The Problem of Pain - The Epicurean Paradox

Wikipedia describes the Epicurean Paradox (attributed to the Greek Philosopher Epicurus, 341-270 BC) as follows:

• If God knows everything and has unlimited power, then He has knowledge of all evil and has the power to put an end to it. But if He does not end it, He is not completely benevolent.
• If God has unlimited power and is completely good, then He has the power to extinguish evil and wants to extinguish it. But if He does not do it, its knowledge of evil is limited, so He is not allknowing.
• If God is all-knowing and totally good, then He knows of all the evil that exists and wants to change it. But if He does not, it must be because He is not capable of changing it, so He is not omnipotent.

This seemingly logical trilemma is based on a fallacious assumption, to wit, that God operates with the same limitations in logical space that we do. But the Bible makes it clear that God exists in a transcendent, eternal dimension that we cannot understand. He is outside of time, and His infinite access to every person, event, and location enable Him to make decisions and take actions for the best possible outcome from His eternal perspective. Our definition of benevolent is earthly.

In practical terms, when we look at suffering and ask God to intervene, and He doesn’t, we rule out lack of knowledge because we told Him about it. What does this mean? There are at least three possibilities:

• It is the result of a decision or decisions that people have made. If God were to trump every bad or evil decision made by people by overriding its results, that would effectively eliminate free will from humans. Reaping what we and others sow may seem cruel, but that is how God intends humankind to learn and grow. If others inflict suffering on someone, the human race is responsible for mitigating it as best they can and bringing justice. For example, World War II and the Nuremberg trials.
• God may intend that His children (us!) learn and grow through suffering. This not a school that we normally want to enroll in, but God from His transcendent perspective knows when it is the best way for us to learn, things like compassion, patience, character, and faith. We can look at the suffering of Job, and see that he seriously questioned God’s character. His ‘comforters’ bought into the legalistic school that Job was reaping what he sowed. Job knew he hadn’t sowed the seeds of everything that happened, so it was unfair. In the end, God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind and revealed both His transcendence and Job’s innocence. The rest of Job’s life hints at what he had learned.(Job 42:13-17) 
• A third possibility is that God simply wants to deepen a person’s relationship with Him, sometimes  called intimacy with Christ. When we are in great pain, it opens our hearts to turn to the Lord more fully, because the pain blocks our mental functioning from being distracted. Of course painkillers can weaken or nullify this pathway, but sometimes God sovereignly chooses it for us.

There are likely other paradigms fully consistent with God’s perfect love and omnipotence, based on His transcendent sovereignty. We need the recognition that we possess none of these ourselves, to be humble enough to hear His voice in the storm so that we can receive what He has planned for us.