A Systematic Study of Suffering and Death in Christianity

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Christian Beliefs on Suffering
Christian Beliefs on Death
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

Suffering and death are issues of major concern in Christianity today. The meaning conveyed by these two terms is dependent on the perspective from which an individual views it. The ordinary meaning of suffering is the process of undergoing physical or mental pain.

On the other hand, the meaning of suffering from a Christian view is similar to the ordinary view, but differs in the way Christians explain its origin. Christians earnestly accept as true the idea that suffering comes as a way of testing one’s faith and as a punishment for of sin. Christians also connect human suffering to the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross and believe that it saved humanity. As such, Christians should emulate Jesus and endure the suffering they undergo.

Death, on the other hand, is a subject matter whose interpretation depends on personal judgment. The usual meaning of death is a stage of life whereby a living thing seizes to exist physically. In other words, it is a state of existence associated with detachment of the spirit from the flesh. The Christian point of view about death articulates that, death is a stage of existence during which the soul and flesh exist separately.

To distinguish this view from the normal perspective, it further articulates that there is life after death, which can be a rebirth or eternal life. Eternal life implies that the spirit reunites with the soul that it originally paired with to form a new everlasting life. Rebirth implies that after separation of body and soul at death, the spirit joins another body to form a new life. Christian belief in life after death originates from the time of Jesus, who died on the cross and came back to life three days later.

They argue that even if the flesh dies, there is a comforting hope that another life awaits after death. An in-depth understanding of Christian suffering and death is essential in daily Christian life and existence. As such, church leaders should teach and disseminate the doctrines that underscore this understanding to the Christian community. Although many myths that explain the existence of suffering and death do exist, this essay will only focus on suffering and death from a Christian point of view.

Christian Beliefs on Suffering

There exist six major perspectives that try to explain the meaning and existence of suffering in Christianity: First, the Bible exploits well the subject of suffering; it does not leave it to the believers’ own judgment as the other religions do. The book of Job for example exploits all ideas that a Christians needs to know about suffering (Brown 1997, 39). In this book, Job undergoes a series of sufferings ranging from disease, death of his livestock to his own family.

His wife tries to convince him to abandon God who has seen him suffer without intervening. Job, however, ignores her and decides to endure his suffering. In the end, God not only takes away Job’s suffering, he restores his health and gives him back all the property and livestock that he had lost. Job’s story tells Christians that regardless of how much or how long they suffer, God is aware about it and all they need to do is to endure for His time of intervention will surely come.

Secondly, it is common knowledge that God made humans in his own image and made them possess some of his characters; a privilege that animals do not possess. Like God, humans possess traits such as love, anger, happiness, jealous, sympathy, and pride. This explains God’s love for humanity.

Besides God giving humans all these character traits that are inherent in Him, He also gives them the freedom of choosing whether to embrace His love or ignore it (Timothy 1995, 60). As it is evident all over the world, people have instead turned their backs on God and embraced worldly pleasures. In other words, they have decided to shun heaven to embrace hell (Isa. 53:6 New International Version). Hell is a destiny preserved for sinners and involves eternal suffering.

The argument here is that people are responsible for their own suffering. Take for example a smoker; such a person knows very well the dangers of smoking to his/her health because besides the bible discouraging this habit, the cigarette packets have warnings printed on them. If such a person’s health deteriorates due to this habit, then it is clear that s/he actually anticipated it.

This truth stands because s/he decided to ignore the apparent smoking effects and chose to suffer the consequences. Other habits like inebriation, fornication, crime, and adultery fall in the same bracket as smoking. Therefore, for one to avoid suffering in hell, s/he should embrace God’s love. People should also utilize their freedom to choose in embracing the doctrines that govern Christianity.

Thirdly, Christians believe that sin and suffering are closely related. In other words, human beings suffer because of the sins they commit. The freedom to chose bestowed upon humans has led to sinfulness that has also brought forth suffering. In other words, the suffering that people undergo emanates from people misusing their freedom to choose.

Humans, for example, despite God-given authority over the rest of nature, have neglected the environment and as a result brought about suffering in form of global warming. Some religious sects like Hinduism “have chosen to ignore the clear drawing a line between evil and suffering” (Brown 1997, 39). This negligence has played a major role in many believers going astray. Since it is supposedly hard to separate good and bad, all humans have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

God himself has not punished people for their sinful nature but one day He surely will as promised in His word. Making a choice that will not lead to suffering depends on one’s ability to distinguish good and evil. God gives Christians some hope; He guarantees them the possibility of obviating suffering brought by evil. He has sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to humanity so that through him, perishing souls may find safety.

Fourthly, Christians argue that God is aware of the suffering that they undergo. The Bible says that though Jesus was the son of God, He himself is God. Jesus knows much about suffering because he actually went through it. The book of (Isaiah 53:3) describes Him as a man associated with sorrows and suffering. Right from the time of His birth, King Herod wanted to kill Jesus. On his mission to “preach the gospel and save humankind, Jesus underwent suffering, even worse than normal human beings do” (Miller 1994, 13).

People mocked him for being a friend to outcasts in the society. This included people like tax collectors, prostitutes, and thieves. At times, His close friends for example, Peter, betrayed him. Desire for worldly treasures obligated Judas to betray Jesus for only thirty pieces of silver. Jesus endured more sufferings when the Pharisees tortured him, forcing him to carry his own cross to Golgotha.

Worst suffering came at the point where they crucified him alongside two thieves. Jesus endured pain inflicted through nailing, not forgetting to mention the pain of a spear on his ribs. This truly explains that Jesus went through suffering as humans do, even though He was the son of God. From the Biblical history, the scripture says that God entered humanity through Jesus Christ. As such, through Jesus, He also knows all about Christians’ suffering.

The fifth belief of Christians about Suffering is that Jesus’ death was meant to set them free from sin. If people trust in Him and honor his name, then Jesus will dwell inside them and grant them life full of holiness. He will then transform their lives and make them worthy to spread God’s word. He does this by subjecting believers to suffering. If anything, if Jesus being righteous suffered, man in his fallen nature must suffer.

From this perspective therefore, suffering is not bad but just a way through which Jesus transforms people’s lives. The bible stipulates that it is God’s desire to mold the lives of Christians by subjecting them to trials. As they try to overcome these trials, His name receives glorification and those who overcome become better people. As such, suffering is not bad and God allows it for purposes of glorifying His name and for the benefit of humans.

Lastly, Christians believe in the final elimination of suffering from existence. The bible says that the death and resurrection of Jesus implies that he overcame death so that all humans may receive redemption from sin. They hope for that time that will mark the second coming of Jesus. During this time, there will be no more death, pain or crying in anguish (Rev. 21:4 NIV). People will live in harmony; they will be full of love for one another for they shall have triumphed over evil, having overcome temptations of this world.

The bible explains how the new heaven and earth will be; it will be full of righteous people worthy to stand for and speak in favor of God’s name (II Pet. 3:13 NIV). However, nobody knows when the time of elimination of suffering from the face of the earth is due. The closest clue that believers have is that this time is near, actually nearer than people have ever thought before.

This belief stands because people have already seen or witnessed the signs that the bible says would signify his second coming. These include the emergence of many churches and false prophets; occurrence of many calamities like the recent Japanese landslide that displaced millions of people and killed thousands of them; presence of civil wars, widespread immorality, and massive lawlessness.

Thus, all is upon everyone to prepare himself or herself for the second coming of Jesus so that when the hour comes, Jesus counts them among the few chosen ones who will occupy the new heaven that is void of suffering. For those who shall have not prepared themselves, there is only one destination: hell, the lake of burning sulphur, for eternal suffering.

Christian Beliefs on Death

Having exhausted on what Christians believe about suffering, the rest of this essay will focus on Christian belief about death. At many instances, people have really wondered what death is all about. It is also not clear where one’s spirit goes after death. However, the Christian perspective explores every aspect of death from theological point of view to examine what God requires humans to know about it (Kilgallen 1989, 25).

Death, as already defined, is a state of existence in which the flesh and the soul separate. After death, Christians believe that the soul goes either to heaven or to hell. Heaven has characteristics such as eternal life, full of peace, love, and happiness. Some denominations have defined hell as the final or complete state of death of the spirit that completely excludes an individual from the presence of God physically as well as spiritually.

Death can be in two forms: spiritual or physical. Physical death means the ordinary separation of the body and soul, leaving the body to rot away whereas spiritual death, which is a consequence of sin, means the separation of one’s spirit from God. Believers in spiritual death also call it the second death because besides one dying physically, the spiritual part that establishes link with God for those who die in Christ is also absent.

Only God has” control over death and knows when and how every human being is going to meet his/her death” (Lund 1990). It came because of sin as brought out in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. After the snake lied to Eve, she in turn convinced Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. This action angered God who decided to curse humanity by introducing death, a thing they have no control over.

Therefore, whether physical or spiritual, death came in as a punishment for sin. From the apostolic books in the New Testament, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, one is able to learn about the life of Jesus on earth until he met his death on the cross. His death was not ordinary death because he rose to life again three days later. Through his death, humanity received redemption from sin.

One mystery that people have been unable to ascertain about death is whether there is life after death. This is because no living example that can prove the existence of life beyond death. Thus, to many people, life after death is a notion rather than an experience. The theological point of view however gives a clearer dimension about life after death.

One may wonder why God leaves good people to die if death came because of sin. However, the answer to this is simple; even though good people die, they encounter new life after death in which they live eternally in happiness while bad people experience eternal suffering.

Though it came as a punishment for sin in the Garden of Eden, God, through the holy bible and scriptures reveals that, “so long as people live sanctified lives, they are able to overcome death as Jesus did on the cross” (Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy1990, 30). Another example from the Bible that illustrates that God has power over death is the act of Jesus raising Lazarus whose body people believed had already decomposed.

The son of God actually brought Lazarus back to life so that all may see and acknowledge His power over death. The Bible also reveals that besides Jesus, Enoch and Elijah surpassed death and went to heaven. The Bible goes on and explains the requirements for one to overcome death. The requirement is simple; s/he should be born again, live a holy life and believe that there is life beyond death.

Conclusion

People around the world view death and suffering differently and at any instance, the interpretation depends on the perspective from which an individual is viewing it. Christianity has its own view of suffering and death that differs from the ordinary view and views from other denominations.

About suffering, Christians believe that it is a consequence of sin. They further believe that God allows His people to suffer so that they can grow in faith and his name be glorified. He gave humans the freedom to take or disregard His love but many have decided to ignore it. Interestingly, people conclude that humans choose to suffer directly or indirectly through their actions. Whether their suffering is because of their own actions or God’s choice, endurance is inevitable.

About death, Christians say that it originated from sin. This occurred in the Garden of Eden in which God cursed humankind for giving in to temptation. Death can be physical or spiritual depending on what an individual believes. Different denominations have different views about death and life after death but Christian doctrines articulate that there is life after death, only if one dies in Christ, meaning that he/she adhered to Christian doctrines before death.

Reference List

Brown, Raymond E. 1997. An Introduction to the New Testament. New York: Doubleday.

Brown, Raymond E. et al. 1990. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Kilgallen, John J. 1989. A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark. New York: Paulist Press.

Lund, Gerald N. 1990. “The Fall of Man and His Redemption.” Ensign. Web.

Miller, Robert J. 1994. The Complete Gospels. Sonoma: Polebridge Press.

Timothy, George. 1995. Theology of the Reformers. USA: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

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