Preparing for Suffering: Are You Ready?
By John Fast
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” – 2 Timothy 3:1
Having considered in our previous studies some of the most pernicious causes which the Bible warns will make a season dangerous, all of which abound in the season we currently live, I now intend, by the grace and guidance of God, to provide some direction from Scripture as to how a Christian is to live in such times and prepare themselves for suffering; or better yet, how to bear the best fruit in the worst times. Just as there can be no recovery of Christianity from the horrible apostasy and blasphemy into which it has currently sunk that does not also include a recovery of Christian principles and obedience to the commands of the gospel, so there can be no living in dangerous times except by the principles revealed in God’s word. We cannot help living in error if we are in error in our principles. Ungodly living must naturally and necessarily conclude from following faulty principles based on mistaken premises.
Tragically, this describes not only the foundation on which the bulk of the teaching, programs, and practices in use by the mass of churches today are built, but also the principles by which most professing Christians live. They rest on the wisdom and emotions of man, appalling hermeneutics, and popular opinion, not on sound doctrine. Their foundation is pragmatism, the way that seems right to a man (Pv 14:12), not the divinely revealed word of God. But to have sound doctrine and yet deny its power is to be in a worse state than never having known sound doctrine (Hb 10:26, 27; 2 Pt 2:21). For example, in Ephesians 5:22 we are given the now unpopular gospel command that wives are to be subject to their own husbands (cf.1 Pt 3:1-6). This command is based on the principle of Christ’s headship over His church, and the church’s submission to Christ in everything (Eph 5:24). Therefore, it is impossible for anyone to dismiss, waterdown, and explain away the command for the wife without also doing violence to the principle upon which the command is based. The same is true for every gospel command of Scripture.
For someone to profess to love Christ and believe His truth, and yet at the same time corrupt, manipulate, waterdown, redefine, annul, and deny His word, gospel, church, and commandments should immediately expose those who do as wolves, thieves, hirelings (albeit in sheep’s clothing), and hypocrites. The only way to escape this conclusion is to redefine the nature of a wolf, thief, hireling, and hypocrite and call them something other than what they really are. It is not enough to admit that objective divine truth exists if it is rejected when it conflicts with your preferences, lusts, self-interests, traditions, and own opinions. It is not enough to have truth in the head if it is not loved in the heart. It is useless to quote texts of Scripture to people who will not subject themselves to being governed by them. When God sees anyone, any people, and any church praising, teaching, and affirming the truth of God with their judgment, and yet scorning that truth by living in a way that contradicts it, and nullifying it from having any command and government over them in their lives, this kindles the fire of God’s wrath against them. In vain do people pretend to a sincere love of the truth if they are unholy in their lives or give hearty approval to the unholy lives of others (Rm 1:32). Knowledge, zeal, gifts, and talk without faith, obedience, holiness, self-denial, spiritual-mindedness, and love for the truth will only make our state the worse. A tree is known not by its luxurious foliage, or by how many sit under its shade, or that nest in its branches, or admire its beauty, but by its fruit.
The first visible fruit of the new birth, regeneration, and spiritual life in the heart, is hunger. If someone has truly tasted the kindness of the Lord, then like new born babes they will long for the pure milk of the word (1 Pt 2:2, 3). They have received the love of the truth in their heart. They have a new principle of spiritual life implanted in their soul by the Holy Spirit of God. If there is no spiritual hunger, then there is no spiritual life. But a new babe typically lacks the ability to distinguish the pure from what is corrupt and toxic. A babe will put anything into its mouth, and if it lives in an environment where there are many harmful and deadly objects lying around within its reach, and where virtually no effort is made to guard the babe from ingesting them, but instead they are placed side by side with what is pure, and both are called by the same name and packaged in identical packaging, this makes it a very dangerous place. It is very easy to get a child to eat poison for candy because it is sweet to the taste.
False teachers mix their poison with the sweet word of God. Although now poisoned with toxic error, the babe swallows the word that has been subtly and imperceptibly corrupted with some sort of poison. The true child of God, however, because he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit who has been given to lead him into all truth, longs for the pure milk of the word. Therefore, sooner or later, he will notice a strange taste in his mouth left by the teachings and practices of many who profess to be feeding people from the word of God. The more light he has to see by, the more he will notice all the holes in the disguise worn by Satan and by all his servants who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. He will notice the cloven feet dangling down from under their disguise and detect the bulge under their costume made by the flask of poison they are trying to conceal. The reason the true Christian loves the Bible (not an impure paraphrase of the Bible) above every other book in the world is because it is the pure milk of the Word. With Job they say, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). This is what he longs for the most. Nowhere else can he find what the mind and will of God is for his life. His highest aim and ultimate desire above all else is, “Not my will, but Yours be done”. This is their study.
There is a sharp division between all the religions and forms of godliness which people have made for themselves and the religion which God has made for man. There is a principle found in God’s revealed religion that is not found in any unrevealed religion, and that is the principle of authority. The religion of the Bible comes to man from outside of himself; it is imposed on him from a source far superior to his own mind and will. All other religions and forms of godliness, however, have no higher source than the human spirit. No matter how much they may differ among themselves, they all have this one fundamental thing in common; they are all natural religions as opposed to the one true supernatural religion which has been revealed by God in His infallible word. It is revealed as a gift of God, not a creation of man. As in all natural religions it is man who is ultimate, not God. That is because the chief characteristic of all natural religions is that they are distinctly man-made. They have no higher authority to which they can appeal other than the mind of man. Even the Bible and its religion are made subservient to the wisdom, emotions, and will of man. The most common form of man-made godliness among professing Christians today is mysticism, which is characterized by its appeal to the emotions and feelings as the normative, if not the sole, source of knowledge and authority of divine truths. A person’s feelings become the sole authority by which the word of God is accepted or rejected as the governing principle for their life. Rather than the Bible being the sole authority, guide, director, and corrector for the Christian life, the mystic tends to substitute their own experience and feelings for the objective truths of God’s written revelation, or at least subordinate God’s word to their own feelings, opinions, and experiences.
It is impossible to be a Bible-Christian if you are not a Bible student. If you are not a Bible student, then you have no standard by which to judge the soundness and truth of anything you hear and read. You are as blind as a mole when it comes to spiritual truths and easily led by blind guides into every byway and pit. If you ever stumble onto the truth it is because you accidently tripped over it and are just as easily led away from it. The farmer may as well expect a crop where he never plowed or sowed, or a business owner to be successful who never opened his doors to customers, as is any person to be a Christian who is willfully ignorant of their Bible and its truths, or who know them yet reject them. Where in the entire New Testament do we find people who are called Christians unless they knew something of Christianity? Ignorance may suit a Roman Catholic, an Eastern Orthodox, and a “carnal” and cultural Christian well enough. They do as their priest, pastor, church, or feelings tell them. They ask no more! But ignorance and gullibility should never be the characteristic of a Bible-Christian. No one can love and trust in a Jesus and gospel that they know nothing about, or that they know wrongly. Only a Bible-Christian will be able to live in dangerous times without shrinking back to destruction and assimilating with the pagan culture in which they live. This was the cause of Israel’s apostasy, they did not rightly understand the Scriptures or the power of God (Mt 22:29; cf. Jer 4:22: Hos 4:1-3). Tragically, the same complaint made by Jeremiah is true of the mass of professing Christians today, “Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them; they have no delight in it” (Jer 6:10).
It is the mature, who because of practice in rightly dividing the word, that have their senses trained to discern good and evil (Hb 5:14). They test everything – all doctrine, all teaching and teachers, all practices, all works, all reasonings, all philosophies, all opinions, and even all their own understandings – not by the prevailing wisdom of the culture in which they live, not by the elementary principles of this world, and not by the opinions of other men past or present, but by the pure and unadulterated light of God’s word. They do not believe every spirit, rather they test (i.e. a test and examination to prove if something is real, genuine, and legitimate) every spirit by the infallible and pure word of God (1 Jn 4:1). Then, in the light of Christ’s pure word, what is pure and what is profane become clearly distinguishable (Ezk 22:26). The deeds of the flesh become evident as the fruit of the flesh, not the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:19-21). The children of God and the children of the devil become increasingly obvious (1 Jn 3:10), because all things become visible when they are exposed by the light (Eph 5:13). This is why darkness will not come to the light to be tested, examined, judged, and corrected by the light, because it knows it cannot stand the test. The light is too distinguishing.
When God by the Holy Spirit through His word gives someone a new birth, He does not write just one or two of His commandments upon the heart of His children, but all of His commandments (Jer 31:33). He does not give a sincere love for one part of His word and not for another, but for all of His word (Hb 10:22; 1 Jn 5:3). He does not cause those in whom He has put His Holy Spirit to walk in only some of His statutes, but He causes them to walk in all of them (Ezk 36:27). Christ’s true bride “is subject” (the verb is present tense, identifying a habitual, continuous, and characteristic action) to Christ “in everything” that He has revealed and commanded (Eph 5:24). Here is light to which very little of what professes to be the bride of Christ will come. Those who only subject themselves to some things but not others, to this command but not to that one, who love this part but not that part of His word, and who question, query, redefine, annul, and deny any one of His commandments and the great fundamental truths that have been accepted through the centuries, are not the bride of Christ. They do not belong to the church, and to regard them as fellow Christians is to betray the truth. If you do not long for, love, trust, believe, and desire to know, obey and be subject to all of God’s word then you cannot long for and love any of it sincerely.
Religious Tolerance: Good or Bad?
To even ask such a question, especially in this nation, is considered by most people to be almost blasphemous. It is almost certainly guaranteed to place the one asking it on the receiving end of a knee-jerk reaction. But it is a question that bears asking. Is religious tolerance a blessing or a curse? That depends on whether it is used for the glory of God or as a license to rebel against Him. Let us learn a lesson from history. Five-hundred years ago the world looked very different than it does today. You would not find most modern nations on maps of the 16th century. Rather you would find nations and empires that have ceased to exist. One of these was The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-confessional empire with a great diversity in cultures, languages, and religions. As such, the doctrines of the Reformers easily entered into the nation and the churches. While these doctrines were undoubtedly embraced by many for political rather than spiritual reasons, nevertheless, the culture of religious tolerance, which was protected by the Duchy’s constitution, made their acceptance much easier. As a result of this enshrined principle of religious tolerance, Jesuit churches were built right next to Reformed churches, and anti-trinitarianism infiltrated into Reformed churches and became widely accepted. Although repeatedly warned by many of the Reformers of the consequences of this lax attitude towards heresies, the nation’s tradition of religious tolerance, its open debates about theology, and their love for democracy in the churches, eventually led to its decent into spiritual darkness.
Feeling pressured by the expansion of the Russian Empire, Lithuania was forced to enter into an alliance with Roman Catholic dominated Poland. Trapped between a rock and a hard place – Roman Catholic Poland on the west and Russian Orthodoxy on the east – the counter-Reformation movement in Lithuania gained momentum. By the 18th century, with Moscow completely dominating Lithuania, the nation had sunk into near total spiritual darkness. The Soviet Union replaced the Russian Empire as the persecutor of true Christianity, only more so as enforced atheism became the law of the land. Here is the lesson. When no distinction is made between the clean and the unclean, when false teachings and gospels go undifferentiated from the true, when the truth becomes a matter for intellectual debate instead of bold proclamation, when virtually every form of godliness and natural religion is given equal treatment and respect, and when the church becomes democratic so that truth is determined by majority opinion, all under the banner of religious tolerance and freedom, then it becomes impossible for the mass of churches in any nation to avoid going from light to darkness, and for the light of true Christianity to be any more than a faint glow, which, if it were not for the almighty hand of God, the darkness would completely extinguish.
We live in a time when most false and insincere teachers have shed their disguises and pretended love for the truth because they no longer need them. They go about undisguised without any fear or concern for being exposed, especially if they attract large numbers and generate sizable sums of money. Sound doctrine has been downplayed for so long that most people have come to doubt whether these doctrines are really important after all or if someone really needs to believe and live them in order to be a Christian. The word of God is invalidated at will whenever it runs contrary to the prevailing wisdom and opinions of the culture (Mt 15:6), eliciting only a token objection from the mass of professing Christians. Because in the minds of most professing Christians darkness has been so thoroughly substituted for the light, so few, therefore, have any pure light with which to distinguish between the holy and profane, nor do they see any reason to do so. That would be intolerant and judgmental. Therefore, the light that is in them is darkness (Mt 6:23; Lk 11:35). Most people are so in love with their sin that they view it as a threat to their liberty to censure and expose it for what it really is. No distinction is allowed or even tolerated, especially if it is perceived to be a potential threat to their self-interests and those of the party to which they belong. The complaint was made against Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones that “he is trying to persuade us that there are precise doctrinal distinguishing marks of Christians, that we can distinguish between him who believes from him who does not believe…In this he has learned nothing from the greatest evangelical theologians of modern times.”[1]
The same complaint is still levied today against anyone who would make clear and precise distinctions, thereby proving that even the greatest modern theologians can be as blind to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus as were the greatest ancient ones who killed the prophets, crucified Jesus, and persecuted the saints for making clear and precise distinctions; especially when the truth is purely a matter for academic pursuit, theological speculation, commercial exploitation, and personal ambition. It is the humble who will inherit the earth, not the scholarly or ambitious (Mt 5:5). Many great scholars have lost their souls, but never one meek person who humbly submitted their heart, mind, and life to the pure word of God. “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants” (Mt 11:25).
The same word which opens the eyes of the humble also blinds the eyes of the proud scoffer. So many today are like those who came to the prophet Jeremiah in fear, a false humility, and a pretended love for the word of God, promising, “Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you” (Jer 42:6). But when the sermon is over and they learn what God would have them to do, they become more obstinate and defiant than before, and are further away than ever from obeying the command of God (Jer 43:1, 2; 44:16, 17). The great 17th century Puritan genius John Owen once observed, “The letting go this principle, particular churches ought to consist of regenerate persons, brought in the great apostasy of the Christian Church”. And so it has once again. We have an abundance of controversial theology, but a demise of practical holiness. Today most churches are so obsessed with being innovators that they have forgotten they are to be imitators of Christ. At imitating the world they have become expert, but when it comes to being imitators of God as beloved children (Eph 5:1), they are as lost as the eggs from last year’s church Easter Egg hunt.
Most churches and the people who belong to them have swallowed the notion that there are multiple conceptions of salvation, multiple forms of truth, multiple gospels, and multiple forms of godliness, all of which are equally valid and anyone of which will take them to heaven. They have swallowed the notion that people can be loved into the kingdom of God without any conviction of sin, thereby making their man-centered love, not the God-centered gospel, the power of God unto salvation (Rm 1:16). They are completely indifferent to what doctrine of justification is taught and believed, what view of regeneration is held, what understanding of sanctification is espoused, what Jesus is preached, or what distinguishes true Christianity from all of its false forms that abound today. So, for the most part, they are content to receive any form of them that best suits their own reasonings and understandings influenced by their corrupt affections and desires. Most churches and professing Christians today swallow anything that claims, exhibits, and markets itself as being Christian, just so long as it makes them feel good about themselves. It no longer needs to be sweetened with Scripture in order for most professing Christians to sell it or swallow it. Any emotional and persuasive argument, any outlandish mystical experience, and any artificial sweetener will suffice in making the most blatantly false and heretical claims and the most obviously false teachers appealing to the carnal and worldly appetites of the mass of professing Christians today. Yet they choke on the truth because they have no love for it. They have no hunger for it, and when they get a taste of it, they thoroughly dislike it and spit it out (Hb 6:5, 6). When the leopard can change his spots, then will people whose tastes are accustomed to what is corrupt, adulterated, and fake be able on their own to hunger, long for, and love what is pure, good, humbling, self-debasing, and undefiled (Jer 13:23).
A Lonely Walk
The work of recovering and reclaiming the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ is never easy, and usually slow, unpopular, lonely, and seemingly fruitless labor. It is easy to maintain the status quo, to toe the party line, to go along with the prevailing wisdom and customary practices of the majority, and to accommodate truth to the lowest common denominator. If everyone who professes to be a Christian were a Christian, and if every place that called itself a church was the church, and if we were willing to pretend that truth was illusive, fluid, and subjective, and if we valued unity at the expense of sound doctrine, and placed a higher premium on programs, activities, numbers, profits, humanitarianism, and popularity than on the purity of the gospel, the precision and accuracy of the truth, the eternal souls of men, and the glory of God then we would have plenty of company. But if a person or church does not love the truths of Scripture, and desire to not only know them more, but to also be corrected by and conformed to them, then they have no basis to be regarded as Christian. There comes a point where the word “Christian” becomes meaningless, and sadly the mass of churches and those who belong to them have long ago reached and even surpassed this point. There can be no fellowship between those who believe that the way to heaven is hard and narrow, and those who not only believe the way is broad and easy, but treat it almost as blasphemy to teach that only a few will be saved, that there are precise distinguishing marks that separate the true from the false, and who say they cannot believe in a God who has elected certain people to salvation before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), is capable of wrath, and who consigns all unbelievers to a place where there shall be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 25:42, 46).
The rectifying of mistakes and errors of the past, the recovery from unbiblical, worldly, and man-centered beliefs, practices, and lifestyles, and to stand virtually alone, is never easy. As one lonely pastor of the 19th century, J.C. Ryle, once commented, “There is far too much tendency to sit still, and wait for committees, and number our adherents. We want more men who are not afraid to stand alone.” Living a life that is pleasing to the Lord is never easy, but in a dangerous season, a season that abounds in evil practices and false forms of godliness, it will entail a great deal more self-denial, patient bearing of hardship, willingness to be labeled with all sorts of hard names, and very often finding ourselves standing alone. All that a person does by themselves, in their own strength and by their own wisdom, they do for themselves. It is astonishing to see how many people will risk their property, health, and even their lives to gain a thrill or a moment of earthy fame, praise, and riches, but risk not one dime in their pocket, one hair on their head, one luxury of their comfort, one source of their security, or one blemish to their reputation for the cause of Christ. Only a true Christian can do all by Christ and all for Christ and His glory (2 Cor 4:7). They are merely a branch in the Vine, apart from which they can do nothing for Christ. Their strength and confidence is not derived from being part of the majority or a member of a party, but from the pure word of God. The surpassing greatness of the power must be from God, not from themselves (2 Cor 4:7). All the fruit they bear is because of Him and for Him.
When the twelve spies returned from spying out the land of Canaan, ten of the twelve, perceiving which way the people were leaning, gave a bad report so as to accommodate the temper of the people. Only Joshua and Caleb went against the popular current and spoke what was true, for which the people were ready to stone them (Nm 14:6-10). Good old Micaiah, rather than succumb to the pressure to side with four hundred prophets who were all uniform in their judgment, chose to stand alone and speak the unvarnished word of God, thereby making himself look ridiculous by declaring that all four hundred prophets were deceived and false and he alone spoke the truth of God. For his trouble he was reviled and thrown into prison and fed sparingly on bread and water (1 Kgs 22:13-27). The fact that there were, scattered among the millions in Israel, 7,000 people who had not bowed their knee to Baal, did not prevent a spiritual giant such as Elijah from feeling as if he were all alone (1 Kgs 19:14, 18). Out of the thousands of Israelites exiled to Babylon only three young Hebrew men refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image (Dan 3:16-18). Luther’s defiant statement by which he declared his willingness to stand alone against the united power and opinions of Roman Catholicism is legendary. I could continue to list example after example of people who, rather than go along with the prevailing current of their times, chose to stand alone on the side of truth.
The nation of Israel was nearly always under constant pressure to conform to the habits, practices, tastes, values, customs, and beliefs of the pagan cultures around them. Whether it was Egyptian (Am 5:25), Canaanite (Josh 24:23; Jg 10:6), Assyrian (2 Kg 16:10), or Babylonian (2 Kgs 21:3), the temptation to conform was continuously brought to bear, and, with a few rare exceptions, they did, enthusiastically and without fail. As R.C. Sproul wrote over twenty years ago, before the scourge of social media became the principle driving force behind public opinion,
“There was a price to pay for nonconformity; a severe cost for resistance to government and cultural mandates to acquiesce in the customs of paganism. It was an historical setting conducive to the practice of what Friedrich Nietzsche would later call a “herd morality.” Adjusting to the customs and worldview of one’s environment is one of the strongest pressures people experience. To be “out of it” culturally is often considered the nadir of social achievement. People tend to seek acceptance and popularity in the forum of public opinion. The applause of men is the siren call, the Lorilee of paganism. Few are they who display the moral courage required for fidelity to God when it is unpopular or even dangerous to march to his drumbeat.”[2]
Just how few there are who display any moral courage, especially in a dangerous season, we are now witnessing as more and more churches, guides, teachers, leaders, and professing Christians rush to further conform themselves to this world and answer the siren call of paganism. Everything from the latest trendy décor to the newest theological fad, social trend, and false gospel (the latest being the various forms of social justice gospels), the rush is on to keep up with and accomodate the culture so as not to fall into that most dreadful and dreaded of all states, “irrelevancy”.
Most people have more politics and pragmatism than piousness and faithfulness when it comes to the truth. They wait and see how much support they might count on, what it might cost them, and how the times will prove out before they commit. Like the people in the days of Elijah, they hesitate between two opinions (1 Kgs 18:21); between the clear truths of Scripture and what is in their own best self-interests. Like the Jewish leaders, they weigh the cost of choosing a side, and finding neither side tenable, and lacking any moral courage and love for the truth, they resort to claiming, “We do not know” (Mt 21:23-26). The work of recovery is often like a rocky and hazardous road which timid and cowardly spirits desire to have made smooth, safe, and secure before they dare venture out on it and risk any harm to their self-interests. The sincere heart, however, takes his direction from the word of God, and having that, nothing can divert or dissuade him but another word from the same God who set him to work. His heart loves God’s word and is conformed by it to the will, word, and work of God. The interests he serves are not his own, but those of His Master. If in the process of serving his Master he pleases some people, he is pleased, but if not, then he is not disappointed. If others join and partner with him in the labor he is happy, but if he must labor and stand alone, then, by the grace and power of God and his sincere love of the truth, he perseveres by faith until the end. He takes God at His word and sells himself to be His slave.
Most people tend to be like Job’s fickle and fair-weather friends. They do not want to believe that such hard, prolonged, and painful afflictions could come upon a godly person like Job, because that would mean similar hardships could also befall them. Their own wealth, reputation, resources, and righteousness are no longer shields in their own mind against their experiencing similar sufferings, so they are afraid and they attempt to attribute them to some failure on the part of the one suffering, “He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt, as prepared for those whose feet slip” (Job 12:5). It frightens them to think that all their safeguards may prove worthless, “Indeed, you have become such, you see a terror and are afraid” (Job 6:11). They are “like the torrents of wadis which vanish…when it is hot, they vanish from their place” (Job 6:15, 17). The Apostle John spoke of those who, when things got too hard and hot, forsook the true gospel for one more in keeping with the spirit of the times, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us;” (1 Jn 2:19). Most of Paul’s friends, with the exception of Onesiphorus, were ashamed of Paul’s chains, and so “all who are in Asia turned away from me” (2 Tm 1:15, 16), and “at my first defense, no one supported me, but all deserted me;” (2 Tm 4:16). But even when all others “vanish from their place”, by faith Paul could say, “But the Lord stood with me,” (2 Tm 4:17), and so do all who labor to uphold, recover, proclaim, and live the unadulterated truth of the gospel, even in a dangerous season where truth is not endured.
Nothing succeeds like success, and so it seems. O, how do people who measure success by worldly standards, who love a soft, comfortable, popular, easy, and respectable Christianity, one that will accommodate their lusts and worldliness by giving them different names, love to be a part of, associate with, and be identified with others who seem to be successful, even following and defending them in their error rather than expose and separate themselves from it. It would have been far better for many people in our day if they had never benefited from some truth spoken by a popular but insincere teacher, than to have been so enamored into an admiration of them that they now easily follow and defend them in their errors, and then have those errors now fixed in their judgments. A person will not be so readily suspicious of any teaching and practice that comes from someone who at one time they found to be really helpful, and in whose judgment they have come to trust. Yet how quickly do they criticize, find fault with, and distance themselves from those whose steadfastness for the truth results in their being forced to stand virtually alone. How easily do they become aloof from those who instead of compromising with error, overlooking blatantly false teaching and unbiblical practices, and going along with the majority, they rather expose the unfruitful deeds of darkness by calling things by their right names, resulting in fellowship with and sharing in the sufferings of Christ, His degradation, and humiliation.
This frightens them. This is not the safe, comfortable, respectable Christianity they had bargained for. They are more than willing to admire and applaud such people once they are dead and buried, and flatter themselves that they would have done the same thing had they lived under similar circumstances. Had they lived in the times of the prophets who were exposing false beliefs, practices, worship, and calling things by their right names, they would not have been among the majority who rejected and killed them (Mt 23:29, 30). But then again, they have no desire or inclination to be sharers in what actually contributed to their sufferings. We read the histories of those who suffered for the cause of Christ, but not with a spirit to emulate them. Some will criticize them for being too careless with their lives, families, and property, and some will admire and commend their courage and faithfulness, but where are they that sincerely determine and prepare to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Hb 6:12), or follow them as examples of suffering, patience, and endurance (Jm 5:10).
We will highly esteem a Job or a Paul; we will admire an Athanasius, a Knox, a John Bunyan, a Latimer, a Hus, and a Luther, but no one is willing to be one. We will admire and romanticize the steadfastness and faith of earlier men and women as we would a beautiful painting, but no one wants to be the subject of that portrait. We will quote their words, but no one wants to experience the trials by which they learned the truth of them. It is a universal truth of Scripture that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, irrespective of the times in which they live, will be persecuted in one way or another (2 Tm 3:12). But when the times are dangerous, such hardships will be inevitable and unavoidable for anyone who truly stands for the truth. Nothing but the sovereign hand of God will be able to shield them. The warning found in Amos is especially relevant, “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria….Do you put off the day of calamity, and would you bring near the seat of violence?” (Am 6:1, 3). To be at ease and feel secure in dangerous times is to have no fear of God as a consuming fire, “And it is sound wisdom to fear Your name” (Mic 6:9). To think God will shield and protect people who corrupt and reject His gospel, His worship, and His commands, and who cling to their own forms of godliness, is a false and vain thought.
God, at various times and seasons, calls His people into such self-denial where if you answer it you must turn your back on and die to some things you hold very dear; things such as your reputation, your temporal securities, your personal goals, your worldly comforts, friendships, and even family. It may be you are called to deny your education and the principles taught by it, along with your high standing among your peers, to go against the judgment of those whose opinions you have come to trust, and to leave their company and walk by faith. Even to deny your own wisdom, experiences, feelings, reasonings, and self-preservation in order to embrace a truth or take up a practice solely on the authority and strength of God’s word. This is the self-denial which Jesus declared that all who would be His true disciples must answer to when called upon to do so (Mt 10:34-39; Lk 14:26, 27). This was the self-denial practiced by Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,”; “But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 2:20; 6:14). “I affirm, brethren…I die daily” (1 Cor 15:31). “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,” (Phil 3:8). It is an easy thing to be a Christian in times of ease, comfort, tolerance, and accommodation, when the greatest self-denial entails no more than eating at a cheaper restaurant. But how few they are who will answer God’s call to deny self in a dangerous season, when doing so requires turning our backs on and dying to things we hold very dear, and of whom it can be said, “they did not love their life even to death” (Rv 12:11).
A Time of Testing
True faith, the faith that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, can only be known by trials, which is why they are called “trials”, because they try whether a person’s faith is genuine or not (Rv 2:10). They separate the wheat from the chaff and the gold from the dross. All of God’s true children have trials and afflictions. We have them because we need them. We could not grow in faith and grace without them. How could we deny self and take up our cross daily if we did not have daily crosses and causes to deny self? How can we live in a helpless dependence unless we are brought into a state of helplessness? How can we have true humility unless we are humbled? Christ can so humble your pride that you will be as dependent upon Him as a newborn babe. Then, having emptied you of self, your own carnal and false reasoning, and worldly wisdom, He will illumine and enlighten you by His word and Holy Spirit with saving truth. Here the humble Christian learns the most, for our highest lesson is to learn how to live upon Him “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3). The one who learns to live upon His wisdom and not trust in their own or others is certainly the wisest and most humble person.
It is the exercise of faith not only to bear these trials, but to rejoice in them (Rm 5:3; Jm 1:2), knowing they all come from the hand of a loving and sovereign Father for our good. He measures them out as we need them. We have not one more trial, affliction, and pain than we stand in need of. Jesus will teach His own to find all their joy, comfort, peace, and rest in Him and His ways. He will prune away one and another view and source of rest that comes short of Him. This is one great end and aim of all of His dealings with His beloved people. He would have them to trust in Him, live on Him, and to love Him and His word always above all else. So how better can He do this than by bringing them off from trusting in, living on, and loving other things? He will not share His throne with self and idols. The sufferings of a true Christian are all according to the sovereign will of an all wise heavenly Father (1 Pt 4:19). True faith and true godliness sees God’s hand in the trial, and blesses Christ’s love, wisdom, care, and kindness of us in it, “I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake;” (2 Cor 12:9, 10). True faith and love kisses the rod. It may complain to God, but never about God.
But a false faith, a faith that is no different than the faith of demons, will rail against trials and sufferings, and question the love, wisdom, goodness, nature, and even existence of God. It denies God’s hand in the times and attributes its hardship and suffering to anything but the hand of God or to their clinging to the things which make a season dangerous. It looks everywhere, and turns to anything except to prayer and the Bible for solutions to all the evil that is the effect of rejecting God and His word. Where they stand in relation to the truth is determined by their worldly interests. If the coast is clear, and no Ill-wind is perceived, then they will appear as zealous for the truth as any. But no sooner do they perceive a change in the wind which might jeopardize their self-interests, than they shift their sails and chart another course, making no apology for such a change. The right road is whichever one leads to their temporal safety and worldly comfort. It is the corrupt and selfish love of a harlot that loves the money, gifts, comforts, and blessings better than the one who gives them. Christ will not be loved in this way, because it is to be like a harlot, not the pure bride of Christ and love Him for Himself, not just for what He gives. On this broad road they find multitudes of others who encourage one another in their persuasion that they are on the right road. You will seldom find an insincere heart swimming against the tide of corrupt times because they have no inward principle of divine life to go against it. They can easily hide themselves in a crowd. They comfort and congratulate themselves by telling themselves that so many others could not be wrong. But a sincere heart, having a principle of divine life within, is enabled and directed by it in the right way without the help of others to lean on, and to even go against all the opposition they meet.
There is a great difference between the suffering and afflictions that are part-and-parcel of living in a sin cursed world, and those that are the effect of desiring to live godly in Christ Jesus. One is common to all people, while the other is known only by true Christians, and sadly, by precious few of them. The gospel does not promise redemption and freedom from social injustice, racism, poverty, crime, victimization, sickness, disease, and calamity, but from the wrath of a holy and offended God. The gospel does not promise freedom from the effects of sin in this world, but from the power of sin in the life. There is a great difference between the suffering caused by all the evils that are the effect of rejecting God and His word, and the suffering that is from holding fast to and refusing to compromise God’s word. The former is cause for a loud and drastic repentance, while the latter is cause for rejoicing (Mt 5:11, 12).
The overwhelming majority of the evil and suffering we are experiencing today is from the effects of the former, and precious little is as a result of the latter. Today, the mass of churches, their guides and leaders, and professing Christians are in such a dead and apostate condition that instead of being salt and a preservative from corruption and evil, they are only adding to the immorality and lawlessness by weakening the restraints and removing the barriers which the commands of the gospel and true Christianity impose on the lusts of men. It is real Christianity, not all the forms of it, that has the answers to the world’s problems. Forms of godliness merely perpetuate and compound them. By one way or another, like the false prophets of Israel, “they strengthen the hands of evil doers, so that no one has turned back from their wickedness” (Jer 23:14). When what restrains a people’s sin is removed, then there is nothing to keep them from being as bad as they would be (Dt 31:27). This makes a season dangerous, but especially for all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus and to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which they have been called.
To the degree that a person is surprised by the unavoidable trials associated with living in a dangerous season, to the same degree will those trials be all the more intolerable and soul destroying. The more careless anyone has been in girding their minds for action, the less sober in spirit they have become, the more their hope and affections are set on the things, people, and institutions of this world, then the more terrible and terrifying will be their trials when they come (1 Pt 1:13). The further they have drifted from, neglected, and corrupted known divine truths, the more certain it is they will receive a just recompense (Hb 2:2, 3). If the season is considered not so dangerous, then there will be little preparation for its suffering. The expectation of and preparation for evils will lessen much of their dread and terror by familiarizing our thoughts to them beforehand, so that we find them not so amazing, unexpected, and debilitating when they actually do come.
When we see the mass of churches, guides, teachers, leaders, and professing Christians apostatizing left and right, and see them condoning what God condemns, permitting what God forbids, rejecting what God commands, and scoffing at God’s threats and warnings, corrupting His gospel, church, and worship, and not enduring sound doctrine, but turning aside to the most ludicrous, irrational, and blatantly unbiblical doctrines and practices, making friends with and imitating the world in all they do, joining with it in its causes, and accumulating heaps of false teachers, then we are grieved, but not surprised that these things are happening in such a season. Rather they are to be expected. In expecting and preparing for them, we will not be surprised by them or caught up in them like the rest. We will not compromise the truth to avoid suffering for it, because we have been expecting it. In fact, in such a season the true Christian should be surprised if they did not experience any fiery ordeal for their testing, or suffered nothing for being a true Christian and holding steadfastly to the truth (1 Pt 1:12-16). They are surprised and ashamed, not that they suffer, but that they are loath to suffer so little for such a great Savior, and have virtually no desire to know the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil 3:10).
Reader, the cup of suffering and tribulation is a very bitter cup. Jesus had His cup to drink, and so do all who would walk in His footsteps (1 Pt 2:21). If we are to persevere in a dangerous season, and not shrink back to destruction, we will need something to sweeten this bitter cup and make us receive it with joy and thanksgiving, “but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing;” (1 Pt 4:13). What those sweeteners are and how to prepare them is what I intend, pray, and hope you will find in the rest of these studies on living in a dangerous season. The sufferings of Christ were not the effects of His substituting darkness for light, or from invalidating the commandments of God with the traditions of men. They were not the result of His making no distinction between the holy and profane, failing to teach the difference between the clean and the unclean, seeking to curry the favor of the world, accommodating and assimilating the tastes, reasoning, thinking, wisdom, and preferences of the prevailing culture, joining in the world’s causes, wrapping His message in a commercially viable package, flattering the religious elite, diluting, nullifying, and redefining the commands of the gospel, affirming people in a corrupt system of religion and who lived securely in a false salvation. Rather they were the natural effect of exposing and condemning the evil deeds of darkness, testifying to the world that its deeds are evil, and calling people from their sin and love for this world to repentance, self-denial, faith, cross-bearing, and obedience to the commands of the gospel. To the degree that we follow in Christ’s footsteps, then to the same degree we will share in the sufferings of Christ, especially in a dangerous season (Hb 12:3, 4). Such a life never has and never will enjoy the praise, honors, and admiration of the world. It will make us few friends in our lifetime. Such worldly honors, temporal fame, and earthly popularity are typically reserved for false prophets (Lk 6:26).
Prepared to Suffer
When the Apostle Paul was warned by the prophet Agabus that in Jerusalem he would be bound by the Jews and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, and when he was repeatedly begged by those who loved him not to go to Jerusalem, Paul responded in his customary fashion, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Ac 21:10-13). No attempts, no arguments, no prophecies, no pleadings, no reasonings could divert or dissuade Paul from going to Jerusalem, because he was “bound in the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me (Ac 20:22, 23). Paul’s will had already been so determined and fixed by the revealed will of God that he was ready and willing to cheerfully comply with it no matter what trials, hardships, afflictions, dangers, and deprivations accompanied it. He was fully prepared for whatever awaited him. He had girded his mind for action so that nothing, no trial, hardship, or suffering, whether real, threatened, or feared, would cause him to betray even one hair-breadth of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus simply to save his own hide. Nothing could divert or frighten him off from what he knew to be his God-given duty. From Paul’s example we can learn two things that will help us to prepare to live in a dangerous season.
First, it is God’s revealed word, its commands, principles, promises, and precepts, not providences, traditions, entrenched practices, mystical experiences, or extra-biblical impressions that are to determine our course of duty and obedience.
Second, that no discouragements, arguments, reasonings, pragmatism, or warnings and pleas whatsoever, even from well-meaning and sincere friends and loved ones, will ever justify our neglect, evasion, or abandonment of a known duty and command.
The Holy Spirit revealed to Paul in his office as an apostle the will of God and his duty regarding it. Paul responded in no uncertain terms, “I am ready”. God had prepared and equipped Paul’s heart and mind for the greatest of sufferings, “even to die”. This is a work of God. This is beyond flesh and blood, as Peter and the other apostles bear sad testimony (Mt 26:30-35). Flesh and blood does everything it can, and goes to the greatest lengths and expense to preserve and prolong its own life. Unless its own self-interests were overruled and subdued by the Spirit of God, flesh and blood can never be brought to willingly lay down its life for something that can only be known and seen by faith. Only those to whom spiritual truths are realities can ever be brought to the point where they say, “I am ready.” By saying, “I am ready”, Paul declared that his will and resolve were firmly fixed, and that all his friend’s pleas and arguments, all their tears and entreaties could not alter his firm and fixed purpose. They had best give up trying to discourage and oppose him, and instead commit him into the hands and will of the only sovereign and almighty God. Paul’s “I am ready”, the preparation of his heart and mind to bear any and all hardships, even death, for the cause of Christ, made him impervious to the pleas and opposition of his friends and the malice and threats of his enemies. Such preparation is not just for apostles and super-saints, but it is absolutely necessary for all who hope to serve the Lord in sincerity and truth, and not shrink back to destruction when serving Christ loses its ease and romance and goes against the grain of the prevailing wisdom and opinions of not only the culture, but also against the mass of professing Christianity, and becomes lonely, difficult, and dangerous. It is required of all Christians to, “Be faithful until death,” if they are to realize the promise for faithfulness, “and I will give you the crown of life” (Rv 2:10). It is only those who endure to the end who will be saved (Mt 24:13).
When the 19th century Scottish missionary John G. Paton became convinced the Lord was calling him to be a missionary to the cannibals of the New Hebrides in the South Pacific, many tried to dissuade him. They appealed to his love for his family, and how they would suffer should he be killed. They appealed to his ministry among the poor of the inner-city of Glasgow. In his autobiography he writes how he, “was besieged with the strongest opposition on all sides….that I was leaving certainty for uncertainty – work in which God had made me greatly useful, for work in which I might fail to be useful, and only throw my life away amongst Cannibals….Indeed, the opposition was so strong from nearly all, and many of them warm Christian friends, that I was sorely tempted to question whether I was carrying out the Divine will, or only some headstrong wish of my own.” One “dear old Christian gentleman” repeatedly told him, “The Cannibals! You will be eaten by Cannibals!”, to which John replied, “Mr Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms”.[3] In this John Paton, as have many other faithful saints, were following the example of the Apostle Paul, “But I do not consider my life as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” (Ac 20:24).
Anyone who is determined to obey the will and word of God, to not compromise even the smallest and seemingly insignificant point of truth, and persevere until the end, must be prepared to face similar attempts at discouragement and temptations to compromise, even by “warm Christian friends”. Sadly, these discouragements and urgings to make some “minor” concessions will most often come from people who have never sacrificed so much as one night’s sleep, or denied themselves the least pleasure, or suffered themselves to undergo the smallest hardship for the cause of Christ. They have never taken one step in their life that was purely by faith in the promises of God. They want to have enough money in the bank, plenty of supporters, one or two backup plans, and a reasonably certain guarantee of success before they will make a move. They will spend more, ten times more perhaps, on their two week vacation than they will give in a year to the Lord’s work either at home or abroad. They lack no excuses or pragmatic arguments for why such strict adherence to the word of God is unnecessary to get to heaven and is actually harmful to the cause of Christ. As John Paton concluded, “Objections from all such people must, of course, always count for nothing among men to whom spiritual things are realities”.
We are taught by Scripture, the example of Paul, the lives of the primitive Christians, and the examples of numerous saints who have walked in the footsteps of Christ, that it is a gracious, sacred, and admirable thing for the people of God to be prepared and ready for the most difficult service, the hardest trials, the worst sufferings, and the most dangerous seasons to which the Lord may call them. This is what every believer should hope to attain, but so very few do, especially when they have become accustomed to times of ease, prosperity, accommodation, compromise, religious tolerance, doctrinal indifference, and self-indulgence. Reader, I ask you, are you ready? Most professing Christians are not even ready to give up their entertainments, programs, activities, traditions, worldliness, self-indulgences, false securities, unbiblical practices, and carnal forms of godliness, so certainly there are very few, even infinitesimally few in this degenerate, apostate, and self-loving age who can say as Paul did, “I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die…for the name of the Lord Jesus”. Unless you are ready you will never be able to persevere to the end in a dangerous season. Unless you are ready it will be next to impossible for you to keep from being conformed to this world by the siren call of our pagan culture, if you have not been so already. O reader, gird your minds for action and reach for, pray for, and strive to attain this readiness without which it will be impossible to keep from shrinking back to destruction as most of professing Christianity already has today.
If ever any age was likely, or had more means at its disposal to promote and facilitate the degeneration of people from the path of righteousness and power of holiness, it is this one in which we now live. How low has the power of holiness sunk from even the last generation, which in itself was bad enough. There is no shortage of complaints of what has been lost in these degenerate and dangerous times, but where are those who grieve over their lost love for the truths of Christ, the degradation of His worship, the syncretization of His church, and the abysmal loss of holiness and simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, “they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph” (Am 6:6). But what is even worse, and adds a terrible aggravation to it is, that this has occurred and continues to grow worse at a time when there are the greatest reasons and helps to holiness as there ever were. Forms of godliness without its power we have in abundance, but nothing can save the life of Christianity in this nation from total apostasy, or prolong its mercies, but the recovery of the greatly decayed power of holiness and godliness. But, as we are going from bad to worse, are proceeding from evil to evil (Jer 9:3), and are under some of the most severe judgments of God (Rm 1:28-32), we are dying a lingering spiritual death.
Reader, I ask you again, are you ready to be tested by a dangerous season, or will you be among the mass of professing Christians who shrink back to destruction? Will your faith stand the fiery trial when, in times of accommodation, tolerance, and ease, the faith of most has already proven to be no more than the faith of demons, or a temporary stony ground faith, or a faith that is easily choked out by the things of this world? Are you ready to answer Christ’s call to deny self and die to those things that are very dear and precious to you? If not, when will you be ready? What will it take to make you become ready? What is it that is preventing you from being ready? It was the foolish virgins that went to meet the bridegroom unprepared and found out too late that they had been shut out of the kingdom of God (Mt 25:1-13). The way to heaven is still the hard and narrow way, and there are still few who find it (Mt 7:14). Jesus Christ has declared it to be so, and all the notions, carping, questioning, and criticisms of men will not make it otherwise. Such objections and denials only serve to heighten the danger of the season for those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. I urge you by the mercies of Christ Jesus to follow that solemn counsel of Scripture, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience” (Hb 4:11). Are you ready?
In our next study I will show that although God takes no delight in inflicting suffering on His people, yet He sometimes exposes them to severe and serious sufferings, and the reasons for which He calls them to suffer various trials, even very harsh ones.
[1] Iain H. Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith, Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1990), 430, Emphasis mine
[2] R.C. Sproul, Willing to Believe: The Controversy over Free Will, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), 16. Emphasis mine
[3] John G. Paton, John G. Paton: The Autobiography of the Pioneer Missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 55, 56.