Cause and Effect – Buddhist perspective versus Christian perspective

When I speak to Buddhists, they bombastically declare that they believe in Cause and Effect as if no one else does.

However, after listening carefully to them, one will come to the conclusion that their concept of Cause and Effect is different from the scientific explanation of observed natural forces causing predictable outcomes.

Cause and Effect, in Buddhist terms, means that good actions lead to favourable outcomes. This extends across lifetimes. In other words, if one does something wrong in this life, the effects may only reach one many lifetimes later. We could restate Buddhist Cause and Effect as, "You create your own suffering." When earthquakes, car accidents and other things harm us, it is because we deserve it.

They say that everyone has a 'sin debt' from previous lives. No one knows how heavy this sin debt is at present. The most that one can hope for in this life is somehow to work off some of that sin debt whilst not gathering new ones.

This leads to fatalism. There is no sense in taking precautions such as putting on your seatbelt because if you are meant to suffer in this life it will catch up to you no matter what you do.

Christians would agree that suffering is real. We would also agree that much of our suffering is caused by sin in our lives, so if we are sent to jail for a crime we have committed, we only have ourselves to blame.

However, we believe that we live in a sinful world where "bad things happen to good people." Jesus asked about a calamity that happened in his time, whether the people that died there had more sin than those that did not die (Luke 13:4). We do not believe in a mechanical repayment of suffering for sin.

Buddhists then ask, "how can a righteous, loving God allow bad things to happen?"

My first answer is that in this world we are given a choice of following Jesus. In the book of Job, Satan told God that the only reason Job worshipped God was because he only had good things happen to him. If bad things happened to him, he would not follow God anymore. In the same way, we need to love God in good times and bad times. Job proved Satan wrong by loving God even though terrible things happened to him.

My second answer is suffering might be good for us. When we stand up for Jesus even though others disapprove, we might face persecution of various degrees. We will receive a reward for it. Other times we might fall sick. In that sickness we might call out to God and draw near to him in our hour of need. In this case, our unwanted sickness, was for our ultimate benefit.

But in the final analysis, we believe that God is beyond our understanding. We may try to make sense of things, but God is in control, and he knows more than we know and his wisdom is vastly greater than ours. We need to trust him and his ways no matter what the cost.

In summary, Buddhists have a very mechanical view of suffering - "If you sin, then you will suffer." Christians have a far more nuanced view on suffering.

However, all believers should build a Biblical understanding of suffering. We all go through hard times, and so we must be prepared to meet them as Jesus intended. Not only that, we must be ready to explain about suffering to those who need to hear about God's love in the midst of difficult times.

About the author: Bertram has been serving the Lord for 39 years. He is married and has three children and three grandchildren that all love Jesus. He was for many years a supporter of missions and entered the field 8 years ago. He works in the North of India.

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