Why does God allow people to die, especially under certain distressing circumstances? Sometimes we wonder where God was when certain things were happening. In seeking to answer these questions we first need to try and view things from God’s perspective. We view things from the stand point of our brief probationary span, which, to us, is the real life. But God views life from the stand point of: firstly, His being the life-giver and secondly, the stand point of eternity.

Even a hundred years is infinitesimally small compared to a billion years, which is still not eternity. So, when our brief probationary lifespan expires, to us it’s a big thing, but to God it is nothing, because He can give life to us for eternity. Therefore our probationary lifespan is not so much about how long that probationary span is but rather it’s about what we have used our choice to do. You see, the probationary span has been given to us for the purpose of making a choice, whether to receive eternal life or not to receive eternal life. That is what is all-important.

It is not how long the probationary span is. If we consider someone such as the apostle Paul, when faced with death, he said, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Tim. 4:6-8). He could have griped and said, “Imagine, after a life of service, this is how I am losing my life”. If he saw this life as the only thing of value, then, perhaps, he would have whined and grumbled and complained in that way. But he was not sorrowful. Instead, he was hopeful because he saw the bigger picture. This is why he said, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2 Cor. 4:17).  He was looking at the bigger picture which is really what is important.

Jesus said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36, 37).

So, in answering these questions as to where God was when certain things were happening or why did God allow certain things to happen, we need to get out of the framework of the here and now and get into the bigger framework of eternity. Then, we will get things into their proper perspective; as Paul said: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19).

Also he said, regarding us losing our loved ones:

“¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

(1 Thess. 4:13-18).

We should look at the loss in light of eternity.  And we should seek more than ever to encourage our loved ones to enlist under the banner of Christ so that they can be candidates for eternal life, which Christ promises to give at His second coming.

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