Why does God allow for evil to take place? Answer: God doesn’t allow it to last forever. Evil must take place in its given time. But there is always an ending. How does this work? Answer: God is omnipresent. 

Let Me Explain 

Imagine a painter with his canvas. Perhaps, he is painting a set of trees with squirrels chasing rabbits hiding in plain sight. In a similar way God painted our universe. He is beyond it, outside of it, and yet He can form galaxies, stars, planets, animals, and us with the stroke of a paintbrush. This paint and paintbrush are His voice.

The painting of trees and squirrels and rabbits is made of 2 dimensions. If the squirrels and rabbits could come alive, they would not be able to see the painter.

In the same way, we are made of 3 dimensions flowing through the 4th dimension of time. God is beyond this canvas; He is beyond space and time. We are 3-dimensional. He is endless, made of infinite dimensions. This is how He has the power to speak things into existence. 

Being outside of time and space also means that he has no beginning and no end. We can’t even begin to understand His Being. This is why the trinity (God as three distinctive parts, yet also one) is so confusing. 

Now, at this point, the model of the painter and the canvas should be left behind. God is not limited by the dimension of time that He created; He doesn’t perceive the seasons of life as we do.

When He came to Earth as Jesus Christ, He confined Himself to time… for a time. During this time, He lived among us, experiencing the same temptations and struggles that we had. And unlike us, He overcame them. This is because, also unlike us, He cannot sin or miss the mark of His laws, which are a reflection of His nature. God can’t stop being God.

But, once Jesus died and was resurrected, once He returned to sit at the right hand of the Father, He returned to His place as all God. 

So, how does the All God, that being Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit experience our universe?

All At Once

Unlike the allegory of the painter, God can and has entered the canvas of our universe; it’s just that He has done so all at once. He sees all of history at one time. He is in all places at one time. He is omnipresent, here right now, here with you as you read this blog post. He was with me as I was writing it. He has seen the Apollo 11 landing in all stages of it and at all times of it. He was there during every moment and in every place where World War II happened. He saw the misery of the Jews in the concentration camps. He was there in every moment of Hitler’s life from conception to death. He has experienced all of time throughout all of the universe, inside and outside of Earth, in a single simultaneous moment. Though calling it a moment would confine it to time. It’s the only way I can explain it because…

He Confined Us to Time

We have a beginning, an exact moment when we were born as a fetus. Our bodies will have an end, an exact place in time where we will die. And, even though our souls and spirits live on, we will be like the angels (who also had a beginning), but we can never be like God (who is, and was, and is to come). Why did God make it this way?

To End the Suffering

There are many reasons, of course, this is only one of them. Living within seasons means that things will eventually end. This is a very good thing to happen in this wicked world! Could you imagine if the tyrant kings of old never died? The strong would forever overtake the weak. And they would only get stronger and stronger. There would be no end to tyranny. Imagine a world ruled by an immortal Hitler or Genghis Khan?

Seasons in this fallen world mean an ending to suffering. In death, this is ultimately true, but there are endings of tyranny that we can experience during our lifetime! There is a chance for the suffering to end. If we were not confined by time, if we were more like God who experiences all of life all at once… There would be no ebb and flow to abuse… no break from a narcissist or an abusive parent or spouse. It would all be experienced, all at once, and there would be no chance for an ending.

Why doesn’t God end it now? Time is His solution to ending it, which means that when evil reigns, things take time for their eventual demise. But sometimes, instead of just making His appearance known to end it as He did with the Pharaoh in the book of Exodus, He is often waiting for us to awaken, to come out of the darkness, to expose the abuse we face. Being confined to time allows us a chance to bring about change. 

So, while we wait, know that God is always there. He experiences all of our woes along with us. He will also be there when victory and freedom from those woes come! Speak the truth, and the truth will set you free.