BY HANNAH HERBST

When something devastating (such as a cancer diagnosis) happens, many begin wondering why evil and suffering occur. I certainly did. My name is Hannah; I’m Julie and Joel’s daughter. I am a 23-year-old business owner. I was 17 when my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer and 19 when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. There was a tangible shift in all of our lives with my dad’s diagnosis, marked by a transition from constant work and “hustle culture” to chemotherapy treatments, doctor’s appointments, and both physical and emotional pain. 

When my parents were battling cancer, I was incredibly lost and hurt. I realized that the questions I was asking about evil, suffering, and eternity had always been there, but they had suddenly become more urgent. I now know that all evil, including cancer, must be considered in light of the entire world’s story. 

In the beginning God, who is infinite, eternal, and perfect, created the world and all that dwells in it, as described in Genesis chapters one and two. God created humans in His own image, meaning that we resemble God spiritually, physically, intellectually, emotionally, morally, and relationally. This is why we think, we create, we feel emotions, we have relationships and friendships, and we feel love, joy, anger, sadness, and pain. Although we do have resemblance to God, we resemble Him incompletely. God is infinite and eternal, while we are not; He is always present, unchangeable, powerful, faithful, holy, just, merciful, and gracious, while we are limited, constantly changing, and imperfect [2].

When God created the world and the first humans, He placed them in the Garden of Eden, where they had perfect fellowship with Him. He called all of creation, including the deepest of oceans and the highest of mountains, “good,” while He called us, as His image bearers, “very good.” We were fully known and loved by God from the beginning of time. The Garden of Eden was perfect: there was no sickness or death, no shame, and no suffering. G.K. Chesterton states, “And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.” God created order, logic, and consistency within the universe to allow for those good things to run wild. He gave humans dominion over all the Earth in Genesis 1:26, meaning they were free to creatively fill and develop the Earth. Along with this privilege, God also clearly defined the boundaries: “. . . the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat it, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). God’s boundaries were clearly life-giving, as their primary purpose was to prevent death and foster a relationship with Him.

In Genesis 3, Satan reveals himself in the garden. In John 8:44, Satan is described as “. . . a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him . . . he is a liar and the father of lies.” Satan entered into the picture “to steal, to kill, and to destroy” the first humans and their perfect fellowship with God (John 10:10). Satan ultimately convinces the first man and woman to reject God’s word, spurn God’s authority, deny God’s character, and take God’s place by sinning and eating the fruit that God commanded them not to eat [1,2]. Since the original rebellion of man and woman, sin has impacted every human being. 

Sin strikes at the basis of knowledge, causing us to question what is true. It strikes at the basis for moral standards, causing us to question what is right. And it gives a different answer to the question, “who am I?” by tempting us to become “like God” rather than submit to Him [1]. Immediately following humanity’s rebellion, the world changed: the image of God in us was marred and dimmed. The world was physically broken and spiritually controlled by Satan and “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6). Further, the human body was made imperfect for the first time; it was suddenly susceptible to disease, such as cancer (Romans 1:19). A world where we once walked with God perfectly became a world in which relationships are broken, people oppress and harm one another, and sickness harms the human body, mind, and spirit. The first two humans were banished from the Garden of Eden into a barren world ruled (temporarily) by Satan (Ephesians 6:10-20). 

All hope, however, was not lost. Immediately after the fall of humanity, God promised the first man and woman that He would defeat Satan, sin, and death, therefore reuniting humanity with God forever and ever through the woman’s offspring (Genesis 3:15). In this moment, God promised that suffering would occur, but He left us with hope that He would eventually have victory.

God reveals Himself to humanity through the Bible, which is divided into two major sections: the Old Testament (Genesis-Malachi) and the New Testament (Matthew-Revelation). The Old Testament tells the story of Israel, God’s chosen people. It is a story of loss and gain, of rebellion and restoration. Most of all, it tells the story of God, who is rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love. He pursues His people, regardless of how much they turn from Him, and He keeps all of His promises (Exodus 34:6-7).

After 39 books of God chasing His rebellious people down and 400 years of silence elapsing at the end of the Old Testament, we are introduced to a new character. A baby, born in a barn to a teenage girl, who was miraculously impregnated by God prior to marriage, as described in Luke 1:26-38. This baby, Jesus, is described as “the Word”:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it . . . the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1).

The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are parallel accounts of the life of this baby, the Word: Jesus of Nazareth. After He is baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus is led by God to be tempted by Satan for over forty days in the wilderness. Unlike the first man and woman in the Garden of Eden, Jesus does not sin once. Rather, He resists by quoting Deuteronomy, the Old Testament book that details Israel’s exile in the wilderness (Genesis 3 vs. Matthew 4). Jesus summons twelve disciples, or students, and travels across the Middle East, teaching massive crowds about God, and revealing the mystery of His kingdom and the unfolding story of reality. Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament law given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and He came to lay down His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Throughout His life, Jesus never claimed to be solely a good moral teacher, a prophet, a kind person, or even a saint. Rather, Jesus repeatedly claims to be God. We see this in John 14:7, Matthew 10:40, and Mark 14:60-62 where He claims equality with God; John 3:16, Matthew 10:39, and John 10:28 where He claims to give eternal life; and Mark 2:5, Matthew 9:2, and Luke 5:20 where He forgives sins.

C.S. Lewis clarifies Jesus’ identity, “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse . . . You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

At the end of his life, detailed in Mark 14, Jesus is betrayed and abandoned by nearly everyone He knew — including His twelve disciples, who lived with Him for three years, and His own family. He is sentenced to death by Roman authorities for repeatedly claiming to be God, and He dies the most brutal death imaginable at the time: public execution on a wooden cross [3]. In Mark 15, He was tortured, flogged, and literally nailed to a wooden crossbeam to die. There is not one known survivor of Roman crucifixion in the entire history of the practice. Jesus is pronounced dead, and His body is buried in a tomb. His twelve disciples flee and hide, and for a moment, Satan and death have the victory.

Three days later, something absolutely miraculous happens — something that had never occurred before in the entire history of humanity. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, appearing in bodily form to two women, and then to the twelve disciples, detailed in all four gospel accounts separately (see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Death is conquered, Satan is defeated, and Jesus Christ secured the victory in the most unlikely of fashions. Over 500 people witnessed Jesus’ return from the dead in a physical body that they could see and hug, as real as you and me.

Paul sums it up in 1 Corinthians 15: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures (the Old Testament), he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve [disciples]. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time . . . then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also.”

Thomas, as a good investigator, had to put his finger into the nail holes left in Jesus’ hands and the stab wound in His side before confessing, “. . . My Lord and my God!” and acknowledging that Jesus was indeed back from the dead (John 20:24-29). 

The remainder of the New Testament, from Acts to Revelation, details why Jesus’ life, death, resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven is of pivotal importance to each and every human life today. 

I was brought up by two Christian parents, living in America in a culturally Christian society, and therefore called myself a Christian. However, until December of 2020, after both of my parents had battled and conquered cancer, I had no idea what it meant to follow Jesus. I finished my final exams and graduated from college with my Bachelor of Science. I achieved many accomplishments that I had worked hard to attain; I thought they would fulfill me and give me value, but they failed to. On my graduation day, my Aunt Bonnie gave me a copy of Nabeel Qureshi’s book, Seeking Allah Finding Jesus. This book changed my life. Reading Nabeel’s testimony from his point of view challenged everything that I thought I knew about Christianity. Watching him transform into someone who takes up his cross daily to follow Jesus (Matthew 10:38) was incredible. Seeing the evidence for Christianity as he laid it out, both physical (Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection) and spiritual (transformation of lives through Christ) changed my heart. 

I quickly came to the realization that Christianity was not a “pray a prayer one time and you are no longer going to hell” type of faith. Christianity is a complete life transformation, described in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” 

The mark of a true Christian is someone who follows Jesus. A fantastic example of this is found in Acts 9. The story begins with Saul actively murdering massive amounts of Christians for their beliefs. In Chapter 9, he is walking on the road to Damascus, “. . . when suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he answered, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men around him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.”

Shortly after this, Saul regains his sight, and the Lord gives him a new name: Paul. This is the same Paul who wrote nearly half of the New Testament. We see another example of this in Genesis chapter 12 with Abram: “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.’ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him.’

The pattern repeats itself: the Lord tells both Saul and Abram to go, and they obey immediately. This is the only appropriate response to grace. The Lord will give Abram a new name too: Abraham, the same Abraham from which all of God’s chosen people descended, including Jesus Christ. 

There are many questions to wrestle with that may come out of these paragraphs. How do we know that Jesus really rose from the dead? How do we know that Jesus was really God? If God is good, why am I or my loved one suffering with cancer? Why does a good and just God allow evil to occur? How do I know that God exists? Why should Jesus rising from the dead hundreds of years ago change my life and the way that I live? Is Jesus really the only way to God? 

These are incredibly important questions, and there are many more where those came from. I encourage you not to sit with those questions, but to investigate them. Jesus made claims throughout His life in absolute statements that are either true or false, but cannot be both, and cannot be ignored. I encourage you to determine whether the Bible is truly the reliable word of God, and to read it. I encourage you to get plugged into a local church and ask your questions of people around you. Either Christianity is true at all times for all people everywhere, or it is completely false. Determine for yourself what this page means, and seek the answers. Believe me, it is worth it.

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” John 21:25.

References: 

1. Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology

2. David Platt’s Secret Church

3. Nabeel Qureshi: What was the Process of Crucifixion Like?