“If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?” it is a critical question. C.S. Lewis helps offer some answers to this question in his book entitled: The Problem of Pain. In this book, Mr. Lewis draws our attention to the following: the divine omnipotence, the goodness of the divine to name a few. Moreover, For the purpose of this book review, I will focus my attention on the points mentioned above. The problem of pain according to C.S Lewis is that God either lacks goodness or power or both. In other words, if God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were Almighty, He would be able to do what He wished. He goes on to set the stage of what will follow next by defining
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Is that, this question put human beings in the position of questioning what God can or should not do? We as mortal beings ought not to judge God because of the existence of pain. As Saint Augustine and other theologians have argued “God did not create evil,” Evil in and of itself does not have an ontology. Evil does not have a being; it acts in the misuse of human free will. Anything that is contrary to the will of God is evil, which means, in essence, the will that is not God’s will results in pain and also affects pain. The same approach applies to divine goodness. God’s goodness is not contingent upon our view of what is good, because what we consider as good may not be what God considers good after all. Though it is hard to explain the meaning of pain in this suffering world, our responsibility as Christ’s followers is to show love at all-time even when we are hurt. Scripture tells us that as children of God we are going to be persecuted for His name (Matthew 10), but it also assures us that even through our sufferings we should be strong and do not be discourage for God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). So when we console someone who has been affected with pain? We listen! Our job is not to justify the reason (s), but to give them a listening
Is that, this question put human beings in the position of questioning what God can or should not do? We as mortal beings ought not to judge God because of the existence of pain. As Saint Augustine and other theologians have argued “God did not create evil,” Evil in and of itself does not have an ontology. Evil does not have a being; it acts in the misuse of human free will. Anything that is contrary to the will of God is evil, which means, in essence, the will that is not God’s will results in pain and also affects pain. The same approach applies to divine goodness. God’s goodness is not contingent upon our view of what is good, because what we consider as good may not be what God considers good after all. Though it is hard to explain the meaning of pain in this suffering world, our responsibility as Christ’s followers is to show love at all-time even when we are hurt. Scripture tells us that as children of God we are going to be persecuted for His name (Matthew 10), but it also assures us that even through our sufferings we should be strong and do not be discourage for God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). So when we console someone who has been affected with pain? We listen! Our job is not to justify the reason (s), but to give them a listening