Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. (Hebrews 12:10—NIV)

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so Christ's power may rest on me. (II Corinthians 12:8,9—NIV)

There are at least three kinds of Divinely appointed suffering. The first kind is the punishment that comes from the exercise of God's wrath. The second kind is the chastening of the believer. The third kind consists of the various weaknesses that keep our personality pruned back so we may bear fruit.

It may prove helpful to some of the believers to understand what is happening to them so they may be able to cooperate with the Holy Spirit more willingly. There has been religious (I won't say Christian) talk among the believers in pleasure-loving America about how God will not allow Christians to suffer. Can you imagine? Given the record of the Scriptures, God does not allow His saints to suffer?

Since the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews discusses the heroes of faith in the Bible, and we can read there of their suffering, it is apparent that no matter how much faith we have we still may suffer according to the will of God.

Christians are at a crossroads today. Many unscriptural gospels are advising God's people that they may have a wonderful time in the present world and still go to Heaven "by grace." God will not withhold from us any pleasure that we want badly enough.

Then there are other preachers who are telling us God wants us to turn from our wicked ways, get serious with Christ, take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow the Master.

Since the first way is one of pleasure in the present world, and the second is one of self-denial in the present world, it is clear one or the other is not proceeding from the Holy Spirit.

We have made up the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture in order to persuade ourselves that God does not want any of us to suffer. (Tell this to Isaiah, whom tradition maintains was sawed in two.)

But that was the Old Testament. Well then, how about the Christians described in Fox's Book of Martyrs? How about the great number of martyrs slain in the twentieth century?

The notion that Christians are not supposed to suffer (actually we are counted as sheep for the slaughter) is so unscriptural and unhistorical as to not be worthy of further discussion.

One area of confusion today has to do with tribulation and wrath. Those who hold to the "pre-tribulation rapture" of the believers prove their point by stressing that God has not appointed us to wrath. Apparently they do not understand that tribulation and the torment of Divine wrath are two different kinds of suffering having very different purposes.

No believer will get very far with the Lord until he makes up his mind that Christians do suffer, and sometimes to the point of death. It should help each of us to understand why we suffer and what is causing our suffering; why God has found it necessary for us to hurt so much.

To be continued.