If I Were God, I'd End All The Pain

Suffering is one of the most common objections to faith in Jesus.  The argument is that a God who allows sickness, suffering and death is not a God worth worshipping, or that He is a weak God, unable to control His chaotic world.

I read If I Were God, I'd End All The Pain by John Dickson a while ago, and found it to be a book that doesn't shy away from the difficult questions regarding suffering.  Even the title alludes to this - we often think that we would do a better place as God.  Not only that, Dickson opens with his personal experience of suffering, sharing the story of how he struggled as a non-religious nine-year-old, dealing with the sudden death of his father in a plane accident.

The book is not comprehensive in dealing with suffering.  At only 70 pages, it cannot do the topic justice, nor does it claim to.  Dickson says this himself and includes a list of other books at the end for further reading.  But in just 70 pages, he does a good job of exploring other religions' view of suffering, the effects of human sin on each other and creation, and God's justice.  Most of all, he shows God to be a God who is not immune to suffering; rather that He has suffered Himself in the person of Jesus, and points to our need for a Saviour from our own sin.

It is a great book for Christians doubting God's goodness and justice, or for non-Christians seeing the concept of suffering as a barrier to faith in Christ.