In view of the covid-19, What is the biblical view of pain and sufferings? In light of that, how should we respond?
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does God allow suffering and evil? These are questions central to the Christian faith, and questions that have not gone unexplored in the cannon of Christian philosophy. Job, Augustine, C.S. Lewis, and others have contributed to the ongoing dialogue surrounding this issue. For some, stories of personal suffering, persecution, and martyrdom provide a rallying point and reminder of the pain Christ faced at the cross and the price of our sin; others suggest suffering is a character-building endeavor. One thing is sure: suffering is an important element of the Christian faith. As the apostle Paul wrote: “ I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things” (Philippians 3:8, NIV).
-christianitytoday.com
When it comes to the subject of pain and suffering, one of the example that we can look into, aside from Jesus Christ Himself, is Job.
Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
He is a good man, yet God allowed Satan to test Job. On which Job lost almost everything due to natural, and man made calamities. whirlwind, lightning strikes, raids by bandits, he eventually got sick. In all of these cases, God is not directly responsible for the suffering, he only allowed it. So ultimately, God is still the one in control. And the same principle holds even to this day.
Near the end of the book, God answered Job.
Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
Job 38:2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
Job 38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
This shows that human knowledge and understanding is so limited that we can barely fathom what God’s plan is.
In the case of current crisis.
In the grand scheme of things, COVID-19 might have save more lives that what it has taken. We’ve seen that the global lockdown drastically improved the air quality around the world.
According to WHO air pollution cause about 7 million premature deaths every year divided by 12 months so that is 583,333 a month. The global response to this pandemic has a lot of other positive effects on which it will be too many to mention.
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