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Know YHWH

Suffering, Evil & Theodicy

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. — Psalm 34:18

The question of suffering is among the most urgent and agonizing in all of theology. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good, why does evil exist? Why do the innocent suffer? Why does God seem silent in the darkest hours of human experience?

The discipline of theodicy (from the Greek theos/θεός — God + dikē/δίκη — justice, righteous judgment) attempts to vindicate the goodness and justice of God in the face of evil and suffering. Scripture does not offer a single tidy answer. Instead, it holds together several truths in tension — truths that ultimately converge on the cross of Christ.

What This Section Covers

Section titled “What This Section Covers”

This section explores the biblical witness on suffering and evil across three major themes:

  • Why Suffering Exists — The different categories of evil, the Fall as origin, the complexity of causes, and the faithful response of lament. The Bible refuses simplistic answers.

  • God’s Sovereignty over Evil — How God governs a world shot through with evil without being the author of it. The mystery of divine sovereignty, human responsibility, and the spectrum of Christian theological reflection.

  • The Cross as Answer — God does not explain suffering from a distance; He enters it. The Incarnation, the Suffering Servant, the cry of dereliction, and the resurrection as the final word over evil and death.

A Word of Pastoral Caution

Section titled “A Word of Pastoral Caution”

Theology must never become a weapon wielded against those who suffer. Job’s friends had much correct theology — and God rebuked them (Job 42:7). The Scriptures give us permission to weep, to question, and to cry out in anguish. Lament is not the absence of faith; it is one of faith’s most honest expressions.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. — Romans 8:28

This promise is not a platitude to silence grief. It is an anchor that holds when nothing else makes sense — spoken not to explain our suffering, but to assure us that the God who raised Jesus from the dead is still sovereign, still good, and still at work.