I love it. No. I persevere through pain of being wrongly accused, or of being sick.
So, if we are going to judge the Bible based on what it says, perhaps we should look at the evidence. Here are some handpicked verses to show that pain and suffering is a part of God's plan (like it or not). None of them explain why God allows pain. But, we know one thing, and that is that He doesn't allow pain because He doesn't love us. We know this because the God of the Bible lowered Himself to become a man, live the life we couldn't, then SUFFERED more than any of us can imagine when he took all of God's wrath on himself so that you wouldn't have to.
Romans 8:18-30
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
We see here that Paul talks about how fallen this world is. He gives the metaphor of creation groaning for redemption.
Job 3:6-16
6 That night--let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.
8 Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 "Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?
Job is huge in talking about depression with Christians. Many Christians will look at depression and will charge that depression is due to sin. Well, of course it is, all suffering is, but in a general way. There is now no condemnation... right? Here we have Job, a man who was blameless in the sight of God, yet he was allowed to suffer massively. His friends made the same mistake, assuming that he had wronged God when he had not. We also see this line of thinking in...
Luke 13:1-5
1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2 And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?
3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?
5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Here we see Jesus responding to the false notion that the fate of the Galileans who suffered so horrible a death were somehow worse sinners, and that is why they suffered so. Same with those who died from the tower of Siloam. Jesus rebuffs this idea by assuring them that they are no better, that all need to repent. How twisted is that we could see someone who is suffering and make it worse for them by assuming we are better than them?
Psalm 88
1 O LORD, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
Psalm 69
1 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. 3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
4 More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore?
5 O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
6 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.
7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons.
9 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. 10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
12 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.
15 Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
17 Hide not your face from your servant; for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
18 Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies!
19 You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you.
20 Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
22 Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually.
24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.
25 May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. 27 Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
29 But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high!
30 I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This will please the LORD more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.
32 When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
33 For the LORD hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.
34 Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
35 For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it;
36 the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.
2 Corinthians 1:3-11
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
