Philip Yancey on the Problem of Pain and Suffering

The Russell Moore Show

Christianity Today, Russell Moore

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 914 Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You may know Philip Yancey as the bestselling author of What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Where Is God When It Hurts?, and The Jesus I Never Knew. We’ve even had him on the show a few times to talk about these books and more. For decades, his writing has guided Christians who are wrestling with disappointment, doubt, and suffering. But in recent years, his own life has required deeper study into such things. In this episode, Philip Yancey joins Russell Moore for an honest conversation about suffering, lament, and the God who meets us in our pain. Yancey opens up about his own story, from the trauma of losing his father to living with cancer and Parkinson’s. He reflects on how those experiences have shaped his faith and why simplistic religious answers so often do more harm than good. Together, they talk about what the Book of Job does—and doesn’t—say about suffering, and why Jesus didn’t “solve” pain during his earthly ministry. Yancey explains why lament is not only permitted but essential, and what it means for the church to be a place of comfort rather than clichés.Plus: what surprising things led him to see the graciousness of God before writing the book(s) on it. If you’ve been sitting in the silence of God, or are grappling with the problem of pain in your own life, you may find comfort in this conversation. Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include: Where Is God When It Hurts? by Philip Yancey What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:50.8	That's order ct.com to subscribe today.
0:59.3	Good things get spoiled. That's the story of humanity. And God's solution to that,
1:07.4	he basically turned over to us, Jesus' followers, the ones who are now to present that
1:14.1	goodness of God. Hello, this is Russell Moore, and this is the Russell Moore Show, brought to you
1:21.2	by Christianity today. Here, we look for signposts in a strange time by standing fast to what really matters, kingdom over
1:30.0	culture wars, truth over tribalism, pilgrimage over partisanship, sanity over cynicism, witness
1:36.6	over winning, and Christ over everything.
1:39.9	Today we have a conversation to do just that.
1:55.2	The Apostle Paul said that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character,
1:59.8	and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint.
2:03.6	Today we're going to talk about two things that we don't usually think about together. And that's disappointment and grace. There are some of you who right
2:12.5	now are disappointed in your own lives with God. Some of you are disappointed with the church. Some of you
2:20.7	are disappointed with the way that your lives are going or the way the world is going. And some of
2:28.9	you are in a place right now where you're starting to wonder is the gracious God that I've read about and
2:38.4	that I've sung about really there when you see a picture that's very different, often in
	...

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