Why should God’s people give thanks to Him when things go bad, as they sometimes do in the lives of His saints?  When thinking about trials and tribulations, let us remember a man named Jesus from the city of Nazareth.  Generally speaking, His early years are hidden from us.  In the instances of which we are familiar, there is no indication of His being assailed by either people or circumstances.  For example, when He stayed behind following His parents’ trip to Jerusalem, we find the priests much impressed with the knowledge of the Scriptures exhibited by a twelve-year-old (Lk. 2:41-52).  The reason He was unchallenged as a youth is because He had not yet presented Himself publicly as God’s Son–the Purveyor of Truth to mankind.  One will notice that, as soon as His public ministry of proclaiming and demonstrating the will of God began, persecution from the most religious among the Jews began.  When the Romans heard that the King of the Jews had arrived, they set their sights on Him.  Recall also that John the Baptist was persecuted and eventually martyred after he began to preach God’s Word.  Note also that the apostles lived in peace until they began to speak God’s Truth.  The same is true for Stephen, who was stoned to death for telling the Jews what was written in their own Law.  In none of these cased were these men assailed verbally or physically prior to the beginning of their public ministry.  Of those 16 men, only the Apostle John lived a normal life span.  Why were they persecuted, hated, rejected and finally martyred?  BECAUSE THEIR LIGHT EXPOSED THE DARKNESS OF THOSE AROUND THEM.  Later, millions of God’s Very Elect would be martyred, some by the Jews and some by the Roman Empire.  But the vast majority of them were persecuted, etc. by the Catholic Church which was responsible for the killing of some 50,000,000 people because they would not bow to the church’s Satanic theology.

In every case the Lord’s saints were killed because of their stand for Him.  The only thing that has changed is the extent of the persecution.  In civilized countries one cannot be put to death over spiritual matters due to civil laws against the murder of innocent people.  In some countries people are still being martyred for religious reasons.  The irony is that those being killed–called Christians–are not Bible Christians, but rather church Christians.  They are dying for nothing in that their religion, their god, their messiah and their salvation are counterfeit, as are the self-proclaimed “Christians” found in the world’s so-called “Christian nations” such as the United States, Britain, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand,  Canada, Australia, Poland, Germany, France, etc.  It saddens me greatly that people, believing that they are Christians, go to their deaths believing that they will wake up in heaven.  Fortunately, God will give them another opportunity to embrace Him after, for the first time, hearing His Truth taught by His Very Elect.

Before continuing we must distinguish between testing and cursing.  God tests His people to see if they will stay true to Him.  He curses His people, along with the rest of the world, when they break His Law.  One needs to study the Scriptures diligently to determine the difference between testing and cursing.  Extremely rarely, as in the case of Job, there is some overlapping.  Job was tested in a physical way for two reasons: 1) to show Satan that he was truly God’s man, and 2) to show Job that there was an unrecognized sin in his life–PRIDE–which is IDOLATRY.  We see this most common sin first in Lucifer, then later in Adam and Eve, then later in their firstborn son, Cain.  Following their falling away from God, the entire world fell into idolatry–self-worship.  For this reason God drowned every one of them.  Only Noah and his family survived.

Nothing has changed.  The entire world worships at its own feet.  This global idolatry is arranged, instigated and perpetrated by Satan who cares not for the things of God, “… but for the things of man” (Mk. 8:33).  Satan wants man to believe that he can rule himself.  With the exception of the Lord’s remnant, the whole world has been deceived into believing him (Rev. 12:9).  The world of worldly man, including churchman, revolves around himself and the world he works so hard to fit into and to please.

Because he does not know and believe God’s Word, when man is tested or cursed he cannot figure out 1) which one he is dealing with or 2) why he is dealing with it.  This ministry is dedicated to informing churchman 1) the difference between testing and cursing and 2) why he is experiencing whichever one he is experiencing .  Man summarily rejects what God tells him in His Scriptures because “… that’s not what I’ve always been taught.”  Which is true because  he has not been taught by God out of His Holy Bible through the ministry of His true prophets and apostles.  Churchman knows only the version of the Gospel put forth by his religious group.

Most people are t.v. watchers to some extent.  If one watches t.v. long enough one will realize that periodically each network will test the system to make sure things are working as they were designed to work.  Watchers are warned ahead of time that a test is coming.  It arrives, lasts for awhile, then ends.  Watchers appreciate the tests for it lets them know whether all systems are “go,” or if repairs need to be done.

This is somewhat the way God tests his people.  He warns them that tests are inevitable and to always be spiritually ready for them by keeping sin out of their lives.  When tests come, as they always do, the true saint is ready for them.  And when they are over, he/she is glad the test was administered because it reveals his/her position in the Lord and what, if anything, needs fixing.  God tests us relative to our weaknesses.  For this reason Jesus placed Judas–a thief–in charge of the group’s money.  Just as He did with all of the apostles and all who embrace Him, He tests us to show us where we stand relative to where we need to be standing.  For this reason the true saint is thankful for “all things” (including tests and curses) because he/she knows that “All things work for the good of them that LOVE THE LORD AND ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE.”  Those who are not living according to the purpose He has laid out for them (holiness–obedience to His Word) do not appreciate tests, trials and curses.  As a result of their sins–failure to pass a test or succumbing to Satan’s temptation, God curses them.  Remember, “The curse without a cause does not come” (Prov. 26:2), and “As a man sows, so shall he reap (Gal. 6:7).  L.J.