Suffering and evil are such major undeniable realities in our world today that certain worldviews (such as Buddhism) are virtually centered on dealing with them. In building a Great Commission church, I realized that church members needed a deeper and more foundational theology of suffering. Phase 5 of this project sought to integrate the issue of suffering with the agent of Satan and the problematic universal condition of sin. The discussion during this phase perhaps had the most profound impact on our participants. This was perhaps due to the fact that as Louis Markos wrote,
The ubiquitous presence of pain and evil in our world is, to my mind, the only argument against the existence of God that carries any real weight. It is also the number-one reason people give for denying—or, better, giving up on—God.
Confronted with terrible illnesses and tragic accidents, the death of the young and innocent, the horrors of war and oppression, and the ravages of natural disasters, many moderns find it intellectually and emotionally impossible to believe in the existence of God—at least not the all-powerful, all-loving God who is revealed in the Bible.15
For this phase, I started with a biblical presentation on the person of Satan.
Using biblical texts, I gave the identity of Satan as a fallen angel (2 Pet 2:4 and Jude 1:6).
Additionally, we saw from 1 Chronicles 21:1 and Luke 10:18 that Satan was the personal name for the head of demons (he therefore, has an entourage). Scripture also addresses him by a variety of other names. In Matthew 4:1, he is called the devil. In Matthew 10:25, he is called Beelzebul. In John 12:31, he is called the ruler of this world. In Ephesians 2:2, he is called “the prince of the power of the air.” Matthew 13:19 clearly calls him “the evil one.” John 8:44 presents Satan as a murderer from the beginning and the father of lies. Satan not only deceived Eve, but he also tried to tempt Christ.
15Louis Markos, Apologetics for the 21st Century (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 137.
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Although many of my class participants had a virtually secular perspective of Satan—as portrayed in many movies, I made it plain that the Bible demonstrates that Christ is the ultimate authority and that He came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). The reality, however, is that Satan uses all his might and a variety of tactics to try to blind people from seeing the light of the gospel of Christ (2 Cor 4:4). Class participants were made aware of Satan’s destructive tactics. Tactics used by demons to hinder a Christan’s witness and life include: temptation, doubt, lies, murder, guilt, fear, confusion, sickness, envy, pride, and slander. Though these tactics seem formidable, Satan is limited in power (Jude 1:6) and James 4:7 instructs Christians to resist the devil and that he will flee from us.
Around the corner from our church is a psychic who claims to be able to predict the future. Class participants were told not to fear her. Isaiah 46:10 plainly tells us that Satan and his minions are unable to know the future. Daniel 2:27-28 informs us that the devil cannot read our thoughts. Not only should Christians not fear demons, but Christians are not to attribute sins that they commit to the devil. The devil can tempt believers, but he can never force them to sin. Christians sin when they are driven by their own sinful desires. Christ conquered death and He conquered Satan. In doing so, Christ has also given Christians the victory over Satan.
After my presentation on Satan, I segued into a presentation on sin. Sin, its existence, and its definition are all vital to a sound understanding of suffering. Sin was defined for the class as, “Any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature.”16 Scripture makes it plain that the penalty of sin is death (Gen 2:17). This death is first physical, and secondly, it is spiritual. Scripture informs us that sin not only came into the entire world through Adam (Rom 5:12), but that there has not been one person (outside of Christ) in the human race who has not sinned (1 Kgs 8:46).
16Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1254.
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Furthermore, because of Adamic sin, our entire cosmos has fallen from its original “very good” status into a state that is now full of corruption and futility (Rom 8:20-12). The understanding that death did not exist in the cosmos prior to the Fall of Adam is critical to having a biblical worldview. Adam’s sin not only brought destruction to the human race, but it also brought catastrophe and death into the entire universe. This understanding enables Christians to make sense of so much of the senseless evil
committed by fellow humans, natural disasters that decimate entire villages and communities, and the heart of God in the midst of all suffering. Clearly and
unequivocally, the Bible presents all human suffering as being ultimately rooted in sin—
whether Original or personal. Sin causes human psychosis, sin breaks and destroys human relationships, and sin creates a need for reconciliation with God.
Working from texts such as 1 Peter 2:24 and Romans 8:1, class participants were given great hope in the face of the truly pervasive nature of human sin and depravity. As Christians, when we sin, our legal standing before God is never affected.
Christ’s death and resurrection once and for all paid for all our sins. Though our sins do not affect our status or legal standing with God, it does, however, affect our fellowship with God and God is grieved by our sin. Christian sin does not result in penal
retribution, but it does result in discipline by our loving God (Heb 12:6).
God, in His wisdom, has decided that He would not apply to us all the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work at once (1 Cor 15:26). Christians, therefore, also bear the heartaches of pain and suffering. Suffering for believers is completely due to living in a fallen world that is marred sin, at times due to God’s discipline of our sins; but is always for the purpose of conforming the elect into the glorious image of Jesus (Heb 2:10 and Jas 1:2).
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