Historical Approaches To The Problem of Pain Pt. 2

The soul-building model

Irenaeus (ca. AD 120–ca. 200) proposed an alternative approach to our problem:

• God created us to develop into a perfect relationship with himself.
• He created the world as a place for that development.
• Evil is thus necessary as a means of our spiritual development (“soul-building”).

The Bible does teach that:

• Some suffering comes from God (Deuteronomy 8:5; Job 16:12; Psalm 66:11; 90:7).
• Suffering can lead to good (Job 23:10; Psalm 119:67; 2 Corinthians 4:17; Hebrews 12:11; Revelation 7:14).
• Suffering can lead us to repentance (Jeremiah 7:3, 5, 7).
• Suffering can refine us (Psalm 66:10; Isaiah 48:10; Malachi 3:3; 1 Peter 1:7; 4:17).
• Pain enables us to witness to our faith in God despite the hurt (2 Peter 2:12, 15; 3:15–16).
• And so God promises to use even difficult experiences for our good, to make us more like Jesus (Romans 8:28–29).

Irenaeus explains how evil could exist before Adam and Eve chose it. His approach also affirms the hope that God can redeem any suffering for his glory and our good.

Problems with this approach include the fact that the “fall” it pictures is not as catastrophic as the event described in Genesis 3. The amount of evil in the world seems disproportionate to the present good; it is hard to argue that the lessening of anti-Semitism that resulted from the Holocaust justifies the horrors of that tragedy. This approach also struggles with the existence of hell since it is not a soul-building or redemptive reality.

The eschatological model

Eschatology deals with the future. Applied to theodicy, this approach asserts that evil will be resolved in the future, making present suffering endurable and worthwhile.

Jesus promised that life leads to life eternal in glory (John 14:1–6), a paradise beyond our imagination (Revelation 21:1–5). We need not consider the present sufferings worth comparing with the glory to be revealed (Romans 8:18).

As a philosophical model, this approach offers the guarantee of absolute rational understanding. We do not comprehend the purpose of suffering now, but we will one day (1 Corinthians 13:12). All our questions will be answered. All the reasons why God has permitted suffering in our lives will be clarified. Our present faithfulness will be redeemed with future reward in glory (Revelation 2:10).

This approach does not offer an explanation in the present, however. And some might wonder how this promise of future hope makes present courage possible.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the final two historical approaches.

Today, wrestle with the notion that we will one day understand why we suffer, but our understanding will be limited until then. How can you still seek God amidst pain and suffering?