In the ninth and final chapter of Ehrman’s book, God’s Problem, he says that often people write to tell him that “God is like a good parent, a heavenly father, and that he allows suffering into our lives as a way of building character or teaching us lessons about how we should live. There is, of course, biblical precedent for this view…” (263-264). But, he says that he didn’t devote an entire chapter to it because: “I don’t think it’s one of the most common explanations found in the Bible” (264). Ehrman mentions passages from Prov. 3:11-12 and Amos 4:6-11 as Biblical examples.
It’s interesting that Ehrman references only those passages. Here are some others.
Hebrews 12:5-11: And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Romans 5:4 says “endurance produces character.” In James 1:2-4 we read, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” In 2 Cor. 1:8-9 Paul tells us that the affliction he and others experienced taught him to “rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” Later Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:11, “For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” In v. 17 Paul says, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” Also, in 2 Cor. 12:7 he says that a “thorn was given me in the flesh” to “keep me from becoming conceited.”
Regardless of how many verses discuss it, we can add this to the many reasons that the Bible says God allows suffering. Apparently Ehrman’s biggest problem with this reason for suffering is (264):
This view would make sense to me if the punishment were not so severe, the discipline so harsh. Are we to believe that God starves people to death in order to teach them a lesson? That he sends epidemics that destroy the body, mental diseases that destroy the mind, wars that destroy the nation, in order to teach people a lesson in theology? What kind of father is he if he maims, wounds, dismembers, tortures, torments, and kills his children—all in the interest of keeping discipline? … Is the heavenly father that much worse than the worst father we can imagine? I don’t find this view very convincing.
Reading this made me remember how hard it was to get gum out of my foster-daughter’s hair. As I’ve said before, the Bible gives many reasons for suffering, and no one reason explains every instance of suffering.
First, and I think Ehrman would know this (or at least that he used to), most of the people who live on planet earth are not God’s children. You need to be born again to be adopted as God’s child. The horrible things that happen to those who are not God’s children are not God the Father disciplining His children. Terrible things happen for the other reasons that I discussed in my first 20 posts on the subject, including at times God allowing evil in an effort to encourage the lost to repent and so to become His children (see my post on this).
Second, related to the above and related to my post on the apocalyptic answer, Scripture reveals that those who reject Christ are actually Satan’s kids and Satan certainly doesn’t treat his kids very well. Consider this 1 John 3:8-10:
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
This is why Jesus told the Pharisees (the good people of the day) in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” Satan does not treat his kids well at all.
Third, as someone who has endured suffering in my life (including a very painful run-in with bone cancer—I’ll talk about that at length someday) and who has known many other Christians who have endured much suffering: I have always, in time, seen suffering work out for the believer’s good. In other words, Romans 8:28 holds true: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.”
Therefore, that suffering comes because God is disciplining His children is still another biblical reason for why we suffer.