If you have been following the last ten weeks as I’ve written on brainwashing, the Hegelian Dialectic Process, and what I believe about upcoming tribulation for American Christians and you are feeling either overwhelmed or fearful, I understand. Dealing with the topic of suffering is anathema to most in American Christianity. Most don’t want to hear it. Many will rebuke any person who dares bring up the topic. Yet there are some who are going through it and are asking: “What is the deal?” One of the reasons why Richard Wurmbrand started Voice of the Martyrs is because he wanted us here in the West to be alert about what is really happening to the Christians in the rest of the world.
Last week, I gave a warning that great suffering I believe is coming to us here in the U.S. If I’ve ever come close to “prophesying,” this would be it, and I do not consider myself a prophet or son or a prophet or what not. For the record, I am NOT saying this is a prophecy, but I say this to show how urgent the weight I feel on this issue is. I’m not alone on this one either. In many circles I’m, I’m hearing similar things. On a Facebook post that Voice of the Martyrs posted about the Tortured for Christ DVD, I posted that I had watched and seen in, then said that we need to be preparing for such suffering coming to us. I received many responses; most said they agreed, however, some responded with “Pray with me that it doesn’t happen.” I said, “I’ll pray that God does what He needs to do.”
Suffering is part of the Christian life. Jesus said it would come, and the closer to you get to God, the more suffering you will face. Just ask Job when God brought Job to Satan’s attention. Just ask Peter when Satan asked for permission to get at him on the very night Jesus would be betrayed. Jesus gave it to him and prayed for Peter that he would endure it. Just ask Paul when he was shipwrecked, stoned, beaten five times, ran out of town many times, and ultimately beheaded. Just ask the “Great Cloud of Witnesses” and that they endured as recorded at the end of Hebrews 11. Suffering is part of our life.
Let me also say this: we cannot be conformed into the image of Christ without suffering. Why? Because suffering is the only way to get sin out of our lives and to get us to rely and depend upon Christ instead of ourselves. My pastor told a story of a man who was dying of cancer. He asked his pastor if he would pray that God would heal him of cancer. The pastor responded: “This cancer has brought you closer to God than 40 years of my preaching. I will not pray for you to be healed. But I will pray that this cancer cannot take a single more cell without God’s permission.”
Suffering is not pleasant, but Paul took a position that most people really just skim over. He rejoiced over his suffering. He counted suffering as gain, because it brought him and others closer to Christ. That is what we are to do when it comes to suffering: rejoice. Again, Richard Wurmbrand is a modern example. He was put into solitary confinement for three years; he was in such darkness for so long that it nearly blinded him. And he came out simply glowing because he was with Christ every day. He took beatings from the Communist guards as a joy. The movie showcases a man preaching to the group and the guards come in and beat him up. He returns, hardly able to stand, and immediate says: “Where was I?” How do they handle this? How will we handle all this suffering I fear we may face, possibly within our lifetime?
This one is something I still have to wrestle with to really grasp, but Wurmbrand said that knowing Psalm 23 didn’t help him at all in prison. He had to know the Shepherd of which the Psalm speaks. Memorizing Scripture is vital, because when the Bible is taken from us, we will only have our memory to rely on. I am an intellectual type and I know Scripture very well, though I still have much to learn of it. But mere head knowledge of Scripture won’t help me when I face this kind of persecution. Knowing Whom Scripture reveals will help me. But how can I know Him, if I don’t know His Word?
The Apostle James knew the Savior. When he was executed, he had such a confident air and hope about him that his executioner confessed Christ and asked to be executed with James so he wouldn’t die alone. James was the first of the Apostles to be executed. How did he do that? He knew the Savior, but he also knew something else that Herod didn’t know.
Paul said the sufferings of this world are mere trifles, only here for a moment. He knew what suffering was, even more than Richard Wurmbrand. He was beaten, he was imprisoned, and he was even stoned, not to mention shipwrecked, faced robbers and thieves, many nights homeless in the cold, friends betraying him, other friends either abandoning him or couldn’t find him. He knew about suffering. And he counted it all as joy. How? Here is another clue. He had his eye on the prize. He had what Leonard Ravenhill described as “eternity stamped upon his eyeballs.” He saw the spiritual side of things and thus looked past the sufferings of this life, which is only for a few years, and then eternity. I heard of one pastor who was in a service when thugs came in and pointed guns at everyone, saying if anyone did not deny Christ they would be shot. The pastor looked at them and said, “How dare you threaten me with heaven?”
There is hope for us. Suffering is coming. Persecution will come here to the United States. It may or may not happen in my lifetime. But I have a duty to prepare both myself and the next generation for it. When it comes, there won’t be any prep time left. But if we prepare our minds and our spirits to be ready for it, when it comes, we’ll be ready. A couple months ago I wrote about being “sifted like wheat.” This persecution will be a sifting. What is going to be left? Will we find Christ, or will we find complete and total ruin? Some of the latter may be saved, but they will be saved as though through fire, with total loss. Only his life will be spared. But the man who suffers for the name of Christ and endures, the reward he will receive will be great.
We can stand in confidence of our salvation and the hope of Christ that is in us. I want to make this clear: we don’t have the strength to endure such suffering; only Christ does. Here is what that means. It won’t be us in our own strength who endures this suffering; it will be Christ preserving us. The ones who endure are the ones whom God preserves. He may allow us to fall for a season if that is what it takes to convince us once for all to rely upon him (like Peter), but He ultimately will preserve us all the way to the end. When this comes, let us rely on Him because He knows what is best for us and He has a goal to conform us into the image of Christ.
If the past couple months have been hard on you in reading these posts, I understand. But I have a sense of urgency about me and I had to cover this. Turn to Christ and turn to Him always and only. Nothing else can satisfy us and nothing else will preserve us. Christ will. And while suffering is something no one wants to go through heading into it, those who truly have known Christ in His power and have seen Him do His work in and through it don’t regret it. The day will come when all suffering will end and if we can gain Christ through it, then we must press through and pursue Him. The worst they can do to us is send us to Christ sooner rather than later. Why should we fear when the King is on His throne?
If you have committed your life to Christ, stay strong and don’t give in. Jesus won’t give up on you. If you have not committed your life to Christ, beware because you aren’t safe either. Wurmbrand described how a Communist was imprisoned by his own people and tortured. The man was baffled at this and realized that if a Communist tortured a Communist it was for torture’s sake, not good overcoming evil (in his mind), so that must make them unmitigated evil. But if there is unmitigated evil, there must be unmitigated good, and that which evil opposes must be good. The Communist told his guards they could stop torturing him because it had done its work: he was now a Christian. The guards couldn’t believe it. When evil comes, no one is safe, not even the instigators and perpetrators. The only hope anyone has is through Christ. Please make peace with Him before it’s too late.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
0 comments:
Post a Comment