“…that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.”
-1 Thessalonians 3:3
Trials, tribulations, persecutions, scoffings, mocking, tumults, uprisings, and protests are promised to the Church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:10; Acts 14:22, 19).
As a matter of fact, Jesus even said that you were going to be hated by the world and maybe even killed for His name’s sake (Matthew 10:22;24:9).
After all, after His resurrection, while showing His disciples His crucifixion wounds on both His hands and His feet, Jesus said, “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” (John 20:21).
Yet, this is what I want you to understand. Scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:8, “None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Why? It’s because it is the power of God through judgment (the cross appointed by the Lord) to establish His righteousness (salvation-liberation from bondage-establishing the Law by grace through faith) upon this earth.
Let’s read 2 Thessalonians 1:4-12.
“So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power:
That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So, to put it in short order, yes, we will have to endure what the devil, the world, and his minions will bring (Revelations 12:17), but remember, it is not the anvil (the Church) that gets replaced, it is the hammer (the devil and his minions).
Article posted with permission from Sons of Liberty Media
