Peter wrote about suffering, that one could suffer for doing evil, or doing good (1 Peter 4:15-16). But the fact is that God\u2019s people appear to be suffering unjustly. Wicked people take advantage of the Believer\u2019s suffering to insist that they are being punished by God for heresy. However, God\u2019s word does not state, \u201cMany are the afflictions of the heretics.\u201d (Psalm 34:19)<\/p>\n
God\u2019s people may indeed be under His chastising, but He only chastises the ones He loves (Hebrews 12:6). However, the wicked often appear to be greatly blessed by the measurement of earthly standards.<\/p>\n
Asaph wrote about that status of the wicked:<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.\u201d (Psalm 73:7)<\/p>\n
Asaph erroneously focused on the deceptively \u201cbetter\u201d life of the wicked. He reached the point where he began to believe that he was living righteously in vain.<\/p>\n
\u201cBehold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.\u201d (Psalm 73:12-14)<\/p>\n
Many of God\u2019s people have reached that point of frustration. However, Asaph came to his senses after entering God\u2019s sanctuary. We should do likewise!<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.\u201d (Psalm 73:16-17)<\/p>\n
The problem is that many professing Christians have fallen under the spell of individuals that have merchandised them (2 Peter 2:3). Those evil ones do not know God. They view Christianity with its billions of follower-minded sheep as a means of self-aggrandizement. They have no fear to blaspheme, to spew pandering prophecies and revelations from their wicked imaginations. They even desecrate the image of Christ to make themselves appear righteous in their wickedness.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s mercy compels Him not only to prevent His people from becoming a heretic\u2019s herd of goats, but to expose goathood (apostasy) to His people. He will purify His people by trials so that they recognize the truth more clearly.<\/p>\n
Asaph first recognized he had wrongly focused on the satanically \u201cblessed\u201d state of the wicked. He realized that he had failed to recognize that he possessed much more wealth than the wicked would ever possess.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.\u201d\u00a0(Psalm 73:25-26)<\/p>\n
He echoed the Psalm of David.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.\u201d (Psalm 33:12)<\/p>\n
The Apostle Paul wrote that the apparent disparity between the status of the good and the wicked will increase in the last days.<\/p>\n
\u201cYea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.\u201d (2 Timothy 3:12-13)<\/p>\n
Numerous professing Christians in America do not believe that verse. Their spirits have been fattened by the teachers that Peter prophesied about. Suffering to such professing Christians is missing a great sale on Black Friday, or the HVAC going bad in the church building. They cannot fathom the type and degree of persecution the Believers in the rest of the world are going through. Furthermore, their eschatological doctrine is established on elitism.<\/p>\n
It is a fact that our temporal lives will come to an end. It is just as certain that the temporal realm will one day end. A hedonistic world of temporal-minded people–sold out servants of Satan, deceived into believing that evil is good and good is evil, that are replacing the Ten Commandments with Ten Offenses, will destroy every visage of God from society. When they have accomplished that, they will hunt down everyone that refuses to deny Christ, imprison and murder them.<\/p>\n
The period leading to the Antichrist and False Prophet\u2019s kingdom rebellion will become incrementally hostile to the Believers. As deceived and apostate people become more ungodly, places of refuge in the world will disappear. Consider that leaders in the secular and religious realm are making statements and committing deeds that would once have been thought insane and bizarrely evil. Instead of the truth turning on a light in their minds, truth incites rage and a greater intensity of rebellion.<\/p>\n
The fact is that no professing Christian that is pampered and sheltered from hardships can endure and survive the massive Tsunami of sheer, mindless, evil when it explodes in the world. There is no way to prepare for it other than to be strengthened and purged by trials.<\/p>\n
Therefore, if we want to know why the increase of trials is today, it is to prepare Gods Remnant for a very difficult finale in the temporal realm. God promises to deliver us\u2014not from, but out of all afflictions.<\/p>\n
Peter wrote about trials:<\/p>\n
\u201cWherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:\u201d (1 Peter 1:6-7)<\/p>\n
I warn professing Christian leaders that they should begin warning about the encroaching dark and evil storm. They should stop telling people that the more wickedness increases the closer their escape arrives. They are consigning people to face utter devastation with weakness and unpreparedness. Because of imparted and supported apathy, multitudes of professing Christians can barely survive a minor trial. They have no concept of endurance or of allowing the trial\u2019s flames to burn the chaff out of their souls. Instead, they blame every trial on Satan and seek deliverance any way that they can get it.<\/p>\n
The fact is that God\u2019s love, that sent His only Son to die for our sins, is now preparing us to face what is already a difficult period and increasing daily with multifaceted evil. Instead of taking up their cross and following Christ, professing Christians are burying their minds in entertainment and clouds of false teaching and false prophecies. God loves them too much to not attempt to awaken them.<\/p>\n
They cannot hear or refuse to read the warnings. They believe the pillow prophets and hirelings that label the watchmen, truthspeakers, and prophets, as judgmental, critical, and legalistic Pharisees. If anyone is sitting under the leadership of such a hireling I advise him or her to get as far away from them as possible.<\/p>\n
This is not a game! It is not a battle of opinions that have no consequences for choosing the one over the other. Either God can speak through people or He cannot. If He is speaking through people, each individual has to recognize that fact and choose whom to listen to. Will it be the hirelings and heretics that prophecy \u201cpeace, safety,\u201d or the voices of warning? Which message is more likely to be of God in the last days?<\/p>\n
I contend that the ones who are at ease in their religious comfort zones cannot hear or recognize the voices of warning. The ones that are enduring afflictions are awake and their ears and eyes are not dulled or dimmed. Consider and never forget Paul\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.\u201d (Romans 8:18)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peter wrote about suffering, that one could suffer for doing evil, or doing good (1 Peter 4:15-16). But the fact is that God\u2019s people appear to be suffering unjustly. Wicked people take advantage of the Believer\u2019s suffering to insist that they are being punished by God for heresy. However, God\u2019s word does not state, \u201cMany […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-vm","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1944"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1949,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}