Christians are frequently criticized for believing in a God that allows, or even promotes, evil, pain, and suffering. The critics make the case that the attributes of God are inconsistent with the presence of evil in the world. How can we defend an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent God when pain and suffering are so omnipresent? The problem is we have been coerced into defending a God that we don’t actually believe in. We need to be careful when we argue for a God of the omnis because these principals are often used as if they exist outside God and are standards to which He must be held. We must be careful not to hold God captive to the Greek god of philosophy.

The divine omnis, however, can be helpful when trying to describe the character of God but we need to remember that they are incomplete if we neglect  the most important omni of all, omnisuffering. We Christians are not deists, we do not believe in a remote God that got things started and then took a nap. We have a God that entered into this world of pain and suffering. A God who took on all (omni) the sin of the world in order to restore the broken relationship with those created in His image.

When they try to pin us to the wall with the problem of evil we need to help them see that our God has already been nailed there. The very complaint that they try to prick our conscience with has already been pierced by a cross shaped spear. If Jesus is the true image of God then we cannot neglect the fact that He was also a suffering servant. What other religion or philosophy can claim that the object of their devotion suffered on their behalf? The next time someone tries this tactic tell them that in the spirit of full disclosure you need to add the most important attribute of all, omnisuffering. We have the answer, so what we really need to do is turn the tables and ask our critics why pain and evil exists in their world, and if they say there is no God, then we need to ask them why they even care.

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