Featured Why does God Allow Christians to Suffer

Because everyone is suffering. They just don’t know it yet.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

 

My answer: Hebrews 12:3-24

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

 

I don't start explaining with direct scripture quotes. I usually only talk about this with someone that is grieving and scared and maybe losing faith. I talk TO them, not AT them. Instead of giving advice, I often present some personal stories along with a paraphrased Bible story and secular stories and offer the stories as a buffet for the person to sample what is most to their taste at the time. Like a sick person needs sick people food.

I am very careful not to engage in secondary wounding.
Secondary Wounding

God refines us with fire like silver. It hurts. A lot.

 

Universal death.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

 

I have noticed that peace or withdrawal has more to do with how those around the patient react to the diagnosis than anything intrinsic about the patient.

 

Count it all joy to the highest degree of joy possible is the right response to trials.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

 

Malachi 3:2-3
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.

 

Job 19:13-27
“He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes. I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy. My breath is strange to my wife, and I am a stench to the children of my own mother. Even young children despise me; when I rise they talk against me. All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me. My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh? “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

 

When the secondary wounding process is viscous enough, and when the neglect and shunning of the person who needs assistance is extreme enough, they are crippled. If all that comes from the church, and secondary wounding process includes a direct attack on the person's faith, the suffering person is just human and humans were not designed to withstand such a comprehensive and vicious attack.

I think we need to be very very very careful how we judge the response to suffering of other people. We do not know what is going on in ALL aspects of their lives, and what additional burdens were placed upon them by others. Shaming a person for not being more resilient to secondary wounding, medical and social neglect, and direct attacks upon their faith, is a third degree of wounding being placed upon that person.

We must not engage in this third degree of wounding against others or against ourselves. Sometimes merely getting to the other side is enough, no matter how messily we do it. We are human. God knows that. Humans need to remember that humans are human, too.

 

The problem that I have witnessed is that some churches are built on the assumption that lack of suffering is the reward of obeying the church. If the suffering person has been taught wrong, and then asks for clarification about these church beliefs during the suffering process, and is then told that their suffering is a result of their sin and maybe they were never saved at all, and maybe not even eligible to be saved, it is hard to keep faith. And yes I have seen this done, blatantly and subtly, in multiple churches.

One of the primary symptoms of PTSD is lack of faith. I think modern medicine has this a bit backwards. I think that when a person is able to keep their faith, they are far more resilient to PTSD. I think when the person's previous training did not correctly prepare them for suffering, they are more vulnerable.

Statistically, Christians are as likely to lose their faith during PTSD as any other religion. Researchers are not seeing anything different about American Christians, in faith loss, or immunity to PTSD. Caregivers will expect Christians to falter in exactly the same way as people of other or no faith. I believe this to be an indication of a widespread problem within the American church.

 

Galatians 6:1-10
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

 

When I was 8 my mom passed away. Six months earlier my grandmother passed away.
I prayed and read the New Testament every night.


Joy unspeakable full of glory

 

Most of the time I keep my mouth shut, because I do not like to even think of the possible answers.
Since sin entered the world everyone suffers.
So suffering is a result of sin and not many enjoy hearing that.
But since God is all powerful and knows everything then the suffering has to work out some way to glorify Him.