LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Suffering and Pain in the Christian Life

Submitted to Dr. Albert Letting, In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of

SEMI 500 B22

Introduction to Seminary Studies

by

Philip Mion January 22, 2015

Outline……………………………………………………………………………iii
Introduction………………………………………………………………………1

C . S . Lewis’ Influential Experiences with Pain and Suffering………………2 The Weight of Pain and Suffering………………………………..……….2

C. S. Lewis’ Theological Foundations on Why God is God?………………….4 Divine Goodness…………………………………………………………6 Human Pain………………………………………………………………8
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….……9
Bibliography………………………………………………………………….…11

”If God is so good and all loving, why does he allow pain and suffering to enter our worlds?” a question asked by many, believers and non-believers alike as to how God could allow people to suffer if He loves them. Naturally, the Bible has something to say about the subject. For example, in his book, James declares,”Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." After reading this particular scripture questions arise, such as:“who allows these trials?”;“where does it come from?” ; and “why should I be joyful?”
This paper will be exploring why suffering and pain are essential in the Christian walk in order to grow in our faith. Using the theological works of C. S. Lewis, I will argue we do not go through pain,suffering, and other trials as a punishment for committing sin. Instead ,because God is sovereign and good, He allows them into our lives for His divine purpose,. First, God allows pain and suffering in order to increase our spiritual maturity so that we can step into our calling and purpose with greater ease. Furthermore, I argue that God allows pain and suffering in order to prepare us for the work He wants to do in our lives.
Ultimately, God wants to use our lives and experiences as examples of His goodness towards us and others. The evidence found through this research will encourage fellow believers that, though we go through defeats and unexpected struggle we can ‘take heart’ because Jesus has overcome it all. Consequently, in the aftermath of trials and pain, God will use our mess and turn it into His greatest message, which, in turn, will impact people with whom we come into contact. Even C. S. Lewis would be the first to say that everything he went through, including the sudden death of wife, can have any believer questioning the meaning of it all. But as they gradually regain their bearings, believers come out stronger and with a deeper knowledge of God’s love. C . S . Lewis’ Influential Experiences On Pain and Suffering
When researching for this topic my goal was to prove that through trial comes perseverance. However, I did not intend to skim over hardship and pain of a trials as if they were not significant issues. Using the example of Lewis’ wife death , it is clear that dealing with pain and suffering is not a walk in the park. As such, before discussing the joy of the pain first look at and understand the pain and acknowledge that hardship it poses. A Grief Observed shows this by giving an intimate look at the process of pain, from beginning to end, through the eyes of C . S . Lewis.The first half of the book shows a man who, as one would expect, is raw, vulnerable, and ferociously angry after he tragic death of his second wife Joy Davidman Gresham, at the hands of cancer. However, as the book progresses it shows that, through this suffering the loss loved one, a strong and wise man of God who has questioned his faith in the God he so adamantly believed in, emerges. The weight of pain and suffering
When they go through unexpected trials, the majority of Christians forget how loving God is and turn their passion for Him into anger. Lewis explores this point when he explains that when we are happy, people sometimes lose this sense of needing God and we forget to give Him gratitude and praise. He explains that, as long as we call on Him, God is there with open arms always ready to receive us. However, at other points in the book, Lewis changes his tone and explains that when you go to God when you are desperate, sometimes all you will find is a door slammed in your face. These two opposite ideas show that the weight of unexpected trials can be exhausting to bear on our own. In Lewis’ case, he felt that weight of despair and, because of that weight, he felt pushed to question God. He just could not understand God during this time.
As a result, Lewis confesses not to feeling a loss of his faith in God, but of coming to believe awful untruths about him: that He is willing to hurt us, without cause or compassion, and that He is absent in our most dire times of need, despite the fact He is creator of the universe and ruler over the good. The stage, where most of us doubt beginning of perseverance. Jesus, who went through the greatest suffering of all, even questioned His own father when He hung on the cross for His final moments of life. Before Jesus dies he says,” My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?. This is the most beautiful example of human pain bringing the process of greater glory; the greatest joy of the world. See when the pain became too much Jesus had to question why this was happening? Like most people would do, but then right after that question was asked Jesus died and went to fulfill his destiny and sit at the right hand of His father. This example should be the ultimate evidence that yes suffering is a tough to endure but we can take joy knowing we will step into all God has for us when we do.

C . S . Lewis’ Theological Foundation on Why God Is Good Divine Omnipotence
In this book, Lewis also gives us an example of what he believes to be the problem of pain in its simplest form. He explains ‘If God were good, He would want to make sure his creatures were perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what he wanted. But you see the creatures are not happy. So this could mean a couple of different ideas.Either God lacks goodness, or power, both.’ Ultimately what Lewis is telling us is God is all powerful and all good but his creatures are not happy. Therefore, in order to understand the reason pain and suffering are in our lives we must discuss God’s Divine Omnipotence.
Omnipotence means power to do all, or everything. We know God is the creator of the universe, but sometimes we may doubt He is that powerful when we go through trials. In other words, a certain situation may cause you to say that it is impossible that any good can come from pain. Then it hits you: “But I thought with God nothing was impossible?” This now raises a totally different question of impossibility.
Normally, the word ‘impossible’ generally implies a suppressed clause beginning with the word ‘unless’. For example, it is impossible for me to see if my front yard from the room I am writing in now unless I get up, go to the front door and open it. In this book, however, Lewis presents a different meaning for ‘impossible’. He presents ‘impossible’ as meaning ‘could possibly.’ Lewis tells us that the words could possibly refer to some absolute kind of possibility or impossibility, which can differ from the relative possibilities and impossibilities presented using the unless clause. When we talk about impossibilities without the unless clause we are talking absolute impossibility or intrinsically impossibility. That is, under all conditions, all worlds, and all agents (God), it is impossible. In summary, Lewis presents His Divine Omnipotence to means the ability to do extrinsically impossible things, rather than intrinsically things. We may think things are possible in reality they are (intrinsically) impossible. One example that is popular with people deals with natural disasters. When we look at natural disasters (tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc), incidents like these seem to contradict the idea of existing good God. Lewis argues that there cannot be any independent laws of nature when we humans have the power of free will. Freedom implies choice which implies making choices between certain things - things outside of ourselves.
In order to understand this more clearly we have to understand there must be one common nature or in other word a common medium (space, time, life) where humans can meet things outside of them selves, like other humans. Lewis believes that no humans self-consciousness exists except met with another human. Our self- conscious which he puts ‘the recognition of a creature by itself as a ‘self’ cannot exist except in contrast with an ‘other.’In any social environment filled with other people the idea of myself standing out goes against the very nature of the environment. This nature or common nature must be neutral to the fact that it must not be under any persons control because if it was; people with no control would not be free; which means that this nature we are speaking of will be favorable to people and other times not favorable to people. An illustration could be if a fire is warm at a distance, it will be extremely hot at others or there will be a tornado.
To summarize, perfect goodness can never debate about the end to be attainted, and perfect wisdom cannot debate about the way we achieve perfect wisdom. When describing Gods Divine omnipotence we can debate and continue to to try and think outside the box but in the end scripture tells us, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,’Lewis reinforces these verses by saying that the freedom of God consists in the fact that no cause other than Himself produces His acts and no external obstacle impedes-them- that His own goodness is the root where they will grow from and His omnipotence the air which they will bloom and flower.
Divine Goodness
God’s definition of goodness must include human pain. I think if we are going to discuss the subject of pain and suffering, I think we need to really break down His goodness and how Lewis digs deep into what God’s love really means. Lewis brings out the fact that no one really ever questions that maybe what is at at fault on the topic of problem of pain is a persons idea of happiness. Lewis thinks that when we think about love and happiness most of us mean kindness - a love see other people, not just ourselves, happy. He also believes that would really make some people happy is to have a God who just anything to happy in what we liked doing. In other words,Lewis feels that some of us want a Grandfather like God not the real Father in Heaven - someone who would like to see young people enjoying themselves whose plan for the world was for that be the objective of their life. to make sure that we inly have a life that is full of fun and good times. I include myself in sometimes having that thought in the back of my mind who does not? But life isn't happy and full of festivities all the time, we have hardships and struggles, But we need to remind ourselves that God is love and love is real.
This chapter in The Problem of Pain is very essential in understanding that the struggle we go through is is worth it when we have the love of the Father. The relationship between The Father and His people you can say is a unique one to say the least. He is both far from and near to us at the same time. But the intimacy between God and His people is closer than any intimacy you can attain with another person. Such a unique relationship can only be understood more clearly by analogies about the the different types of love that lead us to understand God’s love for his creation. Lewis beautifully illustrates an example of love in this chapter: The love a master has for his dog. In this analogy, God is the master and people represent the dog. Training a dog takes discipline at first. The Master/God does not discipline people to punish. He does it to show people that He loves them. So. for example, a wild dog does not have the same benefits as a trained dog. A wild dog has a smell to him and habits from the wild thats frustrate the master. So the Master washes it and trains it to be able to live inside, because He is so easily enabled to love the wild dog. Now the dog’s point of view might be little different from the Masters. The dog is going through all these trainings and acts of discipline and is questioning the Master’s goodness. He might ask himself, “If the Master loves me then why is he causing me pain and struggle?” But then the dog becomes full grown and fully trained, bigger, faster, and healthier. He is not the same wild dog before, but is now he is living a life beyond his primitive animal destiny and now has no doubts about the Master’s love. The beauty of this is that the whole time through the struggle of training the master takes all these pains with the dog, The master does not take joy in giving pain to the dog, only because it is an animal high in the scale, because it is nearly lovable that is is worth to make it fully lovable.
Sometimes people may wish and want God to leave them to be in the wild just so they do not have to go through the training. We may wish that He would just not train us to be more than ourselves. However, God will not allow us to stay in the wild. It is through the training where we can become more, where can see that God wants to shape and mold people past what their mind thinks for their own destiny. To wish that God would leave people in the wilderness is to ask not for love, but for less.
Human Pain
The hardest part of human pain can be the obedience. Staying obedient even though the pain is almost too much too bare. An example of this is Abraham’s ‘trial’ when God asked him to kill his own son. Looking at this from the outside God can look like a cruel being. The obvious question is why would God ask such a thing from a father? In his book, Lewis puts it this way:’If God is omniscient He must have known what Abraham would do, without any experiment; why, then, this needless torture?’ The answer is God knew Abraham could endure this trial, but , like all people , Abraham did not know he could endure anything like this until the trial taught him he could.
People go into trials with fear, doubt, and even with a weakness of the soul. But it is in trials where we must have total dependency in God. In the good times of our lives we can get complacent in our relationship with Jesus. Lewis describes his thoughts when going through a trial; he first feels overwhelmed and describes his happiness look like broken toys. Slowly and reluctantly, however, he tries to bring himself into the frame of mind that he feels he should be at all times, which is a state of total dependency on God and drawing strength from Him. However, the moment the threat is gone, he draws back to his toys. So, Lewis argues that tribulations cannot cease until God sees us remade. If pain and suffering erases a person’s sense of self-sufficiency, it is because, like Abraham, it teaches the person that they have strength from God that they may attain for themselves.
Why do we got through pain and suffering as Christians? This question cannot be answered simply if at all. God has all the answers but it is this subject of pain where we sometimes have so many doubts and confusion. People going through pain and trials can be sure of this. We may not have pain figured out but we know God allows it in our lives to strengthen us, to keep dependency on Him, and because even though it may not seem like it during a trial He loves us. Through trials He molds and shapes us into more than we could could ourselves, alone. Conclusion
So what is our response to pain? It should be to experience the true love of God which requires us to surrender to His demands and to conform to His desires. Our flesh does not like to feel pain and sometimes it makes us feel satisfied with being something other than the person God has called us to be. But, He wants our worship and obedience. God’s will, and what is best for us, is to love Him. To love Him we must first know Him, which is basic Christianity. But in order to know God we must be prepared to fall on our faces because this life is not easy and we will face hardships but we can live life knowing we have a father in heaven watching over us, wanting the best for his children.
‘God whispers to us in our pleasures,speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world’ Trials and suffering are only temporary pain preparing for our biggest spiritual gain. In the end, Heaven is our goal whatever does not kill us will make us stronger and if it kills us, well heaven is where we will be. This enough should give you joy to push through any trial you are facing. Our reward is bigger than our struggle. ‘For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.’

Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. New York, NY: HarperOne, 2001.

Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. New York, NY: HarperOne, 2001.

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[ 1 ]. James 1:2-4 (NIV)
[ 2 ]. John 16:33 (NIV)
[ 3 ]. C . S . Lewis, A Grief Observed (New York: HarperOne, 2001)
[ 4 ]. C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (New York:HarperOne, 2001),6.
[ 5 ]. Matt. 27:46 (NIV)
[ 6 ]. C . S . Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York:HarperOne,2001), 16
[ 7 ]. R . E . Allen, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English,8th ed,Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.
[ 8 ]. C . S . Lewis, The Problem if Pain ( New York:HarperOne,2001), 17
[ 9 ]. C. S . Lewis, The Problem of Pain ( New York:HarperOne,2001), 19
[ 10 ]. C . S . Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York:HarperOne,2001), 26
[ 11 ]. Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)
[ 12 ]. C . S . Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York:HarperOne, 2001), 27
[ 13 ]. C . S . Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York:HarperOne, 2001), 30
[ 14 ]. C . S . Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York:HarperOne, 2001), 36
[ 15 ]. C . S . Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York:HarperOne, 2001) , 100
[ 16 ]. C . S . Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York:HarperOne, 2001), 91
[ 17 ]. Hebrews 2:10 (King James)