Im a Russian Orthodox Christian and im a very political person like i breathe and thrive on poilitics and i have conservative and right views but as i go down the rabbit hole it just gets to a point like who can you trust and i learn everyone has a mission/agenda and its making me question what we are allowed to know or not and this is applying to christianity but i still ground my views in jesus
When people ask, "Why does God allow suffering?", they are asking one of the oldest and most difficult questions in human history. Christianity does not claim that suffering is good in itself, nor does it teach that God enjoys seeing people suffer. In fact, the Bible repeatedly shows God's compassion for those who are suffering. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, healed the sick, fed the hungry, and comforted the afflicted.
The Orthodox Christian understanding begins with the belief that God created the world good. In the beginning there was no death, corruption, disease, or evil. Humanity was created in communion with God and was given free will because genuine love cannot exist without freedom. If human beings were programmed to obey God without choice, they would not truly love Him. Love requires the possibility of rejection.
Because humanity was given freedom, humanity was also capable of sin. Orthodox Christianity teaches that suffering is not something God originally intended for creation but is a consequence of the Fall. When humanity turned away from God, the source of life, corruption and death entered the world. The world became damaged and disordered. Much of the suffering we experience today is connected either directly or indirectly to human sin, whether our own sins, the sins of others, or the fallen condition of creation itself.
Some people respond by asking, "If God is all-powerful, why doesn't He simply stop all suffering?" The problem with this objection is that much suffering is connected to human choices. If God prevented every act of evil before it happened, human freedom would become meaningless. A world in which murder, theft, hatred, abuse, greed, and every other evil choice were made impossible would not be a world with genuine freedom. It would be a world of moral robots.
Another important point is that suffering often produces virtues that could not exist without it. Courage cannot exist without danger. Patience cannot exist without difficulty. Forgiveness cannot exist without wrongdoing. Compassion cannot exist without pain. Perseverance cannot exist without hardship. While suffering is not good in itself, God can use suffering to transform people and draw them closer to Him.
The strongest Christian response, however, is not merely philosophical. Christianity teaches that God Himself entered into human suffering. In Jesus Christ, God experienced rejection, betrayal, mockery, pain, and death. The Christian God is not a distant observer who watches suffering from Heaven while remaining untouched by it. He willingly shared in human suffering. The Cross demonstrates that God understands suffering from the inside.
Furthermore, Christianity teaches that this life is not the whole story. If death is the end of existence, then suffering often appears meaningless. But if eternal life exists, then present suffering is not the final chapter. Orthodox Christianity teaches that God will ultimately judge evil, heal creation, wipe away every tear, and defeat death itself. The Resurrection of Christ is viewed as the beginning of that victory.
Many people assume that suffering disproves God's existence, but suffering actually raises questions for atheism as well. If the universe is merely the result of blind physical processes, then suffering has no ultimate purpose or meaning. Under a purely materialistic worldview, pain is simply an unfortunate byproduct of nature. Christianity at least offers an explanation for why suffering exists, why human beings recognize evil as evil, and how suffering can ultimately be redeemed.
The Orthodox Christian answer is therefore not that suffering is good, nor that every instance of suffering has an explanation we can fully understand. Rather, it is that God created a good world, human freedom introduced sin and corruption, God allows freedom because love requires it, God can bring good even out of suffering, God Himself entered into suffering through Jesus Christ, and God promises that suffering and death will not have the final word.