Nobody likes to suffer. We all want comfort. That is because we were created for comfort, not suffering. When God created the world, there was no suffering. “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31. And when Jesus returns, there will be no more suffering. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 21:4. So, if we began with no suffering, and we will end with no suffering, why is there suffering now?
The simple answer to that question is: Suffering is the result of sin, and sin was not present at the beginning and will not be present at the end. But why does sin cause suffering? To answer this question, we must understand what sin is and what it does to the one it “infects.”
Sin began as an unexplainable self-deception where an intelligent creature (angel or human) deceives itself into believing the impossible—that it (a creature) can become something it isn’t (a god) (see Isaiah 14:12-14). Once that self-deception occurs, everything immediately changes in the individual. You and I were born into this deception. It has been all we have known since birth. But it was something that happened rapidly in Adam and Eve.
Instead of believing that you are a child of God, you believe that you are god. Instead of being dependent upon God for everything you need, you begin to depend upon yourself and others for what you need. Instead of having a love that takes all you need from God and freely gives what you have taken from Him to others, you have a “love” that gives from yourself to others so that you can receive for yourself what you need from them. Instead of recognizing that you belong to God and acknowledging that everything that happens to you happens to Him (See Matthew 25:40), you believe that you are your own, and you take things personally as if it was all about you. Instead of recognizing that you are simply the steward of God’s resources without anything that you can lose, you believe that you are the owner and suffer terribly when that which is yours deserts you, dies, or is damaged or destroyed. Instead of expecting good for others (to love, respect, honor, understand, pay attention to, and accept them), you expect good from others (to be loved, respected, honored, understood, paid attention to, and accepted by them). Instead of all things being God’s issues that He must resolve or fix and bring to a successful conclusion, you see all things as your issues that you must resolve or fix and bring to a successful conclusion, which is stressful. Instead of recognizing God as the standard and judge of all things and basking in His compassionate love, you see yourself as the standard and judge and bring condemnation down upon others (hatred, resentment, bitterness, etc.) and yourself (guilt, self-hatred, shame, etc.). All of this happens immediately when one deceives themselves into believing that they can be god.
This self-deception changes everything that we perceive. We perceive the truth to be a lie, while we believe lies to be true. We perceive the darkness to be light, while we believe the light is darkness. We perceive that which is dangerous to be safe, while we believe that which is safe is dangerous. We perceive freedom to be captivity, while we believe captivity is freedom. We perceive that which nourishes the soul to be unsatisfying, while we “satisfy” ourselves on that which can only leave us empty. We run from God (who loves us and only has our best interests in mind – see John 3:16-17) to Satan (who hates us and only wants to destroy us – see John 10:10 and 1 Peter 5:8). “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” Isaiah 5:20-21. “Woe unto them” is not a curse from God upon those who are deceived like this. It is simply a description of what they bring upon themselves because of their deception.
I remember watching a program on TV once where people volunteered to drive a vehicle around a challenging obstacle course in a car. The course had orange cones strategically placed to outline the boundaries of the track the drivers had to take. The drivers had to maneuver around the course as fast as they could while knocking down as few cones as possible. After going through the course, they rated themselves on how well they did at their task. After each attempt at driving around this obstacle course, each driver was given 1 cup of beer to drink, and then were sent out to repeat the task 15 minutes after drinking the beer. Each time they came back from the course, they rated how well they were doing.
With each drink of beer, the drivers clearly knocked over more and more orange cones as they attempted to drive quickly through the obstacle course. But each time, they rated their perceived performance better and better, even as they clearly performed worse after each beer. Alcohol progressively deceives the consumer, so that they perform worse while they think they are getting better. Under the influence of alcohol people do many destructive things unaware of the damage they are doing while under the influence of the alcohol. They only understand the consequences of their intoxicated actions as they recover from the influence of the alcohol.
This is just like being under the influence of sin (sinful nature). It deceives us into perceiving things backwards, so that we think, say, and do the wrong things—destroying ourselves and others—even while we think we are thinking, saying, and doing good and being helpful. This state of deception is always built upon error or lies, for deception is always in harmony with error.
Truth and function are always in harmony with each other. If you have the truth, it will always result in proper function. But if you have error, it will always result in dysfunction, for error is always out of harmony with function. God created all things according to the truth (in harmony with the truth), so all things functioned properly. And God will bring all things back into harmony with the truth so that all things function properly again. (But every intelligent creature will be left to choose for themselves whether they will choose God and be restored to the truth and proper function, or whether they will choose Satan and continue in error and dysfunction. All who knowingly reject truth will finally be destroyed in harmony with the dysfunction of their chosen deception.) Suffering is the result of the deception of sin that is in harmony with error and brings dysfunction. As sin was not in the beginning and will not be at the end, so the dysfunction that causes suffering will not continue forever. It will only be present as long as sin is present.
It is clear that all who are caught in the deception of sin (Satan, his angels, people), cause and perpetuate suffering for themselves and others, for they live and act in harmony with error, which results in dysfunction. And their sin can result in the suffering of those who are not sinful (God, holy angels, etc.).
But can God and those who are living in truth originate suffering? Only in the context of justice exercised toward the sin that caused the suffering in the first place and for the purpose of limiting or ending the sin and suffering. Justice rightfully demands that the one who causes suffering experience in return the suffering they caused. “If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor…so shall it be done to him—fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him…whoever kills a man shall be put to death.” Leviticus 24:19-21. The judge (God or His delegated authority), acting in harmony with truth, would demand this justice.
Why is this the case? It is because the deception of sin, just as the intoxication of alcohol, makes the individual incapable of responding appropriately to correcting statements. The inebriated individual cannot listen to the voice of reason, for reason has been turned off under the influence of the alcohol. But they can feel and respond to pain. And sometimes pain is the only thing that will cause them to stop (at least momentarily) their inebriated course. The pain is necessary to put a check to the destruction and suffering they are causing others by their destructive course. Righteousness will allow, and will sometimes use, suffering for the purpose of bringing about peace, while sin will offer “peace” which results in ever-increasing suffering.
If we perceive things wrong because of our sinful nature, and as a result, we respond to things in a destructive way, but we believe we perceive things correctly and are responding correctly, how are we ever going to be saved from this deception? The answer is not exactly comforting. We can only be saved from this state of deception through suffering. There is no other way. “We are forming characters for heaven. No character can be complete without trial and suffering. We must be tested, we must be tried. Christ bore the test of character in our behalf that we might bear this test in our own behalf through the divine strength He has brought to us.” (This Day With God. p 427).
Was this the case before sin entered the picture? No. There was no cause of or need for suffering then. Will this be the case after sin is eradicated? No. This is the case while sin persists. And this is one of the reasons that we yearn for Jesus’ return, for we want the suffering to come to an end. We want to be restored to what God created us for in the beginning. We want to live a life of comfort in the presence of the God who loves us and created us. But, for now, suffering is our experience. Does this have to be bad news? No. It can be good news. How? We’ll find out in next month’s newsletter, as we seek to understand suffering in its proper context, where we will see that God is truly a loving God, even while suffering continues to exist.
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