The Problem1
People frequently ask, “Why does God allow or not prevent bad things from happening to people?”
When we look at the world through the majority lens of our experience, the world looks nothing like a vision of love and happiness. One could conclude God is absent, uncaring, or the opposite of good.
This is one of those basic and profound questions about what makes us human and what God’s nature is. A large part of the problem is theological answers often fail to comfort the person during trial and suffering. People get mad at God for allowing bad things to happen, or for not answering prayers, especially prayers for healing. Hearing that God helped someone else, is not often comforting to the person who believes their prayers are not being answered.
Still, He is present, He reveals His nature, purpose, and activity through scripture. So, how can we reconcile our observation with God’s true nature and purpose? How might we provide hope and comfort to those suffering and questioning their faith?
The argument goes if God were good, he would want his creation to be perfectly happy, and if God were all-powerful, He would be able to do what He wished, specifically prevent evil. But since we, the creatures, are not happy, logic implies either God lacks goodness or power or both.
What does “Good” mean?
When we say God is good, what definition of good are we thinking of?
- Maybe, we see God as a dithering Grandpa who only wants his creation to be happy? So, at the end of everything, we all can say, “We had a good time.” Because our reality is so different, that image of God falls apart.
- Perhaps we mean God is kind. Kindness implies nice or helpful behavior. I see someone struggling, and I’m there to assist. I need something, and I pray or hope God provides it. Not unlike a cosmic vending machine. Insert prayer, receive answer. I am free to go my way without further consideration of God.
Some people treat God this way and thus struggle when prayers are not answered. What action could a God limited to kindness take, knowing that answering a prayer leads to more harm than not answering that prayer? What would be the response of the person whose unanswered prayer remained their desired outcome? Would they condemn God for choosing what was better?
- Suppose good means loving; in that case, we must consider the definition of love. Among other things, I can love a story, music, or painting. Even if my emotional response to a created “thing” is ongoing versus fleeting, the creation typically makes no demands on me. It exists for my enjoyment. So, if God loves us like we love a piece of art or movie, there is no requirement for growth or improvement. If suffering entered the world of our beloved object, we might either repair it or discard it. Our attachment is emotional but often shallow.
People may view their experience with God in this light. Thus, we have a possible explanation of our world. Perhaps God views us only as objects for his pleasure and is indifferent to suffering in our lives.
- Consider if genuine love means having the desire to see something perfected. Like a sculptor creating their masterpiece, an author laboring over their epic, or an architect creating a magnificent structure. Each act of refining—every word shaped, each blueprint, every stone chipped away—represents a labor of love. They pursue their vision with whatever action was required to bring it to life.
Suppose the statue, or building design, or poem had sentience. Would it willingly submit to every change, holding onto the hope of a perfected result? Or might it buck and resist every attempt at improvement? Might it not rail at its creator anytime something painful or unexpected came into its world? Or with empathy, do the same if something painful came into the life of another created item?
While beyond inadequate in describing our relationship with God, the last analogy offers a closer glimpse than those preceding. He calls us to grow, to become like Christ, and to rejoice in the eternal reward that comes through the pain of being perfected. In the middle of suffering and pain, we most want relief, not logic or explanations that provide little comfort. However, to want a world without pain is to want less effort by God in our lives and to want Him to be less than who He is.
God roots morality and goodness in both His will and His unchanging, perfect nature. A human leader might enforce goodness without possessing good moral character. Therefore, true goodness is neither arbitrary nor independent—it flows from God’s character.
Some might ask, could not an all-powerful, all-wise God begin to prevent evil? In today’s world, this implies a proactive divine intervention stopping evil choices, actions, or consequences. Examples include sickness, poverty, and spiritual attacks.
If God began preventing all evil, which includes total healing, prosperity, and victory in every situation. It could resemble the full manifestation of kingdom promises believers now only experience in part.
Perhaps our ultimate desire aligns more with God’s plan than we realize. Perhaps the difference lies in how to obtain a world without evil.
We want the result now. We want a helicopter ride to Everest’s summit, not the slow, painful climb required to reach it. Perhaps there is an important reason why God doesn’t hand out a divine shortcut, like a “move your token to Go and collect your eternal reward” card.
Could our world have been different?
A perfectly good and all-knowing God, who wants to create beings to love, designs His creation with one optimal plan. Choice implies imperfection, as God’s perfect nature determines both the goal and the single best way to achieve it. There is no other option.
The movie Avengers: Infinity War provides an analogy.
The movie has a key moment when Doctor Strange uses the Time Stone and says:
“I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.”
Tony Stark asks, “How many did you see?”
Doctor Strange replies, “Fourteen million six hundred and five.”
Tony asks, “How many did we win?”
Doctor Strange responds, “One.”
It’s a crucial moment showing there’s only one path to victory, requiring sacrifice, suffering, and surrender. Doctor Strange follows this path, even when it means letting Tony endure PTSD and guilt, allowing others to die, and relinquishing the Time Stone.
Thus, an omniscient God, knowing all possible outcomes, chooses how the world will operate to accomplish His ultimate goals. His goals for us are:
- To know and love Him freely, not as automatons.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (ESV)
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God…” Demonstrates our choice to love and obey or not.
Joshua 24:15
“Choose this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Affirms God’s desire for voluntary love and our choice to worship.
John 14:15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” This tells us love is not coerced, but a relational response of the will.
1 John 4:19
“We love because He first loved us.” This speaks to relational unity, not robotic obedience.
2. To be perfected in the image of Christ, fit for eternal joy.
Romans 8:29
“For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…” God’s goal is Christ-like transformation, not just salvation.
2 Corinthians 3:18
“…we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…”
Speaks to the ongoing spiritual formation into Christ’s likeness.
Ephesians 4:13
“…until we all attain… to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…” This shows maturity in Christ is the divine end-goal.
3. To experience true joy and glory, found by submitting to God.
Psalm 16:11
“In Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” This reveals we find joy in God’s presence, not apart from Him.
John 15:10-11
“If you keep My commandments… that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Joy springs from obeying and communing with Christ.
James 4:7-10
“Submit yourselves therefore to God… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.” Tells us true exaltation (glory) comes through humble submission.
4. To refine our soul through pain and suffering and awaken it to God’s reality.
Hebrews 12:10-11
“…He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful… but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness…”
Thus, pain can be a tool to gain holiness and righteousness.
Romans 5:3-5
“…suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…” This tells us suffering is essential for spiritual growth.
1 Peter 1:6-7
“…you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith… may be found to result in praise and glory and honor…” Through trials, we confirm our faith is genuine, strong, and reliable, becoming glory for God.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
“…My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness… For when I am weak, then I am strong.” God created us to depend on Him; thus, He works through our weakness and pain to show us who He is more deeply.
Our world cannot differ unless God changed His nature. We misplace our focus when we long for a world without pain and suffering or condemn God for allowing it. The better question is, “What should my response be to the pain and suffering I experience personally or in the lives of others?” We will cover this topic, but first let’s explore the nature of evil.
The Nature of Evil
Because we claim God created this world, some might argue He also authors pain and suffering. If so, how does that reconcile with His goodness?
Since God knows that conforming to Christ’s image is our best outcome and that growing through pain and suffering fosters maturity. Would He not act unjustly, even cruelly, if He removed the tools essential for our spiritual perfection?
For example, would it not be evil to withhold chemotherapy that could cure cancer because we did not want the patient to have to suffer through the treatment? Is the suffering caused by the treatment worth the result for the person who wanted to live cancer-free?
Would an Olympic Gold medal winner, afterwards, step off the podium and declare all the pain and effort to train was not worth it? We inherently understand that achievement requires effort, and effort often is accompanied by pain. So, pain is not of itself evil.
Evil, then, does not exist as a unique or independent thing. Evil corrupts what is good. It arises only through misusing, perverting, or withholding good. For example, pride is the distortion of self-worth; lust is the corruption of love. This concept echoes C.S. Lewis’s view in Mere Christianity, where he argues evil is a parasite on good, not a self-sustaining force
Remember that because God is essentially good, He cannot cause what is evil.
James 1:13 makes it clear: “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”
What if “evil” were prevented
If we removed pain, how then should our nervous system behave? The following examples are drawn from C.S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain, where he discusses natural consequences as part of a consistent moral and physical order. “Fire warms at a certain distance, but burns at a closer distance, Is the pain thus evil? If I jumped off a cliff, would God then prevent the consequence of falling so that I would not suffer for my choice? If I cannot suffer for my poor choices, what would be the result of such a world? If the pain of the burn was tolerable, where then should God draw a line from which one side is prevented and the other allowed?” What if God drew the line on preventing evil at the point of temptation? He created a world where I wouldn’t conceive of or be tempted toward jumping off the cliff?
This is what many people want. A world where temptation is removed, but not free will and self-interest. Isaiah discusses such a world when describing the Millennial reign of Christ in Isaiah chapter 65 and elsewhere. He describes a world of bounty, long life, and happiness. But three different verses in the book of Revelation refer to Christ ruling in the Millennium with a rod of iron. Scholars typically interpret this as swift and likely painful judgment for wrongdoing. Also, Zechariah 14:16-19 speaks to punishing nations that disobey during that time.
How can these two aspects be reconciled? Such a world means there would be compliance, but not necessarily transformation. There might be fear of punishment, but no drive to have inward holiness. Worship could easily become ritualistic, not heartfelt.
Service to others, as Philippians 2:1-8 encourages, fosters spiritual transformation and maturity. This is especially true when such service costs us personally. When God is doing all the helping, what sense or need would individuals have to join Him in His work or to have empathy for others?
Suffering can also be beneficial to us personally. In both Romans 5:3-5 and James 1:2-4, suffering is a tool for learning perseverance, growing our faith, and glorifying God.
A world without visible evil—like in the Millennium—teaches a deeper lesson: not the final rebellion, but the passive disengagement from God that drives it.
God preventing evil doesn’t automatically lead to virtue. Rather, it easily leads to:
- an entitlement mentality—God as a vending machine
- shallow relationships— “Why should I care about others when God is meeting all their needs?”
- a lack of urgency or effort— “Since nothing bad happens, maybe I’m already good enough.”
- devaluation of virtue—with no contrasting example of evil, everything is seen as good.
- erosion of belonging—if everyone is perfectly protected, there’s no “us” against a challenge.
Unless human hearts are transformed, not just restrained from evil, society easily devolves into insulated, spiritually disengaged individuals, even in a paradise of peace. In short, when evil is prevented, the risk of choosing wrong is gone, and so is the value of choosing right.
God and our end goal
What is the result of God’s design and purpose for us? When we follow Him and choose His way, God over time transforms us entirely into a glorified state (1 Cor. 15:42–49).
In this future state, sin nature and evil desires vanish. Relationships thrive in perfect love, truth, and harmony.
Revelation 21-22 describes this state in rich detail.
What about free will in the eternity to come? What about the negative implications of God removing pain and suffering, as previously discussed? The difference is this: everyone who’s there has chosen it. They’ve experienced the transformation journey, developed perseverance through pain, and chosen love over evil.
Even in a future where God suppresses evil, scripture reveals humans retain purpose. Even in glory, service and love are not suspended—they’re perfected. Even when God eliminates evil, the call to love remains, and everyone willingly and capably fulfills it.
Scriptural insights on suffering
So, two fundamental viewpoints remain. We can deny God’s identity as revealed in scripture and refuse to follow His design. Or we can choose our best course: not ranting against the world God created or dreaming of an alternative reality, but actively aligning our thoughts and behavior with His creation.
By embracing and following the truth and principles God reveals, we achieve the most positive outcome.
Consider what scripture offers. It is not a God who always prevents evil, but a God who walks with us through it, shaping us for eternity.
Consider what scripture offers. It is not a God who always prevents evil, but a God who walks with us through it, shaping us for eternity.
Romans 8:28–29
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
2 Cor. 4:17
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
Psalm 23:3-4
. . . He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
1 This discussion is based on and quotes from “The Problem of Pain,” by C.S. Lewis, unless otherwise noted.
Scripture references are from the New International Version.
I just know anytime something most people would define as “bad” happens to me, I take it as a gift/opportunity and I trust God allowed it for my own good!