Supplement 18 — For Lessons 35 & 36

Supplement Eighteen

For Lessons Thirty-five and Thirty-six

In the last four lessons we have dealt fully with the great doctrines of salvation and the true security of the believer. We have also studied the contracts made by God with men and we have seen that there are certain conditions that men must meet in order to receive the manifold blessings of God. Some people object to what we are teaching concerning these blessings on the grounds that God has not given them to men all through this age. They wonder why God desires to give men these blessings today more than He has in the past. Others argue that God knows what men have need of, and if it is His will to bless them He will do so without them putting forth the effort to get these benefits. Still others argue that if it is God’s will to give them these blessings He will do so, but since He has not done so, then it must not be the will of God. These arguments are excuses of unbelief and prove nothing as far as God’s will is concerned in these matters.

God Promised to Pour Out His Spirit in the Last Days

God always keeps His Word and this is one of the greatest reasons of the present revival of faith and power among Christians. On the day of Pentecost Peter said, “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” Acts 2:14-21.

God and Satan in a Final Contest

Not only did God inspire Peter to predict the revival in the last days, but He also inspired others to predict that satanic powers would be increasingly active in the last days Matthew 24:242 Thessalonians 2:1-12Revelation 13:1-18Revelation 16:13-16. As these powers increase God’s power will also increase to counteract these demon powers and prove to men that God is the true God Daniel 12:3James 5:7Revelation 11:3-7Revelation 12:11Acts 2:14-21. The gifts of the Holy Spirit will be exercised in all fullness and God will again prove Himself to be more powerful than Satan 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

God Knows What We Have Need Of

There is no argument about this, but to use this fact as an excuse for unbelief and to permit it to hinder us from getting what God has promised is inexcusable. Knowing what we have need of will not cause Him to abundantly bless each person and meet their needs. There must be faith and conformity to the conditions God has laid down before one can receive these benefits. The requirement of God is clear: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” Matthew 6:33.

If one wants something bad enough he will put forth the necessary effort to get it. And the man who refuses to obey God and do what God requires is not worthy of the answer to prayer. If one wants to be saved from sin and bad habits he will repent of his sins and refuse to live in sin. He will turn to God to serve Him with his whole heart. Then and then alone, will God deliver him. If one wants to be healed he will believe the fact that healing is in the atonement, and he will accept Christ as His healer and have faith that he is healed when he prays. If one wants prosperity or some help in material things or in some business problem he will take his need to God in prayer and commit all of it to God and believe that God will bring him out of His trouble. Whatever a person wants from God that is promised in the Bible, if he wants it bad enough, he will get down to business and conform to the laws of God that will enable him to attain to his desire.

Don’t Play With Religion

There is too much playing around with religion by the average person. Men will use good sense in every realm to make a success of life except in religion. When it comes to using plain common sense in religious matters most men will throw away their chances of making a success. If they made a living in the same manner that they carry on their religious life, the majority would starve to death. Some men will faithfully carry out the most intricate details of any phase of life that will enable them to be a success. But many times the same men will not take time to learn how to make a success of their religious life and they will not obey the simplest laws of answered prayer, yet they wonder why their prayers are not answered. They seem to think that any hit and miss program is all right in religion. They are quick to become reconciled if prayer is not answered. In fact, they are resigned to failure before they pray. If deliverance from sin or sickness is desired they are satisfied with the outcome regardless of whether they get what they want or not. They take the same attitude in business problems. They ignore divine laws and seek every means of success other than God. Failure, or a set back, in answers to prayer is generally expected in the first place, and it is taken for granted that it cannot be otherwise. Some person can come along and suggest that it might not be the will of God for them to get what they desire and immediately they are reconciled to this idea as a settled unalterable fact. The least hindrance to answered prayer brings surrender on their part of ever getting an answer.

This is simply playing with religion. The devil himself stands by and laughs at the helplessness of man and is highly pleased at the progress he makes in keeping men from putting forth sufficient effort to get what they want from God. He sidetracks them so easily that he knows just what to do and how long it will take to turn them aside from their purpose. He even gets men to blame God for the failure, or he gets them to abandon their purpose if the answer is not forthcoming the moment they pray. Some men are foolish enough to listen to him. They cooperate with satanic powers and are more satisfied to live in defeat than in being bold and determined to get what is rightfully theirs in Christ.

God is Not Responsible for Suffering and Failure

As we have seen before, Satan and demons and sin cause the troubles in the fallen world. We would have had no failure, no sickness, and no suffering if man had not sinned and given his dominion over to the devil. This is enough proof that God is not the one responsible for such conditions in the human race. Yet the average Christian will blame God for his troubles. Preachers write books and preach sermons on how God wills and causes sufferings. On my desk as I write there is a book by a preacher entitled “Why Do Christians Suffer?” In this book the author spends all of his time trying to show that God is the author of sufferings and that He sends them upon men. This is only part of the truth. God has made laws and when men break those laws they have to pay the penalties. God is responsible for making the laws and penalties, but He is not responsible for man breaking the laws and He is not the One who executes the laws. Satan, fallen angels, and demons execute the penalties for sin in the race, as we have seen in Lesson Fourteen, Point VI.

The truth is that if God’s will were obeyed by all there would be no reaping for wrong sowing. There would be no sin, sickness, or death, and no suffering of any kind. This will be the condition on Earth when God rules here Revelation 21:1-7. This would be the condition now if God ruled here, so it is clear that the rule of others on Earth who are in rebellion against God has caused the sin and suffering on every hand.

The preacher referred to above gives many Scriptures to prove that God sends suffering, but he does not make it clear in what sense God sends it. It is because men sin and disobey that certain sufferings are permitted to come upon them. They have to reap what they sow, therefore, God is not directly the cause of this suffering. Men and demons are the cause. All sufferings that do not come as a result of personal sin are either the works of the devil Acts 10:38Luke 13:14-16John 10:10 or the works of wicked men and demons who make war on Christians and cause them to go through certain kinds of sufferings. Neither of these causes are from God. Just because they are tolerated by God because of the present curse is no proof that God wills or sends such sufferings.

Just because Paul said that he was appointed to suffer for the gospel is no proof that God sends or wills the sufferings. God knew that Paul would have to be persecuted for the gospel because it was new to men and contrary to their beliefs. Therefore, it was natural for this new religion to go through certain conflicts and those who preached it would naturally suffer certain persecutions. Today, in certain Christian lands, Paul would not have gone through such sufferings because Christianity is the prevailing and accepted religion. So no Christian today should use Paul’s experience to excuse his unbelief and give in to attacks of the devil. Even Paul’s suffering in 1 Thess. 3:3 was not caused by physical disease or sin, which Christ bore on the cross to take away from him, so there can be no comparison between Paul and modern men who are suffering needlessly with pains and sicknesses because they refuse to accept the benefits for which Jesus died.

When Peter said 1 Peter 2:21 that men were called to suffer he could not mean that men were called to bear the sins and sicknesses which Christ bore on the cross 1 Peter 2:24. The suffering he refers to is the suffering which Christ went through for righteousness’ sake and which every Christian is supposed to bear and this is spoken of as revilings and persecutions for doing well 1 Peter 2:20-23. Christians are not called to live in sin and suffer sicknesses and failures in life, for freedom from these ills is what Christ died to deliver them from, as we have seen before. Tribulations, persecutions, trials, and other hardships may be experienced by Christians at certain periods in some lands due to wars against Christianity and all saints are called to suffer during these times. This is what caused the sufferings in the early Church. Local persecutions for well doing may be experienced by Christians in any land, and temptations and wars with demons will be experienced in all places where there are saved men and these are the things they are called to go through. But to use these kinds of sufferings as an excuse to tolerate sin, sickness, bad habits, financial failures and poverty in America and other lands where Christianity is the prevailing religion is one of the biggest blunders of Christendom today. It would only be if atheism gains the upper hand that men would begin to persecute Christians again, that real Christians would have to go through the Tribulation mentioned in Jn. 16:33; Acts 14:22; 1 Thess. 3:4; Phil. 1:29.

Such Scriptures as Isa. 54:7-8; Num. 13:33–14:5; Jer. 29:10; Deut. 28:1-64; 33:39 and other passages revealing sufferings in Israel cannot be applied to Christians who obey God. These sufferings would not have been true even of Israel if she had obeyed God. God permitted Israel to go through these sufferings because of sin. He predicted they would suffer if they disobeyed Him for then He could not protect them from the devil. Therefore, for Christians to use such passages to prove that it is God’s will for them to be defeated in life, to suffer sickness, sin, poverty, and other calamities shows either ignorance or rebellion against God’s Word. There is really no excuse for such slander of God, or for such ignorance of truth if men will only be sensible and study the facts. It was not God’s will for Israel to suffer these defeats. He showed them the way out if they would have listened. So it is today, it is not God’s will for Christians to suffer such defeats, if they will but only take His plan and cooperate with Him.

May God save us and help us from such modern fallacy that God gets glory out of seeing His children in trouble. He does not like to see them suffering defeat, living in sin, dying with all kinds of diseases, full of despair and unbelief, and given over to the ravages of fallen angels and demons. The above Scriptures specifically state the reason God permitted men to suffer defeats and plagues of all kinds and they cannot be used to prove that it is God’s direct will that men should suffer the things for which Christ died to deliver them from. God always tells men that it is because of sin that they are punished and this will always be the case Ezra 9:13Psalms 103:10Galatians 6:7-8Hebrews 10:26-292 Peter 2:20-22.

If you will obey the Lord and follow the teaching we are giving you, there will be no failure to get from God what He has promised. You can get anything you want in life. This we have proven in Lesson Ten and in other lessons on prayer and faith, so do not let modern theories of unbelief rob you of these wonderful blessings in Christ. In future supplements we shall go more fully into proof along these lines. Until then, we will continue to pray for you and with you for the fullness of the gospel of Christ in your experience and in the lives of your fellow students.

Ten Questions For Supplement Eighteen. Do You Know:

• That it is possible for every Christian on Earth today to experience the power of God to do the works of Christ? This we have abundantly proven in Lessons Twenty, Twenty-two, Twenty-six, Twenty-eight, and Thirty. One cannot believe the many plain Scriptures that prove this and still believe the above-mentioned unbelieving theories of men. The two doctrines cannot be reconciled, so to be honest we have to stand with the Bible that all things that Christ did by the anointing of the Spirit believers can also do, as stated in Jn. 14:12-15; 15:7, 16; 16:23-26; Mt. 28:20; Mk. 16:15-20; 1 Cor. 12:1-11; etc.

• That the great American desert will soon be like the Garden of Eden? Many Scriptures teach that the desert shall blossom like a rose and waters shall spring forth in the desert during the Millennium Isaiah 35:1-8Isaiah 43:19. After that the whole Earth will be made new, like a beautiful garden Isaiah 65:17Isaiah 66:22-242 Peter 3:13.

• That more men will be called to the ministry during the last seven years of this age than in any seven years in human history? During the future tribulation in the last seven years of this age, there will be the greatest revival that has ever been witnessed. When the Church is raptured people will then know that they are in the last few years of this age and multitudes will turn to God and start preaching the gospel. This is predicted in Acts 2:14-21; Rev. 6:9-11; 7:1-17; 12:11, 17; 15:2-4; 20:4-6. There will be 144,000 Jews who will get saved and become servants of God Revelation 7:1-8Revelation 14:1-5. It is doubtful that there are this many Jews whom have become preachers so far in all of this age. Then a multitude of Gentiles of all nations will be destroyed because of their preaching Revelation 7:9-17Revelation 15:2-4Revelation 20:4-6. Not one of these Jews or Gentiles just mentioned will be saved at the time of the rapture or they would have been caught up to meet the Lord in the air 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Hence, they not only will be witnesses of God after the rapture but after it they will become saved.

• That all future saints will not be changed from mortality to immortality by being resurrected? All future saints will never be resurrected due to the fact that it is God’s plan to permit earthly saints in the Millennium and the New Earth to continue eternally as natural earthly people as Adam and the whole race would have lived if man had not fallen. After the resurrection from the dead is past, people will continue to be born forever, as we have proven in Supplement Two, Question Two. These people will never have part in the resurrection because they will never die. They will eat of the Tree of Life and live forever as Adam could have done in the beginning Revelation 22:1-5.

• That no man can be saved and not know it? Paul said that if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away and all things are new (2 Cor. 5: 17), and that everyone who belongs to Christ has crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Galatians 5:24. Can this be true of a person and he not know it? Such could not possibly happen so that a person would be ignorant of this kind of transformation. If this were true, then those who do not know that they have become new creatures are not in Christ regardless of their profession.

• That the devil never enters bodily into anyone? He is an angel with a spirit-body, as proven in Lesson Six, Point X, so it would be impossible for him to get his body inside of a human body. If he would leave his body he would be dead James 2:26 and such the Bible does not teach of angels. The only sense Satan enters into anyone is by being in union with him, as explained in Lesson Four, Point I, 4.

• That it is not God’s direct will for any man to be a sinner or die of a disease? If God had his perfect will done on Earth as it is done in Heaven, there would have been no sin or sickness at all. When God’s will is finally done on Earth as it is in Heaven there will again be no such things as death and sin Revelation 21:1-7. Since this is true, it cannot be the highest will of God for men to suffer sickness and die in sin today 1 Peter 2:24.

• That Noah did not preach 120 years while building the ark? The fact is that he did not take this long to build the ark, as proven in Supplement One, Question 4, so certainly he could not have preached only during this time. It is not stated how long he preached. No doubt he preached during several hundred years for he was righteous in his generation of 600 years before the flood and 350 years after the flood with the exception of getting drunk one time.

• That the devil, the beast, and the false prophet are three separate and distinct persons? That the beast is the devil incarnate and that there are only two persons referred to by these terms is unscriptural. This is clear from the fact that the dragon, a symbol of Satan, is always seen as a separate person from the beast and the false prophet Revelation 12:7-17Revelation 13:1-18Revelation 16:13-16Revelation 19:19-21Revelation 20:10. If all three are separate persons seen in these passages, then Satan is never incarnate in the beast and there must be three distinct persons.

• That angels will be judged by human beings? This is plainly stated by Paul in 1 Cor. 6:3. This refers no doubt to the time of the judgment of angels 2 Peter 2:4 and to the position of glorified saints in the eternal kingdom as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ of the vast creations Romans 8:17-18Revelation 5:9-10Revelation 21:7. This does not mean that saints will take the positions held from ages past by faithful angels, but that men will rule over the fallen angels. They may even be in higher positions than the good angels. That remains to be seen.