Preparations for Sufferings

We live in a day when many Christian
Right political leaders are telling people
how to survive the difficult times that are
coming. One recent evangelical presidential
candidate, in a recent column, remarked that
“we are on the precipice of some potentially
catastrophic–or at the very least,
challenging–days.” His practical solutions
for preparation include “moving to a more
rural location,” stocking up on provisions,
getting in shape physically, and preparing
for self-defense with firearms. After many
paragraphs describing various weapons, he
concludes with a brief nod to faith: “I
strongly suggest that you seek to possess a
personal relationship with God’s only
begotten Son.”[3]

If we could choose for ourselves, we would
escape trials and tribulations. This is not
always God’s will for us, however. Despite
our best-laid plans for survival and
sustenance, God can override us. We may find
ourselves in a situation of persecution so
fierce and unrelenting that there is no
escape. So what could be the possible
benefit to us – and to others – should the
Lord require this of us? John Flavel, whose
writing on this topic[4]
we have been examining in this current
series of posts, describes the many benefits
of persecution. These are tangible benefits
that may not seem so clear in the middle of
a trial, but only become evident as time
goes on.

Purifying
the Saints
The first point Flavel makes is probably the
most difficult for modern evangelicals to
grasp. Our easy-believism doctrine just
simply doesn’t accommodate this. Yet, it is
from Scripture. Titus 2:14 says that the
Lord intends to purify us:
“Who gave
himself for us, that he might redeem us from
all iniquity, and purify unto himself a
peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
James 4:8b also calls us to purify
ourselves:
“Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify
your hearts, ye double minded.”
Flavel notes that it is trials that will
purify believers:

Hereby the most wise God doth illustrate the
glory of His own name, clearing up the
righteousness of His ways by the sufferings
of His own people…. He will not indulge or
patronize their sins….

For God’s
Glory
God also seeks His own glory, another
difficult doctrine for ear-tickling lovers.
Flavel explains that

Moreover, by exposing His people to such
grievous sufferings, He gives a fit
opportunity to manifest the glory of His
power in their support, and of His wisdom,
in the marvellous ways of their escape and
deliverance.

This raises an immediate question,
especially in light the increasing militia
rhetoric of the Christian Right: If we take
matters into our own hands to wreak our own
vengeance upon our enemies, are we thwarting
God’s more perfect way, which may be for His
glory by our deliverance? Might not others
be saved by observing God’s provident
deliverance? Flavel reminds us of the
biblical example of deliverance found in
Esther, chapter 6, which story begins with
the most amazing happening:
“On that
night could not the king sleep, and he
commanded to bring the book of records of
the chronicles; and they were read before
the king.”

God delights in causing the Devil’s plots to
backfire. Flavel notes,

Now, you may see the most wise God going
beyond a malicious and subtle devil,
overturning in a moment the deep laid
designs and contrivances of many years, and
that at the very birth and point of
execution,… snaring the wicked in the
works of their own hands; making their own
tongues to fall upon them; working out such
marvellous salvations with His own hand, as
fills them with astonishment and wonder….

Mortifying
the Heart
Flavel observes what happens to believers
under persecution and trials. He suggests
that the purpose of these occasions is for
“mortifying the corruptions that are in
their hearts” by comparing these corruptions
to “rank weeds springing up in the best
soil.” To our modern era church, which has
eschewed the doctrine of biblical
separation, this may seem like a totally
foreign concept. But, a church under
persecution must reconsider its focus and
priorities. “If,” says Flavel,

we reckon humility, heavenly mindedness,
contempt of the world, and longing desires
after heaven, to be the real interest and
advantage of the church; then it is evident,
nothing so much promotes their interest, as
a suffering condition doth….

And he concludes by stating this fact,
“Adversity kills those corruptions which
prosperity bred.” In other words, a
necessary component of suffering is dying to
self, and dying to worldliness.

Personal
Peace With God
There is another blessing to persecution
which may not be anticipated. Flavel claims
that by these trials a believer’s

sincerity is cleared, to the joy and
satisfaction of their own hearts; many a
doubt and fear, which had long entangled
them, is removed and answered.

This is a personal joy found in peace with
God.

Where Did
All the Hypocrites Go?
An interesting unanticipated consequence of
persecution is that it frees the church of
“the abundance of hypocrites, which were its
reproach as well as burden.” Flavel explains
that

Affliction is a furnace to separate the
dross from the more pure and noble gold.
Multitudes of hypocrites, like flies in a
hot summer, are generated by the church’s
prosperity; but this winter weather kills
them: Many gaudy professors [of the faith]
grow within the inclosure of the church,
like beautiful flowers in the field, where
they stand during its peace and prosperity,
in the pride and bravery of their gifts and
professions; but the wind passeth over them,
and they are gone, and their places shall
know them no more; to allude to that in
Psalm 103:16.[5]

Thunder and lightning is a very terrible
weather, but exceeding useful to purify and
cleanse the air.

True
Reconciliation
Another unanticipated outcome of
sufferings is that it will “endear” one
believer to another. Flavel states that

Times of common sufferings, are times of
reconciliation, and greater endearments
among the people of God; never more
endeared, than when most persecuted; never
more united, than when most scattered, Mal.
3:16-17[6]:
“Then they
that feared the LORD spake often one to
another.”

There is another side to this newfound
fellowship. According to Flavel, persecution
also results in “discoveries… of the
sincerity of our hearts” one to another.
What was before “entertained with jealousy”
may be humbled by “reproofs of the rod,” and
what was before “wantonness and bitterness
in their spirits to each other” can be “made
to cry, in the sense of these
transgressions, as Psalm 79:8:
“O remember
not against us former iniquities.”[7]

Deeper Prayer
Flavel concludes this chapter by noting that
believers reap benefits to persecution such
as being

awakened to their duties, and taught to pray
more frequently, spiritually, and fervently.
Ah! what drowsiness and formality is apt to
creep in upon the best hearts, in the time
of prosperity; but when the storm rises, and
the sea grows turbulent and raging, now they
cry as the disciples to Christ,
Lord, save
us, we perish….[8]

I am sure the sweetest melody of prayer is
upon the deep waters of affliction.

The Truth:

“And our
hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye
are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye
be also of the consolation.” (2
Corinthians 1:7)

Endnotes:
1. Betsie ten Boom’s words of hope, said to
her sister Corrie ten Boom shortly before
Betsie died in the Ravensbruck concentration
camp and Corrie was released. Cited on page
72 of
Corrie: The Lives She’s Touched by
Joan Winmill Brown (Worldwide Pictures,
1979).
2. Works of
John Flavel (6 vol set), Banner of
Truth Trust (1820, 1968), ISBN
0-85151-060-4. Flavel’s dissertation titled
“Preparations for Suffering, or The Best
Work in the Worst Times” appears in Volume
6, pages 3-83.
3. Pastor Chuck Baldwin, “A Suggested
Survival List,” December 15, 2009.

4. Flavel, Ibid, and all subsequent
quotations.
5. Psalm 103:15-18 states:
“As for
man, his days are as grass: as a flower of
the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
passeth over it, and it is gone; and the
place thereof shall know it no more. But the
mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to
everlasting upon them that fear him, and his
righteousness unto children’s children; To
such as keep his covenant, and to those that
remember his commandments to do them.”
6. Flavel actually quotes from verse 17 of
Malachi chapter 3. However, verse 17 is such
a beautiful verse it is here quoted:
“And they
shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in
that day when I make up my jewels; and I
will spare them, as a man spareth his own
son that serveth him.”
7. Flavel’s text incorrectly identifies this
verse as Psalm 70:8. We have corrected this
error in our quotation.
8. Flavel is quoting from Matthew 8:25 which
was the occasion of the disciples being in
“a great
tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship
was covered with the waves” (verse
24), an apt analogy of persecution.

*ED. NOTE: We have taken minor liberties to
reformat some of the published text by
altering some of the punctuation, Roman
numerals, and other obsolete forms.