It's a common question for people to ask: if there really is a loving God, then why is there suffering? Now, especially, it's a question people are asking as COVID-19 spreads, and it's one that apologists at RZIM are answering.

Dr. Vince Vitale is the Director of the Americas at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. In an address with fellow RZIM apologists, Vitale speaks on the subject but is also quick to point out that his answer is not an exhaustive answer on the topic.

 

He points to Jesus' example with Lazarus' death when faced with the reality of suffering. Before answering Lazarus' sisters' questions and accusations surrounding the death Jesus simply wept and grieved with them. Vitale says above all, that is an important first step when addressing suffering.

"Could it be the case that we as humanity as a whole are living separated from, outside the context of the relationship that we were most destined for?"

The next is the problem of what is known in philosophy as 'natural evil.' Things like the coronavirus fall under this category, Vitale says. "Can you get a moral category like evil out of something which is just physical. and natural? And if it's evil then is it really natural? If it's genuinely evil wouldn't that make it unnatural and not natural?"

Vitale says he often finds himself asking the question if this problem actually points towards God rather than away from Him. "If it points towards a moral lawgiver who can be the ground of a moral standard of a moral reality who can give us a category like moral evil. And, also, towards a narrative that makes some sense of the fact this seems very unnatural. This does not seem like the way things are supposed to be."

 

Another perspective, Vitale says, is that "natural evils are not intrinsically evil in and of themselves." He uses the example of watching a powerful tornado from a safe distance. "It can be majestic to behold. It can be beautiful to behold. If you put a virus under a microscope it could be beautiful to behold." Vitale says that viruses are not necessarily bad. "The vast majority of viruses are not having a bad result, they're having a good result. In fact, if we didn't have viruses then bacteria would replicate so quickly that it would cover the entire earth, and nothing could inhabit the earth, including us."

A different question to ask

Vitale says it raises the question "is the problem the fundamental natural features of our universe or is the problem the way that we are functioning in our environment? Could it be the case that we're not functioning, our bodies, the way we're supposed to in the environment that we're in?"

He says that when a feral child is removed from the community and relationship that they were intended for then they do not function how they were meant to.

Perhaps, Vitale says, viruses, illness, and suffering simply show that creation is living outside of a relationship that it was originally intended for.

"Could it be the case that we as humanity as a whole are living separated from, outside the context of the relationship that we were most destined for? And we're not operating properly in our environment?"

'A hope to hold on to'

One final problem, Vitale says, is that if the world operated in a way opposite than it does now - that is one that is free from suffering - the likely reality would be that we simply would not exist.

"And, as a Christian, I don't think God likes that result because I think one of the things He values about this world, even though I think He hates the suffering within it, is that it is a world that allowed for you to come to exist, and allowed for me to come to exist, and allowed for every person we see walking down the street to come to exist. I believe that God intended you before the foundation of the world. That He knit you together in your mother's womb. That He knew you before you were born, He desired you, and this was a world that allowed you to come to exist and be invited into a relationship with Him.

 

"Ultimately the reason that I trust God through something like the coronavirus is not because of philosophy but because I believe the Christian God came and He suffered with us. I believe that in the person of Jesus, that is God's way of saying 'I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.' And, as the words of Jesus himself, 'Here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and eat with him and he with me.' That's the hope that we have. The hope of a beautiful intimacy that can be everlasting, and a hope that I believe we need to hold on to in this time."