By Stephen Russell-Lacy.
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We are bewildered and indignant at the widespread extent of apparently arbitrary and undeserved suffering in the world. And many ask the reason why the universal power of love and justice doesn’t stop suffering.
In the world of religion, this is known as the theodicy problem of why a powerful God of love does not stop innocent suffering. And there are several suggested theological solutions. This question can be an important stumbling block to religious faith. The traditional doctrines don’t seem to provide satisfactory answers. However, I believe the doctrine about God’s Providence in the writings of Swedenborg is now illuminating this matter.
Is God really uninvolved in the world?
Deism claims that God exists and created the world, but beyond that, God has no active engagement in the world except the creation of human reason, which enables us to find God by doing good. Scholar Robert Kirven points out that this doctrine likens the world to a watch made by a perfect watchmaker. It regards God as being in a kind of exalted retirement, watching the working of his watch which no longer needed his interference, or even his detailed attention.
“People, wanting to know how the watch works, or even how to adjust it for their own purposes, should learn science – or trust the scientists – rather than praying for Providence to a semi-retired God who was getting a little old to hear well anyhow.” (Robert Kirven)
In contrast, the Swedenborgian concept of the Divine, as the source of love, is continually active in the details of our lives. Divine providence provides us with fortunate co-incidences, spiritual healing, inspiration for compassion etc. In other words Providence counterbalances what is bad with what is good.
It’s just that we don’t see it working at the time. If we were to do so we would soon take it for granted.
A college professor once posed this scenario to a class: a certain man had syphilis. His wife had tuberculosis. Of their four children, one died and an incurable illness afflicted the other three. The doctors said it was terminal. The mother is pregnant. What should she do? Most of the students don’t hesitate to say she should have an abortion. Well said the professor ‘You just killed Beethoven.’
The concept of a hidden providence fully active in the world may be hard to accept when we view things from a worldly perspective. This is especially true when the suffering of disease is deadly and we see no triumph beyond the grace and dignity of the human spirit.
Is everything really in loving hands of Providence?
Childish faith
Imagine having grown up complacently believing that God would never allow anything bad to happen to you because God loves you and looks after you.
But then your encounter with the difficult side of life challenges this immature belief that God will take care of everything nicely. Inevitably, something going wrong confronts such a faith. Some believers may react by turning a blind eye to suffering around them. Eventually, however, they have to notice not only their own problems but what everyone else can see in plain sight about the affliction of many people.
Providence as Father Christmas
If we cling to an image of God as a sort of cosmic Santa Claus, then faith cannot deepen or mature. We will likely come to the startling realisation that God is not who we thought he was. Do we then reject God or allow our conception of who he is to change? This can be a painful process. If you are familiar with the Bible, you may be interested to know that expecting things to be as we want them to be, does not fit in with its message. When we catch ourselves demanding that life treat us fairly, we might remember Jesus’s unjust suffering on the cross. This memory can curtail our attitude of entitlement.
Swedenborgian account of Providence
A Swedenborgian view is that Providence offers us all that we need for our spiritual welfare as long as we learn from the trials of life how to accept it. God doesn’t enforce what he wants for us. Instead, he encourages us to take responsibility for any difficulties we cause around us and try to be a better person. God cannot rid of us our selfish faults without our help.
“In all Christian churches the accepted teaching is that before we come to take Holy Communion we should examine ourselves, see and admit our sins, and repent by refraining from them and rejecting them…Faith apart from repentance is not really faith” (Emanuel Swedenborg)
We do the work of repentance so that Providence can provide spiritual growth, enlightenment and everlasting happiness.
For the Old Testament figure of Job, having to suffer his pitiable state covered with boils was a huge challenge to his sublime faith in love and justice. He concluded that justice would only take place eventually in some life beyond death.
Likewise, Swedenborgian writer Bruce Henderson has suggested that when someone ravaged by disease is dying, we tend to think that with death he or she at least will finally be free from pain and suffering and will find peace. Also, that little children who die, automatically go to a better place. In addition, we also like to believe that the aged and infirm, who often have all kinds of physical and mental issues, will be made whole again and live normal lives in a heavenly life after death. That is because we have a perception, if not yet a confident faith, that God’s kingdom is beyond all the trials of this world.
In line with this outlook, is Swedenborg’s inner mystical experience. This he reports for example in his book Heaven and Hell. People who died tragically, due to external causes not of their own making, later awaken in the other world to a sphere of love and peace with no memory of fear, suffering, violence, pain or terror.
Is suffering really part of God’s plan?
A man asked some religious people about suffering and was told “It’s God’s will” … The man angrily replied, “What possible good could come from making my wife so sick and killing my child?” They said, ”Well, you don’t always understand the plan.” He said, “I’m sorry, but there is no ultimate plan to justify this. Hitler had a plan.”
One view is that there is nothing that happens on this earth unless it’s God’s will. But when we think about these words, we soon realise that they are mistaken. Are we really saying that murder, war crimes, atrocities, famine, disease, etc are all God’s will?
Swedenborg’s view is that the selfishness of human beings with its resulting suffering is not what God desires. It is not what he plans for us although he may foresee it happening.
Are natural disasters really acts of God?
To describe a disease or natural disaster as an ‘act of God’ reflects a desire to find some intention behind it. We feel we can’t blame government or society so we blame God. But the phrase is inappropriate if we happen to think of God as having limitless love and wisdom rather than filled with angry judgement.
An alternative view is that God does not create natural disasters. Humanity being bad as well as good, selfish as well as altruistic, having vice as well as virtue, I suggest at times distorts and corrupts the creation of what is naturally good.
According to my interpretation of Swedenborg’s writings, natural disasters occur because the outer world of nature mirrors the general state of the human spirit. So we get a mixture of storms and calm, volcano and times of non-eruption, drought and needed rain.
The alchemists said,
“As above, so below; as below, so above.”
This saying embodies the idea that there is always a correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of Being and Life.
Is suffering really due to God’s punishment of the individual?
Belief in individual consequences
Many of those who believe in reincarnation, assume that people who suffer terrible misfortune do so because of what they did in their past lives. And so they suggest that wrongdoing committed by them in a former life created bad karma causing a disability in this one. Critics point out that this is being unbelievably insensitive and hurtful. It is seen as judgmental to blame victims of disease for their suffering. Glen Hoddle lost his job as England football team manager he suggested this.
Theologian, William Neil points out that when the Old Testament story of Job was written, people then believed that one’s wrong-doing caused personal misfortune. They thought this whether the individual admitted or concealed their conduct. People also thought a virtuous life deserved material prosperity.
Likewise, some western world religious people still say about suffering that God meters out punishment for one’s sins. Critics see this as a condemnation of those judged to be behaving badly.
Apparent arbitrariness of Providence
However, we don’t always get our seemingly just deserts. A drunken driver or a badly maintained aircraft can be the sole cause of mayhem to innocent passengers. Why should they deserve to suffer?
Likewise, Job noticed criminals who got off scot-free and the wicked who did not perish; they often prospered and grew fat. God did not strike them down. They died in comfort in their beds. He didn’t believe he deserved the boils he was smitten with from head to foot. So he dared to question whether there is any moral order in the universe at all.
Providence as just and wise
The more Job thought of it, the prosperity of the undeserving baffled him as did his own misfortune. Yet at heart Job still assumed that the government of the universe was in wise hands.
Similarly, today many don’t know whether to rail against God for causing their misery or turn to him for help in prayer.
Research has found that poor mental health is linked to seeing one’s troubles as God’s punishment. Studies have reported this finding several times. This is not surprising. How could anyone feel a healthy sense of trust and hope in an image of an unloving higher power?
If the God of love and wisdom has compassion for all, then there is no desire to see anyone hurt even those who engage in wicked acts. We may recall the New Testament stories of the shepherd looking for the lost sheep to return them to the fold and the father who celebrates the return of the son who has squandered his money. So according to this way of thinking when we do suffer, there is no divine punishment. Instead, we can be accepted back into the fold and receive mercy when we are spiritually lost or bring problems on ourselves.
In line with this, Swedenborg maintains that God wills no one to suffer. God punishes no one. Good brings its own reward, and selfishness its own penalty.
” Anyone (in the next life) … who does good to another with all his heart receives good in like measure; and therefore one who does evil to another with all his heart receives evil in like measure. For good done with all one’s heart carries its own reward together with it, and evil done with all one’s heart carries its own punishment together with it.” (Emanuel Swedenborg)
Does mankind as a whole really deserve God’s punishment?
The belief in original sin
There is a view that the current covid pandemic is a curse on us all. This firmly suggests a punitive concept of judgmental deity.
In line with this attitude is a Christian view we sometimes hear. This is that suffering is present because the first humans broke the divine-human relationship. This doctrine maintains that the biblical story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise explains our suffering. Due to this so-called ‘original sin’, somehow, we all are due to be punished – as if we were all guilty of being rotten to the core. One implication of this is that even an innocent baby deserves to be born with disease or deformity. Critics comment that this view is indeed one of a cruel deity.
Atonement
Others have thought that Christ’s suffering on the cross has taken the place of our punishment. So it seems God needs appeasing. A belief in a vindictive side of deity is shown by trickster gods found in polytheistic belief systems and by the literal meaning of descriptions of God in the Old Testament as vengeful and angry.
However, according to Swedenborg’s theology, the suffering of Christ was not to placate any vengeful deity as some have believed. People made the mistake of assuming that Christ took upon himself a punishment due to mankind. It could not be true if God has no desire to punish.
An alternative view is that God’s anger is only an appearance to suit the limited comprehension of the readers of the Old Testament. Likewise, the anger of a loving parent is only surface deep. It is expressed because of the desire to zealously protect the child who wanders into danger.
New understanding of the Fall
A different understanding of the Fall is to say over history the relationship between humanity and God has become gradually damaged. Over many generations we have fallen for the illusion that one needs to rely on oneself and one’s bodily senses for happiness rather than look to and follow divine higher power. As a result, over history there has been an accumulated tendency in humanity towards pride, corruption of true principles, and greed for resources needed by others. So much so that today we are today living in a self-centred and materialistic culture – albeit mixed in with some naturally good tendencies.
Yet it would be very unfair to say that the individual today is guilty and should suffer because of any past misbehaviour of his or her ancestors.
Likewise, it is unreasonable to blame the individual for their cultural background. After all, a court of law would not condemn anyone for being born into a criminal family but would rather listen to the evidence regarding his actual conduct with an open mind.
Summary of Swedenborg’s religious view
Suffering of innocent people and Providence
According to Swedenborg’s framework of ideas, a wise spirit of love is constantly active in the minds of people. We can choose whether or not to be empowered by it. The presence of love and light can be thought of as the Lord God who does not want humanity to suffer. And so divine Providence seeks to counterbalance the forces of selfishness which are the causes of suffering.
Swedenborg maintained that we attract selfish as well as altruistic thoughts because of our inherited self-centred tendencies. The Divine Being of love does not wish to magically change us. Instead, this Lord wants us to be free to choose for ourselves to follow his path towards inner well-being.
There is no way we could be led out of an inclination to put self first if the power behind the universe constantly prevented our self-centred, greedy, unkind thoughts and intentions. For this reason, selfish tendencies in this life can result in suffering of innocent people.
The Lord does not punish anyone for their misdeeds. We bring punishment upon ourselves by our envy, malevolence etc.
Suffering of Jesus Christ
The authorities in Judea cruelly killed Jesus Christ. The reason is that those in great selfishness could not abide by the good life that he lived and the ideas that he taught. These teachings were completely foreign to the proud, self-righteous hypocritical life of the Pharisees.
Many people cannot understand why Christ allowed himself to be crucified. Is one reason that goodness must show itself to be greater than the power of hate? It is easy to be good when there is no suffering and hatred present. But can goodness continue when everyone is despising you and killing you?
When the soldiers had driven nails into His hands and feet and hoisted Him upon a large wooded cross Jesus even said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”. He did not return evil for evil, as perhaps we would have done. He did not retaliate. And so he was faithful to His own teaching, “Love your enemies”
In Jesus Christ, it was the power of the creative spirit of love and light that came into the world to meet hate on its own ground. One where the natural selfish desires of people could inflict pain and bodily death but could not extinguish the power of love itself.
Copyright 2022 Stephen Russell-Lacy
Author of Heart, Head & Hands Swedenborg’s perspective on emotional problems
