Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Enduring Trials and Tests
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Psalm 7:9
How does God get knowledge? God tests the hearts and the minds. He creates circumstances and puts people to the test. In I Peter 2:12, Peter speaks about people glorifying God in the day of visitation, which means "inspection," that is, their inspection by God. Why does a person inspect something? Because he wants to find out about it. When a person goes to buy a car, he inspects and evaluates it. He will look at the tires, the engine, the interior, and condition of the body. He will test-drive it to find out what it will do so he can decide whether to buy it. We do the same with clothing, a house, and every major decision in life. We gather information so that we will know what to do with our lives. God does the same thing. Now we can better understand what the ramifications of this are. There are times that God does not know for sure what people will do! He puts people to the test and watches to see how they respond.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Image and Likeness of God (Part Five)
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Psalm 119:67
When a person experiences discomfort, he will immediately and diligently search for a way to alleviate his pain and anxiety and reach a state of comfort once again. This is a very natural and necessary reaction, for if a person ignores his pain and fear, he stands a good chance of experiencing increased pain, ill-health, apprehension, terror, or even death. The discomfort can be any number of troubles, from the rumbling of an empty stomach, the searing agony of burned flesh, or the aching of an abscessed tooth. God made us to react both consciously and subconsciously to these stimuli, and we respond by trying to find remedies to reduce or prevent the pain. Beyond bodily discomforts and pains are those of emotional, relational, or spiritual natures. We usually work just as hard to solve these sorts of problems because no one enjoys living in the midst of hurts, offenses, confusion, misunderstandings, or similar social ills. We will try to find the source of the problem, whether in ourselves or an offending community member, and work to straighten out the predicament, or if kinder methods fail, turn to more stringent measures to bring relief. Sometimes these sterner actions lead to separation from the community, either of the self or the offending member, to allow peace to return to the group. The Bible tells us frequently that members of God's church should expect problems to upset their comfort. Peter writes, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try [test] you, as though some strange thing happened to you" (I Peter 4:12). Paul concurs: "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able" (I Corinthians 10:13). James takes trials as a given, saying, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience" (James 1:2-3). Jesus Himself tells His disciples, "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). While it is full of reward and fulfillment, the Christian life is rarely a smooth road. The quiet, peaceful respite is often the exception rather than the rule. God does not want us to find a cozy comfort zone because that is when we are most likely to slip into dangerous spiritual drowsiness and complacency, which are deadly to overcoming and growth. Instead, He allows various people and circumstances to stir the pot to test us. In doing so, He urges us to seek out godly solutions to our difficulties, drawing us closer to Him and building godly character in us. Severe trials should move us far out of our comfort zones, provoking a search for godly solutions—yet not necessarily to return us to comfort but to agreement with God. The godly solution to any spiritual trial always confirms the revealed truth of God and strengthens the bonds between God and us and between His true worshippers. Despite the discomforts of the Christian life, we can take heart in its outcome: ". . . though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (I Peter 1:6-7). If we endure to the end, we will find this ultimate solution.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Comfort-Zone Christianity?
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Psalm 145:18
The question is, "How near?" This question has to be asked because many times we feel that God has gone way off somewhere. But how near is He? We have to ask this because the Bible describes Him as a God who is both far and near; He is both at the same time. He is far in recognition of His sovereignty and of His position in relation to the rest of the creation. He is far above us in that regard. He is over all and directs and controls everything, always with His overall purpose in mind. If we desire to have a good relationship with God, we will have to take this last factor into consideration, because it affects our lives. He does everything with His overall purpose in mind. There are occasions when He may be "unable" to act in our behalf on one of our requests of Him because other people's situations whose lives touch on ours must be resolved first. A clear example of this is the book of Job. Job was totally unaware of what was being worked out through, around, and about him. Even Satan was having something proved to him by God because He challenged him. In the vernacular of today, God said to the Devil, "Okay, Satan. See if you can break Job. I challenge you to see if you can break him." Satan could not break Job. The man stood his ground, even though he got battered mightily in the process, not really understanding what was happening. He undoubtingly appealed to God, but He could not answer because other things were being worked out through, around, and about in Job, of which he was totally unaware. Job was not privy to the conversation between God and Satan, nor to the fact that God was putting him through this so that a book would be written of his experiences, which could not be written until the episode had resolved. So Job had to go through a great deal of discomfort, pain, and emotional anguish while the whole situation played out. For a while, God was a God from afar. Now that we have more understanding, and the Bible is complete, we realize that He was also a God who was near because He strengthened Job so that he could resist the temptations of the most powerful being to tempt mankind. Job stood against him just fine. Because this book has been written, and because Job endured this, we now have a clear picture why, at times, bad things happen to good people. We can also see that this book of Job shows that God has faith in us too. It does not work just one way. God was working from afar, with His overall picture in mind for mankind, and God was also working nearby.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part Six)
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Ecclesiastes 7:8-10
Each comparison shows wisdom's significance to a successful life. The best way to perceive the counsel in Ecclesiastes is to recognize that it is written to God's converted children, not to the world. Solomon's thoughts, then, tie directly into instructions and commands in other parts of God's Word. Much of this is counsel to endure the trials of life patiently and meekly because God is directly involved in them right alongside us. Hence, over the long haul, our trials will have a positive result. Consequently, we are urged not to fall into the trap of unreasoning haste to “just get rid of the problem,” as it were. Knowing that Ecclesiastes is aimed at God's converted children, we grasp that the willfulness involved in haste is really nothing more than an expression of carnal pride. Verse 8 bears explaining more thoroughly because it relates to a pertinent fact about these comparisons. They are not to be understood as absolutes but are useful helps according to the circumstances of life's trials. Each trial may present different nuances that we must think through. Though verse 8 seems to say otherwise, we know that the end of everything is most definitely, absolutely not always better than its beginning. A clear example is sin. Sin almost invariably begins pleasantly, even pleasurably. As with Eve, the fruit undoubtedly tasted good to her, but God kicked her and Adam out of the Garden, and they died. Judas, too, was undoubtedly pleased with his work on the night of Jesus' arrest, but then he hanged himself. These examples are so clear: Sin never, never, never ends well. Circumstances and projects can end well only when they begin with a good purpose right from the start. Even so, they may not end well. In Luke 11:24-26, Jesus provides an example of a good project ending badly: When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, “I will return to my house from which I came,” and when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. II Peter 2:20-22 vividly illustrates how sin entering a project destroys its end being better than the beginning: For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” Thus, we can see that even good projects must continue in the right way for the end to be better than its beginning, showing that these comparisons are not intended to be absolutes.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living (Part Nine): Wisdom as a Defense
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Amos 2:6-8
This is part of God's indictment of Israel forty years before its fall. At the time, Israel had regained some of its former glory under the able, though idolatrous, leadership of Jeroboam II, who had regained some of its lost territory and reinvigorated its economy. God's warning through Amos, however, is that material prosperity cloaks the ugly and rotten inner core, which was the true state of Israel's relationship with God. Thus, he concludes that the nation is doomed to fall to its enemies, and its people will die or shuffle off to foreign lands as slaves—and soon. God concentrates on social injustices like exploiting the poor and weak, perverting justice, abusing sexuality, encouraging addictions, and trampling the sacred. This indicates that such societal ills reveal the "heart of darkness" hidden by a façade of religiosity and prosperity, much as exists today in modern America. A society that reaches the point of merely adorning the façade rather than changing the heart is taking its last gasp. This is the punishment Amos foresees for the corrupt in Israel: Your wife shall be a harlot in the city; your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword; your land shall be divided by survey line; you shall die in a defiled land; and Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land (Amos 7:17). What a horrible end—but a just one in the eyes of God. It cannot be far off. For us Christians who are spiritually counter-culture, we need to realize the rapidity of the decline and the probability that persecution will increase. People who know and hide their hypocrisy will strike out at those who expose it by their very presence. To face the bleak future of this nation, we need to remain "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10), because our "might" will not suffice. This requires us to renew our relationship with God day by day (II Corinthians 4:16) and strengthen it by growth (John 15:8; II Peter 3:18). As Paul says, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (II Corinthians 4:17).
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
A Christian Nation? Reprise
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Matthew 12:10
On this particular occasion, the Pharisees were at the synagogue ready to entrap Jesus for His use of the Sabbath. When He came to the man with the withered hand, they watched and waited, suggesting that the Pharisees expected Christ to intervene and heal the man. They resolved that no matter what He did, they would find fault with it, to use it as the ground of an accusation before the local tribunal. The rabbis allowed Sabbath healing in cases of life and death, but a withered hand did not meet the criteria. From the beginning, the scribes and Pharisees had persistently opposed Christ's teachings because He exposed their hypocrisy, lessening their esteem and influence among the people. Jesus knew of their animosity toward Him even before they began to hinder His work. As the word "watch" implies, they were spying on Him, scrutinizing every move He made. Their hypocrisy was obvious. Christians should not expect to fare any better—in fact, we should count it all joy (James 1:2) because the "sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared" with the coming glory (Romans 8:18). In trying to uphold righteous standards, Christians are often watched by a suspicious and spiteful world. Jesus says, "If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. . . . But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. . . . They hated Me without a cause" (John 15:20-21, 25). In order never to give the enemies of Christ a reason to blaspheme, our lives must be sterling examples of God's way of life. The Father gave Jesus a full measure of the Holy Spirit, empowering Him with the discernment and ability to know people's hearts. We need to rein in our thoughts and bring them under control. Every day a vast number of vain and worldly imaginations pass through the average person's mind. Others never notice them, but God does. Nothing is hidden from Him.
Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Withered Hand (Part One)
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Luke 4:1-3
Luke 4 contains Satan's temptation of Christ, and it is instructive to see what Jesus did in the face of evil. Just before this, Jesus had been highly complimented by the Father: "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22). Jesus, then, must have been feeling confident, for the voice booming such praise out of heaven was a massive pat on the back. Then, Luke 4:1 relates that He was filled with the Holy Spirit; the power, the strength, of God was pumping through Him. It was at just this point—before He commenced His ministry—that Satan pounced. We should not think that Satan tempted our Savior with merely three or four temptations, as recorded in this chapter, as well as in Matthew 4. The text says that He was "tempted for forty days," meaning that He was under constant attack for the full forty days, every day! This was an intense, prolonged test and more personal and powerful than we have ever experienced. The terrible evil He faced in the wilderness would likely have crushed us. The passage implies that Satan left the worst temptation to the very end, when Jesus was seemingly at His weakest point. He had not eaten food or drunk water for forty days. But was He passive all that time? Did our Savior just sit or lie on the sand for those nearly six weeks, allowing the Devil's temptations to batter Him like one sandstorm after the next? Luke does not present Him like that. Jesus did not fast because He had nothing to eat in a barren land. Remember, He is the One who inspired the instructions about fasting in Isaiah 58, so He clearly knew the spiritual strength that fasting provides. At the end of the forty days, He may have been weak as a kitten physically, but spiritually, He was the powerful Son of God. Perhaps the temptations advanced, not like one storm after another, but like an ever-strengthening tempest that culminated in a hurricane. What did Jesus do? Each successive onslaught was harder to resist. How did He face it? He bent all His will and strength on overcoming each temptation as it broke on Him. He pulled out every spiritual weapon to defeat each one. Luke does not say that He pulled out His scroll of Deuteronomy and began instructing Satan on the finer points of God's way of life. Our Savior already had them deeply embedded in His mind. He was prepared—by long years of study and deep meditation on what He learned—to face Satan's attacks. We also know that, not only was He fasting when out in the wilderness, but as His everyday practice, He prayed regularly, almost constantly. Here are four tools we must also use to rid evil from our lives: 1) Bible study, 2) meditation, 3) fasting, and 4) prayer. When Satan hit Him with temptation, Jesus did not need to do some emergency Bible study. Not only was He the Word of God in the flesh, but He also knew Scripture by heart. When Satan sent a temptation, Jesus quoted an opposing scripture verbatim. The right words—words that He had inspired as God of the Old Testament—came immediately to mind, and He hurled them at Satan like a razor-sharp weapon (Ephesians 6:17). Christ never treated evil as if it did not exist. In addition, He knew the weakness of His own flesh. He is the only person who has ever totally resisted the pulls of the flesh, though He suffered them just as we do (Hebrews 2:14, 18; 4:15). However, He was strong in the Spirit of God and able to resist them. We see in this vignette from His life that, even so, it was no easy task for Him. We know it is certainly not easy for us, but if we want to be like Him, we must approach it just as He did.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Evil Is Real (Part Five)
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John 1:14
Some commentators feel that this is the greatest verse in the Bible because the apostle John is saying that God became a man. The Greeks could have never, not in their wildest imaginations, have thought—with their background of philosophy and with the gods they worshipped—of God becoming a man. Doing so would have been something too far beneath a god to do. They believed that flesh is evil, so they could not associate a perfectly pure and righteous God becoming something they considered inherently evil. Yet, God "became flesh and dwelt among us." The word "flesh" is the exact same word that the apostle Paul uses in his books to designate human nature. When we remember some of the things the Bible says about the flesh, John is saying that the Word—the Logos, the pre-existent One, the Creator—became subject to humanity in its fullness, in the exact same way that we are subject to humanity. He was subject to the pulls of the flesh. He could have been influenced by Satan. He had human desires. The possibility was there for Him to have the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. God did not withhold Him from any of these things. It is awfully hard to think of God encumbering Himself with humanity, but there was a reason why it had to be done. To be the payment—to be man's Savior—He had to be a human (Hebrews 2:14-18). However, He had to be a man who was more than a man. He had to be encumbered with humanity yet be God in the flesh. He had to be both at the same time. So, the pulls of the flesh could not be withheld from Him. He had to endure and overcome those things. He had to rise above the influences of Satan the Devil to become the payment for the sins of the people and also to be prepared to be a merciful and faithful High Priest. This has a great deal to do with our calling because we have been called to become priests—kings and priests, as Revelation 5:10 says. What we go through during our converted lives is similar to what Christ went through. As He was called to become High Priest, we are called to become priests under Him. So, we have to experience trials similar to what He did. To qualify for what He is, He had to go through what we do. God is preparing us to aid others who will come along later, just as Jesus was prepared to aid us. Therefore, the Word became flesh and everything that "flesh" might mean.
John W. Ritenbaugh
John (Part Three)
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1 Corinthians 10:12-13
There is no need for us to fail. Trials and tests will come—and they will be common tests. They will not be something so unusual that our situation will be absolutely unique. But God is faithful in that He promises to provide us a way out of it—not avoiding it, but through it.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Passover and I Corinthians 10
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Revelation 3:10
Before examining this promise, it may be helpful to understand what it does not say. Note how conventional wisdom would paraphrase this verse: Because you consider yourself to be a Philadelphian, and because you are with the church organization that is doing the most to preach the gospel to the world, I will keep you from the hour of trial and will take you to the Place of Safety where you will be protected while all those who disagree with you will go through the Tribulation. "Conventional wisdom" is not actually wisdom! It is what is generally held to be true by many, yet it may, in fact, be fallacious. This rendering of Revelation 3:10 is the conventional wisdom in some circles, illustrating how many take narcissistic liberties with this verse. It also shows why there is such an emphasis today on which church group is the best: because we are averse to pain and tend to try to avoid it. Thus, some convince themselves that they will be safe from what lies ahead because they are with the right church—rather than being right with God. This is extremely dangerous, as it indicates that they trust in the wrong thing. The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 are written in large part from a perspective of "if the shoe fits, wear it." In each, Jesus concludes with "he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches"—plural—meaning we should glean all that we can from each letter rather than focus on our favorite one. In this light, a way to approach Revelation 3:10 is that perseverance is part of what Christ uses to define who a Philadelphian is. Thus, an individual is a Philadelphian because he keeps His command to persevere, in addition to exemplifying the other things He says, such as keeping His Word and not denying His name (Revelation 3:8). In short, a person cannot conclude that, just because he is fellowshipping with a particularly faithful group, he will be carried along in its positive momentum and benefit from the promise of protection and other blessings. An unfaithful individual in an overall faithful group will reap what he sows, not what the rest of the group sows. Christ says similar things in other places, as in Matthew 10:22: "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved" (emphasis ours throughout). He makes no mention of group membership but addresses the enduring individual. Similarly, in Matthew 24:12-13 and Luke 21:36, He emphasizes what we do as individuals—our personal faithfulness and endurance—rather than the merits of a particular group. Just as Laodiceanism can be found in each of us regardless of the church we attend, so each of us can persevere and courageously endure no matter where we fellowship.
David C. Grabbe
Who Will Be Kept from the Hour of Trial?
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Revelation 3:10
Jesus Christ says that because some of His people have been keeping His command to persevere, He will keep them from the worst of what lies ahead. They have already proved their faithfulness to Him; He knows where they stand, He sees their track record with Him, and He will not require them to experience everything that the rest of humanity will suffer. The word translated "kept" or "keep," used twice, plays into this. This word means "to attend to carefully; to maintain; to guard; to hold fast," and the way that it is used indicates reciprocity. We certainly want God to guard, hold fast, and carefully attend to us. We would prefer that He guard us and hold us fast far away from the destruction and torment that will come upon the world! But the flipside is that He wants us to do the same thing—keep, guard, hold fast—with regard to our responsibilities to the covenant. In other words, if we want God to take an active interest in our well-being during that time, we should understand the principle of reciprocity and take an active interest in Him at this time. If we diligently guard the things He has committed to our trust, He will do the same for us. Jesus' brother, James, provides insight into the perseverance that Christ wants us to have: "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (James 1:2-4). The perseverance that we will increasingly need as the end approaches cannot be developed all at once. Goofing off all semester and then cramming for the final exam rarely works in college, and it certainly will not work where our covenant and relationship with God is concerned. James counsels us to be thankful when our faith is tested, because all of those little exercises of faith not only prepare us for substantial trials, but also make us spiritually complete. The upshot is that no man, by himself, has the strength to endure and persevere through what lies ahead. Without God, we are all dead men, physically and spiritually, but because "power belongs to God" (Psalm 62:11), we can tap into the source of true strength through our relationship with Him. He decides the circumstances of our lives. He alone knows what we need to survive the trials and temptations at the end. More importantly, He knows what we need to be prepared for eternal life. Remember that God desires godly offspring (Malachi 2:15). He is creating sons and daughters in His image (Genesis 1:26; Romans 8:29). He is using His perfect creative genius to engineer the experiences and circumstances that we need to take on His image and have His eternal character formed in us. For some, walking with God through the very depths of the end time is what they will need to become "perfect and complete, lacking nothing." A large part of that may be a result of the choices that they make now, and their tendencies toward apathy, complacency, or compromise. For others who are already keeping His command to persevere, He will keep them from the hour of trial. It does not mean they will not see hardship: They must see hardship to endure courageously. But because of their constancy under duress—because God is not a stranger, and they are already accustomed to walking through life with Him and drawing upon His strength—they will be given a blessing of protection.
David C. Grabbe
Who Will Be Kept from the Hour of Trial?
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