27“Behold,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find an explanation. 28While my soul was still searching but not finding, among a thousand I have found one upright man, but among all these I have not found one such woman. 29Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made mankind upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
— Ecclesiastes 7:27-29, BSB
Introduction: The Cry of a Broken World
Everywhere we turn—news headlines, hospitals, refugee camps, social media—we’re faced with a haunting question:
“If God is real, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?”
It’s not just a philosophical puzzle. It’s deeply personal.
A child is diagnosed with cancer. A loved one dies in a car crash or in sickness. A war leaves thousands homeless. For many, these moments trigger a crisis of faith. “If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why doesn’t He stop it?”
This question has echoed through the centuries—from the ancient cries of Job to the modern doubts of young skeptics. And recently, we heard it again—this time from a young man born into a Christian home, now wrestling with doubt. The pain of unanswered questions is pushing him to the edge of belief.
He reached out, asking honestly and urgently:
“Why does God allow this much pain? If He’s really there, why doesn’t He do something?”
We listened carefully, and we realized he’s not alone. Many others, especially young people, are quietly asking the same thing. That’s why we’re writing this post. This blog exists to address tough questions like this not with shallow answers or empty clichés, but with truth, logic, and love.
We want to walk alongside every searching heart, like his, and say, Your questions are valid. Your doubts matter. And there are answers.
In this post, we’ll explore the problem of evil and suffering through three key lenses:
- The philosophical challenge: Is God logically compatible with evil?
- The biblical framework: What does Scripture actually say about pain, justice, and God’s purpose?
- The emotional struggle: Can belief in God still bring comfort when life hurts the most?
Because Christianity doesn’t ignore suffering—it confronts it head-on. And in Jesus, it offers the only answer that goes through pain… not around it. Let’s explore:
Free Will: The Philosophical Core of the Problem
One of the strongest philosophical answers to the problem of evil is rooted in the concept of free will.
For love to be real, it must be freely chosen. God could have created robots who always obeyed, but robots cannot love. He gave humanity the gift of free will—because love demands freedom.
But with freedom comes risk. People can choose to do good—or evil. Much of the world’s suffering comes not from “natural evil” (like earthquakes or disease), but from moral evil—human choices: war, murder, theft, oppression, abuse.
Atheists like J.L. Mackie and others have argued that it’s logically inconsistent to say God is both all-powerful and all-good while evil exists. But this view has been powerfully answered by Christian philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga.
He said,
“A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable… than a world containing no free creatures at all.”
— Alvin Plantinga, God, Freedom, and Evil (1977), p. 30.
In short, free will is the key. God created humans with the freedom to choose love, justice, and good—but that same freedom also makes it possible to choose evil. If God were to eliminate all evil, He would have to eliminate all freedom—and with it, all love, responsibility, and virtue.
God does not cause evil. But He permits it to exist for the sake of preserving human freedom, which is essential for love, moral growth, and authentic relationship with Him.
As C.S. Lewis explains:
“Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperOne, 1952), Book 2, Chapter 3.
So, philosophically, it is not only possible but reasonable to affirm the coexistence of God and evil—especially if free will serves a greater moral good.
The Biblical Reality of Evil and Suffering
The Bible never denies or downplays the reality of evil. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture is brutally honest about human suffering—famine, injustice, war, betrayal, and death. The Bible doesn’t give us a sanitized view of life; instead, it gives us a God who enters into the brokenness of the world.
From Job’s painful cries to Jesus’ anguish on the cross, Scripture acknowledges that evil and pain are real—but also reveals that God is not passive in the face of suffering.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), evil entered the world through humans, and its consequences touch every aspect of life: spiritual death, natural disasters, disease, moral corruption, and even death. But the Bible goes further—it shows us that God works through suffering for ultimate good.
As William Lane Craig observes:
“God may have morally sufficient reasons for permitting the evil that exists… suffering can produce virtues like compassion, self-sacrifice, and courage that could not exist otherwise.”
William Lane Craig, On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2010), 145.
The world is not as God originally created it (Genesis 3; Ecclesiastes 7:29). Evil is a parasite on good—it is not created by God, but is the result of freedom misused by creatures.
Romans 8:22 puts it this way:
“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”
Now we live in a fallen world.
Redemptive Suffering: God Brings Good Out of Evil
A Christian worldview doesn’t stop at explaining why evil exists. It goes further: God can redeem evil.
Romans 8:28 says:
“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.”
This doesn’t mean all things are good. It means God can bring good out of evil. Suffering can shape our character, deepen our empathy, and draw us closer to God. The pain that seems meaningless can be the very tool God uses to form Christlikeness in us.
C.S. Lewis once said:
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: HarperOne, 1940), 91.
Pain awakens us to the reality that this world is broken—and we need healing beyond it.
The Cross: God Enters Our Suffering
Perhaps the most powerful answer to the problem of suffering is found at the cross of Jesus Christ.
But the Bible reveals a God who is not distant from suffering. He is Emmanuel—God with us. He became flesh and entered into our pain. God Himself entered into human suffering. Jesus, God in the flesh, took on pain, injustice, betrayal, and death.
In other words, Christianity is unique among worldviews in that it presents a God who suffers. Jesus did not stay distant from the agony of the world. He entered into it. He was beaten, mocked, betrayed, crucified. He bore the weight of all human sin and pain.
Isaiah 53:3-4 says:
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”
As John Lennox puts it:
“At the heart of Christianity, there is a cross. And the God on that cross is not distant from suffering—He entered into it. That’s the only kind of God worth trusting in a broken world.”
John C. Lennox, Where Is God in a Coronavirus World? (Oxford: The Good Book Company, 2020), 25.
This is the uniqueness of the Christian story: the God who suffers with us and for us.
No other worldview gives you a God who suffers with you and suffers for you. In Christ, we see a God who understands our pain—not just intellectually, but experientially.
At the cross, evil reached its climax—but God turned it into the greatest good: the salvation of the world.
The Emotional Reality: God Cares, Even When We Don’t Understand
Even if a philosophical or biblical answer is satisfying intellectually, the emotional weight of suffering often remains. It’s one thing to understand suffering philosophically. But when tragedy strikes and you’re in the middle of it, logic doesn’t always help; we don’t just want explanations—we need hope.
That’s why the Bible also meets us emotionally. The Psalms are full of raw cries:
“How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?”
(Psalm 13:1)
Even Jesus cried out on the cross:
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
(Matthew 27:46)
God doesn’t shame us for asking “why.” He meets us in our sorrow. He walks with us in the valley. The presence of suffering is not the absence of God. Often, it is in our darkest moments that His presence becomes most real.
This is where Christianity offers something no other worldview does: a suffering God who promises redemption.
Timothy Keller writes:
“Though Christianity does not provide the reason for each experience of pain, it provides deep resources for actually facing suffering with hope and courage rather than bitterness and despair.”
Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering (New York: Penguin Books, 2013), 8.
Jesus’ death shows us that God understands our suffering. His resurrection shows us that evil and death will not have the final word.
As Keller also notes:
“Only Christianity teaches that God became truly human, experienced real suffering, and still has the scars to prove it. That’s how committed He is to ending evil without ending us.”
Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering (New York: Penguin Books, 2013), 30.
For the Christian, suffering is not meaningless. It can be redemptive. God uses it to deepen our faith, refine our character (Romans 5:3–5), and prepare us for eternal joy (2 Corinthians 4:17).
A Future Hope: Evil Will Not Have the Last Word
The Christian answer to evil is not just backward-looking (explaining why it exists), but forward-looking: evil and suffering will not last forever.
Revelation 21:4 promises:
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore…”
Christianity offers the hope of resurrection, the renewal of all things, and a world where justice will be done and tears will be dried.
This is not wishful thinking. It is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, the firstborn from the dead, and the guarantee that all things will be made new.
Suffering Doesn’t Prove God Isn’t Real—It Points to Our Need for Him
So, if God is real, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world?
Because He made us free. Because we broke the world. Because He is patient, waiting to redeem as many as will come to Him. Because He can bring good out of our pain. And because He has already acted—decisively—at the cross.
And one day, He will wipe away every tear.
Until then, we don’t suffer alone. We suffer in the presence of a God who bears our scars, walks with us through the fire, and promises a glory beyond imagination.
Final Thoughts
Atheism Doesn’t Eliminate Suffering—It Eliminates Hope
If we remove God from the equation, what are we left with? A universe where suffering is meaningless, humans are accidents of evolution, and morality is subjective.
But if God exists—and He does—then suffering has a purpose, justice will be done, and love has the final word.
In the words of Victor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist:
“In some ways, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.”
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), 113.
And in Christ, suffering finds its ultimate meaning—in redemption, resurrection, and eternal life.
Conclusion
Hope in the Midst of the Storm
The presence of evil and suffering in the world is not an illusion—it’s painfully real. But so is the God who entered into that suffering Himself.
At the center of Christianity is not a God who remained distant, but one who became human and willingly suffered on a cross. The Cross is not the end of the story—it is the turning point where justice met mercy and death began to die.
Only the Christian worldview explains why evil exists, how God is defeating it, and why our pain is not meaningless.
Other worldviews either deny suffering (as illusion), endure it without hope (as fate), or rage against it without answers (as chaos). But only Christianity proclaims:
- God created the world good,
- We broke it through sin,
- Christ entered it to redeem it,
- And one day, He will wipe every tear from our eyes (Revelation 21:4).
So when young hearts ask, “Where is God when it hurts?”, we can gently and confidently answer:
He was betrayed and willingly walked to the cross, carrying the weight of your pain. From the cross, He descended into the grave, burying your suffering in silence. But on the third day, He rose in power– to give you eternal hope. He is not distant – He is beside you in every tear. And one day soon, He will wipe every tear away and make all things new.
There is no greater comfort than this: Evil will not have the final word—God will.
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Why Jesus Apologetics 
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