Suffering and the God of Love #4 Does God Allow Suffering Because He Does Not Love Us?

We have already seen that we cannot blame God for causing suffering, it is our fault whether we like it or not. But if God has the power to stop it and does not, it might be argued that He must take some of the blame. Suppose you were an expert swimmer, and you saw someone fall into a river and drown and did not try to help them. Even though you were not responsible for them falling into the river, would you not bear some responsibility for their death? Is God like that? Is He standing back and watching us all drown when He has the power to save us?

Once again the atheist’s argument is not justified. Allowing (or even sometimes causing) suffering does not mean that there is a lack of love. For example, if you see someone stepping into the road in front of a bus, and you dive to save them and they fall over and hurt their shoulder — you have hurt them, but saved their life.

In a sense our suffering is like that, on a much larger scale. When Adam and Eve first turned away from God in spite of a clear warning, God would have been quite justified in wiping them out. Instead He made them mortal, suffering, dying creatures. He did this out of love, as an incentive to make them turn back to Him.

Chris Furniss

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